It seems like a crime how underrated Dutch builder Barthezz Brick is, and he’s lucky to have Spider-Man stop this crime! Barthezz Brick has been featured on the Brothers Brick before with a smaller downtown city scene, but he has outdone himself with this large and extremely detailed diorama of Spider-Man, surrounded by busy and realistic city life.
Click to explore the diorama in detail
Large spaceships are a flagship of LEGO space creations, where “large” is generally accepted to be 100 studs in length (or honestly any other spatial dimension) — these are called capital ships or SHIPs (Super Huge Investment in Parts). For the past few years, it’s seemed like there might be fewer built throughout the year, because many people rather concentrate their efforts in the annual SHIPtember community challenge in September. So in a way, Lysander Chau‘s Battleship Andromeda is like a Christmas gift in May, and I hope your big spaceship lust is as satisfied as mine.
Click to see more of the Andromeda
Recreating something faithfully in LEGO can be difficult and complicated, but if what you are recreating is simple, sometimes only a handful of bricks can do the job surprisingly well. Hachiroku24 has recreated two very iconic items from the Harry Potter series and the simplicity of his replicas is much of their charm — just as the stories!
The wand is very simple in its construction, but the builder really captured the shaping of a Potter-esque magic wand. The glasses, on the other hand, use some clever parts, especially the thin tyre pieces as the glasses frames. Holding a life-sized LEGO nostalgic gem like these in one’s hand must feel incredibly satisfying!
While this creation by MemeLUG member Micah Beideman definitely looks amazing, I still have to ponder the practical benefit of a fence underwater. All joking aside, this is indeed a pretty sweet re-imagining of a LEGO Atlantis set, Gateway of the Squid.
The base looks somewhat rushed or simple until you take a closer look at it, with some nice textured stone walls in the back and very well placed vegetation. The little temple and titular gateway are not bad either. The main focus of the build is the squid though. It is not the first time we have seen inverted tyres used as organic texture, and it is not the first time the builder used this technique either, but he still managed to sneak in a bit of a unique twist with the printed 4×4 domes as eyes. I am personally always wary of using inverted tyres, because their shape and texture is hard to match with other bricks. Micah did not seem to have such problems, as the tentacle elements and a wedge slope used as the tip of the squid’s conical body flow very well with the tyres.
It takes a lot these days to impress with a LEGO castle creation, and while an interesting roof technique and deceptively simple rockwork can help, this floating island scene by ArzLan shows creativity a level higher. The build doesn’t just feature new ways to build something seen before, but adds another dimension with an open scroll from which the island emerges.
It is not a coincidence that I mentioned the roof technique and the rocks as examples of attractive traits of a build, because those are two of the highlights in this particular example. The dragon is important too – it is very well built and adds a lot of life to the scene. The scroll is great as well, and it should not be taken only as a unique subject, but also as a well-built scroll in its own right.
If you’re afraid of spiders, look away now, because Leonid An built a particularly nasty one! This evil-looking mech combines arachnid and humanoid motives as it combines system and Bionicle parts from a technical viewpoint.
Click to see the spider mech with more equipment
Warhammer 40,000 (40K) is a very iconic tabletop game, both with its gameplay and its unique art style. Said art style has inspired many builders to create LEGO Warhammer models, most recently Faber Mandragore with his Blood Angels Captain In Terminator Armour build. The chunky mecha and monsters with oversized weapons and edgy elements are just charming in a twisted way.
The builder has captured the feel of this style perfectly, even adding a little base much like the original figures. Various curves are achieved using all sorts of curved pieces – including car hood elements as oversized shoulderpads. I really like the hammer construction using gray ingot parts and the use of the U.F.O. alien helmet as the head.
Faber has also shared an armored Rune Priest, so perhaps we can look forward to a whole series of LEGO Warhammer units and character classes.
We all love Star Wars, but why should only the spaceships and battle scenes get all the love? How about some Jawas? This is what I imagine could have gone through Jacob Sadovich‘s mind when starting this build. This Jawa is so realistic, I just want to sell all my scrap copper to it!
What I really like about this build is that it is 100% LEGO, including the cloth. We have seen large Jawa figures in LEGO before, even life-sized ones, but most of them cheated at least a little. There is more to Jacob’s interpretation than just the robes, of course. The eyes light up and the belts with pouches are ironicaly made out of pouches with belts. The ion gun the little guy is holding in his hand also adds a lot to the character, as does the Technic-lined base.
What better place to stand guard during the winter than by a hot spring? The scenery in this diorama by Jaap Bijl truly is something to look at — in fact, perhaps it’s “scenery” that the dwarves are protecting!
The builder has used his signature sagging roof style lined with a bit of snow, along with some nice wood construction on the building. While the building uses some new ideas, the star of the show is the hot spring. It uses window pane pieces as the water to make the surface extremely smooth, giving it a great reflection and allowing the deep colours underneath to be seen. These colours continue outwards on the shore in a gentle gradient to the sulfuric yellow that ends under the snow.
It says in this unique creation that every legend has a beginning, and I believe this is indeed the beginning of Malin Kylinger‘s legend. As a newcomer to the online LEGO fan community, her photostream on Flickr is hardly half a year old. Malin’s photostream has already accumulated a few, very cute builds, but this vibrant fantasy scene is a level higher than the rest.
Obviously what makes this build unique is the ornate open book with the words “Every legend has a beginning”, but the build is much more than that. The landscape seems to be spilling into the book, while a sea serpent emerges out of the latter with a very dynamic water splashing effect. The serpent is quite good too, most notably the shaping around its eye. I can not wait to see this legend continue… Both the Legend of Anendra and of Malin.
Every now and again we see a realistic civilian minifig-scale LEGO boat, and they keep getting better. The latest is this steam-powered tugboat by Koffiemoc. It is actually a recreation of the last steam tug in Germany, the Saturn. The builder was inspired by this photo and I think he has captured it almost perfectly.
Click to see more details on the Saturn
Medieval houses are a popular motif in LEGO fan creations, but that comes at a price – even though the quality is generally very high among these builds, there is less and less room for originality. Obviously, this build by César Soares is something more.
The Green Fish Inn does not look like a place where most people would want to spend their time in real life if presented with a choice, but it does look cool. The textures and exotic colours look great, most notably the recently returned legendary dark turquoise used as some strange mold all across the building. The roof is great, with a few patched holes and a nice mix of tiles and slopes that make for some subtle details. Both the island and trans-black lake add a great deal to the atmosphere of the scene.
