At first glance, this diorama by Austrian builder sanellukovic might appear to be a scene from Lord of the Rings, but it’s actually an original scene built for a LEGO Castle roleplaying game called Die Neun Reiche (the Nine Kingdoms) on the German-language site Imperium der Steine. One’s eye is certainly drawn to the excellent statues in the back, along with the brick-built pair of ravens, but my favorite details are the stone walkway leading to the paved area, with its missing paving stones.
![[9 Reiche] FB1 - Kepons raven](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/24500593119_8305225b00_z.jpg)
Not to be outdone by Tim and his tiny choo-choo in our last post, Jonas has built this massive whale’s skeleton using the Iron Builder seed part, complete with a Museum of Natural History backdrop and guard. The whale’s skull is particularly well-built, reflecting the proportional size and shape of baleen whales like the blue whale and humpback.
Wochender, one of the team members over at The Brick Time, has built a couple of wonderful medieval buildings that would look beautiful in any setting, with their carved timber construction and stonework, but the trees and roads surrounding are what caught my eye.
Both buildings also have full interiors.
Click through to see the interiors
Not surprisingly, TT Games will be releasing a multi-console game based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Available for preorder now and scheduled for release on June 28, 2016, the game will be available on nearly all current video game platforms.
Here’s the official trailer, which is well worth a watch even if you’re not interested in the game:
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One “Deluxe” editions both come with a Season Pass (foretelling post-purchase DLC…) and a Finn minifig in his First Order FN-2187 stormtrooper outfit, while the PS4 version also comes with an extra level.
Here’s the full list of platforms:
Since the last time we highlighted a video game preorder, Amazon has added an instant 20% off deal for all video game preorders for Amazon Prime members, along with their usual release date shipping. As always, you can help support TBB with all your Amazon.com purchases.
Norwegian LEGO builder Henrik Lorentzen has built a life-size LEGO model of the wonderful droid BB-8 from The Force Awakens. Though not quite as adorable as a pug dressed in a BB-8 hoodie (which I saw at the dog park today), this LEGO BB-8 has all the charm of the droid in the movie.
Henrik started planning and designing his LEGO BB-8 last April, using Bruce Lowell’s sphere technique and Bram Lambrecht’s sphere generator. The finished model uses about 11,000 LEGO pieces — including a thousand white 2×4 bricks and three thousand white 1×2 plates — and weighs 10 kg (22 pounds).
With a LEGO event at his local theater in November and the movie coming out in December, Henrik gathered all the parts he needed in September and began building, finishing it just in time for the event on November 6.
Read more about this LEGO BB-8 after the jump!
Toy Fair in New York City in mid-February is usually the first time each year when LEGO unveils its planned sets for the summer and fall. However, Toy Fair NYC is preceded by industry events in London and Nuremburg, where often LEGO puts small signs banning photography next to some of its new sets while showcasing them at a public event. This tactic is apparently proving particularly ineffective this year, as numerous photographs continue to emerge from both shows, such as the LEGO Technic 42056 Porsche test car set revealed earlier this week (in that video, the LEGO rep is clearly pointing things out to the camera, so they’re obviously ok with some photography).
TBB and other LEGO news sites like FBTB will have full, professional coverage of New York Toy Fair in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here are a few highlights from London and Nuremburg, given LEGO’s apparent change in policy and public unveiling schedule.
Brickset has just posted box photos (photos of boxes, not the official high-res box art) for a number of summer 2016 LEGO sets. Making the rounds of news outlets this week is 60134 Fun at the Park, a LEGO City minifig-oriented set that features a minifig in a brand new LEGO wheelchair, a new LEGO baby, and the hotdog bun first noticed in the forthcoming LEGO Angry Birds sets — plus a whole bunch of useful new minifigs.
Click through to see more summer 2016 LEGO sets
We all know that LEGO minifigs have strange proportions — ones wearing large helmets even more so. George Panteleon has built a rather impressive War Machine figure that uses the standard minifig helmet, and it looks just about perfect. Beyond the overall proportions, though, George has incorporated a working light into the suit’s chest using a Power Functions LED, all impressively presented on a backdrop of broken concrete. War Machine definitely looks like he’s ready to take on Cap in Captain America: Civil War.
George says his War Machine figure was inspired by several other builders. Be sure to click the photo to read more about the build.
Over the past few weeks, Adam Dodge has been cranking out near-daily updates to a brick-built LEGO storyline set in the Star Wars universe. With fourteen separate scenes depicting the discovery of a crashed A-wing and its resurrection as a rather beautiful “ugly” that incorporates an Imperial TIE fighter cockpit and New Republic E-wing engines.
When I first ran across the first couple photos, I reached out to Adam to ask if he was starting a series, and he confirmed that he was and even promised to finish the story within the month. With the series complete, I’m pleased to bring you the full story of Odge Dadam and his remarkable escape from Nam Chorios. The sequence of photos tells the story wonderfully, but be sure to click through and read the little backstory that accompanies each new phase of our hero’s adventure.
Click through to see the whole story!
According to Jonas, the Flying Erwin is “a kiosk traveling from town to town to supply the citizens of 1880 with all odds and ends.” Built together with Brick Vader, this lovely balloon has a long tonne of amazing details, from the cow’s skull on the awning and the weathervane atop the balloon to the steaming boiler and adorable crane.
Like the green and gold marvel we highlighted last week, Jonas and Brick Vader’s colorful build proves once again that steampunk need not be all brown and gray.
Like many sci-fi, science, and space geeks, the exploration and colonization of Mars has always held a special fascination for me. Shannon Sproule has created a LEGO version of a novel idea — sending a drone to 3D print habitats on Mars. With a realistic color scheme and extensive use of round bricks, including a pair of round 7×7 domes, Shannon has created a plausible construction robot. Here’s hoping NASA is paying attention to innovative ideas like this!
Cole Blaq has just finished a batch of really awesome matching near-future military vehicles, led by this vicious VTOL aircraft. I love how the red striping even continues around the central turbofan. Spots of yellow from printed tiles and the tips of white missiles add interesting detail to the basic gray and dark red color scheme.
The VTOL has a matching APC and walker mech. The APC is reminiscent of the vehicle from Aliens, which is not at all a bad thing.
Be sure to check out the photoset on Flickr for more pictures of all the models.
For anybody who grew up in the 80’s or 90’s, I suspect that the Ferrari Testarossa is immediately recognizable. Firas Abu-Jaber has built one in LEGO with headlights that can be raised and lowered, opening doors, and an opening rear engine compartment with a beautiful chrome flat-12 engine. The iconic side strakes that made the Testarossa so distinctive are particularly well-built.
See more photos on Flickr, and check out Firas’s video as well.
Click through to see a video of the car’s working features
