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

May the cookies be gingerbread, always.

Halloween has barely passed, but holiday themed everything has already arrived in the shops near me. Perhaps the season’s greetings has also prematurely arrived in other spheres as well, such as the LEGO blogosphere! Koen Zwanenburg’s render of a gingerbread LEGO Star Wars dogfight is case in point!

The X-wing starfighter pictured, much like last year’s LEGO employee gift is sweet, but instead of being candy inspired it is the X-wing imagined in the form of gingerbread. The color scheme consists of browns with whites, greys, and some splashes of gum drop and candy cane colors. The TIE fighter on the other hand is a strict snowflake icing and cookie design — no extra sweets for the dark side. Overall, this is a pretty sweet render, and it certainly makes me feel that holiday sense of cheer.

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A look back at the moment that changed our lives.

New episodes of the Disney+ Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian are finally here, but with this LEGO model and scene by Wesley, let’s go back down memory lane to the moment that changed the lives of Star Wars spectators everywhere.

The scene in which the Child, also known as “Baby Yoda”, was revealed was definitely a huge moment for the franchise. Wesley recreates the scene by fashioning a a LEGO Mandalorian in the style of a buildable figure and an ingeniously minimal build of the Child in his pram. The Child literally consists of a sand green toothed 1×1 and a sand green 1×1 with clip. A larger-scaled IG droid utilizing some bigger cylindrical elements is also seen collapsed in the background of this fully brick-built scene. Wesley definitely captured this big moment in Star Wars history very well through the LEGO medium and excellent photography.

Battle of the brick bots

The robots are taking over, and who doesn’t love a good mech when they see one? Adam Dodge‘s LEGO war mech looks to be a pretty unique take on the archetype — it really looks like Wall-E on steroids.

The caterpillar tread and slightly boxy aesthetic of this build are what are reminiscent of Wall-E, but of course all of the added brick-built artillery and armaments make this bot look quite a bit less than friendly. Certainly the weaponry of this build is where the great parts-usage happens. The gatling gun which is also the right arm of the bot is comprised of technic pieces. Some white 1×1 cones serve as unveiled missiles on the shoulder of the machine. The body/cockpit is constructed from mostly bricks and slopes with some tiling serving as accents. Overall this is one mean looking bot, perhaps an unfortunately fitting image for the rather dystopian times we are in currently.

Sunday best, Sunday bricks

Saxon churches are surely a familiar site in England, but this is also true of the United States as well. This LEGO church built by Pieter Dennison certainly reminds me of some churches I have seen in New England.

Pieter utilizes a pretty simple color palette in this build – two shades of grey for the structure itself and then browns for the ground and what would be wooden components of the building. Much of the ground the building rests on is constructed using the SNOT (studs not on top) technique. The church itself is composed mainly of the usual bricks, slopes, and tiles – this is perfect as these churches were pretty simple brick structures. Some medieval minifigures oversee the reconstruction efforts of the church in this scene, which is fitting as this particular style of church was constructed between 597 AD – 1066 AD. Dennison’s build makes me imagine what “Sunday Best” would look like back in the Middle Ages.

LEGO room for your LEGO minifigure

Most LEGO fans are constantly upgrading their LEGO spaces. Some fans have a desk, nook, shelf, or corner of their home dedicated to LEGO, and some have whole rooms decked out with all kinds of storage and display furniture. But why shouldn’t our minifigures or “signature figures” (sigfigs) not have these same luxuries? Instagrammer Brickdesigned sets up minifigure-kind with some LEGO room essential mini-builds.

With these cute mini-builds, we’ve got shelves, tables, mobile storage, and plenty of references to real LEGO products. My favorite reference has to be the storage containers shaped like minifigure heads; Brickdesigned uses the same minifigure heads the containers are based on in his storage build. I also spy with my little eye a few LEGO sets referenced including the architecture line Statue of Liberty as well as the LEGO Ideas ship in a bottle. Brickdesigned really manages to scale down and capture the quintessential LEGO workspace’s essence – a colorful and creative space with all of our favorites.

A-Frame Bringing the Autumn A-Game

We are mid-way through October, and autumn, as well as spooky season, is in full effect, Andrea Lattanzio’s cozy LEGO A-Frame home located amongst some beautiful fall-colored conifers is the perfect build to capture the moment we are in.

The key to the main architectural build here is definitely in the tiling – we’ve got plenty of tiling on the roof, tiling for the deck, and more tiling to cover the house’s base structure. Printed tiles also help render the lumber packed away in the left, maybe for firewood. I love Lattanzio’s use of tree limb elements arranged in such a way to create pointed evergreen trees – different colors are also utilized for that autumn color-changing aesthetic. Perhaps the most interesting example of parts used in this work would be the hammer minifigure utensil which is applied in multiples to compose the foundation of the home. Many small details in this build are eye-catching, including the broken stairs leading up to this shack-like a-frame dwelling. Even if some home-improvement is needed on this little getaway house, it still looks like a great place to escape to on an autumn weekend.

Brickin’ out some tunes

Everyone loves a good throwback to the ’80s or ’90s, and these days people are opting for analog musical devices over digital. What better build encapsulates these trends than Jonas Kramm’s boom box LEGO model?

All of the details on this build are done exactly right – from the dials to the tape deck. The speakers, as well as the switches, are composed mostly of yellow 9V track switches with black minifigure hands for extra detailing. The majority of the model comprises teal bricks and tiling; some yellow 1×2 slopes also form a stylish border around the box’s perimeter. Kramm even includes a couple of brick-built mix-tapes ready to be played. Overall this build really brings me back to the days before iPhones, iPods, and wireless internet, back when all we had was FM-AM radio and maybe some tapes to play around with.

Brickin’ the gap

You’ve probably never seen the Golden Gate like this before – so minimal and so orange. Simon Liu really gives us the essence of the iconic bridge down at micro-scale with this LEGO model.

Liu renders San Francisco and Marin County using a variety of light brown slopes and tiles. The star of the build – the bridge itself is comprised of 1×4 tiles, minifigure hands, and binoculars all in a lovely orange color; the use of these parts is clever indeed. The micro-build as a whole sits on some trans-clear blue tiles, which serve as the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Although it is a minimal micro-scale build, this model certainly conveys the idea of the revered structure very well.

Cruisin’ cyberpunk style

Ever wonder what the Batmobile crossed with a DeLorean would look like? I think Jerry gives us a good idea of what that thought experiment would physically yield with his LEGO cyberpunk vehicle build.

The back of this car is what really gives me the DeLorean vibes with its boxy, beefed up rear. I enjoy Jerry’s use of the red 1×2 grille pieces for backlights — this color choice really pops against the black and grey color scheme, yet also compliments the yellow that’s accented briefly throughout the work.

Jerry also utilizes different rims for the front wheels versus the back wheels which is a bit of a visual trip from the norm. Overall the work can be construed as a fusion of multiple fantasies as well as a good mix of parts from different vehicles in the LEGO Speed Champions line and perhaps some other themes, who doesn’t like a good mashup?

A Greek Villa al la Bygglek – Courtesy of Ikea

Warm, white, and rectilinear – this can describe a couple things; BYGGLEK boxes produced from the new LEGO-IKEA collab or a Greek Villa on a sunny day in Greece. Jannis Mavrostomos combines both notions into one and creates an epic LEGO house for all to enjoy while yearning for Mediterranean weather.

The backbone of Mavrostomos’s structure consists of two BYGGLEK boxes – what seems to be the small and large boxes combined. The second floor porch is nicely tiled with sand and dark tan colored tile elements of various sizes. There is a lot of great parts usage in this work, one of my favorites being the blue hinged sliding doors on the elevated porch being used as a small shade. The notches of the boxes are utilized heavily with intricate windows being built into them as well as a whole staircase. No house is complete without some plant-life, and Mavrostomos has that area covered – literally by using green tree-limb elements decorated with flowers to serve as candid vines climbing along the corner of the villa. Mavrostomos also adds potted plants to liven up the place. Overall this build is unique because it showcases cultural architecture which is subject matter not often explored in LEGO, it is quite refreshing to see something like this pop into my Instagram feed.

LEGO Artception

One thing that LEGO and art have in common is that they are both highly sought after by collectors. The major difference between Banksy and LEGO is that LEGO is collectible whereas Banksy’s oeuvre is impossible to collect (on purpose of course). That being said, with LEGO anything is possible — even the recreation of a Banksy, as Tina and Chris have done here in this wonderful build.

The builders seem to heavily rely on the SNOT (studs not on top) technique to achieve the form of this build. No specialized elements are utilized here; looks like mostly bricks, small plates and tiles compose the piece.

The subject of the build is what is most alluring, especially since Tina and Chris have constructed a version of the artwork hilariously “self-destructing”. While nobody can really become a Banksy collector at least the concepts of his work can live on through other media.

An oldie but a goodie

Classic car season has just passed, and most owners of these oldies have presumably tucked them away safely into garages until summer rolls around again. Lucky for us every season is LEGO season and we can always check out some brick-built classic beauties like this 1940 Ford Coupe built by Isaac.

Isaac renders the sleek body of the Coupe using some bricks and a lot of slopes and tiling – all in black. The grill vent panels in the front of the vehicle are astutely comprised of technic gears and the windshield is minimally rendered with black antenna levers going up into the roof of the car. Isaac also cleverly uses grey minifigure hands to style the back bumper of the vehicle. Overall I would say this model is a pretty accurate recreation of the old school automobile, and it certainly gives us something to look at while indoor season in many places around the world begins.