About Faiza Khan

Faiza is a life long fan of LEGO who has since 2018 become a more serious collector and aspiring MOC maker. His other hobbies include: pop culture consumption, traveling when possible, gaming, and good conversation.

Posts by Faiza Khan

The legendary big three – the ’96 Chicago Bulls

If you were growing up as a kid in the 90’s, without a doubt you had to be a fan of the Chicago Bulls, at least I felt that way during the time. Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, and Scottie Pippen weren’t just great basketball players, they were icons of the sport and the era. Takamichi Irie brings back some of the vibes of those days through his figural LEGO builds of the dream team.

The BULLs

Irie shapes the bodies of the big three completely out of bricks, with musculature utilizing sloped pieces. Smooth pieces such as tiling, slopes, and 2×2 round bottom plates also help in rendering the legs and arms of the figures while articulation is provided by 1×1 modified plates with clips. The Nike swoosh on a couple of the players’ shoes are portrayed by claw pieces. The heads of the players are given some definition with 1×1 tiles and cheese slope pieces. While the bodies are blocky, human figures are extraordinarily difficult to render using bricks, especially at this scale. I believe Irie’s combination and configuration of elements really produced the closest one can get to recreating these figures in LEGO at such a size. Looking at the build as a whole, I remember the glory days of the Bulls’ past, but I am also reminded that I need to check out the Netflix docuseries on the Chi-town bulls – The Last Dance, which may have inspired these awesome models

Breaking ground and building models

Of course on Instagram and Flickr or wherever else LEGO collections and cities are shown off, one can find plenty of completed modulars and cars, maybe even some small construction vehicles, but Fuku Saku presents us with a highly detailed model of a construction site complete with a skeleton frame of a building and some great vehicles.

Loader_Arocs2_d946fac5-9f3a-4b7b-845a-81a54f0d3b4c_1024x1024

Saku’s vehicles are pretty detailed and are comprised of both large and small parts; an interesting part used in his dump truck would be the battle droid arm utilized on the truck’s backend. Overall both trucks make use of bricks and wheels in addition to a lot of slopes and tiles to achieve a smooth and completed look. The building frame behind the vehicles is notably comprised of many different types of plates but also includes bricks and tiling. In any case Saku’s model is a break from the usual completed buildings.

Bugs bunny welcomes you to the space jam

Space Jam was a staple film of any 90s childhood; which kid back in the day wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie? It had everything kids wanted – Michael Jordan, basketball, great music, and of course, the Looney Toons. Ian Hou brings his best 90s game to the world of LEGO bricks in this awesome brick-built Space Jam model.

nEO_IMG_DOGOD_Space Dunk_01

“Look at our facilities! We’ve got weights! We’ve got hoops! We’ve got balls!” well, Hou’s build doesn’t have any weights, but certainly, there’s a brick-built orange basketball in Bugs Bunny’s hand, and this basketball court fashioned by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique features a basketball hoop element from the LEGO sports sets dating from the 2000s. Bugs bunny is also brick-built himself; his build utilizes slopes, tiles, bricks, and some technic elements along with hinge pieces granting his figure some articulation. As a 90s kid, this build brings absolute joy to my heart; seeing a happy and expertly fashioned brick-built bugs bunny shooting hoops in his basketball garb is a very welcome sight.

A fresh take on a retro Star Wars set

While LEGO releases newer versions of Star Wars sets — usually popular vehicles such as X-Wings and Tie Fighters and occasionally revamps of notable settings such as Palpatine’s Thrown room — one set that we haven’t gotten a remake of is the Bounty Hunter Pursuit, the original set dating from 2002 coinciding with the release of the film Attack Of The Clones. Hachiroku92 gives us a glimpse into what this LEGO set could look like modernized.

Hachiroku’s speeder builds could work great in the microfighters line of sets with their utilization of smaller pieces and simple but effective appearance. The models pictured are mostly comprised of slopes, tiles, and bricks in the speeders’ signature yellows, oranges, and lime green colors – a rare color-scheme in the LEGO Star Wars universe. Of course a few trans-clear elements are used for lights and windshields to complete the vehicular look.

A couple modernized flesh toned figures for Obi-Wan and Anakin are included in one of Hachiroku’s speeder models. It would definitely be great to see these speeders make their way back into modern LEGO Star Wars canon, and of course a new Zam Wesell minifigure would be embraced by many fans I am sure.

King Tut and his sphinx-mobile

The classic Batman TV series that ran during the 1960s had its fair share of strange and flamboyant characters – both heroic and villainous. “King Tut”, an Egyptologist at Yale University turned villain due to amnesia, is no exception. LEGO builder Brick Grayson, creates a neat vehicle based on the concept of the Batman villain, and surely it should make any Batman and LEGO fan very content.

The rear portion of the car is surely a reference to the Adventurer’s theme sphinx, almost quoting the original build verbatim. The rest of the model is smoothly fashioned out of bricks, slopes, and tiles; the shape of it resembling the 1989 Batmobile. Of course, the King Tut minifigure from the first Batman Collectible Minifigure series is operating the vehicle. Grayson’s build is his way of celebrating the television series’ 55th anniversary; it’s certainly a worthy model for the occasion.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your…long chain of bricks

A classic fairy tale gets the LEGO treatment with this towering six foot tall brick-built minifigure-scale structure created by Martin Harris and inspired by the Disney film Tangled. Not only do we get the famous tower in this work, we also get a nice landscape – the forest in which Rapunzel was tucked away, complete with colorful trees and a nice riverbed utilizing many nature-inspired elements including flower pieces, plants, and tree-limb elements in varying colors.

Continue reading

From Midgard to Asgard and the Bifröst bridge in between.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has supplied fans with awe-inspiring landscapes of fictional places such as Thor’s home world of Asgard. Undoubtably the incredible imagery in these films have inspired LEGO builders and content creators alike in recreating these fascinating worlds using their respective media of choice. Builder Joe (jnj_bricks) for example, translates the world of Asgard into the world of LEGO with his wonderful model of the Asgardian capital city.

Asgard

Joe’s model is from the perspective of the gate, where the Bifröst bridge to Asgard begins, the model as a whole is in micro-scale. The build largely utilizes many small elements as well as interestingly molded pieces such as minifigure helmets, weaponry, and other accessories to create forms of various buildings and dwellings. Asgard palace makes use of many pearl gold pieces, most notably 1×1 cylinders and cones and the ornamental golden clam shell. Of course my favorite component of this city-build is definitely the beautiful Bifröst bridge – its rainbow colors rendered by trans-clear plates and bricks of various sizes in multiple colors along with some black elements of the same kind. Overall with Joe’s creation, we get a post-card picture of a fan favorite setting in LEGO form.

A charcuterie board complete with cheese and a mouse?

Okay, so maybe this isn’t quite a charcuterie board, I am still unclear on the concept, but I do know such boards were trending in the blogosphere over the holidays. Ted Andes does give us a great minimal LEGO model of a cheese board of sorts with all the essentials – even the casual kitchen mouse.

Cutting the Cheese

The board is simply constructed out of one tile panel and several plates in alternating brown and dark tan. As for the arrangement of elements topping the board; we’ve got the mouse from series 18 of the collectible minifigures, for the Swiss cheese we have a minifigure torso in light yellow – arms removed, and of course to slice and dice the cheese there is a minifigure machete which looks great as a cheese knife and then the silver slotted slope piece as a shredder. This little assortment is certainly social media ready.

A good ol’ apartment building in Theed, Naboo

I think it’s safe to say that many fans’ fascination with Star Wars revolves around the universe itself with its interesting planets offering eye-catching landscapes and architecture. Anthony’s LEGO model of an apartment dwelling on Naboo, while not an exact building from the films, reimagines the aesthetic of Naboo’s capital city, Theed and projects it onto an everyday building.

This model certainly is referential to modular type builds, but two features really hone in on the Star Wars vibe. The obvious one being the clone trooper minifigures on patrol, and the other – the sand green dome which is a signature element of Naboo’s architecture. The dome is definitely my favorite part of this build, comprised of two sand green dish pieces laid on top of a square base made with sand green slopes, tiles, and bricks. The rest of the structure is quite standard; composed of bricks, slopes, and tiles as well as some more ornamental elements which can be seen in the archways, windows, and balcony. Quite honestly Anthony’s modular could fit into a larger brick-built Naboo cityscape or just as well a regular LEGO city, its specificity as well as its versatility is much appreciated.

Blossoming of the bonsai builds

The release of LEGO’s new botanical line which includes the beloved Bonsai Tree has inspired many lush and succulent spin offs, Marius Hermann’s brick-built sakura bonsai being a great example of the trend. Technically when I refer to “the trend”, I am actually referencing a competition currently being held by Brickset encouraging the building of bonsai plants.

桜盆栽 (Sakura Bonsai)

Hermann’s blossom bonsai makes use of some very interesting LEGO elements for a tree build, the trunk includes clipped triangular signs, various blade, tail, and vine elements, rock elements, and even the minifigure snowshoe element all in a brown color scheme. These pieces combined perfectly recreate the undulating trunk of a bonsai tree. The blossoms also utilize a cornucopia of different 1×1 elements including white crowns and flowers as well as tiles, ice cream swirls, cherries, and flower pieces in light to bright pink. Some greenery is also included, this is accomplished using the Joker Collectible Minifigure hairpiece in light green. The potted portion of the model is brick-built using plates, tiles, and bricks in black on top of a brown base fashioned in the same way. Overall Hermann’s model is very detailed, more so than the set released by LEGO, additionally it seems to be larger. So far I have enjoyed seeing these competition entries and look forward to more models to come.

Today’s tiny houses, LEGO edition

I’ve always admired the tiny-house movement and its adherents; it’s always wonderful seeing these little homes while out on a drive. Therefore, unsurprisingly I am also delighted to see minimal LEGO houses often done as mini-builds or in microscale. Patrick’s tiny LEGO house certainly takes LEGO minimalism to the next scale!

In order to execute this build, Patrick uses a combination of vintage and new elements as well as a mix of unique and common pieces. The snowy ground the house rests on is comprised of a few white 1×1 bricks, slopes, and plates arranged by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique. The body of the home mainly makes use of the 2×2 pentagonal plate – a very interesting and not so common piece. Two types of feather pieces are utilized here – the single feather which renders smoke coming from the chimney and the plume feathered headdress which Patrick uses as snow-covered trees. In another build featured below, similar use of old and new, common and unique, is also used.

Tiny Cottage

It’s a cat-love-dog world?

In our current apocalyptical-like times, I’m sure most of us could use some feel-good imagery or stories in our lives. Here’s a sweet little LEGO vignette by Sebastian Arts, involving an amicable relationship between natural enemies – a cat and dog.

Romeow and Growliet

The main portion of the build is a fractured architectural setting with a post-apocalyptical feel to it. The drab grey color-scheme is made interesting by the sharp forms Sebastian shapes using mostly plates, slopes, tiles, and even blades. Some rounder elements are also incorporated, including 1×1 cylinders, 2×2 ridged cylinders, 1×1 cones, rounded sticks, and my favorite piece here – the technic bearing plate which is utilized in multiples to create a small roof. The focal point of the model is definitely the red 3×3 heart plate with a red 2×2 circular tile suspended over the orange striped cat and grey and white husky dog, all of which add a splash of color within the monochrome built environment. What can I say? This model just warms the heart but is also aesthetically quite pleasing.