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

Not your average farmer’s market

No matter what day of the week it is, it’s always nice to go to the local farmer’s market. Not only are the food and goods top-notch, they also have a nice atmosphere. Not unlike Andrew Tate‘s village grocer, which has a charming house rather than tents and food stalls. No doubt the fruits and vegetables sold outside in crates are locally grown, given the small-town feel of the build. The ground floor has a small convenience shop, and the rest of the house must be where the owners live.

Village Grocers

Andrew pays homage to a more famous LEGO grocer, a popular Modular Building set from 2008. The green and tan awning is similarly to the blue and white awning of the LEGO set, and both share the same white Fabuland lamp-posts. Andrew also references LEGO’s Winter Village series with this village grocer’s alpine architecture. It fits right in there, minus the cold and snow. Come to think of it, what’s Winter Village like when it’s not winter?

Surfer bike pays homage to a pioneer in LEGO racing

As a 90’s kid, I have an unironic love for early 2000’s LEGO products. The classic trendsetters, Star Wars and Harry Potter are well-liked. Others, like Bionicle, may be questionable by some but have their niche following. And then there are Galidor and Jack Stone, which most of the LEGO community looks down on. I love it all since it shaped my childhood and adulthood, and I’m thankful that builders like Djokson feel the same way. His latest creation, Smog Ocean Surfer, looks like just an ordinary, colourful sci-fi bike and rider. It doesn’t have anything to do with the themes I mentioned, right? Maybe a reimagining of Roboriders? Or maybe it’s more obscure…

Smog Ocean Surfer

I hope I wasn’t the only one who recognised the blue and yellow colour scheme with the grey, monster-like, and cute rider. I’m surprised I remembered the long-forgotten Xalax racers… This build is a reimagining of 4567 Surfer, a set from the first wave of LEGO Racers back in 2001. These small Xalax racers were LEGO’s answer to Hotwheels and similar McDonald’s Happy Meal toys with their outlandish nature. With their element and weapon-themed colour schemes, They felt like a non-Technic successor to Roboriders. The pilots were small, goofy chibi monsters were head and shoulders, and the cars had a slammer system to launch them.

Spending quarantine in outer space

I think everyone can agree that when lockdown started last year, it was the best time to get out our LEGO bricks and start building. I mean, what better things are there to do? You might as well build something big like a spaceship! That’s what Italian builder Tommaso Ferrarese did, with his aptly named FR2020 Quarantine.

FR2020 Quarantine

This spaceship consists of over 4000 pieces in Classic Space colours, and is suited for prolonged voyages in the distant reaches of space. The double large windscreen gives the two pilots plenty of social distancing room to spend a long time in isolation. The two massive engines have enough fuel to last… however long lockdown goes for. I certainly wouldn’t mind spending lockdown inside this ship, as long as I have some LEGO pieces to build with!

Check out some more spaceship creations that people built during lockdown!

Builder spotlight: Orion Pax and his pop culture extravaganza

LEGO builds of movies and TV are kind of a big deal. Everybody builds something from their favourite media, be it a character, vehicle, location, or a whole scene. Some people do it so consistency and with quality that their creations become icons in the community. This is where builder and LEGO Masters Germany contestant Alex Jones (Orion Pax) comes in. I recall seeing his numerous Transformers builds as early as ten years ago. Since then, he has graced us with a wide variety of wonderful vehicles from movies and TV shows. Not only that, he also built replica objects from the ’80s. And now, Alex shows them all off on his brand new website.

Click to see more of Alex’s builds!

Sketching famous paintings in LEGO

Have you ever gone to an art museum with a notebook, ready to try how artists started creating their masterpieces? Have you also drawn a rough sketch with a pencil to get the fastest idea of the artist’s process? Tobias Munzert has done exactly that, but by using LEGO pieces. In this triptych, he recreated the motifs of three paintings by German Expressionist painter Franz Marc – Red Deers, Blue Horse, and Red Horses in black and white to emulate pencil drawings. Talk about blending LEGO and art!

Franz Marc Drawings – 3-in-1 LEGO IDEAS Project

Each drawing is laid out on a field of white bricks acting as a blank canvas. The minimalist black “sketches” are made up of various thin parts in black held by clips. Tobias really utilised his NPU skills, and has given us a good idea on which parts to make curves with. See if you can spot each unique minifig utensil and animals appendages used to create the intricate shapes of Franz Marc’s animals.

Check out more LEGO creations depicting horses!

Brick’s Gambit

Nowadays, custom chess sets built from LEGO are not at all unusual. It is after all the most popular board game and can be played over and over again without getting boring. It has also recently experienced a surge in popularity following the Netflix series Queen’s Gambit. Being easy to build from LEGO, it is something many builders do at least once in their life. Here, Daniel Barwegen adds his own flair to the arsenal of stylised LEGO chess sets.

Chess

I was immediately drawn to the uniquely spindly pieces with the wide bases. Some pieces like the king and queen continue the design to their crowns, which are sharp and angular, and even the horse-heads of the knights include teeth and gears. I love that the pieces appear easy to grip, like straws and pencils, rather than not having enough space between neighbouring pieces. The textures on the rooks are also well done without being overbearing.

And yes, we’ve noticed that some pieces are not in their correct squares. And so has the builder. That’s the beauty of LEGO and chess – you can easily move the pieces back to their correct place without ruining the game.

Check out more life-sized builds of things other than chess sets!

It’s a bird! It’s a drone! It’s 100% real LEGO!

You heard that right. Everything in this SU-N8 “Iridosornis” Reconnaissance Drone by Marius Hermann is made of real, unaltered LEGO. Even the pants (from Scala.) Even those large wings with engines (from Galidor.) And yes, all of those are real, genuine LEGO products that existed. Marius has made a name for himself by mixing these unconventional elements into his sci-fi builds, and he does it so well. Whereas prefabricated elements like the Galidor wings might not fit into a build such as this, it works well here and wouldn’t look as good without it. They provide a good contrast and balance between the smooth blues and the greebly greys.

SU-N8 "Iridosornis" Reconnaissance Drone

Despite the angry voices of distant fanatics that gatekeep LEGO to only the brick-built system and minifigures, I find that real creativity is thinking outside the box and using unconventional elements. I have a soft spot for builders who use these weird parts and mix them with “normal” LEGO. Because at the end of the day, if it wasn’t real LEGO, then I wouldn’t be writing about it!

Check out more creations using parts from Galidor and Scala!

TBB cover photo for March 2021: Lifelike Koi Fish

This group of life-sized koi fish by Ian Hou of DOGOD Brick Design has awed us before, but we had to return to it for this month’s cover photo. Not only is this model lifelike from looks alone, it also evokes a feeling of zen associated with koi ponds. Looking at Ian’s photography, these look so good on display, like true sculptures. I would love to have these adorn my home to put me at ease when I’m stressing about building. Hopefully, this cover photo will offer the same feeling of calm for our readers. Once you’ve taken in this work of art, check more of Ian’s creations here.

Graceful Koi on Lego ideas

Submit your LEGO creations for a chance to be featured across TBB social media for a month! Check out the submission guidelines share your builds today. Photos that do not meet the submission guidelines will not be considered, and will be removed from the group.

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Diamonds on the water are falling from the sun

Those are lyrics from a song by Enya that I was listening to when I saw this diamond-shaped spaceship build by Roanoke Handybuck. This build is very fitting to Enya’s music, as both are beautiful, ethereal, and simultaneously dark and light. The spaceship is bright, smooth, with just enough greebling, and is adorned with gold cannons, antennae, and engines. The shaping is definitely alien; not scary and menacing, but rather welcoming and beautiful. With a small yellow frog as the pilot, I doubt this poses a threat. I like to imagine the frog is also listening to Enya inside the cockpit.

The Maze Hopper

The builder packed this small ship full of interesting techniques to give it a unique look. The end connections of croissants form 45º angles with rounded edges, so that the diamond shape of the ship isn’t too sharp. A smooth windscreen that sits flush on top of the ship, and blends well with the smooth surface. The bright ship hovers above a dark maze, which provides a contrast between vehicle and the environment. The end result is truly a work of art. It makes me want to listen to Enya’s music, hoping the spaceship I build will be just as beautiful.

Baby Greedo shot first

I have felt a disturbance in the force. As if millions of voices cried out “that’s so cute!”, “did Baby Greedo shoot first?”, and “Baby Han is better than Baby Yoda!” It is certainly an adorable homage to a classic scene from Star Wars, as built by Ross Fisher. Here, Baby Greedo confronts Baby Han at blaster-point about a very serious space baby matter, probably something about baby Han stealing Baby Jabba’s favourite sweets.

Over my dead body

While being a small and simple build, the choice of baby figures and their positioning is top notch. Baby Greedo’s head placed on a Baby Yoda torso makes him appear small and feisty, which is very in character. Baby Han is just Han’s hairdo placed on a baby-minidoll, and with that minidoll face, Baby Han displays a level of nonchalance evocative of Harrison Ford’s iconic portrayal of the famous scoundrel. The carton of blue milk on the cantina table is definitely the icing on the cake. Not only does it fits the babyfied Mos Eisley Cantina, but it’s also a product of Tatooinian livestock.

The last (tiny) homely house east of the sea

Rivendell – the mention of the name already evokes a feeling of home. A location in J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it appears as a sanctuary, a last respite to characters who are on a journey into “the wilderness.” Builder Elias (Brickleas) built the Last Homely House in all its peaceful glory in microscale in just 100 LEGO parts. While the elven buildings are tiny among the large cliffs, they are instantly recognisable thanks to clever parts usage.

Rivendell

I love the way Elias uses books as the angled roofs, and one stickered book is actually very fitting here. It is the Red Book of Westmarch, the book that Bilbo Baggins wrote during his retirement in Rivendell. The battle droid torso also works very well, since its skeletal nature represents the open-air feel of those buildings. I found the small waterfalls very impressive, using Hero Factory claw pieces which perfectly hug the large wedge used as a cliff. Elias perfectly demonstrates that when building something with a small number of parts, use the best parts.

Working telescope built from LEGO

LEGO is truly beautiful in the way that it allows people to recreate real-world objects with both form and function. LEGO themselves have made working models of a grand piano and a Nintendo Entertainment System. Builder Victor continues the trend by creating a working telescope in the same style, though slightly smaller than life-size. Needless to say, it is welcome to see such objects completely remade from LEGO bricks, especially ones that function.

The Working Telescope

This model telescope works the same way as a real life one – peeking through the eyepiece lets one see the stars and planets, though not the real ones. Victor solves this problem with pictures printed on small window pieces backlit by a light brick. This imitates LEGO’s light projection techniques in their official sets like the Stranger Things: Upside Down and the Haunted House. Victor also provides four separate interchangeable prints, one of them being an easter egg reference to LEGO’s own Bionicle theme.