Posts by Norm Harper

Phone home and tell them about this great parts usage

My first thought when looking at this build was that LEGO already makes an E.T. that would scale perfectly. But it turns out that using the official E.T. pieces wasn’t in the cards for builder Dan Ko, as this is his first creation for an Iron Builder competition. The seed element is the toy winder key in dark orange, which explains why it’s subbing in for the titular alien in this box art recreation. It’s an out-of-this-world repurposing of the part. And we have to award bonus points for the video game controller acting as Elliot’s hair.

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Taking modular buildings to the next level.

LEGO’s line of modular buildings have been captivating fans of larger, more advanced sets since 2007. Naturally, the line has inspired plenty of fans to create their own buildings to stand alongside LEGO’s offerings. Builder Sheo has taken custom modulars up a notch by producing a modern building with a working glass elevator.

Have a look at the video below to get a peek inside and watch the elevator in action.

Set your eyes on this classic ‘60s dragster

If you’ve followed builder Tim Henderson for any length of time, you’ve probably guessed he’s a car guy. Tim’s latest build pays homage to Dean Moon, founder of the Moon Equipment brand of racing equipment and accessories. This bright yellow dragster was built by Moon in 1961 and has remained a sort of mascot of the company ever since. Tim’s done an amazing job of recreating the vehicle in minifigure scale, making excellent use of a Legends of Chima hammerhead as the engine. And replicating the “Mooneyes” logo on the side of his Ford Econoline van to haul it is the perfect finishing touch.

Watch the fun as this LEGO car crosses increasingly wider gaps.

A lot of creating custom LEGO builds is problem solving. Will this fit here? How much weight will this connection hold? The Brick Experiment Channel lets us in on their problem-solving process in this video where they try and create a Power Functions-based car that can cross a wider and wider gap between two tables. They definitely hit on some solutions I never would have thought of. (And the failures make for some pretty entertaining crashes.)

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown…merchandise

Ever since 1965, the world has delighted in watching Charlie Brown grapple with the commercialization of the Christmas holiday. And then we turn around and spend our money on A Charlie Brown Christmas merchandise in a manner that would make ol’ Chuck wonder if we were paying any attention at all. There’s the Blu-ray, the music album, an official board game, greeting cards, ornaments, nutcrackers, artificial trees, t-shirts, sweaters… It seems A Charlie Brown Christmas has been licensed out to just about every product imaginable. Except for LEGO. But BenBuildsLEGO has answered my Christmas wishes by delivering a trio of minifig-scale prop builds from the holiday special.

Schroeder’s piano, Snoopy’s doghouse, and Charlie Brown’s sad little Christmas tree are all instantly recognizable, and I couldn’t imagine an official set looking any better. Some of the pieces here are kind of rare, like the medium azure life preserver acting as Linus’s blanket at the base of the tree. But if you’re decorating your LEGO city for Christmas, they’ll be worth tracking down. And don’t feel bad for dropping the money on some new LEGO pieces for your holiday celebration. Let’s face it, we all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. (It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.)

Let your inner child explore the galaxy in this Neo-Classic Space pod

If you’re a LEGO fan of a certain age, it’s impossible not to love a sci-fi vehicle built in blue and gray. That old school color combo will transport you back to the 80s as effectively as a slingshot around the sun. The Galaxy Explorer Ground Station is no exception to this rule. Sure, its round shape and detailed greebling might set it apart from the simpler sets of yesteryear, but there’s no denying where LEGO builder The Brick Artisan draws his inspiration from. This one-man landing pod not only looks great, but it’s also packed with all the play features our inner children are looking for, like a spinning radar dish and opening door. Remove the roof, and you’ll find lots of cool computer details. It’s everything a young (or old) explorer needs on a hostile and unexplored alien planet.

This incredible LEGO Star Wars build shows the temple on Yavin 4 after the war

The great temple on Yavin-4 was a Rebel Alliance headquarters early in their fight against the Empire. It even served as the main staging base for the assault on the original Death Star. But, once that massive space station was destroyed, the Rebels were forced to evacuate Yavin-4 and establish bases elsewhere in the galaxy. So, what happens to a rebel base after a hasty retreat? Markus Aspacher spent a year constructing an answer in LEGO for us.

Click here to explore the temple on Yavin-4 after the war.

A giant AT-AT footprint is the last thing you want to find in the snow.

Scout patrol on Hoth is one of the hardest jobs in the Rebel Alliance. When the weather is at its worst, a probe droid could be floating just a few feet away from your face and you’d never know it. The thick snow and the howling wind hides so much from your senses. “An AT-AT will be easy to spot,” you tell yourself. You let your guard down. Until you’re looking down at its footprint and wondering if the mechanical behemoth is standing over you right now…

To celebrate the release of the 75313 UCS AT-AT, Anthony has created a diorama of a lone Rebel Scout making a chilling discovery. In addition to crafting a realistically rough and rocky landscape, Anthony’s taken care to show how the weight of an AT-AT pushes the foot down into the snow and left an imprint through layers of rock on the planet surface. It really gives an impression of just how massive and imposing the AT-AT is. Anthony’s promising that some more Hoth builds are coming up soon from him. While you wait, make sure and check out some of Anthony’s other Star Wars themed dioramas.

This summer scene is the cure for my autumn blues.

It was 90 degrees yesterday. Sure, Thanksgiving is next week. I think that’s why I responded so warmly to this delightful vignette by gGh0st. My favorite shows are already peppered with ads featuring snowmen and elves. The shopping center across the street even has a giant Christmas tree in its center. But this past weekend, on our way to get some ice cream, my wife and I saw some kids playing in our community pool. And who could blame them? It’s hot.

So, it was nice to know someone else wasn’t thinking about gingerbread and raking leaves. This ode to the CMF Series 21 Beekeeper shows him tending to his hive in a backyard that’s ready for some summer fun. I say we join Mr. Beekeeper, grill up some honey mustard chicken, pour some lemonade, and pretend it’s still August.

This Spider-Man scene features some pretty massive spoilers…maybe.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home made it pretty clear that Sony and Marvel are looking to double-down on the multiverse-hopping success of Into the Spider-Verse. Thanks to a spell cast by Dr. Strange, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker will be facing off against foes from previous Spider-Man film eras, including Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock from 2004’s Spider-Man 2. And if the villains from these different movies can show up in the MCU, you have to wonder, “Who else might be along for the ride?” It seems the worst kept secret in history is that this film will feature Tom Holland joined by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, each reprising their own version of the Web-slinger, for three times the wall-crawling action. Of course, that’s not confirmed. It might just be speculation. It could be that the internet rumor mill has gone haywire and is setting legions of Spider-Fans up for disappointment when Tom Holland is left to fight these villains all by his lonesome. If that’s the case, Ben Cossy has us covered with this delightful diorama that imagines what it might be like if all three Spider-Men went up against a Sinister Six composed of Electro, Mysterio, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, and Sandman.

I have to say, Kraven’s an interesting choice to round out the villain roster. He’s the one character in the line-up who hasn’t appeared in a live-action film as yet. Which doesn’t mean we won’t see him. But who would you cast?

One spaceship built in two different scales.

This is an interesting challenge of a kind that I hadn’t seen before – the same spaceship, built at two different scales, by two different builders. Oscar Cederwall got inspired by the train light prism, and used two of them to create the cockpit of an original microscale spaceship. The Hornbill Deep Space Reconnaissance Frigate has an upright stance that might remind you of Boba Fett’s trademark ship, but it’s got plenty of its own flair. It may be small, but this is no mere advent calendar creation. The multiple offset angles show there’s a lot of technique at work in this tiny space.

And here’s where it gets even more fun – in a challenge worthy of a LEGO Masters episode, Nicolas van Grootveld was tasked with recreating the Hornbill in minifigure scale. And, boy, did he deliver. This larger Hornbill translates all the angles and colors of its little brother, but with plenty of embellishment worthy of its larger scale. I especially love how you can see how certain individual pieces translated, like the microscale ship’s dark grey 1×3 inverted slope at the very bottom.

Scarlet Witch’s cabin is a build worth studying.

The end of Disney+’s WandaVision series finds Wanda Maximoff sitting on the porch of a remote cabin in the mountains. As a tea kettle whistles, she rises and goes inside to pour herself a drink and we see that inside the cabin is a second Wanda, this one in full Scarlet Witch attire, hovering in the air and using her powers to comb through ancient texts. No doubt she’s looking for answers to the questions the show raised. If this is a spoiler for you, I don’t know what to say. You’ve had eleven months to watch it. And Lego_nuts has spent one and a half of those eleven months creating a custom build inspired by Wanda’s quest for knowledge.

The cabin we see here is much larger than the one glimpsed in the show, but in a way that’s the perfect direction to take. Since the studying Scarlet Witch appears to be some sort of astral projection, I like to imagine this build represents the mystical library that Wanda is accessing. Standing multiple stories tall, this space is filled with books and artifacts in every possible corner. That, combined with its dramatic lighting, makes this a true marvel of scene setting. But you won’t need to study ancient texts to find out how he did it. Just have a look at the video below.