Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Jumpei Mitsui rings out the end of an era with a massive Danjiri shrine

When we first featured builder Jumpei Mitsui 18 years ago, he was the fresh-faced star of Japan’s LEGO King Championship TV show and, soon after, the youngest person to earn the title LEGO Certified Professional builder. Now, on the eve of returning to school for a master’s program in artistic expression, Jumpei reveals his latest creation, a nearly life-size Danjiri cart buitl entirely of LEGO bricks. Carts like these, modeled on shrines, are paraded around town during Danjiri Matsuri festivals where different neighborhoods compete in pulling their decorated cart through the streets while chanting furiously. Jumpei recreates the intricate hand-carved woodworking in brick, as well as lantern decorations with flower prints and kanji script.

Jumpei, who specializes in large-scale creations (like this jaw-dropping model of the battleship Yamato), starts with a sketch, but then free-builds everything by hand. This project, consisting of over 200,000 bricks and weighting over 200kg, took six months to complete. When working on large-scale projects, Jumpei has an assistant who should be quite familiar to fans of the site – Moko – one of the most prolific and impressive mecha builders around whose we’ve featured going back nearly 20 years!

Jumpei’s creation is currently on display at the Sumiyoshi Danjiri museum in Kobe. Congratulations on this masterpiece, and best of luck in the next chapter of your art education!

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Building trees with minifig antlers, Pt. 1: Microscale [Feature]

Ever since LEGO released Reindeer Fan with a new head accessory, I’ve been wondering when we’d see element 6440443 antlers used as foliage in a LEGO set considering how closely it resembles oak leaves. The Fountain Garden set released in January contains a single use of the leaf, but in white. Inspired by this lush tree from Ryan McBride, and not seeing many uses of the part in MOCs, I decided to do some experiments myself. But first I needed to source more leaves. Fortunatey I had just the Forestmen for the job…

Read on to learn how to make microscale trees with antlers

Frontier justice under a brick-built sky

Here at The Brothers Brick, we’re always fans of immersive scenes where every inch of the image is built from LEGO bricks. Scenes like this wild west showdown from RebelLUG member James Libby. The staging takes a note from director John Ford’s playbook – “When the horizon’s on the bottom, it’s interesting. When the horizon’s in the middle, it’s boring as…” Shout out to the wonderful buildings, each of which uses a different SNOT building technique to achieve rugged frontier authenticity. The brick-built sunset, drawing the eye to the horizon where our lawman and outlaw face of, is a stunner and a colorful alternative to a duel at high noon.

La Catrina looking dapper in LEGO

La Catrina, the elegant lady skeleton, has been an icon of Mexican art and heritage and the face of Día de los Muertos for over a hundred years. While LEGO has depicted the figure in BrickHeadz form, surely such an important skelly deserves a grander treatment. Builder yop1172 obliges with a truly majestic take. Dressed in a marigold orange dress and posing with monarch butterflies, she’s a beautiful guide to lead spirits of ancestors back for remembrance. The bones, especially the skull, are very well done, with struts to give La Catrina extra posability. The builder first tackled the subject as a digital model before building this physical version in 2023.

Fabulous Final Fantasy Carriage and build your own chocobo [Instructions]

If there’s one thing you can count on with a Final Fantasy game, even more than chocobos, moogles, or a mechanic named Cid, it’s the inevitable remake. In that spirit, Kevin Wanner, the Brick Ninja, revisits an earlier build with an all-new LEGO recreation of a beloved Final Fantasy VII scene. It’s impressive to see how the builder has grown in the intervening years. The chocobo looks fluffier than ever with a rounder aesthetic, and the terrain goes from afterthought to an immersive scene with integrated lighting. The main attraction is the carriage itself, which Kevin redesisgned from the ground up. Expanded to 8 studs wide, the carriage is now proportional and screen accurate and features an interior space for Tifa to make her under-cover trip to Don Corneo’s.

But about that chocobo, if you’re interested in building your own, click on the poster below for Kevin’s free instructions.

This Week in LEGO Bricks: Contests to push your Creativity! [Video]

A lot happens in the LEGO building world each week. Thankfully we have ABrickDreamer to help round up the must-read articles, essential videos, and provide extra MOC commentary. Some highlights from this week: Markus Rollbühler rounds up all the currently open contests and prizes, Tips&Bricks breaks down one of our favorite builds of 2024, and with F1 fever upon us, ABrickDreamer plays with racing-themed minifig habitats.

Hero Factory’s Stormer gets a chillingly good Ice Planet makeover

During February, constraction fans paid tribute to their favorite Hero Factory characters with some amazing modernized updates. One of my favorites is this icy fresh take on Stormer courtesy of Benjamin Anderson. Inspired in part by this classic take from Ben Cossy, Benjamin reimagines the freeze-themed robot with Ice Planet colors. The builder swaps Stormer’s traditional gauntlet to the left side to make way for a searingly cool maul equpped with Ice Planet chainsaw blades to cut through glacial terrain. To appreciate how much constraction building has evolved in recent years, take a close look at the abdomen and legs where Benjamen deftly blends larger armor pieces with a dense configuration of small system parts.

Benjamin and fellow builder Loafbuilds also made a fitting foe for Stormer in this reimagined Drilldozer.

A workshop worthy of a collectible Steampunk Inventor

Steampunk fandom has been well represented in LEGO fan creations over the years, but it wasn’t until the latest line of Collectible Minifigs that the Victorian fantasy genre got its due with an official set. Builder Ciamosław Ciamek gives the Steampunk Inventor figure a fitting place to work his mechanical magic with this wonderful workshop where a “Hedgehog” Steambot Walker is under construction. The walker itself is a fun build, incorporating Bionicle spines, buildable character armor, and chunky mech legs over the traditional Steampunk colors of brass and wood. I also like the mix of visiting minifigs, here to appraise this autonomous steam-powered machine.

Jonesing for the truth about Area 51

As we all know, Indiana Jones’ final cinematic adventure ended with him riding into the Sunset with his dad, and yet rumors persist of two other films with an aging Indy continuing his globe-trotting adventures into the atomic age. Builder Negipon, perhaps the biggest Indy fan in the LEGO scene, recreates a scene from this supposed “fourth” Indiana Jones film where the good doctor gets into trouble with Russian agents infiltrating Area 51. Okay, I’ll admit, it was a pretty great sequence, and Negipon packs the LEGO version with fun details from the film (and a few easter eggs, like a LEGO Star Wars minikit!). The period vehicles are excellent, and the studless crates and scaffolding look phenomenal. As a bonus, the Area 51 hanger gate is motorized.

A closer look at the scene shows what mysterious contraband the Russian’s are after – a relief of someone who looks a lot like Indy made out of a strange carbon-like substance. Clearly it’s not from this galaxy!

If you’ve forgotten what happens next to good ol’ Indy, Negipon built a tribute to that scene as well.

LEGO Elesh Norn is here to convert your bricks to the Machine Orthodoxy

I’m a lapsed Magic the Gathering player, but anytime the Phyrixians are around, you can count me in for a draft. Elesh Norn, the Mother of Machines, is easily one of the venerable card game’s most iconic and beloved characters, fusing Cenobite horror with the sanctity of a white deck. Canadian builder alex_mocs creates a stunning LEGO take on the Phyrexian Praetor that looks like she just stepped out of a legendary Magic card. A face/mask made from Technic fins and constraction armor pieces gorgeously contrast with the sinewy red organic body beneath. The flowing red cloth is a supple contrast to the snaking machinework behind made from an unholy number of Toa Luwa feet. It’s brilliant work from one of the best LEGO character artists around.

“Sorry about the mess. I’ve really let the place go since you killed me.”

Combining AI and LEGO is a sure path to controversy, but there’s one version of this toxic combo I’ll always support – brick-built versions of Portal’s GLaDOS. Coosey Goosey gives the video game villain GOAT her due with this incredible recreation of Chell and GLaDOS’ reunion in Portal 2. The builder takes advantage of newer elements for a wonderful mix of curves and cyber-greebles.

Coosey Goosey frames this fated reunion with a wonderful slice of the overgrown Aperture facility. Visible from behind, a Companion Cube lies nestled in the debris.

As happy as it makes me to see GLaDOS still alive in brick form, I do wish I could battle wits with her again in a new game. Then again, why mess with perfection?

A LEGO Rozzum always completes its tasks

The Wild Robot is one of the most charming and lush animated films in recent memory and the protagonist, Roz, is up there with Wall-E and the Iron Giant as one of the all-time great screen robots. Builder Brickswick capturing the big-hearted Roz with tiny bricks. A ball turret, typically used for Star Wars lasers, makes a pacifist turn as Roz’s round body. The sticker damage comes courtesy of a Spider-Man: Homecoming set, capturing Roz after a year of roughing it. That’s how you build a wild robot.

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