Any regular reader of the Brothers Brick knows, LEGO fans can do some pretty amazing things with the wide variety of different LEGO pieces out there. Those endless possibilities include limiting yourself to a smaller palette of parts and colours, like Milan Sekiz has done with his series of Stick Statue creations.
Keep reading to see the rest of these simple yet expressive models
If you take a stroll through my post history, you’ll see that two things I love are Star Wars and microscale. So Eli Willsea hits out of the park, in my book, combining the two for his Theed Hanger. Zeroing in on N-1 Starfighter, you’ll see that nifty parts usage abounds.
Whether it’s the blades as the front fuselage, the paint cans, the switch track throw, and minifigure hands as engines, or the simple silver cupcake icing swirl as an astromech droid, this ship is ready to leave the hanger. A hanger, which contrasting the minute detail of the fighter, stays true to the large and blockyness of Theed. But as simple as the structure might appear, it is also rife with neat ways of using pieces, such as the old school wheels as the top and bottom of the columns.
The new parts in the Super Mario sets are opening a whole new world of possibilities for LEGO fans’ creations. One new world that I’m particularly pleased to see, is Super Mario World, as built by Alex Saar.
While I suspect the new sets were the obvious inspiration for this creation, there’s only one piece from the new sets included. That one piece though, the printed Bullet Bill face, really ties the other brick built parts of the scene together with the theme. Maybe it’s just hitting me in the nostalgias really hard, but in my opinion, everything about this creation is pretty perfect. Whether it’s the perfect angles and dimensions on the large background objects, or the texture of the underground, or the way Mario is crouching just enough to look like the giant bullet will graze his head (but those who have played the game will know it’ll just miss him. And Mario himself, the boat tile is the perfect compressed hat, and the black rubber band works brilliantly for the little plumber’s hair and moustache!
As September comes to a close, I’m always amazed at what amazing new designs space builders can come up with. And while Ivan Martynov’s Larva Carrier is a digital model, it is still an impressive creation.
Spaceships offer so much for an inventive builder. The thought of an organic carrier type ship launching spacefaring larvae is equal parts wacky, creepy, and creative. The chosen colour scheme works great: dark tan and olive green seem totally grubby to me compared to the cleaner tan and gold of less organic parts of the ship. The giant worm on the bottom of the ship tie the concept together, but also makes me wonder if that’s some sort of queen space bug, and she lays eggs that hatch into the larvae that get launched?
The holiday season is around the corner, which means it’s time for LEGO to reveal this year’s addition to the Winter Village line, 10275 Elf Club House. The perfect sequel to 2014’s Santa’s Workshop, the Elf Club House includes 1,197 pieces, four minifigures, a reindeer pulling a sleigh, toys, gifts, and a Christmas tree. Earlier today we brought you a full, hands-on review of this brand-new set, but here are the official images and press release, along with an interview with set designer Chris McVeigh.
The set will retail for US $99.99 | UK £84.99 | EU €94.99 starting on September 23rd. The eleventh in the series, 10275 Elf Club House is the third fantastical Winter Village set, joining last years’ 10267 Gingerbread House and 10245 Santa’s Workshop from 2014. Continue reading
Sometimes I look at something and think “Wow, that’s a really cool sculpture!” only to realize it’s actually made of LEGO. That was exactly my thought process when I saw Marcin Otreba’s Lich King Arthas from World of Warcraft. What I was first drawn to, oddly, was the base, and no way did I realize it was built out of my favourite plastic bricks.
The way the wedge plates are stacked and the cascading effect of the trans medium blue textured wedges make it hard to believe that’s not actually carved out of ice and snow. Then you zoom and realize this thing is an absolute tutorial on parts usage. So many amazing combinations of sword or blade elements really displaying how even specialized LEGO pieces can be combined in unique and spectacular ways. There so many different textures too, my favourite being the claw pieces simulate the white fur on the boots, and the chains creating the mail on his abdomen. The skull on his shoulder ain’t too shabby either. Be sure to zoom in to notice all fantastic parts usages.
Brick built plants can help make bring a LEGO scene to life. And when the plants are the focus of a diorama, that scene is full of life, such as this collaboration between Emil Lidé and Bartu. This diorama shows four different sections of the amazon jungle that work together as one scene or as the same scene through time.
Through the series, these builders display a dried riverbed, which is overtaken by a fully grown jungle, then destroyed so someone can mine for gold before the jungle finally begins to retake the land. The vegetation throughout the build is fantastic, so much so that it is difficult to call out any one part! The colour choices are also on point, from the vibrant mixture of greens in the thriving jungle to the more drab dark tan and olive in the mining scene. Not to be overlooked is the subtle landscaping, from the smooth sides of the bricks making up the wet river bed to the slope made up of wedge plates showing how the miners have dug into the earth.
LEGO castle creations are often a brilliant display of how to build with gray bricks. And though I love big gray castles as much as the next LEGO fan (I’m even hoarding all kinds of gray bricks to build my own massive castle one day), I can also appreciate castle creations with a generous splash of colour, like Tobias Goldschalt has with his jester scene.
The trees are a brilliant adaptation of the one in front of the Bookshop modular building, and remind us in the real world that autumn I around the corner. If the bright colours aren’t enough, the jester is prancing along the road with his entourage in tow, bringing cheer to the local peasantry. Dancing to the sound of a drum and guitar, as he moves on to his next location along with his wagon full of props.
LEGO Ideas has become quite a popular theme over the last few years, and while the sets don’t really all go together, many LEGO fans have taken to collecting all the Ideas sets. All those sets take up space though, but Aido Kessler has a great solution: microscale versions!
He’s even included some larger scenery to surround the miniature sets. Between the scale and the scenery, there are some pretty fun and innovative parts usages at play. I’m particularly fond of the transparent tiles sticking out of the sideways blue water to simulate waves off the coast of the Old Fishing Store. Using Asajj Ventress’ lightsaber as a palm tree trunk gives it just the right sway. The robot hand makes the perfect little arms for the tyrannosaurus fossil. The skeleton arms and transparent antenna make excellent undersea structure for the microscale Shinkai 6500 Submarine to explore.
Some LEGO creations look more like what you traditionally think of as art than others. Large scale sculptures are a good example of this, and Ekow Nimako’s are my favourite LEGO sculptures, and his latest piece is no exception. Part hawk, part Lynx, this Griffyx cub is all beauty.
While this isn’t the first time The Brothers Brick has shared one of Ekow’s creations, this is the first one that I’ve had the pleasure of writing about. And like Lino before me, I’m having a hard time picking my jaw up off the floor and finding the right words. LEGO sculptures are so often made up of the easier-to-acquire-in-mass-quantities bricks, most notably the most basic of all LEGO elements, the 2×4 brick. But Ekow’s palette includes a much more vast array of shapes and sizes of LEGO pieces. In what I can only imagine is a ridiculously thoughtful process, he’s able to craft the best, most organic-looking brick-built shapes I’ve ever seen.
Take the Griffyx. Just by looking at it, you can feel the way it’s stretching its neck as if it just woke up and it’s loosening up its muscles. You can see the flick of its tail, as it whips back and forth. The fur looks soft to the touch and the wings – expertly engineered out of smaller chima wings – look primed and ready to take flight. I don’t get those same strong sensations from other brick-built sculptures, only Ekow’s. Will my editors allow me to go as far as to say he’s the greatest LEGO sculpture of our time? Nothing against all the other brilliant brick artists out there, but Ekow is just rewriting the game.
In ancient times, humans domesticated dogs to help them hunt, and they became our best friends. But what if we’d chosen cats instead, as this LEGO huntress, depicted by Letranger Absurde has? While the one-piece sabretooth tigers are considered big cats to minifigures, to this brick-built character, they’re positively darling little killing machines.
The huntress herself is no slouch either – this Paleolithic predator is built to survive. I mean, just look at those palisade brick abs! Hopefully it was warm back then, because those bucket handles and ingots don’t look like that warm of an outfit. Maybe she’s just a Stone Age cat lady? She even has tangled hair, expertly crafted out of LEGO chain, to match the stereotype.
As we learned on the first US season of LEGO Masters earlier this year, LEGO creations are best when they tell a story that is easily understood. Keith Reed has been setting up a story through his series of apocalyptic modular buildings, and the plot has become very clear with his latest scene. Here you see a family trying to escape their own impending doom, their car broken down, taking refuge in the back of a Nuka Cola truck.
They figured they’d be safe there for the night, but unbeknownst to them, they’d almost made it to the shelter. Turns out they didn’t make it. Whatever they were running from caught up with them that night, and they died right there, baby in arms.
Earlier this year, back when we could still gather in groups, this model was on display at Bricks Cascade. Keith was standing proudly beside his creation engaging with the public. A twelve year old kid came up and described the scene to his dad. Keith was floored at how well the intended story came across — I thought he might cry.
