Posts by Michael

Walking the planks of the boardwalk

Can you tell which of these LEGO buildings belongs to the now-retired Captain Redbeard? Naturally, it’s the tallest one in the this colorful scene from builder Sleepless Night. The build is full of so many incredible textures and colors, allowing each building to stand out on its own. They each have their own design too! Shapes, in general, are obviously reused (like archways), but they’re each done with different elements across the whole. Take a close look at everything present and you’ll see so many cool things. For me, the best parts usage is definitely the croissants making up the billowing sails on the ship at the top of Redbeard’s house. It’s unexpected, but the food elements translate wonderfully for the purpose.

Captain's House

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A fin-tastic knight of the sea

Take a trip with us down into the sea where we find a noble seahorse on a knightly quest in this wonderful LEGO scene by Mohamed Marei. Built for the Bio-Cup saltwater biome theme, the scene shows off the creativity of a great builder. The bright colors contrast nicely against the bronze look of the seahorse knight, bringing our attention to the central figure. Floating above the knight is an exquisite jellyfish, using an array of transparent pieces well. The framing of the scene is fluid and I can’t stop looking at it! As is intended in the Bio-Cup, this is one of those builds that pushes the use of LEGO as a medium to new levels. Also, can we acknowledge how nice the use of the stud shooter is for the mouth of the seahorse? It’s like it was meant for such a use all along.

Don Quixote, El Caballero Andante

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Look, up in the sky, it’s a LEGO hero!

What I love about this LEGO build is its toy look and feel! The alien invader Circuitron and the hero Brickman, by Nikita Nikolsky, feel like they’re stepping out of Pixar’s Toy Story. Part of this is the color choices and the other part is the shaping of the alien invader, both of which are exquisite. I really like the use of the Trolls hair piece for the plasma weapon. The superhero is pretty cool too, with a LEGO brick for a head, but the alien invader is the star of the scene. The parts usage and shaping of Circuitron are fantastic, and there’s a cool play feature in there too. If you turn the bit on Circuitron’s left-side Brickman will deliver the final blow in their epic duel! You can check out the feature in action here.

BRICKMAN vs CIRCUITRON

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Familiar ideas on unfamiliar planets

The fun of science fiction is to imagine how things could be, and LEGO is a great medium to realize these ideas. Take for example this bright build from Bart De Dobbelaer and its fantastic mining machines. These devices can mine the ore and resources of delicate planets with minimal destruction to the environment. This is the best hope for extracting resources from other worlds should we travel the stars. LEGO is wonderful for this build, given the fun shapes and colors of the bricks and pieces. The purple and transparent blues give the planet a unique presence, while the machines themselves look almost insect-like with their rounded edges and curved backs holding all the extracted minerals.

Strion 3B geode mining

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Have a cup of joe at this down-to-earth coffee house

This LEGO coffee house build comes to us from Isaac Snyder for this year’s Eurobricks event. The task? Building a house with significance to the builder. In this case, Isaac draws inspiration from a local coffee shop. Let’s take a closer look at the house, starting with the outdoor furniture. Check out the chairs with the tables! Some nice usage of brackets for the chairs’ seats and back, paired nicely with those plates with shafts. That’s something I really adore with builds of this scale–the parts usage ends up being really creative to imply/represent what the builder wants for the model. There are more techniques at work here too, like the brickwork. Using those half curved 1×1 tiles throughout the textured and plain bricks gives more depth and shaping to what would be flat walls otherwise. Excellent build all around from mine eyes.

Terra Cotta Coffee House

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Robots are claw-some!

I’ve always had a love for robotics and LEGO, so it’s always a good time when they come together like they do in this build from Karf Oohlu. These kinds of builds really show off the versatility of LEGO elements by capturing realistic details. For example, check out those hydraulics and mechanisms that would allow the arm to move. The arm itself looks posable with those hinges and joints. A great addition to the LEGO is the rubber seal at the base of the claw. It’s always nice to see additional materials, whether from LEGO or from other sources, included in builds. They lend some great textures and a grounded feeling to a build, and can smooth out the lines.

These are Clawful Times

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A LEGO E.T. that’s out of this world!

I don’t know if you’ve seen E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or not, but it’s a delightful film that has been long overdue for some LEGO love. I’m happy to say this build from Alex Jones comes right from the heart (and for ours!). What’s not to love about this brick-built figure? E.T. has some of the strangest proportions for an alien lifeform, but that LEGO has some strange pieces. Alex brings them both together in wonderful harmony in E.T.’s shaping and details. Alex even got the iconic glowing heart and finger of the alien being incorporated into the build, courtesy of lightbricks. If you don’t phone home about this one, then lend your phone to E.T. so he can make a call! Just a warning, though — it’ll be a long distance call. A long, long distance.

ET

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Remember to take a break sometime–the cost could be deadly

This LEGO build comes to us from builder Ghalad through the Digital Iron Builder competition this year. It features the use of the SPIKE Prime color sensor, wonderfully used for the eyes of the skeleton and on the headphones. Every detail of this build is great with so many parts usages from Technic to the more classic LEGO pieces. I don’t know about you, but I really like the use of Mixel joints for the framing of the collarbone. I’m not particularly familiar with the finer details of skeletal anatomy, but this skeleton looks to be fairly accurate, which is something I can appreciate. I know this is a digital build, but this would be awesome to see IRL just to look at it from every angle.

The Cost

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Eevee: a picture perfect Pokémon

Eevee, in almost all instances, is adorable beyond measure. This LEGO portrait from Tim and Dannii (who you may know from LEGO Masters Australia) continues in the tradition. Right away, I’m super glad Dannii allows Eevee’s ears to spill out over the frame! Eevee has beautiful ears that get to shine rather than being clipped by the boundaries of the frame. The building technique at work here, the brick-built 3D character, gives the portrait the feeling of a window. It’s like Eevee is taking a peek at us from the Pokémon world! Definitely a great choice over doing a flat studs-only picture. This way Eevee seems more alive, which is exactly what we all want with Pokémon.

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Some towers have spires and some towers inspire

There’s magic waiting to be revealed in every LEGO piece, and builders like exis- (or like you, dear Reader) bring it out. In this case, the build itself is quite magical, being a mage tower of sorts. The black roofing and crenellations create a forbidding–or foreboding–presence. However, the tan of the rest of the architecture balances it out. Perhaps this hints at the risk vs reward of entering such a place. Looking closer, you’ll see wonderful details abounding throughout the build. I really like the use of minifig legs for details in the base floor windows. I do recommend taking a trip over to the builder’s photostream to take a look at the wonders that fill the tower’s interior. There’s even a brief video showing off some cool play features.

01_MTower

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Game Boy Color: Get into it!

While this LEGO Game Boy Color (GBC) doesn’t play actual games, it’s still a treat to see from Nick Brick. Personally, I never owned one of these handhelds, but that has never stopped me from appreciating the look and feel of the hardware. This build captures one of the iconic bright colors of the console – kiwi green. That’s something I love about the GBC: all the different colors it came in instead of the flatter colors of the Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket. It takes some imagination and sweet designing to build this handheld out in LEGO. It looks like you can just flick the power switch and hear that iconic chime before playing whatever game you want. Personally, I’d love to throw The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX into this thing and play around on Koholint Island.

Game Boy Color

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“The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow!”

The Lord of the Rings is full of scenes perfect for adapting into LEGO for the LEGO Ideas challenge “Explore the Middle-earth”. Builder BardJaskier chose one of the most iconic scenes to adapt — the Bridge of Kazad-Dûm. This scene features Gandalf the Grey standing in the way of a mighty Balrog to buy the Fellowship time to escape from the Mines of Moria. To say the Balrog towers over Gandalf is to do a disservice to the presence of the foul being. BardJaskier does a great job of capturing the dreadful power of the Balrog as it wields its fiery sword and whip. And those wings! They’re majestic and terrifying at the same time. They feature fantastic parts reuse from the Ninjago set 71753 Fire Dragon Attack. And let’s not forget the rest of the scene! I do love the techniques and design of the bridge and the surrounding mines. They do a good job of conveying the wear of time.

The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm

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