About Mansur Soeleman

Mansur Soeleman, nicknamed "Waffles," is our resident lover of the LEGO colour teal, and all things greebly. An art school grad, he is more of a builder than artist, and a new one at that. While he has just started building seriously a few years ago, he has risen to be among the ranks of talented LEGO builders, and has recently become a part of the fan community. Currently residing in Edinburgh, he has lived in Amsterdam, Budapest, London, and Chicago. Besides procrastinating on LEGO projects, Mansur likes waffles, lots of coffee, riding his bicycle everywhere, any music with trumpets, and did we mention teal and greebling? His LEGO creations can be found on his Instagram and Flickr.

Posts by Mansur Soeleman

The return of LEGO Elves?

I wish.
That’s why I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) along with my friend Tom Loftus decided to take a break from our usual spaceships and build something fantastical. Our usual greys became pinks and lavenders, our usual mechanical greebling became wild, organic foliage. Tom wanted to build a tree, I wanted to replicate some of Scotland’s coastal cliffs. Combined with recent plants in wild colours and the release of the Acorn Boy and Night Protector in the recent Collectable Minifigure Series, our collab build became an homage to LEGO Elves.

The Edge of Elvendale

We are fans of the bygone LEGO Elves theme which ran from 2015 to 2018. Its signature look was bright colours, cute dragons, and wonderful characters with elemental powers and matching outfits, albeit they were the less favourable minidolls. In short, it was a Tolkien-esque fantasy version of LEGO Friends. Despite there being an established lore (which I admit I’m unfamiliar with), Tom and I decided to make something original, but with a similar aesthetic.

Read more about this LEGO Elves collab!

LEGO Speed Champions 76900 Koenigsegg Jesko – An obscure supercar [Review]

Speed Champions have been widely regarded as on of the best themes LEGO has to offer. Even if cars and similar vehicles are of no interest to you, these small display sets may have impressed you in one way or the other. LEGO Speed Champions 76900: Koenigsegg Jesko may look like the weaker sets from the Summer 2021 lineup, but it may be a long-awaited model of the Swedish car brand. It is still a great-looking LEGO car with an enjoyable build, and more importantly, it has fewer stickers than the average Speed Champions set. Coming in at 280 pieces and one minifigure, it is currently available for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99. Does this set convey LEGO’s love to its neighbouring automobile industry? Let’s find out!

Read the full, hands-on review

LEGO Ideas Second 2021 review results: two new products passed – and one didn’t [News]

Today, LEGO Ideas reveals the results of the most recent review. In case you missed it, the Review Board had to evaluate 34 projects, including ideas based on popular franchises, fan-favourite creations, and even K-pop! According to the video and article published on the blog, there is some good news, and some not so good news.

Read on to find out what potential LEGO Ideas sets we may get!

A gangster’s roadster: please admire from a distance

A roadster too sleek for the 1930s. Open top and exposed engine. Is it some vintage Batmobile or a hot-rod noir? Jonathan Elliott presents his latest custom minifig-scale car to add to his portfolio, a roadster that could give the current Vintage Taxi GWP a run for its money. Lacking any other colour, there is just enough and barely enough chrome to break up a predominantly black visage. The owner of this vehicle must be classy and dangerous, and it definitely takes my mind to old gangster movies…

Black Roadster

If you see this parked in front of a speakeasy of your choice, RUN!
See more of Jonathan’s wonderful creations here.

Something wizard this way comes!

Following last week’s episode of The Mandalorian season 2.5—I mean The Book of Boba Fett, LEGO builders across the galaxy got their grey bricks out to recreate a certain starfighter. Builder Jonas Kramm took a different route and built a follow-up to his previous vignette from the series. In this small diorama, The Mandalorian is offered a new ship in Peli Motto’s garage. While he didn’t build the entire vehicle, Jonas focuses on the discovery of a partial ship hiding under tattered cloth. What starfighter could that be?

A new ship for Mando

Is it a Porax-38, a variant of which we saw in the “prison break” episode of The Mandalorian season 1? Or is it what we think it is? Jonas keeps the mystery and suspense alive by only building a dismantled engine hiding under a Silent Mary sail piece. Various clutter complete the diorama, such as grey and silver greebly pieces representing spaceship parts and two droids, one of which is a BD unit that people who have played Jedi: Fallen Order will recognise.

As The Book of Boba Fett is about to wrap up, we wonder what other scenes Jonas will build next.
Check out more builds we’ve featured: Jonas Kramm on TBB

TBB Cover Photo for February 2022: Architecture legacy of Taiwan

Lights, bricks, action! This month’s social media cover photo is Zio Chao‘s massive and detailed build of an ornate mansion. The Residence for the Governor-General of Taiwan is a central government building in Zio’s hometown of Taipei, Taiwan, built in a European architecture style at the start of the 20th century.

The Residence for the Governor-General of Taiwan

read on to see this magnificent building all lit up

And everything under the sun is in tune

Every once in a while we get a build that is out of this world. Not only because of techniques or parts usage, but because it is a work of art made with LEGO pieces. Ring-Rise by Tom Loftus (Inthert) is exactly that. A colourful painting. A cinematic shot with perfect framing. Just an astronaut and his cat, all alone on a monochrome alien world, looking out on the colourful rings of a planet. A simple idea, flawless execution.

Ring-Rise

Tom knew he wanted to incorporate the famous basalt columns of Iceland into a build. The Alien Landscape category of the yearly Space Jam contest was the perfect opportunity. Layering them in shades of grey (black to dark grey to light grey) give the impression of light coming in from the space-scape beyond. The planetary ring uses Simon Pickard’s intricate curving surface technique that few have mastered. Tom spiced it up by making it as colourful as he could, evoking the psychedelic hues of nebulae and other heavenly bodies.

Check out more builds by Tom here!

The black knight always triumphs!

“‘Tis but a scratch!” If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought W. Navarre built a large scale figure of that black knight. Yet, this formidable figure inspired by Dark Souls has no dismembered appendages at all and is actually threatening. While Navarre hasn’t shown the full figure yet, we see just enough. Leaning on his sword after a day of battle, the knight’s weary position conveys so much character. Navarre’s detailed build is not too cluttered, and we can easily tell what is what, and it works so well.

The Black Knight

“Alright, we’ll call it a draw.” Check out more amazing builds by W. Navarre here!

See you, space elephant

Ah, Banthas. Glorious space creatures. Portrayed by elephants during the filming of Star Wars (1977) they serve as mounts for the fearsome Tusken Raiders, natives of Tatooine. And now they are ridden by a certain helmeted fan-favourite character, minus the helmet (and the character that never was.) This small desert diorama by KevFett2011 (no relation) showcases a scene from the first episode of new Star Wars series The Book of Boba Fett.

LEGO STAR WARS The book of Boba Fett: Chapter 1- Prisoner of the Tusken Raiders

Click to read more about this build (includes spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett)

Release the TIE fighters!

Well, those are a different kind of TIE fighters… Dan Ko built the most striking microscale spaceship for a Space Jam contest. I’m in love with it, and that may or may not be because of the teal – my favourite colour. The colour scheme with the purple highlights somehow feels like it belongs in an established universe. Whether it be LEGO Classic Space, or any sci-fi franchise, this carrier appears to swoosh straight out of it. The part usage is also worth noting – teal coloured brick separators and the little bow ties that represent the tiny starfighters.

The Wraptor Carrier

Want to see more builds with teal? I sure do! We have a whole collection of them here!

Armored Titan keeps moving forwards

“I’m the Armoured Titan and this is the Colossal Titan…” Truer words have never been spoken (unfortunately). After a year since his last Titan build, builder Funnystuffs finally built another one just in time for the final season of hit anime series Attack on Titan. His Armoured Titan is very accurate to its animated counterpart and instantly recognisable for those familiar with the character. Angular pieces represent bonelike armour plating and dark red underneath shows off sinewy muscle. We expect builds of these titans to be more massive, but the scale here is accurate. This titan stands at 15 meters tall and Funnystuffs did a good job translating that to LEGO bricks.

Disclaimer: The pieces here are tan, the lighting makes it look like light nougat.

Spacey-Racey Swoosh Champions

When you love spaceships, it’s impossible not to like racecars. And vice versa. They two go hand in hand like… Cheerios and milk. PaulvilleMOCs combined the best of both worlds in this colourful racer. The racecar influence, as well as the respective sponsor decals, stems from usage of odd car elements from an old promotional LEGO set released in Cheerios boxes.

Cheerios Spacecraft Space

PaulvilleMOCs originally built this racer as a parts experiment for our good friends at New Elementary. Check out his article where he explores these strange promotional sets which barely pass as LEGO, proving that even the weirdest of the weird can be used in LEGO creations!