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

The Soviet Kirov cruiser is ready for battle!

You don’t have to be in the Soviet navy to appreciate this LEGO Kirov battlecruiser built by Kirill Simerzin. I mean, just look at how those spanner plates resemble round portals along the hull. The red star at the bow is also a nice touch. The builder doesn’t say much about this creation other than it comes from 1941. Wikipedia states that this craft takes its namesake from the Bolshevik revolutionary Sergei Kirov and was laid down in 1935 and finally decommissioned in 1974. An array of guns and two seaplanes makes this a formidable Soviet ship indeed. In my opinion; it’s удивительный!

If you’ve got the time, be sure to take a deep dive into history to see more military stuff from World War II in LEGO.

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Mos Vespa: slow service, would not recommend.

In about a month or two when I regain Disney+ to watch The Book of Boba Fett I’ll get a chuckle over whatever hilarious point Iain Heath is making. The rest of youse can start laughing now because The Brothers Brick alumn is clearly up to his usual antics with a faux LEGO set this time depicting a Vespa-like speeder apparently seen in episode 3. Word on the street is there was a bunch of them. They were slow. They were shiny. Also colorful and appeared to belong to a gang sort of like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I can relate because I was in a biker gang when I was nine. No bike. No other gang members. Just me in an orange “biker vest” my mom and I handmade from an old sweatshirt. I sure wish I had friends for my little gang and a badass agenda. Anyway, check out why Iain is consistently one of the most hilarious builders around.

The Moby Dick of honey bees

I wonder if there is a beekeeper equivalent to Captain Ahab, forever obsessing over one special white honeybee. Whoever that beekeeping Ahab is, they should look no further than this LEGO creation by Christian Lintan. My hunch says once discovered, this monochrome mech will put up a good fight. It might even make Beekeeper Ahab wish they would have pursued something less dangerous, like stamp collecting. I’m loving those Bionicle transparent wings though. If you enjoy LEGO builds with a monochrome palette, be sure to click the little blue link to see what others have done, including at least one entry by Christian.

So it begins...a new year and a new Iron Forge

LEGO builder Francis Wiemelt has aptly named this piece So it begins. This is apt because it is a new year and this is Francis’ first entry into the first Iron Forge competition of 2022. That’s a lot of firsts! He goes on to tell us that the seed part is a lever (base or antennae), used here twenty-three times in the Uruk-hai army, and eight times in the fortress itself. Iron Forge competitions mean frantic building and stress for a chosen few intrepid builders, constant entertainment for you, and job security for us. Kinda like The Hunger Games. Good luck, Francis Wiemelt and may the odds be ever in our favor…or something.

Radon-86 gets glowing reviews

Part of the thrill in buying LEGO’s Collectable Minifigures is what builders do with them after they’ve unpackaged them. Yuri Badiner has taken the yellow robot from Series 22 and has given it a job involving radiation that the rest of us wouldn’t want to do. This is nicely built however, the real star here (besides the happy little bot) is Yuri’s exemplary photography. The tilt of the horizon is a neat trick they teach us in art school that can denote tension and danger. Clearly, this is a dangerous environment but this bot seems happy to do it. The way the composition is lit here also gets glowing reviews from us. Yuri is no stranger to good photography and getting his minifigures into hairy situations. Click the link to see what I mean.

The enchanting Devil’s Bridge

Ralf Langer tells us that he has built a LEGO version of the Rakotzbrücke in Germany and I was like; yep, you totally pulled that off nicely, dude. It looks just like it! Pretending I knew what I was talking about lasted nearly five seconds before I turned to Google to figure out; what the heck is a Rakotzbrücke? It turns out it’s a man-made bridge that was built over a lake in Kromalu Park. The arched bridge is designed to create a perfect circle when it reflects in the still waters below. It’s also known as the Devil’s Bridge due to the belief that the magical circle must be the hands of the devil. Oh, cool! Now we all know something. I’m loving the dark still water and the overall dreadful mood of this eerie creation.

This flower mantis wants you to put up your dukes

This LEGO flower mantis built by Takamichi Irie is so pretty. It’s also deadly if you happen to be its prey…or a male flower mantis. I’m not sure whether I want to fight it or kiss it. Either way, it’s probably best I keep a safe distance from anything that would bite my head off after mating, not that I’d be into that sort of thing. (Well, that got awkward fast!) While you’re mulling over how that would work out, take a look at why we are so smitten by anything Takamichi does. On second thought, maybe I can give this pretty flower mantis just a tiny smooch. What can go wrong?

2021 was the year Nannan made Contact

2021 brought us problems we would have never fathomed a few years ago. It was a year of civil unrest and a slew of COVID variants that’ll probably have us covering our mask-holes in public indefinately. But 2021 had brought us some great things as well. Right at the tail end of that year, The Brothers Brick alumni Nannan Zhang built this piece he calls Contact. It was inspired by something Jan Woznica built a couple months ago that ended up becoming The Brothers Brick’s 2021 Creation of the Year. It’s a fine thing to be inspired by and Nannan recreates the style nicely with his verion. I’m loving the minty green elements and the simple yet striking composition. I find it exciting when one great builder pays homage to another.

A LEGO Sopwith Camel fit for any museum display

Sometimes a LEGO creation comes along that is both well detailed and informative. Such as the case with this amazing 1/9.2 scale Sopwith Camel built by James Cherry. This mostly uncovered model is suitable enough to draw a crowd in any museum. The wingspan is 94cm (over 3 feet!). Even the greenery is interesting in the sense that we’ve never seen this used for grass before. It’s easy to assume from this photo that this model is merely a replica based on the 10266 Sopwith Camel set from 2012. However…

…click this link to see a comparison

Still good, even if the gingerbread is a little stale

Christmas has passed but that doesn’t stop us from still drinking egg nog and nibbling on gingerbread cookies. Calories be damned! Am I right? With that in mind, we couldn’t resist featuring this festive LEGO gingerbread stagecoach built by Kristel Whitaker. It has everything you could love in a Christmas-y creation; candy canes, pastries, cute ponies, and a lovely frosted stagecoach and gingerbread driver. There are even some carrots for those who couldn’t be bothered with holiday sweets. I don’t know about you, but I’m smitten. While I sip a spiked egg nog, you can check out all the other times we were smitten by the stuff Kristel has built.

Happiness is a puppy under the Christmas tree

Dog owners know how much joy a new doggie brings to the household. They can be a lot of work at times, they get into things you wouldn’t even imagine, but when your new pup finally settles in that’s when the magic happens. LEGO builder Timofey Tkachev likely knows what I mean as evidenced by this darling little fur baby under the tree. That playful expression, the squeaky ball, even the DOTS watchband used as a collar are all brilliant details.

You can see this precious little scamp from all angles with this short video.

Just a slice of medieval life

To say that I’m intrigued by this LEGO layout built by td_brix is an understatement. The path comes from a destination unknown. It traverses through this outpost in the middle of the water, then leads out of the composition again to another unknown destination. Why is it here? Where does the path lead? Who lives here? This little slice of medieval life proposes more questions than answers. But still, it is a pretty stellar thing. I’m enamored by the highly textured three-tiered roof. I want to live here, even for just a weekend or so. If this were an Airbnb, I’d book this place in a minute!