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

A vintage racer from automobile history

Back in the 1920s and ’30s, when Ferdinand Porsche and Enzo Ferrari were not heads of exotic sports car companies but mere racecar drivers, Mercedes-Benz pushed the limits of racing using supercharger technology developed from airplane engines. One sports car that utilized this enhancement was the Mercedes-Benz SSKL of 1931, which LEGO Technic and Model Team expert Pawel Kmieć (Sariel) faithfully replicated. This old roadster jumps out from black and white photographs with a clean white livery, custom-chromed parts and the laurel wreath of champions.

Pawel is a master of building accurate vehicles that are also packed with functions. He includes everything an essential large-scale LEGO vehicle needs: suspension and steering. In addition, he often crams the body of these vehicles full of LEGO electric motors, allowing remote control. This display model becomes a real-life racer, pushing a top speed of 5mph. Watch Pawel’s in-depth video of the build process, and the speedy drive outdoors.

Check out more builds depicting LEGO Mercedes-Benz vehicles!

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The Star Wars Clone Wars unfold on a massive light-up Naboo diorama

Say what you will about the Star Wars prequels, Naboo is a planet that everyone agrees is beautiful. Inspired by its appearance in 2017’s Battlefront II videogame, Belgian LEGO Star Wars YouTuber Axidroid spent eight months building a Clone Wars battle scene in the streets of Theed. With 121 minifigures, with most of them being from the popular 501st Battlepack, there are also custom vehicles such as the Gunships, AAT tank, and AT-RT walker. While large Star Wars dioramas are not uncommon, the 140cm by 77cm size dwarfs the largest LEGO Star Wars set, the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer, which is 110cm by 66cm.

While the size of this build is impressive, the real kicker is at nighttime. Using Christmas LED lights inside the buildings and street lamps, Axidroid lights up the Theed plaza into a lovely atmospheric scene. The battle droids and clone troopers now look like they’re lined up for an evening festival, and bring the Mediterranean setting of Naboo even closer to home.

Axidroid even documented his 8-month long build process in a YouTube video series. In the finale below he shows off all the details in the expansive build.

Explore more builds of Naboo here.

The T-70 X-wing of Poe Dameron’s dreams

There is always one LEGO creation where it’s “love at first sight.” You never expect that build to leave you breathless, but when it does, it does. This UCS-scale T-70 X-wing by Jared Reisweber is the one that stole my heart. Instantly recognisable from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this massive model is the most accurate representation of Poe Dameron’s starfighter that I’ve seen so far. It helps that this build is larger than it appears, capturing even the tiniest, most intricate details, and replicating the complex shapes and curves, which even the best of builders struggle to get accurate. Sometimes all it takes to build the perfect X-wing is to go big or go home.

Click here to get a closer look at the starfighter…

Functional Febrovery

Febrovery – the annual event where people build space rovers from LEGO. I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) couldn’t say no to building a wheeled space vehicle this month. However, I decided to take a different approach: make it move, make it work, and make it Technical. The result is the Horizon Chariot – a massive, greebly shuttle transporter in a LEGO Classic Space livery. On the outside, it looks like a jumble of layers and pipes, but it’s merely a shell for a complex Technic frame with a working four-wheel drive with a double V8 piston engine, working steering, and soft pendular suspension. My favourite feature turned out to be a working tipping flatbed which launches the small LL-64 Arcade Hopper.

The spaceship belonging to the Horizon Chariot was more of a distraction than an afterthought. I wanted to incorporate a NinjaGo arcade pod into the build as the blue airtight section of Classic Space vehicles. I found it was too small for a big vehicle so why not make a smaller vehicle as part of it? That’s how the aptly named LL-64 Arcade Hopper was born. I just couldn’t stop myself from building a spaceship! With swing-down wings and a smooth underside, it’s really a step away from my usually greebly builds, but it turned out to be a beautiful two-seater shuttle.

Check out the Flickr album to see more photos of the rover and the spaceship!

On that day, mankind received a grim reminder. We lived in fear of the Titans...

Shingeki no Kyojin (or Attack on Titan) is regarded as one of the best and most popular manga and anime series. But for some reason, there seems to be a serious lack of LEGO builds of it. Luckily, Funnystuffs built the Attack Titan in great detail, accompanied by custom minifigures of some of the main characters. On the surface, Attack on Titan may appear to be just another kaiju series about cool kids fighting giant monsters, as the original premise has led us to believe. It gradually progressed into “the Game of Thrones of anime,” a dark and heartwrenching series about human nature, war, politics, and so much more. Now that its popularity is at its peak, there is hope for more Attack on Titan creations down the line.

Primarily a mech builder, Funnystuffs did a great job with the organic look of the Attack Titan. Covered with tan LEGO elements to represent its skin tone, it is completely accurate and to scale with the minifigures. The only gray bits peeking through are the necessary joints to give the titan full poseability. Funnystuffs gave special attention to the head – its iconic green eyes, grinning jaw, and long hair.

See more pictures of the Attack Titan in this gallery here. (Includes spoilers for those who may care.)

The next phase in chicken walker evolution

When hearing the term “chicken walker”, one tends to think of the famous AT-ST walkers from Star Wars. Those vehicles set the trend for walkers with avian-style legs, where the ankle joint is pronounced like a backward knee. Tim Goddard, co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future, built a Space Police mech wholly inspired by avian anatomy. Not only the legs are inspired by “chicken walkers,” but the body and head resemble a bird as well. It’s always a welcome sightseeing a new addition to Tim’s already extensive Space Police fleet. This time, he used the new Space Policeman in the most recent LEGO Collectible Minifigures not only as parts but as an excuse to always keep on building Space Police!

And by looking at the details on this build, his creations never disappoint. The highlight of this build is how Tim cleverly assembled the satellite dish using handlebars to create a circular shape. But the rear thrusters made up of Technic piston engine parts has got to be my favourite detail. The grey looks out of place from the blue and black color scheme, almost tacked on as an afterthought. It’s like someone decided to plonk on rockets to this mech so it can receive a boost to help with pursuits over uneven terrain.

See more of Tim’s amazing space-themed creations here!

Mechanical knight in shining armour

There is just something about mechs built from LEGO. It’s almost as if recent smooth pieces like tiles, slopes, and curves exist solely for mechs. Alvaro Gunawan uses a seamless combination of common LEGO elements to create XR-1 Vilthuril – an elegant mech with clean armour and very little exposed innards. There are very few studs on this clean, almost minimal build. I love how a transparent green eye and torso window breaks up the bright grey and white colour scheme. What’s more: the detachable back mounted rocket engine doubles as a shield.

A fun fact about this build: this was submitted to us on our brand new Discord server! Head on over there to join the discussion with your fellow readers!

A narrow miss with this LEGO Mandalorian vs Krayt Dragon

One of the main appeals of Star Wars is its homage to classic genres like serialised westerns, samurai movies, and Arthurian legends. The Mandalorian presents that very well, with the titular character being a rugged gunslinger with a heart of gold helping various people in each episode. Thomas Jenkins captures one instance during one of his visits to Tatooine where he helps defeat a massive Krayt Dragon. Presented in a simple way: the Dragon bursting out of the sand, and the Mandalorian escaping its jaws.

The Krayt Dragon is complex in its angles and techniques, but captures the organic shape of a reptilian head. The floating sand and rubble is a nice addition and conveys a sense of motion from the rising beast. But the way Thomas got the Mandalorian to float is just ingenious. Using skeleton and droid arms to create columns of smoke from the minifig that is firmly attached to the rest of the build. Just like that, these few elements capture a simple moment. In a way, it is quite minimalistic, with very little need for anything else.

See more amazing Star Wars themed builds by Thomas Jenkins here.

Hold me closer, tiny dancer

Sometimes all it takes is a dynamic pose to elevate a simple build into a work of multi-sensory art. This build of a dancer by Swedish LEGO Masters contestant Rickard Stensby makes me feel many things across different senses. I instantly get the rush of awe and emotion one experiences when watching a live ballet performance from just looking at this build. The figure is in a perpetual pirouette with outstretched arms and legs, along with an upward-facing body. Rickard emulates the spinning motion with a functional rotating base, adding to the energy of this sculpture. In addition, the twirling dress contains intricate building techniques to capture the conical shape with creases.

If you like figures with natural shapes and energetic forms, then check out more sculptures here!

There’s a house on my street, and it looks real neat

There are times when a LEGO fan starts building, gets into the groove of things, then finds it hard to stop. Especially when the build is a small street that keeps growing with each mini modular building placed on it. When I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) attended my LUG‘s (LondonAFOLs) monthly meet-up via Zoom, the theme was mini modular buildings. Every year since 2007, LEGO released a large modular building, each of which can be arranged into a street layout. As a fifth anniversary to the lineup, LEGO created a microscale version of the first few buildings. I started to build a micro modular for the meet-up, and then I couldn’t help but build more. A few days after the meet-up, I ended up with a whole street.

Click to see each micro modular building in detail, along with the build process!

Pink Floyd space noises intensify

A long journey to colonise distant star systems require long, space-y psychedelic songs made by musicians such as Pink Floyd, Gong, and Brian Bennet. I was listening to Life on Mars by Dexter Wansel, when I saw pictures of The Ark by Ben Smith. One year in the making, it is a massive rotating vessel which resembles something from the television series The Expanse. Inside, tiny nature habitats built by collaborators Tim Goddard and Inthert provide residence for the people voyaging across the stars.

Almost a meter in height, this SHIP hides a custom steel frame to bear the weight of electrical motors, LED lights, batteries, and thousands of LEGO parts. This behemoth of a build is as detailed as it is large, with plenty of greebling to feast the eyes. When taking a closer look, one can marvel at the geometric achievements of circular and conical sections of varying diameters. As for those not as keen for grey space machinery, there is some microscale landscaping by Tim Goddard and Inthert. For there must be life within this cold ship, as the inhabitants yearn to settle down on a distant planet.

See Ben Smith’s flick album documenting the long and arduous build process of The Ark. And put on some Pink Floyd while you’re at it…

Not the first rodeo for this Bronco

There is a golden rule of vehicles: If it exists in real life, then it exists as someone’s LEGO creation. This medium-sized Technic off-roader by Anton Kablash is a model of a car that does not exist… yet. A recently announced next-generation Ford Bronco, set to release in 2021, is a modern take on a classic SUV. While retaining its iconic boxy shape, the new model has a futuristic take on the front grille and headlights of the original vehicle. Anton captures the design with pinpoint accuracy using mostly Technic parts with a few of the usual plates, slopes, and tiles thrown in between.

As with the real vehicle, I am drawn to the simple, minimalist design of this vehicle. The clean lines form a box that is aesthetically pleasing rather than boring. The only curves are where it matters – the wheel arches and the frame around the headlights. My favourite is the hood, which Anton constructed from tiles and curved slopes rather than Technic parts. The windows and roof in black offer a nice contrast from the white body, and I particularly like the inclusion of mounted spotlights.

Underneath a clean white livery with openable doors, hood, and trunk, there are as many functions as a large-scale supercar. The working steering connects to both a steering wheel and a “hand of god” gear on the roof. The rear wheel connects to an inline four-cylinder engine in the front, and all the wheels have high-clearance suspension. On top of it all, the chassis and exterior are separate modules.