About Luka

Luka is a Slovenian LEGO builder and a member of Kocke Klub. He is most well known for building dragons, but does not shy away from other themes when time is right. In the community he goes by Deus "Big D." Otiosus (D. stands for "Destiny") and has been around for quite a few years. He is one of those builders who went through their life without a dark age. Besides LEGO he is a biology student that wastes a lot of time in the local forest or in interesting urban areas. MOC Pages Flickr Bricksafe Youtube

Posts by Luka

A mystical treasure awaits those who can find the shrine

You might imagine that the golden crystal in the centre of this scene is the treasure of the shrine, but I believe the true treasures are all the crazy building techniques that Grant Davis has used in his Mountaintop Shrine. From a distance it may look like nothing special and the foliage on the periphery is nothing new, but a closer look will have you looking for your jaw somewhere under your desk (or under a bus seat if you are reading this on a mobile device).

The very composition and colour choices are great for setting up a bright, positive and somewhat cartoony atmosphere, but that is only the first thing to draw your attention. This attention is retained by amazing building techniques I have hinted at in the previous paragraph. Starting with the obvious, the cobblestone wall behind the shrine uses all sorts of round pieces from ends of bars through small ball joints to 2×2 tiles and more to achieve a highly realistic effect. But there are more subtle details too. For instance, you can see that the path leading towards the shrine is not just tiles connected flatly to the base, but is in fact irregular, as if damaged by centuries of disuse. Another subtly irregular thing is the left pillar (built out of frying pans stacked on one another!), which is standing at an angle. One more unique thing and the last I noticed myself is the tree, using the new leaf pieces set in such a way that they make a coherent treetop.

Click if you want to see a behind the scenes video

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Are you worthy of gazing upon the mighty Talos?

Worthy or not, you definitely should gaze upon Andrew Steele‘s Talos (and guards), because they are amazing creations. The builder doesn’t provide much explanation as to who they are — besides, perhaps, the character from Greek mythology — but we can imagine Talos being an evil overlord, judging by his skull-decorated throne. The figures are impressive on their own, but setting them in a bit of scenery, even if minimalistic, brings the build to the next level.

Click here to gain audience with Talos!

This spacecraft will land on your phospholipid bilayer

It does not take an exceptional amount of imagination to see a landing module in a stereotypical bacteriophage, the type of virus that infects bacteria. So I am surprised that the latest creation from Dwalin Forkbeard is the first time I have seen the aforementioned virus used as inspiration for a LEGO spaceship, especially given how crazy some builders can get with their spaceship designs. Sometimes it takes someone with an outside perspective on the theme to come up with the most out-of-the-box idea. And, as might be expected from a builder with a name taken from The Hobbit, they have so far mostly focused on medieval and fantasy creations, quite often centered about dwarves, as, again, you might imagine.

The spacecraft features the main parts of a bacteriophage, but giving a mechanical twist to them: the head, which has the angular appearance we are used to from phage models; the tail that actually features some finer details; and the leg-like fibers that the real-life virus uses to attach to a bacterial cell, while the Invader T3 Phage uses them to land on planets or perhaps huge space-bacteria. The builder says that the pilot, the strange little character standing beside the spacecraft, is a highly complicated sentient DNA-form, a backstory which just adds to the charm of this unique creation. Even putting the originality aside, this is still a very good build. The colour blocking is done well, and the spherical ends of the legs just pop in the bright light orange colour. A few custom stickers saying “PHAGE” and “EMERGENCY DNA TANK” round it off perfectly as a very memorable spaceship.

A market where you can buy cartoony and sell realistic

LEGO castle is one of the most perfected themes hobbyists build in, with nearly standardized textures and all sorts of solutions to build your perfect castle or medieval village. There is a price that comes with this, because just trying to build the best medieval creation you can some times is not enough. Originality has split the theme in question into two wider categories: cartoony style with crazy colours and rugged pseudo-realistic builds containing almost exclusively earth tones. Mountain Hobbit has a bit of both, especially noticeable in his latest creation, the Wefyrf Valley Wheat – Market

The landscaping is very neat with flowing curved shapes giving the village a realistic setting, and the dense treetops add to that too. But we should focus on the main part of the build, the village in the centre. The builder uses some wacky shapes for the walls of the houses that are set at a slight angle that still seems believable and coupled by natural colours they almost look realistic, but still somewhat joyfully cartoony – something LEGO bricks do not naturally lend to physically, but definitely do conceptually as a child’s toy in its basic purpose.

The only place where you can trade chocolate for dragon eggs

The LEGO Elves theme keeps surprising me personally with how popular it is amongst fans. While the related LEGO Friends remains successful, it is the Elves with their characteristic motives and colours that keeps inspiring builders to expand the story on their own. The rich world surpasses its target audience and as Martin Harris proves, there is something for everyone in it.

The Elvan sea port of Elvadion is an epic diorama showing us a less adventurous slice of life in Elvendale. There is everything one could expect of an Elves creation here, from bright colours and ornate architecture to cute animals, including dragons.

Click to explore the port town more closely!

And you thought getting caught by modern day police was bad...

Nobody wants to be pulled over by the authorities, even if there is nothing to worry about. Now imagine them looking like a mix between the Matrix sentinels and the Xenomorph from Alien. Leonid An imagines this eerie and mysterious floating thing without much description, except to indicate that it seems to be investigating something.

The repetitive use of robot arms with horn pieces attached is a popular technique for organic (and spooky) textures and Leonid has used it to great effect here. With that, the pink highlights, a wheel piece and some Bionicle pieces, the build is actually quite simple in overall design, but I can’t imagine any addition that would make it better in what it is. Another great thing about it is that the builder has digitally edited out the bricks suspending the creation in the air, so we do not have to suspend our disbelief.

Cube art, but without the Cubism

Creativity and art are closely related concepts, and there are few things that promote creativity as much as LEGO bricks. As a result, LEGO fan creations often turn out to be the subtlest works of art, as builders express themselves without the pressure of being serious or conveying some deeper meaning or emotion. But in other examples, like this one by Anthony Wilsonn, the main purpose of the creation is indeed to carry an artistic meaning.

The creation seems to be a composition of different, seemingly unrelated pillars and statues set in a natural environment that connects them to a coherent whole. The most impressive parts are set in the centre of the image — the square “arch” and the blossoming tree growing around it. Anthony provides a bit of story to the build, but he still leaves it vague enough that the creation remains open to our interpretations.

A nemesis worthy of the Midnight Ranger

Every good hero needs a villain, and this is even more true for mecha. Marco De Bon has built many mecha over the years, many of which we’ve featured on the Brothers Brick, including the Midnight Ranger, whose nemesis we see here, called the Renegade.

While it has all the bread and butter of mecha like chunky armored legs and rocket betteries in his shoulders, there is so much more to see. First thing that you might notice is the tentacle arms emerging from its back and the lime green area on the chest, which is just as likely to be an air intake or a death laser. My favourite part is its waist though – maybe it is my personal affinity for hoses, but the skeleton construction is just awesome.

Click and see how the Renegade compares to his mortal enemy

A small homage to a great civilization

There has been a large influx of Mesoamerican architecture LEGO creations recently, including temples, sports and even the Aztec Feathered Serpent god. Simon NH adds to this collection with this microscale Maya city. Seeing Mesoamerican architecture in its golden age is quite refreshing, as all the overgrown decrepit temples can slowly start looking similar…

Simon has used many different techniques to build quite a variety of different kinds of steps – from functional to ornamental. The little town has a very organic layout built into rolling hills, with houses, temples and platforms scattered around in a very believable way. It is amazing how much detail the builder managed to get onto such a small footprint, most notably the leg used as a waterfall, the circular pattern in the center of the city and the buildings on the gray platform. The landscape is great too, using all sorts of curved tiles and quite exotic colours for the river’s water.

The grace of disgrace: an incredible resurrected dragon

It appears Aaron Newman has developed an affinity for flying elements in his LEGO creations, as they appear in several of his latest builds. Floating and flying parts are nothing new, but few builders take the effort of going the extra step to make them look this good (presumably by digitally editing out the supports–or maybe learning black magic and making parts float for real!).

Aaron has used his editing and presentation magic on more than just the flying draconic skeleton. The purple light emanating from the circle on the ground was achieved with a glass table and a lot of effort, while Aaron says the backlit stained glass windows were just as difficult to get right. We should not ignore the actual LEGO build though. It is all about atmosphere here and every part helps create it. The architecture with the circular design of the hall gives a nice focal point to the scene, and the impression is finished off by the ground texture, passing from a cobblestone floor through a circular section of the tiling into a clean glowing purple area. And if you are, like me, wondering what makes the little purple gaps between the “stones” of the circle, Aaron has revealed the secret: purple quarter-circle roller coaster tracks!

Dare you face the giant lord in his Profaned Capital?

One of the more interesting video games in terms of story recently has been the Dark Souls series with its subtle lore. Revan New has created this visually impressive diorama of the Profaned Capital from Dark Souls 3 with hardly any description, save for it being inspired by said videogame. With imposing pillars and arches set in a rocky environment, this is definetely one of the most memorable areas of the game.

See Yhorm the Giant upon his dark throne

A new kind of old temple in the new world

Mesoamerican temples lend themselves naturally to LEGO, with their blocky shapes and colours that are often abundant in collections, namely grays and greens. There seems to be an influx of Mayan and Aztec temples lately as you might have noticed on The Brothers Brick, and we have the Summer Joust competition to thank for this. One of the creations built for this contest is this one by Andreas Lenander

The first thing that catches our attention is the dark tan ground, a change from the expected greens that are used in similar creations. While I like the contrast that green gives, tan is probably more realistic. The sand and olive green overgrowth on the temple is an interesting colour choice, joined by dark green, which looks almost black in the photo. This darker colour gives a strong impression of wet moss, setting the scene in a particularly dank swamp. Some of the more unique parts usages include the Statue of Liberty headgear used as serpent’s head ornaments and the brown treads used as vines.