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

These Star Wars TIE Arrestors have questions

Boy, I sure love a fan-made Star Wars concept! These LEGO TIE Arrestors built by Alec Hole look like they can be canon but are inspired by the Cantwell class Arrestor Cruiser from the Andor series. The TIE Arrestor, according to Alec “is an Imperial starfighter with two powerful tractor beam emitter dishes. It can be deployed to intercept, disable and tow Rebel starfighters suspected of stealing Imperial technology. It can also be used to capture Rebel personnel wanted for questioning.” It sounds like such unpleasant business! What’s with the purple? Well, it seems our alum Mansur Soeleman has his tentacles all up in the influence of this color decision. Alec tells us the purple accents denote the evil counterpart to Mansur’s Teal Squadron.

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Tell us what they’ve won, Sir Gene Wood!

Anyone of a certain age or otherwise taking a sick day from work knows the glitzy phenomenon that is the daytime Game Show. Family Feud was a good one. I’ve spent many-a-day yelling at the TV while watching some goober lose $400 for their team because he thinks M&M’s are a common thing found in a sandwich. Martin Studio has LEGO-fied the game but also gave it a Classic Castle-themed twist. Here we see legendary factions The Lion Knights feuding against The Black Falcons. Falcons are ahead by 20 points but all it takes is a missed guess by some foolhardy squire to turn the odds in the Lions’ favor. This delightful diorama can be found on display at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark through 2025, just in case you happen to be visiting LEGO headquarters.

You’re in good hands with the Imperial Medic Team

Being dispensable, famously banging your head on a doorway, or generally missing your targets can be taxing on the health of your average Imperial Stormtrooper. Thankfully, when calamity strikes, this LEGO stormy presented by Auto’s Builds is in the very capable hands of two Imperial Medics and also the cold steel hands of Medical Droid 2-1B. They’ll have this fellow back in the field and missing his targets in no time. He’s in for the best healthcare Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial medic team can provide; and based on the annoyed looks on their faces, I’m guessing it’s not much.

Beginner’s Guide to Adventuring – Always bring your harpoon

I let LEGO phenom Bart De Dobbelaer title this passage. I merely copy/pasted it from his Flickr page because sometimes the builder’s own idea is by far better than whatever silliness I had in mind. Building bizarre alien worlds is not bizarre for Bart. It’s kinda his thing. But each time I’m enthralled with the level of imagination and storytelling. To further copy/paste from Bart (Is it good journalism or just laziness? You decide!) “Dear diary, today I went treasure hunting at the old temple ruin. Luckily I brought my harpoon with me as the place was swarming with crustaceans. I guess I’m having shrimp cocktail this evening. Pete.” But Bart-or-um-Pete, I have a question. Are they still called shrimp if they’re the size of a city bus?

Don’t tread on this fortified troll fort

LEGO builder Fedde Barendrecht finds an innovative way to show off his troll and orc collection as well as enough tank treads to furnish an entire platoon. You had to have been collecting the Castle line back in 2008 to acquire so many orc and troll figures. That’s back when Katy Perry kissed a girl and liked it. Also the economy crashed but the incidents were likely unrelated. The aforementioned tank treads adorn the walls of the fortress giving it a-uh-fortified fort feel. To quote Fedde: “Quickly assembled frontier forts trolls throw up on newly ‘acquired’ territories to ensure their holdings stay held”. Isn’t that how 4Chan was founded?

Dogpool slobbers her way into our hearts

IYKYK- That’s internet speak for if you know you know. Those of us in the know would know that, in the blockbuster film Deadpool and Wolverine, Dogpool was a complete scene stealer. Which is some feat considering all the muscle flexing, celebrity cameos, and gut-busting humor. Tim Inman replicates her unsettling slobberpuss nicely in LEGO and we’re all drooling with giddiness. While her ridiculous tongue and bugged-out eyes aren’t without their charm, my favorite part is the sparse fuzz on her head made with white LEGO plant stems. The doggo in real life is a Pug/ Chinese Crested mix named Peggy and she’s been voted Britain’s Ugliest Dog- which is a total bummer for whoever Britain’s second-ugliest dog happens to be.

Welcome, my son. Welcome to the machine.

Either Fedde Barendrecht has been listening to some mind-altering Prog Rock lately or he’s bummed about his daily work/home grind. Maybe a little of both? Whatever the case may be, his new LEGO creation is called Welcome to the Machine. It features a dreary, gray workplace, some cookie-cutter apartments, and a monorail to take you to and from both. That is all. Well, there’s also parkland but when you’re a small cog in a larger machine there isn’t time for dilly-dallying among the daffodils. What did you dream, Fedde? It’s alright, we told you what to dream. Now get back to work, ya bum!

A fun guy with a passion for woodland adventure

Sometimes those bright red toadstools appear out of nowhere and you’re like, what otherworldly thing is this? Maybe LEGO creature builder extraordinaire Joss Ivanwood feels the same way when he discovers a toadstool. He’s been building a dragon a month for a long while now and September’s offering is called Draconis Amanita and is inspired by the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria). He tells us he’s always been fascinated by the way so many mushrooms grow from fallen trees, giving them new life. So, he fathomed it would be a cool idea to make the whole dragon as a group of mushrooms growing out of the same log. I bet this dragon’s mycelium network is off the hook! It’s probably the root of all awesomeness! I’ll just let myself out and go spore some bad jokes somewhere else.

The Harley-Davidson Road King proves to be King of the Road

LEGO vehicle phenom Isaac Wilder says it’s been a while since he had last built a bike but you wouldn’t know it by the display of talent here. Relearning an old skill like building a bike is like- um -riding a bike; you never forget how to do it, even after a hiatus. He tells us the front fender is a wand sprue that he had bent a little, while the white tires are stretched Scala wheels. The result is -I mean- just look at that stance! I don’t know about y’all, but one thing I notice here, but also with any good build, is Isaac’s choice of colored paper; in other words, everything in the composition that’s not LEGO. The burnt orange is a great Autumn choice and contrasts nicely against all that black-and-white badassery. I can just smell the motor oil, gasoline, and maybe even a quick whiff of fallen leaves.

Fall means Pumpkin Spice and owls

I was enthralled when I saw this new Fall Owl by LEGO extraordinaire Andreas Leander and now you can be too. I mean, look at those textures and details! What’s not to love? I’m particularly fond of the lavender flowers that comprise the textures of its face. The tree-shaped stand and the wings made of dinosaur horns are not without their charms. I had a lovely owl visit my yard about once a week for a while right up until I shined a light in its face. Then I never saw it again, unfortunately, and now I wonder if I was directly responsible for its relocation. Wherever you’ve moved to, Mr. (or Ms.) Owl, I hope you’re eating well.

These (probably) are the droids you’re looking for

Here’s a quick LEGO Star Wars vignette that features neat build techniques and super original droid designs. Tim Goddard tells us that the low-ranking Jostoc has been tasked with climbing into the underbelly of some ship somewhere to catalog the wild and weird droids that have been occupying that space unsupervised and unhinged for some time now. Sounds like the start of a good sci-fi/horror adventure!

He has the whole world in his hands

This giant LEGO ant carrying the entire Earth by Plaåtart’s Creations doesn’t seem so farfetched considering that ants can carry 100 times their weight. That would be the equivalent of me lifting a semi-truck! Meanwhile, here I am straining to get a gallon of milk out of the fridge like a weak wussy-man. Unless this is a well-known builder in disguise, this appears to be the first time we’ve featured their work here so let’s give them The Brothers Brick Bump they rightly deserve. With build quality this (ahem) strong, we look forward to seeing whatever else this builder will lift up in the future.