Posts by Michael

This bridge will suspend your belief of what’s possible!

At first glance, this beautiful scene of steel, earth, and water looks like a photograph! It owes this to Lysander Chau‘s keen eye and clever LEGO building techniques. Truly, this bridge and the surrounding scenes are made up of nearly 53,000 LEGO pieces! The scenes come from Lysander’s imaginative mind, but the bridge itself is modeled after the Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong. While the build lives in a digital landscape, it still considers the constraints of reality. For example, the weakest part of the bridge, the middle, is supported by the cruise ship’s tallest point. No doubt there’s room inside the cruise ship to add light bricks, or a lighting kit, to make the New Year’s message shine! And that water! It’s rendered with such detail I can almost hear the waves lapping around the boats and land.

Take a closer look at the details

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Our road leads into the desert of Arrakis

From Arrakis comes spice and these LEGO vignettes by builder Bryan Firks, whom you may know from the second season of LEGO Masters. I had the good fortune to chat with Bryan about these scenes and the inspiration behind them. He became a fan of the “Duniverse” after watching the 2021 film Dune, sparking an interest in the original book and the richly detailed world. Soon, the idea to create a series of microscale scenes developed in his mind. He drew inspiration from 2021’s TBB creation of the year, Jan Woźnica’s Tales from the Space Age, for providing atmosphere and color. Equipped with new color palettes, he employs similar techniques with his vignettes. On the left, transparent neon orange antennae represent orbital strikes on the old city of Arrakeen. A spice refinery explodes in the foreground. In the center, we see an ornithopter hovers above a spice harvester with levers as its wings. On the right, there’s one of the legendary sandworms of Arrakis! The worm is captured brilliantly with round bricks interlinked by flex tubing for poseable segments. The sand dunes give a sense of scale to the worm, showing just how massive it really is!

Bryan faced a few challenges rendering these scenes on this scale. Being a Lord of the Rings fan, he wanted to use Uruk-hai swords for the ornithopter wings. Alas, they were too big for this size. The sandworm presented a fun challenge, and using an inverted 2×2 dome for the gaping maw is very cool! The flow of direction, from left to right following the lines of the orbital strike through to the worm’s mouth, is intentional to give the build a sense of motion. Another clever choice is the night-day-night pattern of the backgrounds, giving the vignettes a lovely balance. The mirroring of the dual moons in the night scenes helps to frame and hold the day scene in your attention as you take in the whole. My favorite part of the build, besides the sandworm? It demonstrates how inspiring the LEGO community can be. Anyone can become inspired by another builder’s creation, leading to more beautiful homages and builds!

A taste of nectar on another world

Meet the Epyft, an alien being created by Mattia Careddu. This LEGO creature brings to mind a hummingbird crossed with a butterfly, as its long mouth reaches down to the bright blooming flower, drinking up all the rich nectar. No doubt the sugar is needed for the energy to stay in the air. The flower and the surrounding foliage feature so many cool parts to create something out of this world! Bionicle masks give the translucent green plants and blue flowers cool shapes and textures. Speaking of Bionicle masks, they’re also used for the creature’s sides, but that’s not the coolest bit of parts usage for this build. The creature’s body is a fun use of a torso piece from the Galidor toy line, produced by LEGO in 2002 for the sci-fi kids show by the same name.

“There is a vortex of Fate all around us”

The final installment of The Witcher vignette series from Jonas Kramm takes us to the Battle of Sodden Hill. This LEGO build depicts a scene from the final episode of season one of the Netflix series. Triss Merigold, a powerful sorceress, defends the gate with a web of vines against the invading forces of Nilfgaard. Jonas captures her ferocity and determination with a practiced eye. The parts usage of this piece, like Jonas’s previous builds, is wonderful! Various slopes, plates, and quarter tiles capture the stonework’s weathered and aged texture. Swords, clips, and ingot bricks define the doors’ details. Dark brown arm pieces act as the stalks for the flowering vines growing along the structure. A beautiful build to end a fantastic vignette series!

This is how the prose build

This modular LEGO bookstore from Lorddan413 is one I’d love to spend some time in! The unassuming storefront welcomes you in with the bright flower barrels and lit sconces. Once inside, the store expands and envelopes, not unlike a story at the opening of a book. The many windows give plenty of light for exploring the shelves full of books and knick-knacks. The books! Were this a shop I could visit, I’d be looking through each and every one of them. Lorddan413 creates the motley tomes by varying the use of plates, tiles, and slopes. The cat in the basement and the mouse hole it watches are a nice touch! In fact, the whole basement area is intriguing, what with the private stash of books and those bottles that seem rather scientific–or even magical. Maybe the shop owner dabbles in arcane physics? A mystery to explore with future visits. As if I needed an excuse to return to a bookstore!

A smorgas-burg of medieval life

This LEGO castle, Burg Birgstein, from builder Birgitte Jonsgard gives us a peek at what life may have been like in the Middle Ages! The castle flows upward with lovely focus points along the way, starting with the washer cleaning their clothes in the stream. Guards keep watch around the entrances, walls, and towers in the off-chance someone attacks. An owl perches atop some chimneys–even wildlife had things to do in a castle! The color blocking of this ancient fortress gives depth to each section. I love all the design choices of the build, but I’ve got to draw your attention to the twin peaks in the middle! These feature a clever use of a drill piece where the spikes give texture to the spires.

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Axonn, Axe Off

It has been twenty years since Bionicle came to the LEGO scene, and even after all that time it still inspires some amazing creations — this new take on Axonn by Toddrick is no exception! This fierce warrior brings to mind images of a Roman centurion with its red highlights at the wrists and knees and the crimson cloth in the torso, while the crested helm hearkens to the galea helmet. The notes of gold in the helmet, along with the axe handle’s plumage and ring of gold, add a sense of prestige to the figure. My favorite parts usage is the chest and shoulder pieces. These Hero Factory parts add a sense of legacy to the build, as the Hero Factory toy line succeeded the Bionicle line.

Toying around with a gumball machine

This LEGO minifigure gumball machine build by Rob Vangansewinkel gives a wonderful sense of nostalgia! Modeled after a classic gumball machine, this creation reminds me of those toy vending machines outside of grocery stores. I always loved seeing those prizes as a kid, wondering which one I’d get! This clever contraption is no exception to that experience. At the turn of the dial, it offers a variety of figures to collect, from a pirate captain to Mr. T. Want to see it in action? Rob has a cool video showing it off. The best part of this toy machine? No money needed! It’s every kid’s dream–just give it a spin and see what prize comes out!

Tudoring the neighborhood in excellence

LEGO builder AfroEngineer enjoys 21325 Medieval Blacksmith Ideas set so much he created this lovely Tudor House as a companion piece. The bright color palette draws the eye into the build, particularly the blues. The light blue of the house’s second story is a great choice! It contrasts nicely with the brown detailing and the gold windows. The roof tiles are created with the help of overlapping minifigure seats. The overhanging vines and the gaps in the roof tiles lend a weathered, lived-in feeling to the home.

The interiors of the house are just as amazing as the outside, too. They feature great brick-built furniture and homey decorations that speak to the lives of the residents. I like to imagine they’re mapmakers and end up on all sorts of wild adventures! They probably have the blacksmith watch the house while they’re away.

A fairytale takes root! Magic beans not required

Once upon a time there was a builder named Andreas Lenander who created a magical book whose story came to life through LEGO. This Jack and the beanstalk build is truly a sight to behold! The story spills over the pages, starting with the micro-scale farm grounding the build. The stalk stretches skyward from the heart of the book, its internal structure concealed within the beautiful foliage. The stalk’s zenith reveals a kingdom adorned in silver and gold that promises fortune and adventure. The dragon hidden at the beanstalk’s top crowns the parts usage, adding its scales to the vegetation’s textures. A mythical detail that inspires the imagination the way fairytales often do!