Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Hejjo Demokowicz’s immersive LEGO steampunk worlds

Immersive LEGO scenes fill the frame with bricks and make you feel like you’re getting a glimpse into another world. Hejjo Demokowicz demonstrates a mastery of the form with his series of steampunk districts that began in 2022, each depicting a solitary figure beginning a journey. The latest entry, District 3, depicts a snowy, urban realm. Hejjo draws on an eclectic mix of rounded parts for the white snow and the nougat path for a lush texture. Wrought ironwork impresses in both the foreground gate and the ornate station awnings in the background. A solitary character stuns with clever parts usage, such as eggs for arms, helmet shoulders, and a pirate’s beard as trailing hair.

Click to explore Hejjo’s other districts

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Touch this poison dart mech and you’ll be sorry!

When we last checked in with Zane Houston, the builder bowled us over with a colossal Dr. Robotnik mech. Maybe the Zane spent too much time in the head of Sonic’s nemesis, as now he’s sticking cute animals inside military-grade machines, just like Eggman. On closer inspection, it’s the tiny poison dart frogs who are calling the shots here. The mech shares the bright colors of toxic tropical amphibians, mixing teal, black, and bright light orange. Those triangular missile pods pack a serious punch, but it’s hard to take this mech seriously with those tiny forearms holding a minifig revolver and the pilot frog looking like a clown nose. Uh oh… I seem to have upset the frogs and now they’ve sent out a pair of chibi tanks to get revenge.

Zane’s mechs never cease to inspire with their dynamic design and top-notch presentation. This Nintendo Switch mech remains an all-time favorite build.

LEGO enters its oak tree era with 6440443 antlers in green [Building Techniques]

Today marks the roll-out of a little part that promises to have a bit impact on the future of LEGO trees – 6440443 antlers in green. The part first debuted in 2022 as an accessory to the Reindeer costume, but surely the designers at the time recognized the resemblance to a pair of oak leaves? So far the piece has only appeared in green in 2 sets, making the part fairly hard to come by. This is about to change as the part trickles out into Pick a Brick offerings from LEGO (currently available in Europe), making it easy to stock up. Builder Ryan McBryde has managed to amass quite a collection of the part already and demonstrates how effective these leaves can be when used as the primary foliage on a large tree.

It’s not an easy part to work with as the primary connection point is the small peg used for hair accessories, but Ryan found a few effective ways to integrate with branches. The workhorse partner in Ryan’s tree is the 1×1 round plate with shaft which conveniently has a hold in the shaft to match the antlers’ small peg. It looks like Ryan also relies on the tight squeeze between the inner prongs to chain together another pair of antlers.

Maybe it’s because I was such a fan of the Forestmen faction in my early building days, but I’ve always adored brick-built LEGO trees. Options for foliage elements have steadily increased over the years, even ignoring the unconventional parts used as plants in the Botanicals line. This part has me very excited for the creative solutions the community will find for working them into the next wave of trees. The era of oak trees has arrived!

ABrickDreamer dazzles with this sparkling microscale Cullen House

Davide Sacramati (aka ABrickDreamer) is a wiz at shrinking big LEGO sets into microscale versions (see his itty bitty Viking Village, Avengers Tower, and Rivendell). Davide’s latest project shrinks 221354 Twilight: The Cullen House onto an 8×16 footprint without losing any of the modern architecture charm. The middle floor in dark orange includes some clever problem-solving, like the legal-ish technique of wedging tiles between studs for the pillars on the right. In a video break-down Davide opens up the build and shares insights, like when to use SNOT building and how certain choices were made to accomodate gaps in his parts collection.

While Davide doesn’t need a reason to shrink sets, this model coincides with the LEGO Micro Build Tournament sponosred by Toys N Bricks that runs through April 1, 2025. Feel inspired? Shrink a set yourself and maybe you can win a copy of Tudor Corner!

A LEGO encampment where legends train for battle

As much as we love a colossal castle, a brick-built LEGO encampment can be just as inspiring when depicting life in the Middle Ages (see our thoughts on the latest Bricklink Designer Program Siege Encampment). French builder Gus (Faëbricks) erects a training camp for House Austren in what promises to be the first chapter of a LEGO roleplaying scenario called Féodalis. Duke Galdric, accompanied by his wife Elyanna, trains for a joust against the Duke of House Clawthorne. The scene is packed with details of camp life like serfs unfurling a tarp over an a-frame tent and crossbow training.

I love the colors of House Austren, pairing the Forester stag crest with fur collars and dark green capes.

Click for a video tour of this model!

How to clean a fish in LEGO

Clearly Harry Duncan has experience cleaning a fish, as the former LEGO Masters New Zealand contestant captures every gory detail of the process in this inspired scene. A fish scaler on the right left pearlescent tiles everywhere. Ropy red parts and stacks of pink skates are gutted and cast aside so the chef can begin the delicate work of deboning the fish. And here we see the most brilliant parts usage of all: a stack of white stems serving as a perfect fish bones. Harry brilliantly hides one of the stems in the counter, exposing only the v-shape of the spine. Ski poles and wands add some variety to the bony mix. Meanwhile, on the floor, a furry friend takes an interest in tonight’s meal. Should we report this to the health inspector, or is it more of a Ratatouille situation?

This build was created for the 2025 Iron Forge competition using the seed part of plant stems.

Something wicked stirs beneath the spires

In a building system founded on right angles, stringing together a bunch of LEGO macaroni tubes is anarchistically delightful. The snaking black tubes in the ruins of An-za-kàr Uru Dingir from Mattia Careddu, however, are downright sinister. I love how the layered ruins evoke organic anatomy, with fleshy tan bricks curved around a bony white core. What did this once-great city look like in its prime, I wonder? The model is a rare example of architecture from a builder best known for their weird and wonderful character builds, and an exciting direction from one of our favorite builders of 2024.

Two alternate takes on 10350 Tudor Corner

We called this year’s LEGO modular, 10350 Tudor Corner, one of the best sets in the line. While many who assemble this impressive model will likely leave it fully assembled, Japanese creator Azurekingfisher was inspired to remix the parts into two alternate builds. Each preserves a section of the half-timbered walls from the original design but otherwise takes the architecture in a wholly different direction with results that are unmistakably Azurkingfisher originals.

In the first alt build is a multi-unit residence with climbing vines and an outdoor fountain. The second looks like an old carriage and guard house converted into a cafe. This design is a real charmer, especially the clock tower cube with mosaic faces and soothing pastel colors. While the original set was inspired by British architecture, Azurekingisher ‘s models evoke the Netherlands or Denmark in the springtime.

Which of Azurekingfisher’s modulars would you rather call home?

A Batmobile beyond the need for roads

By my counting, LEGO has made roughly 50 versions of the Batmobile since the first version debuted in 2006, but one version that has yet to be sold in brick form is the futuristic model seen in Batman Beyond. One builder who couldn’t let that slide is F1Elevenbricks, perhaps the biggest Batmobile enthusiast in the LEGO fan community. The builder’s take faithfully recreates the distinctive silhouette of Batman/Terry McGinnis’ supersonic ride, while giving it a muscle car spin with added greebling. For a breakdown of the build process and more angles, the builder provides a video on Instagram.

There are LEGO space rovers aplenty in our Febrovery 2025 mid-month roundup [Feature]

Febrovery brings all the builders to the yard, and by yard I mean crater-pocked retro space surfaces that can only be tamed by big wheels and a whimsical design. With dozens of rovers being shared each day, and some builders creating a new rover every day of February, we can’t possibly cover them all, but as the event is such a supernova of creativity, we have to give it our best effort. With Febrovery half over, we present some of our favorite builds so far. Tell us in the comments which rover you’d rather ride!

Retro radar rover by Ids de Jong

Every day during Febrovery the mad inventor Ids de Jong has robots B1 and B3 encounter a new rover, drawing inspiration from classic Space themes or inventing new ones. Like this radar rover that looks like it rolled out of the atomic age (or the toybox of Shannon Sproule). The Alpha Team windscreen is a part we don’t often see in MOCs, but it looks great here, especially paired with that lovely sand blue!

Grab an air tank and helmet and ride along with us to see more amazing rovers!

“I am fire, I am death, I am made of LEGO!”

While it’s true that LEGO did offer a version of Tolkien’s iconic dragon, it fell utterly short of capturing the enormity of Smaug the stupendous. Stefan Johansson delves under the mountain and brings forth a fitting tribute to this chiefest and greatest of calamities. It’s a beautiful model with the great dragon too large to be contained by his gold-littered base. Smaug claims his armor is like tenfold shields, but Stefan instead makes excellent use of the pauldrons of a praetorian guard for that nigh-impenetrable belly. The best part of the impressive build is Smaug’s head with that great lower jaw, ready to chomp dwarves and chew scenery with Cumberbatchian gravitas.

The living history of a fictional LEGO city: building Medinat al Musawrah [Interview]

If you’ve ever been to a LEGO fan event like BrickCon or Bricking Bavaria (and if you haven’t, do look for an event in your area!) one of the highlights is seeing collaborative builds where the parts, creativity, and passion of a team comes together to make something epic. 2024 saw some incredible collaborations, like Rogue Ronin or the latest incarnation of New Hashima. One of our favorite collabs of 2024 was “Medinat al Musawrah,” a fictional city inspired by the architecture of the Middle East and North Africa that is both modern and ancient. When we learned that the display would be returning in 2025 at BrickFair NoVa with new additions from Blake Foster and others, we reached out to the organizers to discuss the project’s inspiration, creation, and future.

A big thanks to Michael Willhoit, George Hawes, and Tobias Whelan for sharing their story.

TBB: First, can you talk about how the project came together? You had all just teamed up for the Old City district of New Hashima. What inspired this new collaboration?

Michael: The project was born from a few different factors. First, I wanted to move away from cubes. Having just completed New Hashima, some collaborators and friends of mine expressed interest in breaking away from using just a cube standard because of the constraints it had. It’s a tried and true technique but I wanted to devise a new system. More odd angles, pockets and alleys, density, and generally capturing the feeling of a city that’s been standing for centuries. Originally I modeled this off the iconic Kowloon Walled City, but that brings me to the next factor. We wanted to move out of the Eat Asian aesthetic sphere. I personally find a lot of inspiration in the Middle East, and I was lucky enough that I found people to share that. Looking in that area you can see similar insane density in cities like Cairo. There were initially 11 of us to test this. Everyone brought something unique to the display that I think really pushed it forward. George and Tobias shared in coordination roles, and George particularly contributed a massive modern pyramid structure to the build.

Tobias: I’ve been collaborating with George, Mike, or both of them since 2019. They’re some of my closest buddies and we can all unify a vision despite stylistic differences in building. Even with the massive scale of 2023’s New Hashima, George, Mike, and I all built for the Old City portion.

Our in-depth interview with Michael, George and Tobias continues

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