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 soundtrack to a simpler time [Instructions]

While many of us are vaccinated, the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus is circling the globe faster than a bean burrito through a dachshund. Trust me, you do not want to get in the crosshairs of the virus or a woozy dachshund, so in anticipation of maybe hunkering down indoors again, we have a LEGO model by Kosmas Santosa that should take you back to a simpler time. This brings back fond memories of making mixed tapes for that special someone in high school. It’s like the soundtrack to a time when all we had to worry about was the Cold War, MX missiles, and acid rain. Soothing, right?

If you too would like to be whisked away to a simpler time you can build your own audio cassette tape. Check out the video to see how.

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One car, two car, red car, blue car!

Had 1saac W. presented us with one LEGO 1953 Hudson Hornet we’d be impressed enough, by golly! Because with copious chrome and classic curves like that, what’s not to love, really? But then he went on to show us, courtesy of digital editing, what the same car could look like in blue and now we’re all tickled pink. Or purple, rather. Because red and blue make purple, not pink. That’s just straight-up art school science 101. Plus it allowed me to think up a Dr. Suess-inspired title for this article and that’s a win/win for everybody. Speaking of win/win, hit the link to check out the other times we were totally tickled pink, or whatever color, by 1saac’s stuff.

In the lap of LEGO luxury

Sometimes owning a mega-yacht just isn’t enough. It turns out the owners of this particular M/Y Dytan also wanted a LEGO model of their luxurious ocean cruiser. Thankfully, Arjan Oude Kotte has a certain set of skills that make jetsetters dreams even more dreamy than they already are. This 1/68 scale model is 110cm long and 27 cm wide.
Arjan tells us the original 74m Dytan yacht was built in 2012 by Nobiskrug. She features an exterior design by Reymond Langton and an interior by Reymond Langton and Mark Berryman. She cruises at 12 knots and reaches a top speed of 14.0 knots. She can sleep up to 12 guests taken care of by a crew of 21.

The main image looks a bit render-ish, which it is, but here is a secondary shot of the impressive brick-built model within the context of a real-life LEGO workspace.

If being on a boat is your jam, then navigate on over to see another large oceangoing vessel by the same builder.

The Volvo G990 Grader alternate build is grade A

Prolific LEGO Technic builder Michał Skorupka (Eric Trax) asks the question; what if you have the Technic 42114 Volvo Articulated Hauler set and get bored? The builder and I must be on a completely different wavelength because, much to my surprise, the answer has nothing to do with scaring the dog. Instead, he tells us the answer is to build another Volvo, of course. He’s constructed the Volvo G990 Grader with all the working remote-controlled features you can expect from a great Technic model.

I don’t want to spoil anything for you but there’s a part in the video where he dumps beans all over the carpet and the grader grades them! Check it out for yourself.

Do you still have a hankering to scare the dog? Have a look at our Technic Archives for ideas as to how to make it happen.

Here comes the bloody sun!

If you like your sunshine with blood and guts then you’ve come to the right place, Damien. Here we see a seated LEGO figure built by Sandro Quattrini. At first glance, it may look like a sunny, meditative guru but upon closer inspection, you’ve got heart, lungs, intestines, all the important internal organs. The upsidedown minifig head as the heart is admittedly quite brilliant. Whether this is the workings of the builder’s crazed imagination or something inspired by a Tool album cover, I am not certain. However, it all somehow appeals to my dreary sensibilities. Upon real close inspection, it would seem that Sandro will need to send this sunny guru to the bathroom soon. Just sayin’.

This is what it sounds like when doves cry

Prince is, of course, a music legend who left us too soon. However, he’s also notable for totally nailing his passport photo. I mean, DAMN! How can he look that good? Who doesn’t resemble a crazed maniac in their passport photos? Speaking of crazed maniacs, Paul Hetherington is one of the most talented LEGO artists we know. On the stage of his newest creation, we have the inimitable Prince and the Revolution, but flanking them are Majesty and Divinity, Prince’s beloved doves. This piece also includes Prince’s signature purple piano, firepole, and bathtub.

A closer look at the band members and we see a striking resemblance to Wendy and Lisa, Doctor Fink, BobbyZ, and Brownmark, all of which were carefully crafted from existing LEGO minifigure parts. If you’re looking at Prince and thinking whoa, hang on there Sonny Jim, what is going on here? Well, he is a custom-made figure by Citizen Brick and features Crazy Arms made by Crazy Bricks. Us LEGO people get by with a little help from our friends which, I’m aware, is completely the wrong band and song reference.

If you’re loving this and are totally jonesing for all things Paul, then we got you covered. If, by chance, you want to know what it sounds like when a TBB writer cries, then remind me to show you my passport photo. Oy, what was I thinking with that face? Like a burst sofa!

The Amazing Spider-Man is amazing as a LEGO-built classic comic cover

I’m an artist but it may surprise some of you to learn that I wasn’t much into comic books as a kid. However, the few comics I had held a specil place in my heart. I had a few issues of Star Wars, Superman, The Hulk, even Spider-Man. Speaking of which, this mind-blowing LEGO creation by Bas van Houwelingen is made to look like a classic comic book cover. This uncanny technique uses both intentionally built sections as well as seemingly haphazardly poured elements to create an amazing cohesive image. Here we see a closeup of Spider-Man as well as Sandman’s fist creeping (or sifting) into the shot. As 3-D art goes, especially in LEGO, you’d normally build Spider-Man with parts of him red, other parts blue and call it a day. But as 2-D artists know, you can often use other colors in surprising ways to give the illusion of a 3-D image. Here we see white, yellow, pink, lavender, green and other colors used beautifully here to tell a complex story.

Not only that, but if you look closely, you may find LEGO elements you wouldn’t normally use to build Spider-Man such as flowers, boats, even a few minifigures. The builder tells us that this work of art took a week to design and is comprized of about 5000 LEGO bricks and utilizes nearly all the red and pink bits in their collection. This technique is a great way to use some of those less-utilized pieces in any collection.

If this already looks a bit familiar to you, then your sharp eyes may have seen that this was submitted to the LEGO Ideas Friendly Neighborhood Comic Book Hero Contest and it was the grand prize winner in the Brick category!

The Mandalorian and some Tusken Raiders encounter the Krayt Dragon

For decades now Tusken Raiders from Star Wars were understood to be desert-dwelling jerks hellbent on harshing everyone’s mellow. However, as we learned in The Mandalorian season two, if you speak their language, if you learn to communicate with them, they have a code of honor and can be cooperative. This stunning LEGO collaboration built by Jonathan Snyder and others (he didn’t specify who) depicts the pivotal scene in which Din Djarin, Cobb Vanth, villagers of Freetown and Tusken Raiders hatch a plan to slay a fearsom krayt dragon. The cavern and highly-textured sandy cliffside are recreated beautifully here. The krayt dragon is also depicted nicely with most of its massive form buried under the sand. I seem to recall the plan involved a sacrificial bantha loaded with explosives though. Oh well. What Jonathan lacks in bantha goo he makes up for in total awesomeness. Click here to see what I mean.

Greetings Earth sausage. Take me to your soup can.

One can forgive the awkward salutation in the title. With his four arms, bugged-out eyes and bulbous head, this creature built by Ivan Martynov has that not-from-around-here vibe. Meet Commander Viridigen. In regards to native fauna, his ethics may seem questionable and his grasp of the English language makes about as much gramatical sense as anything on 4Chan. In terms of LEGO pieces, some elements of this extra-terrestrial look a bit…alien. I mean, check out those feet, the chest armor, the shoulder pads. That’s not quite LEGO, folks! Even his head resembles something like a metallic ram. But you know what they say, a little alien integration into your LEGO collection never hurt anybody. Am I right? Right, people? Isn’t that what they say? Anyway, feast your ocular orbs on the other times we were totally flamboozled by Ivan’s krunk.

A tiger among the mushrooms

A LEGO builder who goes by the name of Admiral_Plackbar (tee hee!) has rendered a pretty sweet 1:24 scale Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung B Tiger II tank. The Admiral (who, based solely on their name, should probably visit the dentist) tells us that the Tiger II is, to this day, one of the heaviest tanks of all time weighing in at 69 tons. The weight made this tank slow and difficult to maneuver in rugged terrain. It’s having no problems however showing those mushrooms who is boss.

I’m drawn to Mothra like a moth to a flame

The last time we heard from Todd Kubo The Force awakened in the Age of Ultron and we learned that gray comes in fifty shades. So, in other words, it’s been a while. But what he lacks in prolific LEGO building he makes up for in total awesomeness. The elusive builder makes a colossal comeback with this version of Mothra of kaiju B-Movie fame. I’m loving the little moth stand!

The wings are printed with a tiled effect printed on paper to give the illusion of a large seamless LEGO build. An interesting technique used indeed.

While Todd is not the most active builder we know, we sure hope to see more from him soon and certainly before someone decides to reboot Fifty Shades of Gray or something.

This Star Wars X-Wing gets by with a little help from its friends

LEGO builder Tom Loftus had a mission that was almost as exciting as destroying the Death Star. That mission was to build a compact design T-65 X-Wing Fighter with engines that were three studs wide. A LEGO X-Wing is nothing new, but I think the look of the iconic ship was achieved nicely here. What sets it apart from some of the scores of X-Wings we’ve already seen is the use of sand blue for the canopy, which is pretty vital for that ship but alas is a difficult color to obtain in quantity or various shapes.

While iconic, building the X-Wing accurately is no easy feat but Tom does a great job of it as evidenced by these many views.

Tom is one of those builders that seek help and advice from his friends then uses it accordingly. In his write up he names and thanks a slew of friends who had helped out which is a class act, in my opinion. It makes sense because while Luke ultimately destroyed the Death Star, it was really a team effort and everyone got awarded for it at the end of the movie, except Chewbacca. hey, wait a minute! Doesn’t Chewie deserve some love? While you’re mulling that over, check out the other times we gave Tom Loftus some well-deserved love.