Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Do you remember loving VF-1 Valkyries?

For anime fans and toy collectors of a certain age, there will never be a vehicle quite as cool as the VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross. The “variable fighter” helped usher in the era of the transforming robot, with this design even getting shoehorned into Transformers as the Autobot Jetfire. Valkyries have long been a popular subject for LEGO builders, but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one as small as this model from umamen. Even at this scale, it’s fully transformable to all three modes.

Of course, umamen is no stranger to miniature mecha and character builds. The builder has been innovating with tiny robot builds for over a decade, so it’s great to see them back on TBB!

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Scene from the Seine seen in LEGO

This simple build from Galerie d’Antha might look to some like just a showcase of LEGO books and printed tiles, but if you’ve ever visited Paris, you’ll recognize it as a loving tribute to the Bouquinistes – the literal pop-up bookshops that line the promenades along the river Seine. The 900 or so green boxes filled with second-hand books, art, and ephemera are such an essential part of the city’s unique character that they were even declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Antha created the first version of this Bouquiniste before the 2024 Olympic games when the city considered dismantling the boxes before abandoning the plan. In this revised model, the builder expands the size and selection and adds a cleaner look when the box-shop closes for the day. C’est magnifique!

“Hold on to your potatoes, Dr. Jones!”

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a big, loud, and utterly extra adventure film, yet somehow LEGO builder adotnamedstud captures all of that excitement on a tiny 8×10 vignette. There’s so much kinetic energy on display, from the mine car tipping forward to Shortround’s cap to the tunnel supports leaning back. Moody lighting for the photograph and LEDs in the base add extra cinematic impact. The builder shows that it doesn’t take a ton of bricks to find fortune and glory.

Swole Lord of the Sith

LEGO’s buildable figures make great toys but, for many adult fans, they lack the detail and nostalgic appeal of models built from System bricks. Star Wars builder Shin Ichirau set about building a better Vader, keeping just the shins, shoulders, and head of the official buildable version and recreating the rest with System elements. The builder focused on capturing Vader’s power with a torso that is more ripped than the on-screen version, but gains aside, Shin’s version is a remarkable likeness. I appreciate the inner robes, often left out from toy depictions of the Sith Lord in favor of just the cape. Shin pairs his poseable Vader with a perfect stand that could be cut straight from the bridge of the Executor.

This isn’t the first Star Wars buildable glow-up we’ve featured on TBB. Pierthviv’s Boba Fett rebuild takes a similar approach with results worth their weight in beskar.

Secret weapons of the TIEwaffe

Whether the mission calls for flushing fugitives out of hiding or reducing enemy bases to rubble, the imposing TIE-110 bomber will have the rebels on the run. Over the past two years, Jordan Fridal has been mashing up Star Wars vehicles with WWII aircraft in LEGO to brilliant effect. For his latest build, Jordan fuses the TIE Bomber with a Messerschmitt BF-110. The model captures the best of both sources, supplemented with custom stickering for the windshield and insignia. While I would hate to be on the receiving end of the TIE-110’s payload, I do wonder how that asymmetry would fly for in-atmosphere bombing runs.

The TIE-110 joins a growing roster of Imperial sky-fi craft: the TIE-109, TIE-190, and TIE-262. It’s quite a fearsome fleet! Thankfully Jordan made sure the Rebel Allies have equally awesome fighters.

Corny builds as smooth as butter

Competition is cooking in a new Iron Builder duel between returning champ and prolific builder Duncan Lindbo and a fresh face on the scene, Ari “loafbuilds” Hytti. Per tradition, a challenger takes on one of four reigning Iron Builders to build models based around a surprise “seed part.” This time the seed part is the unikitty tail piece in bright light orange. “Allez Brick!”

Ari is a builder whose public LEGO creations have mostly focused on Bionicle and character builds, like his compelling entries in the 2024 Bio-Cup. You wouldn’t guess that from Ari’s first salvo, a brilliantly life-like pair of corn cobs that use 82 tails to create the truthy kernels, wrapped in complimentary sand green husks. It’s an ingenious use of the part that should serve Ari well in the competition.

It’s an iron builder tradition to respond to your competitor’s build with one that rhymes. Duncan ripostes with a playful scene of produce gone bad. Corn returns in miniature, with palm leaves making great husks at this scale. An appealing friend, perhaps resting his bones for a Fortnite, joins in the kitchen carnage. We can’t wait to see what these two builders cook up next!

Rocco’s capital LEGO build of Capitol Hill is a 36,800 piece marvel

“Here, sir, the people govern.” So said Alexander Hamilton as engraved in the US Capitol in Washington DC. Chances are you’ve seen the Capitol in LEGO before, perhaps in the official release from the LEGO Architecture line, but you’ve never seen it like this. Assembled here from over 36,800 LEGO bricks over four months, Rocco Buttliere‘s model of the Capitol is a masterclass in microscale landscaping and a breathtaking tribute to the heart of American democracy.

To differentiate from past builds of the landmark, Rocco chose to recreate the entire 100-acre grounds of the Capitol Campus, which includes the Capitol, Reflection Pool, Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, Botanic Garden, Capitol Steps, visitor center, and tree-lined paths. As with all of Rocco’s creations, the model is built at 1:650 scale, which posed unique challenges in capturing the appropriate detail. Some of Rocco’s solutions used delightfully surprising parts, such as fork facades, microphone lamps, and jewel fountains.

Take a stroll down the Capitol Steps with us to view the rest of Rocco’s jaw-dropping model!

LEGO Star Speeder 3000 is now ready for service to Endor

Star Wars fans in the LEGO community have created incredibly detailed and screen-accurate renditions of iconic ships like the X-Wing, B-Wing, and Y-Wing. But there’s one vehicle in the Star Wars universe that fans have a first-hand experience of riding in, and it’s one we don’t see as often in LEGO: the Starspeeder 3000, trusty transport used by infamous travel agency Star Tours! Japanese LEGO builder and Lucasfilm superfan Negipon fixes this with an incredible recreation of the Starspeeder, crewed and ready for a relaxing trip to Endor!

Not only does the build match the lines, colors, and greebling of the classic ride, but it is packed with play functions, including functional doors, retractable blasters and landing gear, custom lighting, and housing for an iPhone next to the pilot droid RX-24 (voiced by Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, in the original ride) so that minifig passengers can get the full 4D movie experience. A video shows off all the details. Speaking of minifigs, Negipon booked quite a crew for his model’s maiden voyage.

This isn’t Negipon’s first Disneyland build. He recently built a motorized tribute to the Indiana Jones Adventure that brings the thrills home, and his LEGO Indiana Jones dioramas definitely belong in a museum (I’m partial to Negipon’s action-packed Club Obiwan scene).

Blacktron blight leads to mutated mech meyhem

LEGO’s nefarious Blacktron faction may have traded their classic black look for white and trans neon green. But make no mistake, they were still up to no good, pillaging from M-Tron miners, evading Space Police, and apparently getting mixed up with dangerous mutagens. Whatever infected the Blacktron fig from Collectible Minifigures Series 26 seems capable of transforming Blacktron tech as well, at least as imagined by LEGO designer Theo Bonner. His Blacktron Exo-Mech celebrates the colors of the Blacktron II theme with a gloriously gooey mix of modern parts. Theo draws on big and small macaroni tubes and every shape of tail, tentacle, and horn in neon green to fill out the biomechanical menace. I especially like the curled grass piece for the trigger tentacle. I wonder, is the mech an extension of the pilot’s body, or a lifeform of its own?

You know what would help to take down a squishy mech like this? A really big chainsaw. Thankfully, Theo already has that covered with his last cool mech creation.

“I’m not a toy, I’m a building system!”

Forky, the breakout character from Toy Story 4, may be a crude assemblage of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and a spork, but he opens up major existential questions about the nature of ~~life~~ toys. LEGO did once release this not-a-toy monstrosity as a single molded piece, think this brick-built ~~abomination~~ masterpiece by Bas van Houwelingen does a much better job at capturing Forky’s special charms. Stacked red flowers make excellent pipe cleaners, and a bent blue tube closed with a minifig hand is a genius solution for Forky’s mouth. Bas’s creation is made for friendship (or for soup, salad, maybe chili).

An impressive SHIP made of Soviet blocks

The heyday of cosmonauts at the bleeding edge of space exploration might be history, but science fiction imagines an alternate timeline where the space race never ended. LEGO builder Duncan Lindbo drew on this alt-reality for his SHIPtemeber creation: the Gazprom Samovar-class tanker ship. Designed to resupply Soviet outposts on Mars, the massive vessel is armed with turrets to protect its precious liquid cargo. The mix of curves, girders, and all of that lovely sand green perfectly extrapolates ’60s space race tech into the future. I love the cluster of engines, angled out like Vostok rockets. In a month of stellar SHIP’s Duncan’s Samovar is steeped in skillful techniques.

If Duncan’s alt-future take on Soviet tech has you curious about the historical precedents, comrade, reflect on this LEGO Soyuz capsule, also built in sand green.

Spooky scary skeletons spell doom for the Lion Knights

In the LEGO photography hobby, light and focus are as essential to the creative process as which bricks to use. Photomark6, a member of the BrickCentral photography community, specializes in shots where the camera is brought down into a diorama, giving the viewer a minifig’s view of the action. (And he manages to sneak a cat into every scene!) With spooky season upon us, Mark delves into the darkness and captures the likely final moments of the Lion Knights as they walk into a necromancer’s trap.

The black skeletons with double-long limbs are especially frightening, the minifig equivalent of those terrifying lawn skeletons that loom over trick-or-treaters. And nothing screams horror like chains hanging from the ceiling. Mark uses some scary good techniques in the castle backdrop; the hinge bricks work great as cornices. In the background, Szazz Tam from the D&D Collectible Minifigures watches the knights fall. Can the Lion Knights turn the tides? If only skeletons were allergic to cats…