Posts by Jake Forbes

A tiny kingdom of towering LEGO trees

A vertical kingdom of stone surrouned by towering pines overlooks a pale blue lake in Eli Willsea‘s stunning LEGO diorama titled Heart of the Kingdom. The whimsical architecture, lovely colors, and striking verticality are reminiscent of the Monument Valley games, but the details are utterly original and evocative. This build marks Eli’s return after a busy 2023 when he competed in three heats of the Iron Builder competition and is a clear reminder of why he’s a NPU (Nice Parts Usage) star. How to pick a favorite detail? The elegantly angled tooth bars serving as micro stairs? The grey roller skates adding a decorative touch to the 1×1 towers? The wands still on their sprue for the portcullis? I have to go with the grey popsicles flanking the cave beneath the castle. Even though there is nary a stud to be seen, with its right angles and clean lines, Eli’s model celebrates the aesthetic of the brick.

Heart of the Kingdom

This Bavarian beauty goes full steam ahead

Should you find yourself in the 1920s and need to get from Munich to Nuremberg in record time, then you’ll want an express ticket to ride behind the Bavarian S3/6. This majestic steam locomotive is meticulously recreated in LEGO by Bricks_n_Trucks. At 10 studs wide, the engine is comparable in scale to the Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition, but unlike LEGO’s largest steam engine model, this train is fully motorized with a BuWizz engine (see the video below the fold!). The version you see here is an update to the builder’s first iteration, and spotting the differences highlights how much thought went into the smallest details.

Bavarian S3-6 (BR18.4)_(Update)

But what’s a Bavarian steam engine without luxurious cars to pull?

Click to see the train cars and video!

A beautiful build of a terrible fate

History repeats across The Legend of Zelda games like a flat circle. In the groundbreaking entry Majora’s Mask, looping time becomes the key to saving the world when a cursed mask draws the moon down on a collision course with Hyrule. Majora’s Mask itself, brilliantly recreated in LEGO by Dylan Mievis, is a terrifying relic. With its bright colors and heart shape, who would guess the mask contains such evil? (Actually, the eyes are a tell — they’re super creepy!) The front of the mask shines with a mix of curved tiles, accented by carefully looped white strings. I’m in awe of the perfect stud-free curve that wraps from brow to chin (if I had to guess, each segment is clipped to a hidden hose? I’d love to get a peek behind the mask). The colorful spikes are the creepy icing on the cake. You don’t have to be a fan of the games to appreciate the craftsmanship on display in Dylan’s model.

Majora's Mask

Dylan is no stranger to video game LEGO builds. We’ve featued his delightful Deoxys from Pokémon and spectacular Shovel Knight, but he’s also tackled Hollow Knight, Minecraft, and Nier: Automata, among others. Game on, Dylan. Game on!

Crawl out through the LEGO Fallout

The Fallout TV show just dropped its first radioactive season, and like many fans of the beloved gaming franchise, I was quick to binge the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine. Better than fine, actually. The show is pretty great! On The Taste of Bricks, Philipp shows pays tribute to the premier episode with a LEGO vignette of Vault dweller Lucy’s first steps into the post-apocalypse. The anchor of this scene is the iconic Vault door with the number 33 in its distinctive font, which Philipp painstakingly recreates with a clever SNOT jigsawing of bright light orange slopes and tiles amongst dark grey. The sparse patch of wasteland completes the scene with weeds, bones and an empty bottle of Nuka Cola. Despite living in an ultra-violent world of mutants and marauders, Fallout’s Vault dwellers maintain a chipper American space-age outlook on life, which Phillip makes sure to include in his model. Not even the trauma of recent events can wipe that optimistic grin off Lucy’s minifig face.

Fallout LEGO MOC

Philipp is quite talented at capturing iconic TV and movie scenes on a small (16×16) footprint, including LEGO tributes to The Last of Us, the last video game series to get the prestige TV treatment. I’d bet my last bottlecap we’ll be seeing more Fallout moments from Philipp (and the rest of the LEGO building community) soon.

Don’t dump on this ultra classy hauler

Dump trucks are a staple of the LEGO City and Technic lines, but those versions focus on the highway-friendly variety that you might see around construction sites. The Komatsu 930E, modeled here by TsungNing Lee, is not that sort of truck. It’s an ultra-class behemoth, standing 24 feet (7.37m) tall, capable of hauling over 300 tons. That puts this massive model at about 1/2 minifig scale. TsungNing works almost entirely with LEGO system parts, with only a few Technic elements to handle the steering mechanism and axels, and custom stickers to match the real thing. I’m impressed by the use of curves in this bulky beast, both in the inverted slopes of the bed and the precisely bent tubing for the railing. While the model itself isn’t new TsungNing recently shared a thorough gallery of this and other masterfully detailed trucks from his collection.

Komatsu 930E V2

As a bonus, TsungNing also made a microscale version of the truck:

Komatsu 930e Ver.1 02

King Gleeok brings three times the LEGO trouble to Hyrule

Gleeoks are the three-headed dragons who have menaced Link going back to the very first Legend of Zelda game. King Gleeok, introduced in Tears of the Kingdom, is the most fearsome incarnation of the recurring boss to date, and makes for one of the most menacing LEGO dragons we’ve ever seen. Built by Mitch Phillips, the model wasn’t created via Ultrahand, but instead employs a masterful blend of System and Bionicle techniques to achieve the inticate organic design. The three toothy heads first catch the eye, colored to match the elements of Thunder, Flame, and Frost. Then you might be drawn to the spidery wings whose membranes come from the sails of several LOTR Corsair ships. Perhaps my favorite section of the build is King Gleeok’s scaly chest, which, if you look closely, you can see is made from red discs affixed to a net and wrapped around the torso.

KING GLEEOK

It’s such a complicated build with unusual parts that you can’t fully appreciate it from pictures alone. Thankfully, Mitch guides you through the build process on his YouTube channel.

To see more of Mitch’s Zelda-inspired builds, fire up your Sheikah Slate and check out his pug-faced LEGO Bokoblin and (my personal Zelda nemesis) this terrifying LEGO Lynel.

I can’t remember a better camera build than this Memento tribute

You won’t believe his lies your eyes when you see the details that go into this Polaroid SLR 690 from master of life-size LEGO props (and tbb alumn) Nick Jenson. This version of the iconic instant camera is a collapsable point-and-shoot model from the ’90s made famous in Christopher Nolan’s breakout film Memento. Nick is a stickler for accuracy as with all of his impressive 1:1 scaled models. The seed part that makes Nick’s model so accurate without stickers is the Polaroid tile from the film packet on the recent LEGO Ideas’ Polaroid set. Even the nylon strap is sourced from a LEGO-branded bag. To make this a proper tribute to Momento, the camera is paired with appropriately lo-fi photographs to match those in the film. Here the photos are real Polaroids, but the subjects are brick-built facimiles of Teddy and the Discount Inn from the film. At least I think they are… I can’t remember that far back. Thankfully I don’t need a tattoo to remind me when I see an amazing LEGO build like this one.

LEGO Memento (2000)

This Warhammer-inspired LEGO diorama is fast in friendship and in enmity

What do LEGO dwarves have to be resentful of? Well, elves got their own fondly remembered line, orcs featured prominently as Castle foes for a spell, and dragons appear in multiple themes and get their own zodiac calendar year. Oh, the indignity! We can’t know what animus brings motivates the dwarven king in Illia Zubashev‘s grand diorama, but chance are it involves gold, elves, or grudges. Probably all three.  Illia calls this creation The Hall of Grudges of Karak Izûm, a sacred site for dwarves of the Warhammer ilk. It’s a truly grand scene where a lone minifig king and the holy Book of Grudges are dwarfed by a hulking statue and a towering wall of brick and stone, showing the immense scale of the underground dwarven empire. Illia employs a solid mix of profile bricks, offset tiles, and SNOT work (studs not on top) in the impressive wall and floor. The chonky statue of dark grey and gold makes impressive use of 2×3 rock tiles for a chiseled beard. But perhaps the most striking element of the  scene is the diamond window of jutting trans light blue crystals.

The Hall of Grudges of Karak Izûm. Night

The evenly lit scene represents the hall at night. Even more striking is the daylight version, where light shining through the crystal window transforms the underground scene.

The Hall of Grudges of Karak Izûm. Day

Dance to your Death with Sekiro’s Corrupted Monk

LEGO and video games have proven to be a powerhouse of family-friendly fun, but combat in LEGO games is a pretty basic affair. If punishing action is more your speed, perhaps you’ve wondered what a LEGO Souls-like game would look like? If it’s anything like Marius Herrmann‘s Corrupted Monk from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it would be a beautiful game indeed!

The Corrupted Monk from "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice"

FromSoftware, makers of Elden Ring and Dark Souls, are known for their amazing enemy bosses that combine punishing difficulty with breathtaking dark fantasy character design. For many, the Corrupted Monk is the pinnacle of boss encounters, as dueling this demoness requires total mastery of the game’s robust combat system (unless you cheese the boss — no shame in that!). Marius’ model employs some incredible parts usage to capture the Monk’s haunting appearance, like the use of an inverted Ninjago Anacondrai helmet for a mouth and a frog for a nose. There are hand-strung beads made of eggs and flowers, as well as a vintage LEGO Scala pearl necklace for this classy lady of darkness. The color is striking, especially the draping tiled fabric in gold, yellow, and black. Given the vibrant colors, this is clearly the “True” version of the Corrupted Monk. Sekiro also features a spectral version of the boss, but I suspect creating a model this incredible using only translucent parts would be too punishing a challenge for even the most hardcore LEGO builder.

Are spheres the new DOTS?

LEGO DOTS brought the technique of building geometric mosaics from tiny tiles to a broader audience, and the humble 1×1 quarter circle tile was the workhorse of that line. Builder Palixa and the Bricks employs hundreds of these tiles on a particularly challenging canvas for a mosaic – a sphere! The results are beautiful from every angle, as soothing to look at as it must have been for Palixa to build.

The Sphere

This series allows Palixa to combine some of her favorite things: LEGO, mosaics, colors, and math. If the series continues, what polyhedron will she apply her tiling magic to next? A pyramid, perhaps? Personally, I’m hoping for an icosahedron.

The Cube

LEGO Nausicaä glides to a brighter future

Before co-founding Studio Ghibli and going on to win two Oscars for Best Animated Feature, it was Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind that cemented Hayao Miyazaki as Japan’s great animation auteur. Joffre Zheng pays tribute to the film with a brick-built Nausicaä on her swooshable glider racing over a herd of Ohmu as they skitter across the desert. The diorama uses forced perspective to sell how high Nausicaä soars over the titanic bugs. The use of bowed slopes to give the dust clouds a sawtoothed edge does a great job evoking Miyazaki’s style and conveying the Ohmus’ terrifying speed. As a bonus detail, Nausicaä’s glider features an LED that lights up with a button press.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

For other masterful Nausicaä models, check out these builds from Tino Poutiainen, TBB alum Iain Heath, and Alex Hui.

The stage is on fire in this heavenly KISS concert build

You don’t have to be a member of the KISS Army to lick up this sizzling concert scene from virtuoso LEGO builder Paul Hetherington. In this fantasy staging, The Starchild, The Demon, and The Spaceman shred on pedestals above lava, while The Catman owns the drums from atop a flame-spewing podium flanked by metallic demon dogs and backed by a deafening wall of speakers while Detroit Rock City burns in the background. Doesn’t get more rock and roll than that! Paul artfully blends flat typography and graphic design with a minifig vignette to create this popping poster. (It’s a technique he’s used before, including in this TBB favorite golden age batman masterpiece). I find the use of color particularly striking, with flame shafts and geometric brick-built lava matching the KISS logo. While there are few visible LEGO studs on the stage itself, Paul uses an enviable amount of silver-grey elements to mimic the band’s studded leather look in the design. The custom minifigs come courtesy of Big Kid Brix. And is that a Bionicle Kanoka Disk hiding behind The Catman? If you love your LEGO loud, you’ve got nothin’ to lose revisiting Paul’s classic black diamond builds.

The Hottest Band in the World...KISS!