Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

“It looks like you’re trying to build a LEGO creation...”

Keep your Siri, Alexa, and chatGPT powered agents. There’s only one digital assistant for me, and he lives exclusively in Microsoft products between 1997-2003… and in hour hearts. And now in LEGO thanks to Piotr Gierwatowski! Assembled from just a few dozen bricks, LEGO Clippy is just as adept as his digital inspiration at recognizing when you want to write a letter. Better yet, LEGO Clippy is never afraid to voice wrong-headed guesses about which pieces you might want to include in your next creation.

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A winning woodland hero awaits a champion builder

There’s something irresistible about seeing tiny woodland creatures as brave heroes in the medieval mold, whether in books like Redwall, board games like Root, or comics like Mouse Guard, the latter captured here in LEGO by Markus Rollbühler. The blue jay riding member of the guard keeps to Markus’ unmistakable style of character build, with a strong focus on geometry and color with no eyes or mouth. The balloon panel is a clever solution for a dramatic cape. The acorns and fall leaves create a cozy stand.

This mouse rider isn’t just a tribute to a beloved comic. It’s also a trophy for the 2024 Brickscalibur competition, which is currently open to build submissions. One lucky builder in the “Tails from the Meadow” category will go home with this one-of-a-kind work from LEGO senior designer Markus. May the best mouse win!

Solarpunk BOTanist spreads saplings and smiles

Between OpenAI and Tesla bots, I’m not feeling so rosy about the automated future promised by Silicon Valley these days. I’d much prefer autonomous machines of the Wild Robot variety, decoupled from capitalism and just out to help. Like this LEGO fella from Maxx Davidson! Inspired by the art of Victoria Orolfo, this BOTanist is programmed to help its precious plant cargo find the perfect place to take root. Maxx’s robot design is a spot-on tribute to his inspiration but it’s the little patch of terrain that hints at a bigger story. Maybe this little bot could help WALL-E with repairing a neglected future Earth.

Crusading LEGO knights get a horned visitor

While LEGO’s official Castle sets have stuck to European and fantasy inspirations, adult fans have been increasingly inspired by Middle Eastern architecture for medieval builds. This immersive scene from Alberto Ulfhednar has Classic Castle knights playing crusaders in a grand walled city. The arches, weathered brickwork, and clever supports (love the use of roller skates!) are all excellent, but the standout technique is the cracked street. The camera work is beautifully done, with the angle and depth of field putting the viewer in the scene. It could almost be a historical build if it weren’t for one mysterious rider. Is the rider hinting at epic worldbuilding in Alberto’s imagination, or is this the D&D city of Al-Qadim, and the rider is a canonical Tiefling looking for a quest?

LEGO Master Michal Horáček’s medieval village is a towering, teetering triumph

Czech builder and LEGO masters winner Michal Horáček is a true artist at erecting big, rickety stonework in LEGO. It must help that he lives in Prague, one of the most architecturally exciting cities in the world. Over the past year, between contributing to a Tim Burton exhibition and collaborative builds with others like poMOCník & dirigent, Michal has been working on a massive medieval city showcasing his unique style. The central building in the tableau — the red town hall and adjoining tower and astronomical clock — is heavily inspired by Prague’s own Old Town Hall.

Ramshackle brickwork and half-timbered buildings have long been in vogue with castle builders, but usually with a Norman or Tudor influence. Michal’s buildings incorporate Gothic flare with elaborate (bordering on chaotic) detailing that captures the flamboyant style that swept through much of Europe during the late Medieval period. Michal draws on a wide range of parts to add texture, with stone facades that rival Star Wars ships for greebly goodness.

While Michal recently debuted his town at a local event, he plans to keep expanding the scene, including adding a church and more houses. We can’t wait to see how his village grows!

Righteous swimming LEGO sea turtle totally rocks, so give him some fin

Grant Davis is a true LEGO wizard. His talent for creating whimsical and nearly stud-free models that innovate with colors and complex angles would be enough to make him one of our favorite builders, but it’s Grant’s mechanical artistry that makes him a legend. Like his LEGO Ideas pop-up book collaborator Jason Alleman, Grant often builds kinetic sculptures – LEGO models that integrate power functions for fluid movement. His latest creation, the Swimming Sea Turtle Machine, is a slice of Finding Nemo brought to life in bricks. The adorable seat turtle with its surfboard fins and cartoon eyes delights as it swims under the waves, but to truly appreciate the model, you need to look deeper.

On his Brick Innovations youtube channel, Grant walks us through the months-long development process. The video reveals Grant’s iterative design process and serves as an excellent primer on the challenges of kinetic builds. You’ll learn ratios of how gear rotation translates into vertical motion and see the pitfalls when rigid bricks and motors are out of sync. You’ll also see how the turtle evolved from a more realistic sand-green model to the cartoonier lime green version here, and you can even see them swim together! Even if you’re not ready to invent a kinetic model of your own, Grant’s behind-the-scene look is sure to give you a greater appreciateion for what your LEGO bricks are capable of.

LEGO seen through a glass, darkly

The artful LEGO creations of Mattia Careddu are more than they first appear to be. Two forms stand on opposite sites of a mirror – an elegant robot and a black fantasy monstrosity. Which is truth and which an illusion? Mattia’s build is striking, both as three separate models and as an evocatively staged tableau. I love the retro robot with a slight tip to its head. The mirror frame is simple but effective, especially at this large scale. But it’s that shocking red background contrasting with the sand green and inky black that turns the scene into dreamy technicolor phantasmagoria.

Warning! Dungeons & Dragons can be habit(at) forming

For many LEGO fans, each new series of Collectible Minifigures is a creativity prompt to assemble minifig habitats to house each character, and one of the most prolific and inspired of these builders is ABrickDreamer. The latest Dungeons and Dragons series of minifigs is arguably the hottest set to date, with each character bringing deep lore and delightful accessories to inspire habitat builders. Let’s take a look at ABrickDreamer’s take with 12 fantastic habitats!

The Dragonborn Paladin lead the pack housed in an elegant castle courtyard with a lovely double archway. The Dwarf Barbarian camps atop a mountain pass, joined by a goat to match her gruff demeanor. The Mind Flayer and its Intellect Devourers suck life from a deep dungeon. Minifig habitats follow a few basic rules – the base should be 8×8 studs,and the walls 8 bricks high, offset halfway by a stud to help them interlock. Often the best habitats, like those of ABrickDreamer, bend the rules with elements that spill outside the rigid form, as we see with the Dragonborn’s tower and the Dwarf’s rocky terrain. My favorite technique of this trio is the repurposing of the printed baseplates on the wall behind the Mind Flayer.

Next up: a trio of named villains. Witch queen Tasha laughs hideously in her workshop. Strahd poors a glass of “I don’t drink wine” while chilling on his throne, while next door Szazz Tam performs a ritual with whatever it is Strahd is drinking. Szazz’s habitat is the standout here, with blood that refuses to be contained by the 8×8 grid, and once again printed base-paints serve as a backdrop, in this case the starry ones from the Series 26 Space collection.

Delve deeper for a peek at the other 6 D&D habitats!

“Gila” mobile mining mech is a monster of LEGO engineering

Do your off-world ambitions require taming unforgiving alien terrain? Then Iron Builder Industries has you covered with the Gila Mobile Mining Mech! Designed by chief engineer Duncan Lindbo, the Gila is built for Logistical Excavation & Geoengineering Operations (“LEGO” for short). The excavator buckets are made of virtually indestructible keetorange from the far end of the Unikitty system. Not convinced this mech can get the job done? See the excavator in action!

I think this spaceship knows which way to go

You can play, read about, and make video games every day and still it’s impossible to keep up with everything coming out. Case in point, I had never heard of space flight sim Flight of Nova until seeing this LEGO version of the game’s CF2 shuttle from builder cixpack. In the game, the VTOL CF2 is simple to fly, but creating these angles in LEGO is no easy task! The ship design feels very NASA adjacent, resembling proposed space planes that could be bringing Astronauts home within our lifetimes. Somehow cixpack’s sci-fi builds have flown under our radars for years, but they’re definitely worthy of your attention.

You have OneShot to appreciate this LEGO Niko

You don’t have to have played the cult hit indie game OneShot to appreciate this LEGO tribute to starring cat Niko by Dylan Mievis. It’s a great character model with a flat face in the style of chibi builds, with great shaping of the cat-kid’s oversized coat and scarf. If you’ve played the game, then you’ll know that keeping Niko safe is the player’s near-impossible duty, and Dylan captures the character’s vulnerability perfectly in brick form. Those big eyes borrowed from the Nightmare Shark Ship definitely help.

Dylan is no stranger to indie gaming builds, having shared amzing tributes to Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight. And as a shameless plug: getting back into building, I recently paid tribute to my favorite indie game of the moment, Tactical Breach Wizards!

Rocket, yeah, satellite of LEGO

For Classic Space fans, 6950 Mobile Rocket Transport is up there with 497 Galaxy Explorer as one of the all time great LEGO sets. It packed in rockets, radar, chonky wheels, a unique trans yellow cockpit, and loads of play potential for aspiring astronauts. Jan Schönherr-Wacker (with the amazing handle Fiftyshadesofbley) makes their debut with a stellar reimagining of the classic set, putting as much care into preserving the set’s character as LEGO did with the Galaxy Explorer update.

Like the best Neo-Classic Space builds, Jan sticks to classic colors while drawing on a much deeper bench of parts and adding plenty of greebles. The upgraded wheels come from Chima/Ninjago sets. The radar dish is replaced with a trio of hexagonal flags that can bloom into place. The simple hinge lift of the original is redesigned using Technic parts to support the much heavier rocket. Jan tops off the build with a custom-printed 6950 brick to pay tribute to the original’s serial number. It’s a great debut and we’re excited to see what Jan builds next!