Winter is coming! Well, unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere of course. I’m thinking about those cold, frosty mornings; wearing hats and scarves; Chris McVeigh’s annual Christmas decoration builds; and snow. de-marco has been building a lovely collection of minifigure-scale vehicles, and we thought a snowcat tracked vehicle would be perfect for the coming season.
The instructional video can be seen below and de-marco has created a list of parts required to build your own snowcat.
Warner Bros Games and LEGO have united once more to create an all-new, epic adventure and sequel to the smash hit, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes with their new game, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. The game follows an original branching storyline, co-written by comic book veteran Kurt Busiek, that follows on directly where LEGO Marvel Super Heroes left off. Players are transported into 18 different Marvel locations that have been “ripped from time and space into the incredible open hub world of Chronopolis”.
You can see a bit of the gameplay in the official trailer:
LEGO has introduced an all new roller-coaster play system in 70922 The Joker Manor. We discussed it briefly in our review of the full set, but we felt the new roller-coaster rails were important enough to merit a post of their own. As one of TBB’s least Technic-centred members of staff, I found it was great fun attempting to add Power Functions to the rollercoaster and—health and safety aspects aside—it turns out it’s also rather simple.
Charon was the Ferryman of the Dead, transporting the recently deceased across the waters to Hades in his skiff. Charon’s fee was a single coin which was placed in the mouth of a corpse upon burial, those unable to pay the fee and were left to wander the earthly side to haunt the world as ghosts. Brick Spirou has captured the eerie presence of Charon and his skiff in LEGO form with a brick-built Charon, his face obscured by a long black coat with hood. I love the lantern hanging on the back of the boat, the builder used a light brick and some trans-orange plates to perfect the look.
Just make sure you bring the exact change needed for your fare, no credit cards accepted!
Monument Valley is a beautiful puzzle game developed and published by Ustwo Games. In the game, you guide the silent Princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, taking advantage of optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People. Described as a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry, it doesn’t immediately sound easy to build from LEGO but that’s exactly what qian yj has achieved. The six main structures are colourful, whimsical with an Escher-like quality of illusion thanks to stairs and clever use of colour and angles.
Each structure appears simple at first but sections are not as connected as they first seem and there are some apparently floating areas within the builds. The apparently simple, surreal structures are the attraction of the game itself, and LEGO seems like an ideal medium to transfer the art from the screen.
The close-up views of each structure can be seen in the builder’s Flickr album but even better is this video showcasing the creations with a mix of LEGO and Princess Ida animation.
The Jaguar Roadster is a classic car that cannot fail to turn heads as she cruises along in elegant style. The curvaceous body is not something that immediately lends itself to being built from LEGO Technic parts, but that is exactly what Martijn Nab has managed to achieve. While the build is not an exact copy of one particular model, I’m definitely picking up a classic XK124 or 140 vibe with those bulbous front fenders. With three colours to choose from, Martin has managed to make a Technic Jag that captures the shape and feel of the real thing .
Martin has added some functionality with opening doors, boot and hood but there are no dodgy gears in this particular Technic supercar!
We are back visiting Paris in 1889 again with Castor Troy’s latest addition to his Steampunk-era rendition of the city. The Colonial Office has a striking black, white and gold color scheme with some beautiful architectural details. No expense has been spared in this particular office as a number of fancy gold elements can be found, such as the ornamental fences and, in particular, the Ninjago swords used in the roof to the far right. Castor has also created a great selection of minifigures to populate the uneven, grubby streets in front of the plush offices.
This is just one building in an incredible Paris 1889 collaboration, so you may enjoy another of Castor’s buildings that we highlighted a few weeks ago, The Lourve in 1889.
The Volkswagen Westfalia camper van is one of the best known of the VW vehicles — especially amongst LEGO fans following the release of 10220 VW T1 Camper Van. The next van was logically named the Type 2, and within the variants was one particular model known as the DOKA or doppel kabine. Jonathan Elliott has built a great looking LEGO version of the DOKA — a flatbed truck with an extended cab and two rows of seats. The use of the 1×1 printed VW tile from 10252 VW Beetle is a nice touch and the minifigure heads as wheel rims really look the part at this scale.
One variant down, several more to go Jonathan… Can we have have a Type 2 Kombi next please?
Household waste disposal sites are more commonly called Recycling Centres here in the UK, and putting it out onto the street for collection is definitely discouraged. Marion would find herself reported and fined after leaving such a large amount of household waste in the street if she lived near me! Thankfully in the LEGO world, everything is awesome, and that includes household waste left outside on an autumnal day. There are so many objects in here to love: the blackboard, old mattress, children’s chests of drawers, adjustable spotlight, folding table… Even the cardboard boxes are cleverly built with ‘interlocking flaps’.
It’s a melancholic scene in some ways as it looks like there’s been some growing-up in this household with old toys, a tricycle, high chair, booster seat and bike pump lying amongst the other discarded items.
Imagine a future where the sea levels rise rapidly, causing massive flooding to coastal regions and changing seaside resorts into underwater history. Jonas Norlen has used this scenario as the back story to his latest LEGO creation, Storken, a giant robot developed by the Coast Guard to salvage things from the bottom of the sea. The Storken looks super futuristic with cables and lights aplenty, albeit with a hint of comedy thanks to those gangly limbs. The hovering Coast Guard helicopter above the robot is ideal to give a sense of scale, and the same goes for the cute little truck in his hand and the blue tractor at his feet. I particularly love the colour blocking used for the robot, which gives it a very realistic Coast Guard ‘corporate’ feel.
Utilising a Storken to find the soap in the bath tub is definitely considered overkill.
The digital era has pushed a lot of state-of-the-art technology into vintage obscurity, and one such piece of audio equipment is the reel-to-reel tape recorder. Imagine the tape removed from a tape cassette and wound onto a reel, press a button and twiddle some knobs and voilà, your slightly crackly audio recording will be transferred onto the reel. Yul Burman has built a great looking LEGO version complete with reels, buttons, twiddly knobs and some bygone bling!
I want this on my shelf next to Carl Merriam’s vintage LEGO movie projector.
As Star Wars fans will know, the Ghost was piloted by Hera Syndulla and was the starship and home base of a small band of Lothal rebels. She was named for her ability to travel past Imperial sensors without detection. If you missed out on buying LEGO’s 75053 The Ghost before it retired, then this beautifully designed microscale version by Inthert is well worth building.
The simple breakdown instructions show just how well this microscale Ghost has been designed.
See the step-by-step instructions for building your own LEGO Ghost
