Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Rock Raiders return in epic Onyxx Expedition Diorama

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Rock Raiders, a theme that for many adult fans of LEGO is always worth celebrating thanks to the evocative subterranean setting, cool colors (teal!), and wonderful vehicle designs. LegoMathijs still carries a torch for the theme and his latest project takes us deep beneath the planet Onyxx with a truly massive celebration of the Rock Raiders theme.

LegoMathijs’ diorama is pure, high-grade nostalgia, incorporating many elements unique to the Rock Raiders theme and working mostly with parts and techniques of the late ’90s, minus the BURPs (big ugly rock parts). With dozens of minifigures, an array of vehicles, and a motherload of crystals, the scene shows the promise on the package of Rock Raiders sets writ large.

Drill down with us for a closer look!

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LEGO Caravanserai offers a treasure trove of techniques in tan

“Unwanted Company at the Caravanserai,” the latest diorama from Kit Nugent, is the rare LEGO build that is truly immersive, transporting the observer into a brick-built world. The craftsmanship is stunning. Working mostly with tan elements, Kit orchestrates every seam and shadow in service to the medieval Islamic architectural style. The interior facades are dense with detail, especially the screens made from over 200 densely-arranged candles, and the Modulex bricks that circle the lower walls. The inner brick-work, revealed in the cut-away, is just as ornate, featuring a complex jigsawing of System bricks with a smattering of smaller Modulex. The glimpse of a nearby domed building under a blue sky seals the sense of immersion.

The architecture alone makes this a build to celebrate, but Kit is just as deliberate with the story told through minifigures and accessories. He captures a frozen moment as travelers in the caravanserai trade look and reach for weapons as a shadowy figure enters. No doubt blood will soon be spilt on that lovely mosaic floor. Let’s just hope the goat is spared.

Beautiful build of a terrible lizard with horrible hands

The first fossil remains of Deinocheirus were a pair of massive forelimbs with long fingers which earned it its name, literally “horrible hand.” These mysterious claws and the surrounding speculation captured the imagination of LEGO character artisan Eero Okkonen as a child. It wasn’t until the 2010s that scientists were able to find enough remains to piece together the rest of the duck-billed omnivore. It’s this version of the dinosaur that Eero recreated in LEGO for round 3 of the Bio-Cup. The model expertly blends Constraction and System parts for organic shaping. The colors, especially in the head, are splendid – a far cry from the dull shades of 20th century dinosaur depictions. I especially admire the dorsal ridge along the back, mixing tail pieces, 2×2 round bricks, and cables. Eero rounds out the build with some great pre-historic flora and, keeping on trend, an adorable crab built around an Atlantean headpiece.

Forbidden Exodia is about to explodia

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, Exodia the Forbidden One offers a shoot-the-moon combo that is catnip to a certain type of gamer: collect all 5 pieces of Exodia and you win. Builder mc tung previously gave us a brick-built Yugi and his prime card lineup, and now he presents the combo creature that won Yugi his first game.

mc tung mixes warm gold parts from constraction sets (like the torso, taken from Legends of Chima buildable figures) for the body, with nice System sculpting to recreate the Egyptian-themed head. Rubber tires make excellent shackles for the Forbidden One. Apart, each limb is impressive enough, but fully assembled, it’s game over, man. Game over.

A honey of a village shows the sunny side of the dark ages

Joe (jnj_bricks) has impressed us many times with his immersive medieval LEGO displays, whether in winter, by the harbor, or across the Pelennor Fields. For his latest epic build, created over 3 months to show at Brickworld, Joe takes us to Honey Crest Village, an idyllic hamlet bursting with color. Half-timbered homes are quite popular among medieval builders, and Joe is master at rendering the style in LEGO with a great using SNOT techniques (Studs Not On Top) for cracked plaster and finding creative parts (like hot dogs!) for the timber. The color scheme for this build is reminiscent of the Inn Plain Sight building from the Dungeons and Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale set, but Joe has been here before.

What makes this build such a delight, beyond the technique and scale, is how packed with delightful details of village life and crowd-pleasing elements. Joe’s trademark shirtless Woody is there, of course, as are at least 11 types of animals, including the LEGO frog in all 16 available colors. (To find them all you have to visit Joe’s instagram gallery). I’ve only located 4 so far. How many can you find?

Armored LEGO evac bumbles into our hearts

Biomimicry in industrial engineering isn’t just a path to innovation and efficiency — it can also lead to amazing designs that are functional and fun. That’s definitely the case with Bongobert‘s “Bombas Armatis” (armored bee). This evac vehicle has the chonky proportions of a bumblebee, only instead of fuzz it boasts heavy armor for extracting agents from combat situations. The Evac repurposes the wings from the similarly insect-inspired Dune Ornithopter and the wheeled landing struts remind me of a bulkier version of the spider-like Tachikoma tank. The cockpit is perfect, with a purple party bus windshield that complements the bright light orange body, angled down in a way that evokes a bumblebee on the lookout for pollen. Bongobert’s vehicle is both innovative and cozily familiar. Definitely a LEGO creation worth buzzing about.

Olympic high dive build is a clear winner

With the Paris 2024 Olympics just days away, sports fever is really heating up. French builder FOXduFutur offers up a cooling plunge with a LEGO tribute to the 10-meter platform dive. The swarm of clear bricks that hold up the diver is a wonderful gravity-defying technique that mimics the bubbles around a diver seen in underwater photography. On that note, FOXduFutur delivers a gold-medal shot with incredible lighting and use of focus that captures the feeling of being underwater and elevates a relatively simple build into something truly special. (Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of how they pulled off the shot).

FOXduFutur created this model for the BrickPirate LEGOlympics Challenge.

Greenskin gang is ready to rock in this LEGO tribute to Warhammer

While unlikely as an official license, the cartoonishly bellicose world of Warhammer is a perfect fit for LEGO creations. Both feature bright colors, over-the-top characters, a devoted fanbase, and hand-crafted universes in miniature. Our favorite Warhammer Fantasy builder Dwalin Forkbeard usually stans for Team Dwarf, but for his latest diorama Dwalin moves to Greenskin pastures with a Night Goblin outpost he calls Hooda-Rock.

Dwalin grounds the base in a lovely bit of rockwork sculpted in the shape of a goblin’s pointy hood, with an orange path to provide visual interest. A peppering of mushrooms and details like the hanging bones and tasty rats make up for the lack of greenery. Both setting and minifig accessorizing perfectly capture the brutish and nasty charm of the Greenskins.

In addition to Night Goblins, the rock is home to Squigs, the surly cave-dwelling beasts raised as war mounts. Both the full-grown Squig’s red dome head and balls used for the baby Squigs are sourced from the Beast Master’s Chaos Chariot set. In fact, it was those parts that inspired Dwalin to make this build. The results are a delight, whether or not you’re a fan of the source material, and hopefully the start of more Greenskin builds in the LEGO x Warhammer world of miniatures.

Batman gets the drop on Joker’s goons in LEGO Arkham Asylum

There are plenty of candidates for “best version of Batman,” many of which will soon have their own LEGO BrickHeadz design, but a strong case can be made for the star of Batman: Arkham Asylum video game as the GOAT of Batmen. The game makes Batman a predator who uses the environment to stalk and take out goons, but more than that, the design trains the player to see the world through Batman’s eyes. Tom Studs captures the game’s DNA in LEGO with a vignette set in the Arkham Medical Facility. The industrial vibes are spot on thanks to a mix of printed tiles, tubing, and brick-built machinery. Most importantly, the scene has everything Batman needs to take down the Joker’s henchmen, like floor grates to sneak through, power boxes to disable with a batarang, and of course, a well-placed gargoyle on which to perch. All that’s missing is a Riddler Trophy.

A post-human paradise in LEGO

Engaging with LEGO bricks can be an act of play, a hobby, fandom, even an investment, but for some builders, LEGO bricks are an artistic medium just like clay or oil paints. Mihai Marius Mihu is one of those creators who uses the brick to explore big ideas, with motifs that carry over across works and even transcend mediums. After a long building hiatus, Mihai is back to LEGO with “The Garden of the Goddess,” a diorama in silhouette that serves as a culmination of years of exploring this post-human future.

The “ash giant” humanoid figure climbing the hill first appeared in Mihai’s underworld-inspired LEGO vignettes a decade ago, seemingly representing a husk of humanity. The goddess on the left, with her three black orbs, is featured in numerous drawings over recent years. The statue of a face on the right is my favorite element, both for the startlingly lifelike human profile, and the effective use of Technic bricks to convey the geological timescales at play. It’s fascinating to see how Mihai’s ideas translated from sketch into LEGO model.

Mihai’s work often touches on the mythological afterlife, encounters with the unknowable, and human transmutation. It feels in conversation with fiction from Dan Simmons, Jeff Vandermeer, Octavia Butler and Ridley Scott. Work like Mihai’s doesn’t need to be explained. I’m just grateful that the artist allows us to follow his journey over the years, whether in pencil, music, or in brick.

Dueling wizard builds give us something to crow about

Sometimes great minds really do think alike, as evidenced by two rhyming vignettes created for the Summer Joust “Beast Masters” category. Each creation features a brick-built blue spellcaster and their over-sized corvid companion, but despite similar theming, the two models demonstrate very distinct approaches to setting a LEGO scene. First up we have “The Wizard and the Raven” by Ids de Jong. Another admirer described the build as having an “I Spy appeal,” which is a great way to put it, with so many fun elements from throughout the years decorating the scene. The human figure, for which Ids credits the style to Markus Rollbühler, is definitely bringing strong wizard energy with the clever beard technique utilizing Gandalf’s hair piece. I love the personality of of the crow with the nightmare eyes from LEGO Dreamzzz, a good friend who seems eager to deliver scrolls to distant lands.

Next is “Rook and Ruin” from builder Maxx Davidson (who’s been on a roll on the site lately with his whimsical creations!). Maxx’s vignette focuses a bit more on story as it captures the warlock mid-casting as his spell rips the ground asunder. I love the inspired use of a minifig arm for the warlock’s nose, the hand gripping a pair or roots to make the mustache. Nya’s Rising Dragon head makes for a wicked torso. The rook mixes smooth and spiky elements with a touch of pearlescent tiles to create some truly lovely plumage. Two mages, two crows, two magical builds!

Aerospace LEGO enthusiast nails hammerhead aircraft design

Capturing the subtle curves of an aircraft’s wings and fuselage in LEGO takes incredible skill. Seeing the lines in Damien Labrousse‘s “Shark Fighter” aircraft, one can’t help but sit up and take notice. The ever-so slight tapering from 6 studs wide at the cockpit to 10 at the rear is masterfully done. The wings and flaps are also top gun design. Damien based his model on a piece of concept art from E Wo Kaku Peter, and the results perfectly capture the inspiration’s silhouette, while making a few creative deviations that help the model shine in LEGO. In a fitting callback for this nautically named work, it shares the same registry number as the LEGO City Seaplane.