Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Perfect LEGO furniture for the modern minifig

Gone are the days when a set of pre-molded seats and an elevated plate was all that a minifig needed to furnish a LEGO home. Thanks to techniques innovated by builders like Michael Jasper and introduced into official sets with the Modular line, a minifig’s home can be filled with as many build-it-yourself designs as an Ikea showroom. Oshi Builds assembles a cozy set of bedroom furniture with muted colors and compact forms that would look great in a Copenhagen studio. Leaving in a few specific molded parts, like the laptop, guitar, and desk drawer, elevates how elegant the custom builds are. Be careful on that rug, though. It looks a little slippery.

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LEGO Marvel 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion revealed [News]

This November LEGO invites you to build the next step in human evolution with LEGO Marvel 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion. Also known as Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, the X-Mansion is one of the most iconic sites in the Marvel universe, featured most recently in the X-Men ’97 animated series. The set features familiar details like the Danger Room, Cerebro, and a buildable Sentinel robot. The X-Mansion includes 10 minigures, with Professor X, Gambit, Iceman, and Bishop, making their LEGO debut. If purchased during the first week of release, Insiders also receive LEGO Marvel Cerebro, a companion display piece. Available November 1 to Insiders and November 4 to all, 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion contains 3093 pieces and retails for US $329.99 | CAN $429.99 | UK £289.99.

To me, my X-Men. Let’s look at the rest that the set has to offer!

The Charrus is SHIP full of delightful parts

During SHIPtember, when LEGO Space builders race to complete a ship at least 100 studs long within a month, the biggest challenge is finding the time and parts to get it done. But almost as hard is finding a unique hook to make your SHIP stand out. Andre Odyssey‘s OSV Charrus is a slick cargo ship with very few studs that draws on an eclectic range of parts. The ship’s deck is made from road plates, alongside race car spoilers and City ship parts. For cargo, Andre uses Mario mushrooms, lavender barrels from the Friends line, a brilliantly employed Vidyo box full, and a brick-built sand green container. The new “jumbo macaroni” tubes make excellent manipulator arms at this scale. The result is a ship that is both an impressive resupply vessel and a fun celebration of the mix-and-match potential of LEGO themes.

Fabulous LEGO Cloud Nine Car from an old smoothie

Stewart Lamb Cromar‘s Star Wars x Fabuland mashups have been viral sensations and appeared at LEGO shops and conventions, but his latest creation the Cloud Nine Car, was created for a much smaller audience. The adorable build, made from vintage parts and presented in custom packaging, was a wedding gift for friends. Stewart originally designed the pods using yellow Fabuland boat hulls to match the theme’s iconic red, yellow, and blue color scheme, but ultimately swapped them for red to better match the source material. Whether in smaller sets like the Fabulandspeeder, or on the massive scale of the Tie Bungalow Hanger, Stewart’s builds always deliver smiles.

Should you find yourself in Billund, Stewart’s work can currently be found at LEGO House where his Fabuland paddle steamer recently joined the World Explorers experience.

Sci-fi LEGO train sets a course for Creations for Charity

Some people imagine a future where everyone has their own flying car. I’d much rather live in a world where everyone has access to reliable and affordable flying public transportation! Like a train pulled by LEGO builder Daniel Barwegen‘s Space Train engine. I love how Daniel blends sci-fi repulsors with the look of a modern electric commuter train. The color blocking is sharp, using triangular tiles to create diagonal stripes. A piston rod amongst the thrusters is a fun nod to tradition.

While Daniel’s train deserves celebrating for craft alone, it’s also on its way to the Creations for Charity shop. From October 15 through November 30th, donated models can be purchased with all proceeds going towards providing LEGO bricks to hospitals, shelters, and schools in underserved areas. It’s a great way for fans and collectors to give back and inspire a new generation of builders and creators.

Dr. Robotnik sends Sonic scrambling with his epic Eggscruciator mech

After multiple waves of LEGO Sonic playsets, poor Dr. Robotnik must be getting pretty sick of the blue hedgehog and his pals smashing his ingenious machines. With an epic assist from builder Zane Houston, Robotnik is back with a towering LEGO spider mech guaranteed to stop the blue blur in his tracks. Revealed at Brickworld Chicago, where it was awarded Best Mecha Creation, Zane’s Eggscruciator mech was assembled over 7 months and hundreds of hours from many thousands of bricks (including three Rock Raider drills!). It’s an incredible accomplishment, not just for the character design, but for the pixel-perfect 16 bit terrain.

Grab a gold ring and spin dash under the fold for more pics and designer insights!

Allow me to break the ice

Inspired to make a mech to pair with the recent Ice Planet collectible minifigure, Theo Bonner understood the assignment. Classic colors – blue, white, and black. Windscreen in trans neon orange. And of course, chainsaw, CHAINSAW, CHAINSAW! Theo expands the color range to allow for silver crampons on the mech’s feet. I like the projectile used as a heftier antenna to match the mech’s bulk. But the standout feature here is that chainsaw, perfect for tunnelating, making mech-scale igloos, or traveling back in time to save the Titanic from the iceberg. (This isn’t Theo’s first chainsaw mech rodeo.)

When he’s not making sick chainsaws, Theo is a designer at The LEGO Group where he recently collaborated on LEGO Icons Botanical Collection 10369 Plum Blossom and LEGO Icons Botanical Collection 10368 Chrysanthemum. Perhaps his mechs helped with the pruning?

From collectible minifig to majestic model, this Aarakocran Ranger soars

Ever since the release of LEGO Dungeons & Dragons Collectible Minifigures 71047, builders and role-players have been celebrating the mix of new fantasy elements to play with. While the figures are great out of the box, D&D has always been about making your own characters. Some builders prefer to stick to minifig scale for their custom creations, but Mitch Phillips always goes big. Mixing Bionicle, Constraction, and System parts, Mitch’s Aarakocran Ranger strikes the perfect balance of fluffy and and fierce.

There are many great techniques to appreciate, from the intense eyes crafted from nested ninja scarves to the lush wings to the excellent sword brooch. If you’re curious about how an expert goes about designing articulated characters like this, Mitch generously breaks down his process in a video. MitchBuild walkthroughs are among the best resources available for understanding how to integrate disparate LEGO parts.

This isn’t Mitch’s first D&D ranger character. During the 2024 Bio-Cup, he rolled a critical hit with this Dragonborn Ranger.

A saintly LEGO interlude in Venice

Barthezz Brick returns to Venice and the world of Assassin’s Creed 2 with another epic diorama of Renaissance life in LEGO. Last time, Barthezz created markets, military towers, and a bustling harbor out of 250,000 bricks. For this epic encore, Barthezz focuses on a single building, but what a heavenly building it is. And of course, the diorama is bursting with character moments and amazing details.

The centerpiece church looks great with a white marble foundation and grey accents. Boomerangs and hockey sticks make for unexpected details in the church’s ornate stonework. In front of the church stands an angelic fountain, one of a handful of elements that Barthezz brought over from the last build. I love the mosaic under the fountain, incorporating cut-out tiles. We can also start to appreciate the many stories transpiring beneath the assassin’s watchful eyes, like the out-of-work builder who is about to lose his lunch to a hungry gull and a pig herder, leaving behind some stinky surprises.

Synchronize with the Animus to explore more of Renaissance Venice!

The Zero Suit Samus of Eero’s DREAMZzz

Legendary LEGO character builder Eero Okkonen has a new side hustle reviewing sets for New Elementary where he puts new parts through the paces in a companion MOC. Hot on the bright light orange heels of his Simba-based Keetongu, Eero celebrates shades of blue with an amazing Zero Suit Samus from Metroid: Other M. The seed parts this time come from a pair of DREAMZzz sets, specifically the 3×3 maxi macaroni tubes in blue found in 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda.

Eero’s goal was to integrate the tubes into larger shapes, and he definitely succeeded, with a curvy torso that makes you forget you’re looking at LEGO. Samus’ fingers also come from Mighty Panda; the reversed trigger finger looks exceptionally cool. Eero is not a fan of building guns, but for Samus’ sidearm, he makes an exception, beautifully integrating Power Miner armor into the barrel. As we’ve come to expect from Eero’s models, the color blocking is second to none (I love the tiniest hint of blue in the eyes). Longtime fans of Eero’s work might remember his earlier takes on Zero Suit Samus using Bionicle parts, first in 2013 and later in 2015, as well as Samus in her iconic Power Suit. While still impressive in their own way, it’s amazing to see what a decade of practice and a wider palette of bricks makes possible for an artist and Masterpiece Gallery alumn like Eero.

Starfighter or bomber? Y not both?

At the Battle of Yavin, it was the brave pilots of Gold Squadron in their Y-Wing starfighters who made the first trench run in an attempt to blow up the Death Star. Even if those ships failed in their mission (thanks, Darth Vader), they live on in our hearts and, courtesy of builders like talego, in our LEGO bricks. talego’s take on the iconic Star Wars vehicle is one of the best we’ve seen, preserving the detail reserved for a UCS ship but at minifig scale. The greebling is out of this world, but the color blocking on the cockpit is just as impressive. For the support pylons, talego employs vintage rails, all the better to stay on target. With the care that went into this model’s creation, it’s no surprise that the Y-Wing is talego’s favorite ship.

Fallout boys create Panic! at the vault door

Fallout wrapped its first season on TV, and a Fallout 5 game is still years off, but the post-apocalyptic world of Vault Dwellers and Nuka Cola lives on thanks to fans like Cube Brick who spent 8 months bringing the beloved universe to life in LEGO. The scene depicts a Raider camp built on the doorstep of Vault 27 in the Mojave Wasteland from wood scraps and rusty refuse. Cube Brick’s diorama is packed to the ghouls with incredible details lifted from recent games, while also sporting some innovative techniques to bring the wasteland to life.

Suit up and venture into the Wasteland for a close-up look and more surprises!