About Lino

Lino is an artist, humorist, and occasional responsible adult. He is the co-founder of a challenge-based LEGO car club called LUGNuts which boasts over 1100 members worldwide. He proposed automotive building challenges every month for ten years (120 challenges!) which he and the other members built accordingly. LUGNuts has retired its challenges on its 10th anniversary but still remains a cornerstone for LEGO automotive builders. Between his artistic work and LEGO builds, Lino has been published in several books, including Beautiful LEGO, Beautiful LEGO: Dark, and Beautiful LEGO: Wild. He lives in Washington with his girlfriend and dogs.

Posts by Lino

Ridin’ low, baggin’ and crankin’ the hog

Sometimes LEGO legends fade away for a little while but come back onto the scene in style and still chock full of piss and vinegar. Dennis Glaasker reminds us that it has been three years since he last built something but comes screeching back on a glorious low and bagged Harley. LEGO released the 10269 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy way back in 2019 and Dennis used this as the basis for his new ride, but even a casual glance at our old review proves that Denni’s design diverged greatly from there. Most notably you have the lowered stance, the massive 30″ front wheel, the slanted bags, and enough custom chrome LEGO pieces to make anyone’s heart rate race a little. Throw in some custom LED lights and you have all the makings of a badass build, true to Dennis’ style.

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In the category of Far East Elegance

With Chinese New Year coming up, it is no surprise that we are seeing a bevy of Asian-inspired LEGO creations from our friends around the globe. BrickheXe presents The Hidden Sakura, and it is for the Far East Elegance challenge over at Brickscalibur. We are greeted by two regal gate lions guarding the round entryway. Beyond that, a bonsai tree promises a tranquil garden visit. Outstanding textures abound in this exquisite scene.

The Home of Wisdom was built on wise parts usage

In looking upon Simon Schweyer’s elegant LEGO Home of Wisdom, I feel smarter already. Simon goes on to tell us that this home’s occupant Futuros couldn’t sleep. He found no inner peace. After reading philosophical books, he simply couldn’t turn off his thoughts. What really existed? And what was just imagination? And why did anything exist, rather than nothing? That is surely some lofty stuff to be thinking about as you try to sleep. You know what keeps me up at night? Getting that song My neck, my back stuck in my head and also wondering if there’s beer on the sun. Cleary I could use a bit of philosophy and wisdom from a stay in this stunning home.

As if that isn’t brilliant enough, the place is lit at night and I don’t mean two 40s of Malt Liquor kind of lit.

Bile and tears overflow, drowning everything in sorrow

Man, I really brought the room down with that title! But sometimes good art has to make you feel a bit down in the dumps. Take this new LEGO creation by Toni A, for example. It’s a tentacled creature called St. Abholos. It’s all part of a larger campaign to totally squig you the heck out, and I think it’s working. It’s more of a Cosmic Horror dread, which is much deeper than the sorrow you feel when you lose a comb. While you ponder your own insignificance in this universe, why not take a gander at some other like-minded Lovecraftian Horrors all hellbent on squelching your good time.

Ring in the new year with a funny Joke(r)

Some people ring in the new year with a party, some good libations, and a kiss from their significant other or a willing and inebriated stranger. Others uphold a tradition of falling asleep on the goddamned sofa just minutes before the stroke of midnight. However you celebrated the new year, let’s hope it brought a smile to your face, kinda like this big LEGO Joker figure built by Pascal Hetzel. Whether it be hatching some elaborate scheme to turn the citizens of Gotham into maniacal minions or leaving a flaming bag of poo on Batman’s doorstep, The Joker always has something to smile about. That’s because, according to some interpretations, Joker’s smile was permanently etched into his face with toxic chemicals or via a razor blade giving him the ol’ “Glasgow Smile”. Geez, that escalated fast! Let’s hope the smile on your face is not for any of those reasons.

Incidentally, this is not Pascal’s first big Joker. We featured his prior one back in 2020 but here is a shot of his newer one next to the old one. This proves the new one is not quite a “Maxifig” but something else. Whatever you call it, it is admittedly quite fun.

The Top 10 TBB Articles of 2023 [Feature]

We’ve gathered our top-10 articles of 2023 based on clicks and views. Opinions may vary but keep in mind we’ve crunched the raw data and this is how it all shakes out.

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A Classic Space swoosh and a slam dunk!

Swooshable is a word thrown around in the LEGO community that means the model is easily picked up and swooshed around the room without parts breaking off and probably while making fun spaceship noises. Don’t act like you haven’t done it! Martin.with.bricks gets extra kudos points from us for not only making this craft look awesome but also highly “swooshable.” The two are not always obtainable together. I mean; go ahead and try to swoosh your Hulkbuster set around the room and see what happens. Martin tells us the white with orange trim is his favorite color scheme and I’m inclined to think it’s mine too. Maybe it’s time to dust off my white leisure suit with orange belt and platform shoes. While you’re soaking in that mouth-watering visual check out our Martin.with.bricks archives for s’more LEGO goodness.

LEGO Ideas turns fifteen and they celebrate in style

LEGO Ideas is sort of a crowd-sourced concept in which fans can have their idea turned into a set if it reaches the requisite 10,000 votes and other criteria. They’re running a 15th Anniversary concept and ImaginaryFarmer answers the call of duty in style with this Ideas Tree. As it grows, it spawns as many good ideas as the program itself. 15 is carved into the tree’s bark just in case you missed the whole anniversary point. Comprising a bit over 20,000 pieces, it isn’t likely this concept would become a set (if that was indeed the point of the contest) but we can’t deny how startlingly cool this creation is. The Idea Gnomes at it’s base take care of the tree and harvest its good ideas; which, I’m pretty sure, scientifically explains the Ideas process. Do you know what the first LEGO Ideas set was? It was the Shinkai 6500 Japanese submersible back when LEGO Ideas was called LEGO Cuusoo.

This Capital Airship is a capital idea

Builder Jesse Gros seems to be the LEGO Steampunk King of the World. And why not? I mean, just take a nice long, steamy gawk at all those Victorian Steampunk details. I like the organic-looking feelers up top, the rear-facing mechanical doodads and the gear-encircled portal window that somewhat resembles a giant eye. I have no clue what any of it does but I am enamored nonetheless. Along with plenty of gold filagree, it is understood that Steampunk may contain copious amounts of brown, but this model instead employs black and dark green for a refreshing change from the norm.

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Read up on a classic fairy tale

The aptly named Larsvader has discovered the formula for LEGO success with this brilliant creation emerging from the pages of a large book. It depicts the story of Rumpelstiltskin. As the Grimm fairytale goes, the little gnome, situated in the lower left by the campfire, strikes a deal with a beautiful young maiden citing that he can spin straw into gold in exchange for her first born child. She’s rather receptive to the gold part of the deal as it has made her a very rich queen but decides to renege once she bears her first child. She tries to reason with the weird, oddly-named gnome and he strikes up a counter offer; if she can guess his name within three days, she may keep her child. All seems at a loss for the queen until someone overhears a premature celebration of the gnome thus learning his name and delivering that info to the queen. It’s a tale that bears a powerful message, that being; rich people are better people and if you’re short and ugly, you’re gonna get the shaft. Or something. I don’t really know what the fairy tale is about. Still, there’s no denying the amazing layout that Larsvader created here. Here’s to hoping we see more from this builder soon.

NERF makes slaughtering your enemies fun! Wait, that came out all wrong.

It’s no surprise that on a website dedicated to LEGO, we’re all about fun toys. Take, for example, this new NERF Raider CS-35 built by Joey Klusnik. It checks all the boxes that make it cool; bright colors, thick silhouette and the promise of a raucous good time. It’s not really war if the tactical assault strike in the living room against your little brother and his goofball friends involves spongy, relatively safe projectiles, right? We had so much fun with our NERF guns right up until mom ordered us to shut the hell up for once and take it outside for christsakes. We did, and in the aftermath of the Great Bowling Ball-Trampoline Disaster of 1986, it was decided unanimously that staying indoors and playing with our NERF guns was safer. Sometimes kids just know better.

All hail the peacock’s plumage

The male peacock is one of the prettiest animals in the entire animal kingdom. Sorry, ladies but that bro is has got it going on! Even the LEGO frogs know it; just look at them, basking in his magnificance and glory. This bit of cross-species love is brought to you by gGh0st who is competing in the Iron Builder competition. The seed part is the watering can and they’ve used twenty-five of them here. I’m sure there’s a watering can pun I could have used here but I’m just too in awe of this pretty peacock to think of it. Let me know in the comments if you have some because otherwise my watering can is dry.