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

The Seraph shines as one with the stars

November, more so in the northern hemisphere, is a month of foggy mornings, rainy days and… Vic vipers? Indeed, every year the LEGO community on Flickr celebrates the most popular standardized spaceship format in the LEGO fan circles. While people have different views on what a Vic Viper should be and what they like or dislike about it, we still have dozens of these sleek spaceships swoosh through NoVVember every year. This year does not seem like it will be any different, so expect many more Vic Vipers on The Brothers Brick in the next few weeks.

“Seraph” is one of such aggressive, fast looking spaceships we all love and Sam Malmberg‘s contribution to the 2017 NoVVember project. It uses a very pleasing colour scheme with nice contrast in its front prongs — not only contrasting in colour, but in style too, giving a bare-bone alternative to the otherwise smooth and streamlined areas. The cockpit deserves some attention too; not only has Sam achieved a nice bulbous effect with combining two different windscreen pieces, but the insides contain some neat details too.

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Care for some pupcorn, friend?

I think Dwalin Forkbeard has made the unluckiest BrickLink order of all time… but somehow he has put the dozens of Friends puppies to good use as popcorn… Or as Dwalin calls it, pup-corn? The creation is simple, but there is some subtle complexity in the lettering and angled cup walls. Couple that with excellent composition and photography and you have yourself quite the picture to look at.

Enter Elvendale, the village of colours and magic

Stepping out of her favourite theme of modular buildings, Vesna Todorović has struck gold with this Elves-themed diorama. Heavily inspired by the Elves Netflix series and a bit of the official sets too, the builder had the idea in her head for quite a while before amassing enough bright colours to realize it. She notes that the diorama was a great opportunity to use not only new colours, but new bricks too, including many floral elements, Angry Birds eggs and all sorts of Elves and Friends decorative elements.

The cliff in the back is recycled from an earlier diorama, with appropriate upgrades of course. The foliage is bright and colourful, as are the cute little cottages – exactly in the official theme’s style. There are interiors built for all the cottages, but sadly the buildings don’t come apart to be photographed.

This diorama was one of my favourite builds at the 19th Kockefest, the Slovenian LUG’s display, and many people I talked to there, from fans to casual visitors, agreed.

A stellar recreation of the Stellar Recon Voyager

Recreating classic LEGO sets is a popular theme in fan creations—most notably so in the Classic Space theme, but other space themes see revivals also. This time the set to receive the treatment is Alec Hole‘s rework of the 6956 Rescue Star Cruiser from M-Tron (also known as Stellar Recon Voyager in the USA).

Alec has rebuilt the classic 90s set very faithfully, while keeping his own building style plainly visible. The general shapes and details are there, from the supported black wings to the mesh elements on the sides of the cockpit. My favourite parts are the thrusters, as well as the Nexo Knights shield tile pieces used as texture on the wings. And with M-Tron being short for Magnetron, of course there’s lots of magnets.

World of Warcraft’s Theramore rebuilt in LEGO

Any LEGO fan will recognize the old school and cartoony looking castle in this World of Warcraft-themed diorama by Mark Erickson, but those familiar with the game will see a very faithful recreation of a lore-wise, very important town in the recently announced expansion.

Mark has accurately built the fortified port town using over 55,600 pieces. The style of the game is captured well in the buildings’ construction, and the composition and shape is just like its in-game counterpart too, as this screenshot demonstrates.

While the game’s style belies the size of this creation, those are standard green 32×32 baseplates it’s sitting on, which makes photographing this monster quite a feat by itself. But in the end, no matter how amazing the creation is… The orc in me just wants to bomb it. Lok’tar ogar!

The birthplace of the European rebirth

A builder that goes by the name Classical Bricks (Timothy Shortell) would probably find it challenging to choose a more appropriate theme to build in – there are few things more Classical than the Renaissance in western culture, which Timothy is a part of. His creation, built for the Time Isles collaboration at BrickCon, represents Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance.

The scene is bursting with the style and characteristics of the depicted time and place; the buildings are packed tightly to give an impression of an old city, but the buildings themselves are obviously screaming Renaissance too. Arches, ornate decoration and colours show us a rich city that was instrumental in bringing western culture to where it is today.

A harsh but satisfying life in the village of Avalon

Four young builders join forces to bring us this extensive medieval village diorama. While I often complain about lack of variety in top-end castle-themed LEGO builds, there is a very bright side to this; if I had not known this creation was a collaboration, I would never have figured it out. The main image is hosted by Timothy Shortell, but the others involved are Micah the fire-breathing hobbit, Mountain hobbit and Cole Blood.

There are many details to see all over the diorama; the market has many interesting elemets, houses are all exceptionally done with interesting textures and angles everywhere, and the plant life facilitates the time and place where this diorama is set up – dried grass, autumn leaves and pine trees show us a cold but habitable place.

Motorised LEGO version of Ken Block’s Gymkhana 7

Custom car enthusiasts will surely recognize this LEGO scene by Primož Mlakar from Ken Block’s Gymkhana 7: Wild in the Streets of Los Angeles. The diorama has 20,000 bricks, almost half of which are the grille tiles on the walls and roof of the workshop. I was privileged enough to see this creation in person at my local LEGO club’s display, Kockefest, a few weeks ago and can confirm it looks even more impressive “in the brick”.

The cars were built in LEGO’s Speed Racers style and the diorama scaled accordingly. Primož has polished the model to perfection, despite having to meet the deadline — a feeling well known amongst convention-going LEGO fans. The buildings look realistic with just enough details to hold your attention, but not to be overwhelming. The cars themselves are excellent, with all the right curves and proportions, allowed by their slightly larger scale, as opposed to the more limiting minifig scale.

Best of all, the scene integrates Power Functions motorised elements, allowing the vehicles to spin some donuts…

Smell the adventure in the jungle air!

There are many LEGO fans who grew up in the late nineties and at the start of the new millenium, a time marked by one very unique LEGO theme: Adventurers. To me (and I believe many share this opinion), Adventurers seemed like one of those broad themes like space, castle or pirates, that just seems natural and should be present in one way or another. With this in mind, there seems to be a strange lack of Adventurers creations online. Recently, this silence was momentarily broken by Joshua Brooks with his Diamond Falls diorama.

I was drawn to the diorama’s theme and the official Adventurers logo in the top right corner of the picture. More experienced builders will notice that the waterfall and the cliffs, which represents a large portion of the build, are somewhat simple in their design, but that is more than made up for by the boat, the overgrowth and the ruins hidden beneath it. The build has a story written in the description, which more curious and adventurous readers might be interested in.

The most wanted man on the seven seas

Wooden leg, hook hand and an eyepatch – this pirate figure by LEGO 7 is exactly what one would think of when they hear the word “pirate”. The figure is more than just a perfect depiction of a stereotypical pirate captain, it is a great build combining complex angles in the torso, a simple yet effective face construction and beautifully detailed weapons. The captain’s remaining eye gives an impression of a charismatic character, additionally facilitated by the posture.

Deep in the forest, in a hidden place...

The LEGO Elves theme has some of the most unique sets of recent years, but we rarely see any custom creations inspired by this official theme. There are exceptions, of course, and the exception we are looking at today is Sean Mayo‘s Fairy Tree House. This build was set on display in the LEGO House’s Masterpiece Gallery, which may shed some light on the choice of theme. Indeed, if I had to choose builders to showcase their work in the LEGO House, Sean Mayo would be very near the top of the list.

The focal point is obviously the tree with a quaint little house at the top, both crafted masterfully. The surrounding deserves some attention too; the overgrowth is exploding with imagination (The ferns are made out of grill tiles!) and the rocks, while simplistic in technique, work really well – it really shows how a top builder can make any technique look good. My favourite part is the little boat, though. There are so many curves all over that give it a whimsical and organic look.

Building forts in the clouds has never been so productive

Floating islands are a popular motive in LEGO, most often coupled with steampunk or similar themes. Andrew JN goes just a little bit back in (alternate) time with this colonial themed floating rock. The scene represents a heavily guarded prison fort and a flying ship. While the ship does not look especially like a floating one, it is unique enough that it does not look out of place in the sky. The prison actually looks so nice, it makes me want to commit some heinous acts of piracy in the skies.