About Chris

Chris Malloy (porschecm2) has been a LEGO fan nearly all his life, having started with System bricks at age 3. He is the co-author of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars, and his creations have been featured in several books and The LEGO Movie. He also helped develop the first LEGO Minecraft set, 21102 Minecraft Micro World: The Forest, which has gone on to inspire a whole theme of sets. He's been active in the online community since 2002, and regularly attends LEGO fan conventions such as BrickCon and BrickCan. He enjoys building in a wide range of themes, but keeps returning to Castle, Space, and Pirates. Check out his LEGO creations and photography here.

Posts by Chris

Mastering the minifig-scale big rig

Polish builder Jakeof has been building minifig-scale big rigs and construction equipment for a while now, and has gotten rather good at it. We’ve highlighted one of his builds once before, but it’s high time for our readers to see what other excellent models he’s been churning out in the meantime. It takes a great eye and even better building skills to create this sort of detail and realism at minifig scale. At a glance these don’t even look like LEGO models. The front-end loader in particular is one of the finest brick-built examples I’ve ever seen.

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Adding a little sleek to Classic Space

Chris Perron modeled this swept-back Classic Space-inspired planetary truck on his microscale version from earlier this year, and it looks wicked. The long, low windscreen on the back is a fantastic design element, and gives this rover a very futuristic feel. The brick-built wheels are a great touch, as well. Chris says it features working steering and suspension.

Surveyor of a lost world

Shannon Sproule takes us to the rubble left behind on a crumbling planet, as we are safely ensconced within an all-terrain surveying vehicle, capable of plowing over even the largest piece of scrap. I love how the arms on the front give the vehicle a submarine aesthetic, perfect for the caustic environs of a ruined world.

The Atomic Age in a new age: Construction with Nick Trotta

Builder extraordinaire Nick Trotta is famous for building highly complex spacecraft and polishing them to perfection, and that reputation is well-deserved as evidenced by the Atomium. Not only has Nick built a stunning model, but he’s rebuilt and redesigned it enough times that he can build it completely from scratch in one sitting, as if he were following (his own) instructions. This works out great for us, though, as we get to see exactly how everything fits together, thanks to a nifty time-lapse video of Nick building the model start to finish.

And if one isn’t enough, his previous model, which is also lovely but has a more industrial workhorse feel, also features a complete construction video so we can learn a few pointers.

Massive LEGO Star Wars Trench Run diorama

“Almost there … almost there…”
This sweet diorama of the infamous Death Star run (famously modelled after WWII dogfighting movies) has loads of detail, as we’ve come to expect from Korean professional building team OliveSeon.

Click more to see the amazing details from all angles

Hurtling through the abyss of space

This Juggernaut by Tim Clark has an immense, weighty industrial aesthetic, and I love it. This looks like the sort of spacecraft capable of carrying its crew to the very brink of human survivability, and coming back intact.

Away into the sunset, my friends

Tristan made this beautiful scene as a tribute to two friends who recently passed away. I was struck by the realism of the sun’s burning disk and the great use of forced perspective, and I think it makes a lovely memorial.

A stronghold for an empire: Fort Portugal

On the last rock in the south, there lies a great fortress. Bustling with Imperial Guards and fortified against bloodthirsty pirates, this fortress by Greg Dix stands a monument to the Imperial might flexing its power across the globe.

Actually, I don’t know what empire LEGO’s Imperial Guards are meant to represent. I’ve always thought of them as the plastic manifestation of Britain’s colonial-era power, but I’ve seen some evidence that the line grew out of LEGO’s attempt to create a Napoleonic theme, so they may be French. Greg’s title implies the setting for this bastion is Portugal, so perhaps they are Portuguese here. Provenance aside, the fort has working winches and is rigged to light up. Greg built this in March, and I’m not sure how we missed it before, but I’m happy I stumbled upon it today, because it’s lovely.

Massive 5-foot LEGO model of USS Kitty Hawk

This 1:200 scale model of the USS Kitty Hawk isn’t the first large-scale LEGO ship model Matt Bace has built, but it just might be his best yet. While his model of the USS Missouri is impressive at over 4 feet in length, the Kitty Hawk dwarfs it, coming at 5 feet, 3 inches long, and boasts an astonishing complement of aircraft, with over 40 helicopters, fighter jets, and support aircraft adorning its flight deck. This model was built digitally, but anyone who doubts the skill and time required by a model like this has clearly never built a large, detailed digital model.

Ghostbusters coming to LEGO Dimensions! [News]

Ghostbusters will be joining a host of other franchises in the upcoming LEGO Dimensions, a multi-character collectible-figurine action game similar to the popular Skylanders and Disney Infinity games.

Players will purchase the base game, and then character expansion packs to add more playable characters to the game world. Today at Gamescon in Germany, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, the publisher for Dimensions, announced the latest character pack, Ghostbusters. The game will be developed by Traveler’s Tales Games, makers of many other much-loved LEGO games such as LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. No word yet on when these will be available for pre-order, though the base game and many other character packs can be pre-ordered now! The base game will be available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Wii U.

Today’s announcement included 3 character packs for LEGO Dimensions, as well as a few images of the characters being used in-game. So far confirmed packs include:
• Simpsons
• Portal
• Back to the Future
• Doctor Who
• Ghostbusters
• Multiple DC characters including Wonderwoman, Superman and Batman
• Scooby Doo
• Jurassic World
• LEGO Ninjago
• The LEGO Movie
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Lord of the Rings
• LEGO Chima

Click through to see the rest! Continue reading →

Crashed LEGO Star Destroyer from Star Wars Episode VII

I’m not ashamed to say that I’m incredibly excited for Star Wars Episode VII. The trailer is filled with amazing shots and locales, not least of which is that haunting panning shot of the crashed Star Destroyer on the planet Jakku. LEGO builder KevFett2011 was also struck by the imagery, and he’s turned out this fantastic diorama of the dune-swept spaceship.

EXTERMINATE: This LEGO Dalek is coming for you!

EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! This LEGO version of Doctor Who’s infamous villains, the Daleks, looks creepily accurate. I almost thought creator Matt De Lanoy’s version was made of cardboard, plastic, and a toilet plunger, like the show’s originals. Don’t forget that official Doctor Who LEGO is now a thing you can buy, with the Doctor making an appearance in LEGO Dimensions!