While this LEGO recreation of the famous Back to the Future DeLorean time machine may not be the scientific breakthrough a real time machine would be, it most definitely is a great artistic feat. After being granted rights by NBC Universal, Ryan McNaught assembled a team to build this near-perfect version of the DeLorean from the first film out of 65,143 bricks.
This scene might have a table and chair, paper and writing utensils, but it’s still different from the stereotypical view of a modern office. This architect’s office by Anthony SÉJOURNÉ is equipped with everything a master draftsman needs, and more — it really is what every architect needs for their planning and design.
The table is simple, but really well built, with gray pieces added to dark tan with structural as well as aesthetic benefits. I love the carefully cluttered snack cupboard and the chair, which has more details than it reveals at first sight. Overall, the creation benefits greatly from the slightly larger than minifig scale, at which brick thicknesses and all minifig utensils become less disproportionate than they are in a regular minifigure’s hands.
Inspired by the Pixar short For the Birds, Gregory Coquelz has built this faithful recreation of the film’s unfriendly birds. The build captures the expression and character perfectly, thanks to minifig helmets used as eyelids and curved slopes as beaks. The addition of the electrical line and the slight gradient in the background make it almost like watching the cartoon.
Ships are not a rarity in LEGO fan creations, although we do not see yachts quite as often as cargo or fishing ships. This build, called Lake Union Dreamboat “Vagabond” by Markus Ronge is a fine addition to the LEGO yacht collection. I love the shaping on the upper half of the hull, as well as the elegant colour choices and how they are managed. The details on the outside are great, but what really sells the model for me is the effort put in the interiors, most notably the curtains behind the windows.
The builder also provides a view of the Vagabond in an alternate setting, with a family watching whales.
I think Halfbeak has misread the contest rules for the annual LEGO Speeder Bike contest and built a spider instead of a speeder! In all seriousness, this is a very original design. The competition is looking tough though, but luckily this police speeder has more than just originality going for it.
A conservative colour scheme that is unmistakably police-like combined with some stickers and a compact, complex design are all great, but Halfbeak did not stop there; the little accompanying drone really adds a lot to the general idea of police control while the colourful base helps the build stand out more. A touch of digital editing at the engines rounds off the picture as quite a treat to look at.
This lighthouse on a tiny island by William Navarre is by far not the first time the concept is represented with LEGO bricks and I can guarantee it will not be the last — lonely lighthouses of all styles and sizes are an evergreen theme with a lot of expressive value, so it is no surprise one pops up every now and again. What distinguishes William’s build from others is a mix of simplicity and complexity.
His signature highly detailed style with intense textures is obviously apparent not only within the lighthouse’s walls and the rock below it, but also the sea and the small dock. Still, the overall design of the building remains simple, which diverts attention to more important segments. There seems to be just enough vegetation on the island so we can know it is indeed a natural island, but not too much to make it nicer than a pirate would deserve. Using natural sunlight for photography can be a risky move, but William has managed to pull it off well, additionally facilitated by the digitally added background.
Sky-fi is one of those strange themes that seem to be disproportionaly popular in LEGO, similar to space and castle. Over the years these imaginative airplanes remain present in the LEGO community, very often in high quality. This F14-Thunderhead by Sylon-tw is no exception, using careful colour blocking and combinations, as well as skillful bulbous shapes iconic for the theme.
The colour scheme is easily my favourite part, combining sand blue and pearl gold, both somewhat rare and difficult to work with – and yet they fit together so nicely! The slightly swept back wings give the aircraft a unique sense of character and there is some great parts usage with the consecutive minifig arms on torsos for the exhausts. Very importantly, the stickers bring it all together quite nicely.
The Life on Mars theme seems to be mostly forgotten by most LEGO fans, its nostalgia overshadowed by the more memorable early Star Wars and Bionicle sets. Some people, including Henry F., still seem to remember this lost jewel and give it the publicity it deserves — because it really was an imaginative theme with a positive message, unlike the loose reboot known as Mars Mission.
I love how elegant and compact the exo-suit is, with just enough exotic Technic pieces to give some texture while keeping the build clean. A few splashes of orange help the build catch the eye, and the tan used for tool-hands is a nice touch. A Martian figure fits in snugly and the lazy-looking alien looks like he is quite comfortable. It should also be noted that the use of the reddish background really helps create the feel of the red planet.
Cassette players scream eighties so loudly that it seems kind of redundant to mark tapes as “80s mix”, but Jarekwally still decided to bring out the nostalgia even more. The builder was inspired by his father’s stories of how they used to pirate music nearly forty years ago with a radio and a tape deck. Cassette players are so iconic, you don’t even need to have 80s nostalgia to be inspired by them.
Jarekwally’s build is not the first time we’ve seen cassette players in LEGO, which kind of makes sense, as tapes are just blocky technical items with a limited variation of texture — which translates into bricks very well. What I love about this particular version is the use of chrome silver around the cassette slot and the underside of a plate as the speaker mesh. Simple indeed, but inspired.
Check out these other LEGO retro audio instruments:
The Guardians of the Galaxy (film or comics) have brought many unique and interesting spaceship designs to light, most notably the protagonists’ personal way of transport, the Milano. LEGO has released some of its own versions of the spaceship as official sets but none to nearly the scale or amount of detail as BenFifteenTheChicken‘s recent build. The photography is top-notch, the lighting is amazing and the shadows compliment the shape very well.
The model sports more studs on its surface than is usual, which gives somewhat of a UCS kind of feel to it. Additionally, I think that the angles Ben has used would not work nearly as well if the whole creation was tiled or if he had hidden studs in a different way.
Fans of this model may also enjoy this minifigure scale Guardians of the Galaxy Milano we featured last year.
I realize polar bears are an endangered species and killing machines, but can you blame me for wanting to pet one? Especially so after seeing this extra cute LEGO recreation by Jens Ohrndorf. The build expresses a lot of character and that is not just a consequence of using the eye tiles. The subtle angle of the neck and the shaping of the back are very characteristic for a polar bear. It is a feat of photography that Jens made the bear not blend in with the ice base under it.
The builder calls the photo on his Flickr Icebear 2.0, because it is actually a remake of an older build. The older version is well worth taking a look at, but the improvements in the updated build are quite obvious.
This scene of a bounty hunter — either in a post-apocalyptic setting or he’s just a really weird guy in a poncho — with his motorbike seems to have everything a good LEGO creation needs: It’s built well, with obvious focus on the awesome motorbike, but it doesn’t end there. The lighting, photography and composition are all top-notch. The builder, Sad Brick obviously knows exactly what they are doing.
The different textures on the ground make for a strong contrast even though it is all the same colour. There is just enough vegetation in nearly dead colours to sell the scene as a realistic slice of desert, with a bovine skull and other details to bring it all together.