About Elspeth De Montes

Elspeth De Montes is Scottish but lives in North Yorkshire with her partner and twins. She is a LEGO Builder not a collector of sets, which in theory should make the hobby less expensive (ahem!) but monochrome collections can be pricey. You can see more of Elspeth's work on her blog or website and Flickr. Elspeth is also a bike lover; mountain bike, fixie, road bike, tri-bike (n+1=number of bikes I need).

Posts by Elspeth De Montes

A blast from future past, with Space:1999

Gary Davis is well known for his love of all things Gerry Anderson, and his latest creations are a blast from the ‘future’. Back in 1975 a new British TV show called Space:1999 was aired, following the exploits of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha after the moon breaks orbit and goes wandering in space. I have to admit that before looking into more depth at the show, I thought Gary had designed a new LEGO theme; what a great idea, a new theme of retro space called Space:1999!

Above we have a rescue Eagle on the launchpad, which you can compare to one from the original television series. Gary has added some nice lighting to ensure launchpad Health & Safety rules are obeyed. The orange is a lovely contrast colour here, but the greebled pad details are my favourite part.

Have a look at these screenshots from the original TV series showing Eagle on the launch pad, a Hawk from the episode War Games and a close-up of Rescue Eagle taking off. Gary’s attention to detail, shaping and SNOT skills all work to create really accurate LEGO models of the original TV models of Eagle, Hawk and Rescue Eagle.

All the greeble-tastic details can be seen in Gary’s Space:1999 Album on Flickr.

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Game on: When LEGO and consoles collide

Grantmasters has recently built a scaled down version of the Playstation 4. As an extra challenge for this month, Grantmasters is using this unusual Belville shoe part in his builds. The game controller is particularly cool in this build thanks to the shaping provided by the shoe part.

Video game consoles have been represented in LEGO by a few other builders too. Chris McVeigh (powerpig) has a lovely collection of consoles, including his previously blogged Atari 2600. Chris’ Nintendo NES comes with cartridges to blow on before you insert them into the console.

If you want to see more video game consoles and handhelds constructed from LEGO, here are some others that we have featured:

Atari 2600 complete with television and the Star Wars video game in action
Life-sized Atari 2600 and joystick
Simon (maybe one for our older readers, ahem)
Nintendo NES complete with light gun for Duck Hunt
Nintendo 3DS
Sony PSP and Nintendo Game Boy Colour
Amiga Wico Red Ball Joystick
Nintendo DSi that was 7ft wide and weighed 250 lbs
Nintendo Game boy with battery compartment and game

Who’s a pretty boy then? This scarlet macaw, that’s who!

This LEGO model of a Scarlet Macaw by James Universe is currently being displayed at Dallas Zoo until April 10th 2016. James’ model is just under 12 inches tall and features a “tree stand” for displaying. Dallas Zoo is currently hosting an exhibition called Nature Connects by LEGO Certified Professional Sean Kenney and James’ model relates to this exhibition.

The rainbow plumage on this Scarlet Macaw is wonderful – the LEGO colour palate certainly works well for this species. I particularly love the use of multiple Medium Azure surfboards for the tail feathers.

Birds from Bricks book by Thomas Poulsom available for preorder [News]

Thomas Poulsom, the fan builder behind the LEGO Ideas Birds set has just announced the upcoming release of his new book, Birds from Bricks. Tom is a bird and wildlife enthusiast, so it is no surprise that his new book follows on from the 3 lovely bird models in the Ideas set. The book has detailed step-by-step instructions for 15 more bird models, with colour photos and information about each species.

Birds from Bricks: Amazing LEGO Designs That Take Flight is currently available to pre-order from both Amazon US and Amazon UK (with free UK shipping) and a release date of 15 April 2016 in the UK, and April 1st in the US.

A wheely big planetary rover

It’s time to leave January and its Droneuary shenanigans behind and move onto the fun of FebROVERy. First out of the garage is Jonas‘ (aka Legopard) Planetary Rover – a tricycle on steroids. Not only does this rover fit the monthly build challenge, but it transpires that Jonas is also taking part in Iron Builder 4.0 – Round 8 against Tim Schwalfenberg.

The wheels on this rover are great but the inside of the tires are really special thanks to the transparent red grilles. The seed part is the Technic metallic pin connector, and it forms the unusual wheel attachment in this particular entry. I also love the comfy looking leather covered driving seat in the cockpit, who doesn’t want 360° vision when out exploring?

Jonas has been featured regularly on TBB, in 2016 thus far we have bogged his Flying Erwin, Tree House and Morgan 3-wheeler.

Tired and angry with the pressures of life

This diorama by Sad Brick is apparently simple…just a tire minding its own business, rolling along a road that cuts through the desert. For those who have not seen the French 2010 movie Rubber, this tire is called Robert and he is sentient. Robert has a few personality issues, perhaps related to being abandoned in the desert as a “young tire” and he soon teaches himself to kill. The violence starts to inflate and Robert goes on a bit of a killing spree using psychokinetic energy.

Sad Brick has used depth of field to good effect in this diorama, giving a sense of movement to ~~the tire~~ Robert. The setting is clearly the desert with the sand and the cute cactus add some colour. I especially like the simplicity of the railing and the hint of danger and death using the animals and skeletal remains.

Editor’s note: Our apologies to both the British author of the post and all our readers outside the U.S. for Americanising (see what I did there?) the spelling of “tyre.” Sadly perhaps, the tired pun (heh heh…) in the title just works better in “American.”

A little monkey business at the spa

This fun build by LEGO7 depicts a comical scene of some Macaque monkeys chilling out at the spa. Interestingly, this is typical macaque behaviour as they are known for spa visits in real life. The monkey faces are perfect, especially the use of lever bases for the eyes.

They are definitely making the most of the dunking pool with some banana nibbles, a warm towel on the head and …actually I’m not sure if the light grey monkey is checking herself out in the mirror, about to shave her legs or texting on her iPhone…

The monkey in the background looks a bit suspicious. Is he keen to jump in too, or just checking out the ladies?

Musical muppets keep on rockin’

Those hardcore rock music fans will have already recognised this famous band recreated in LEGO by Andreas Weissenburg. They’ve been rocking since 1975 and have played with some of the biggest names in music: Julie Andrews, Elton John, Liza Minelli, Paul Simon. Of course, we are talking about Dr Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, the house band from The Muppet Show.

Andreas has built the original five members of the band: Dr. Teeth on vocals and keyboards, Animal on drums, Floyd Pepper on bass guitar, Janice on guitar, and Zoot on saxophone. There are lots of nice touches used to bring these characters to life, and the wild colours of the muppet characters certainly help with part selection in this case. My favourite is definitely Zoot – that nose looks perfect in LEGO. Plus everybody knows that the guy playing sax is always a hottie!

You can see close up views of the band members and other Muppets including Swedish Chef and Waldorf & Statler in the builder’s Flickr album.

The Goblin King: It’s only forever, not long at all

The latest creation by builder Centuri is Jareth the Goblin King from the fantasy movie Labyrinth. Labyrinth was released in 1986 but lives on with cult status amongst its fans. It tells the story of a selfish 16-year old girl who is given 13 hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King.

David Bowie played the part of the dangerous yet charismatic main antagonist. Centuri cleverly captures Bowies’ big 80s hair and quirky eye-shadow in this LEGO version. The Goblin King’s high collared, wide shouldered jacket is perfect and little details like the brass buckle help complete the look.

With the recent death of David Bowie, Labyrinth was shown in some cinemas in the UK to raise money for cancer research. In addition, it has been reported that Hollywood is planning a sequel, although in my eyes the role Jareth the Goblin King will always belong to Bowie.

LEGO Digital Designer officially defunded and unsupported [News]

LEGO has announced that LEGO Digital Designer (LDD), the company’s proprietary virtual building program, will no longer be updated. New parts may occasionally be added, but LEGO is officially defunding the platform.

LEGO Concorde cuts away from the runway as 65,000 bricks take flight

LEGO Certified Professional Ryan McNaught has been busy unveiling some fantastic new creations at Brickvention Australia. We showcased his incredible LEGO minifig-scale 120,000-brick sinking Titanic, and now we take to the skies with LEGO Concorde.

Ryan has chosen to build the iconic supersonic aircraft Concorde in miniland-scale. Building Concorde in LEGO is cool, but it’s only when you see the other side of the build that the really impressive details emerge.

While one side shows the complete aircraft, the other is an ingenious cutaway view that shows a slice through Concorde.

Click through for more photos of this huge airplane!

Reporting the news as the crow flies

Mike Dung has brought Aya Shameimaru from the Touhou Project to life in LEGO. Aya Shameimaru is a character who appears as a reporter in many of the games within the Touhou Project series. Aya covers the news in the fictional realm of Gensokyo and also belongs to the Crow Tengu species, giving her a height advantage when taking photographs. Mike manages to convey character details and also the fantastical nature of the game within his build.

I have to admit that I really like all the crows, Aya’s wings, the crow seen flying just below Aya, and the clever use of the black hotdog part to show a crow flying in the background. Forced perspective is utilised particularly well in the microscale Shinto shrine that appears to lie far below Aya as she enjoys her birds-eye view of the world. The overall feeling is one of movement, distance and height, something that is not easy to achieve within a small build.