A cruise ship passes by a quaint hillside town in this LEGO microscale creation by Minifignick. This build makes adorable use of several new parts from the Series 23 Collectible Minifigure line. The houses and the ship itself are obvious, but we even spot some reindeer antlers getting put to creative use.
Maximillian Bricks has triggered my nostalgia in a big way with these recreations of the Kenner Star Wars Mini-rigs. A little backstory, for those of you unfamiliar with the Mini-rigs: Star Wars was famously a merchandising juggernaut from the very beginning. But, once upon a time, before the internet and on-demand movies – heck, even before wide-spread physical media for your home – people buying up Star Wars merchandise weren’t obsessed with screen accuracy. It was enough that the toys just looked vaguely like something that might have been on screen. The toy company Kenner needed to fill the shelves with certain price points, and so they developed a line of smaller vehicles that never appeared in the movies.
These vehicles, being smaller and more affordable, filled toy boxes nationwide. And, for some of us, they’re key to our nostalgia of playing Star Wars at the time, even though they never appeared in the media. Maximillian’s brilliant recreations take me back to the days of burying Luke Skywalker in my sandbox, back when I didn’t worry about the fact that his lightsaber accessory was yellow and when WalrusMan was the most dangerous villain in the galaxy (because I didn’t have a Darth Vader figure).
Builder Calin picked up a set of small inverted arches for a project, but found they didn’t fit as he’d intended. But rather than toss them directly into his parts bin, he found the inspiration to use them in this delightful T-Bucket hot rod. A few tiles and ingots to build out the fenders and running boards, and this build is off to the races. Proof that when it comes to LEGO, no parts ever really go to waste.
To celebrate today’s premiere of Andor on Disney+, Eric T has recreated a scene from the trailer as an impressive LEGO vignette. It can’t be easy recreating a scene you haven’t seen in full – especially a scene that’s as dimly lit as the one Eric has chosen. But Eric’s enthusiasm for the show, combined with a bit of artistic license and the minifigures from 75338 Ambush on Ferrix, got him over the finish line.
The stores are filled with pumpkin spice and 12-foot-tall yard skeletons, which means the Spooky Season has officially arrived. To mark the occasion, James Zhan has crafted a terrifyingly terrific theme park ride to delight your inner-monster. The HallowSwings’ twisted tree trunk base makes a perfect foundation for the ride, with its eerie glowing face and vines. Just do your best to try and hold on. We get the feeling the ghouls who run this park aren’t giving much concern for safety regulations.
Andreas Lenander has crafted an impressively expansive sci-fi scene by placing a few small accent pieces around his quadrupedal attack droid. The droid, with its intricately greebled legs, is impressive in and of itself. But the beautifully rendered tree and the antennae tower add just the right amount of character to the scene, and they really let your imagination run wild about where and when this droid might be stationed. Bonus points for the muzzle flash that Andreas added in post-production (we hope…)
Jan Woznica has engaged in a little bit of meta-LEGO building with this mosaic style recreation of a classic treasure map tile. All the major details are perfectly captured, from the compass to the latitude and longitude lines. I think mosaics of classic prints could spark a new MOC trend thanks to the near-endless possibilities…computer screens, instrument panels, license plates, wanted posters. What printed tile mosaic would you want hanging on your wall?
Two Rebel soldiers find themselves a little too close to the Empire for comfort in this vignette by Jonas. Thankfully, Jonas has constructed a lush amount of Endorian flora for them to hide among. The Imperial Soldiers have it easy, with their elevated walkway and a dirt road constructed from some surprisingly elaborate techniques. Hopefully they don’t look too closely at what’s hiding in the local vegetation.
With The Rings of Power debuting on Amazon Prime, it seems a fitting time to check back in on Jonas Kramm’s The Lord of the Rings vignette series. Here, Gandalf the White appears before Théoden in Meduseld and drives Sauman’s magic from the corrupted king. This cross-section style rendering of the Golden Hall is worthy of royalty, with the carved wooden horse heads being an especially nice detail.
Caleb Flutur had always wanted an old brass scale to display, so he decided to build one. Looking like it just came out of an apothecary shop, Caleb’s work definitely measures up to the real thing. Capturing such an ornate design with such a limited color pallet must have been tricky, but the final looks to balance form and function brilliantly.
Aido Kessler knows that LEGO can be an expensive hobby. As piece counts in official sets continue to rise, so too does the price of the sets. Heck, I paid less for my first car than I did for certain Star Wars sets on display in my house. That’s why it’s so nice of Aido to remind us that you don’t always need a lot of bricks to stage an epic build. Here, Aido has recreated the iconic Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back with scarcely more than a dozen pieces. It’s a budget build that’s big on blockbuster action.
BetaNotus has fallen into a familiar trap. When you cover the work of the Adult Fans of LEGO community, there are just certain themes you’re going to see repeated over and over again. Custom Batmobiles, X-Wings, and Back to the Future DeLoreans are as plentiful as can be. And a familiar build that ranks right up with those is the classic quadrupedal mech for fishing expeditions. I can’t tell you how many… Hold on, I’m getting a message. I’m sorry, I’m being told we’ve never seen a build like this before. Word from TBB leadership is this build is delightfully creative and more mechs for unexpected tasks would be welcome. My bad.
