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

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.

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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.

Got an achoo? Guile’s gotchu!

Once you see this clever LEGO tissue box built by Dicken Liu you really can’t unsee it. I dare you to forget about it. See, you can’t! But that’s how it goes with really fun and clever stuff. The ever-vain Guile from Street Fighter is known for his Sonic Boom and sweet flattop haircut; the latter replicated nicely as tissue. Now you can dream of knocking M. Bison’s lights out every time you blow your schnozz. If that’s not a flawless victory I don’t know what is!

“Mama’s gonna paint the streets with blood!”

Iron Builder is heating up and LEGO builder Miscellanabuilds comes out swinging with a huge mallet. Also a baseball bat. With a penchant for acrobatics, theatrics, and a touch of insanity, Harley Quinn is ready for whatever comes her way. Adorned in stylish red and black, Harley is looking “A-OK, Mr. J.” Speaking of The Joker, he’s leering in the background. See him there? If this fiendish folie à deux is any indicator, we look forward to whatever else Miscellanabuilds has in store for us.

Excavating massive mining machines

Despite having no prior mining experience nor the know-how to drive anything larger than a regular car, I am fascinated by Beat Felber’s new LEGO creations. Maybe the size and power of these giant earthmoving machines tickle my fancy. Whatever the reason, here’s the 400-ton Terex Unit Rig MT 6300AC dump truck. The real deal has tires that are four meters or well over 13 feet in diameter. The-um-LEGO deal has custom tires that are not official LEGO parts but suits this beast quite well.

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Collecting Canada’s finest stamp

LEGO builder Philippe Moisan demonstrates some serious mosaic chops with the Canadian Bluenose postage stamp. If you see one of these affixed to your post, you can consider yourself lucky. The stamp was first issued in 1929 and depicts a fishing schooner called Bluenose. It has been called “Canada’s Finest Stamp” and is a favorite among collectors. One individual stamp can garner quite a bit of money but a complete sheet of 100 had auctioned for for US $52,580 in 2017! Even barring its history and value, this LEGO mosaic is chock full of exquisite detail and textures evoking the hand-painted blue tiles popular in many Mediterranean countries. It was built for a contest going on over at QuéLUG, making it a lovely Canadian creation indeed.

That time I threw up in a Beetle

Famed LEGO builder Joey Klusnick has found a nightmare scenario in me that I never knew could exist. At my age, I’m happier sitting on a shady bench and watching youngins go on amusement rides rather than going on myself. Getting jostled around just doesn’t have the same appeal as it did when I was younger, plus I’d spill the cocktail I’d inevitably be enjoying. Enter the nightmare scenario, which is part gravitron, part mech-beetle and all vomit-inducing. Plus, there is no passively sitting on a bench with this thing around. No siree! This beast grabs its victims and plants them into its spinning gravitron compartment and spins them to death. To death, you hear me? I told you kids those amusement rides were dangerous!

You can even see the Gravitron Beetle in action if you’re brave enough. Not me though. I’ll just sit here with my Vodka Tonic and contemplate where my life went so wrong.

Cherry Pie takes to the skies

It’s finally a nice day in the Pacific Northwest and this LEGO creation by Cowboy Joe reminds me that it’s a great day for flying. All I need is a biplane, a hangar, the money to have both, and the know-how to fly such a magnificent plane. I guess I’ll have to settle for admiring this Technic marvel from the safety of the internet. It’s called Cherry Pie and my opinion says it’s the most cherry thing I’ve seen all day; and I’ve seen a YouTube video of a school marching band covering Crazy Train. Unless this is a well-known builder going incognito under a different name, this would seem to be the first time we’ve covered this builder’s work so let’s give Cowboy Joe The Brothers Brick Bumb they deserve!

The fast and the furious

Some of the magic of Dicken Liu’s LEGO work is his ability to capture speed even when his creation is standing still. This is the case with this biomechanical leopard; the tail, the curvature of the back, and the purposeful gaze all leads me to believe that some serious business is about to go down. Someone or something is about to be destroyed and maybe even made into lunch. Do biomechanical animals eat? It’s a question I’d rather not find out, thank you very much!