Not long ago, we featured Joel Short‘s screen-accurate LEGO X-wing. As great a replica as it was, it had nobody to chase it around. Enter Joel’s latest creation (well, actually an update of an old creation, but it’s a great update): the legendary TIE fighter. I don’t know if you can hear a picture, but I look at it and hear a TIE’s distinctive roar.
Can’t shake the fighters on your tail? Let’s get a little closer.
For a starfighter that appears for about 0.3 seconds in the background of Return of the Jedi, the B-wing gets a surprising amount of love (especially from our Managing Editor, Kyle). Maybe it’s the way it swivels, keeping the cockpit upright. Or maybe it’s just the enduring mystery of how exactly this thing is supposed to look like a “B” (what, was “T-wing” somehow taken?). Regardless, this LEGO version by Simulterious looks great. The model captures the asymmetrical coolness of the storied starfighter, along with a level of detail worthy of a film prop (look at the greebling along the cockpit!).
Here’s a view from the back, to give you a better view of the Quadrex Kyromaster ion engines and the hull plating along the ventral wing. Take special note of the sloping where the wing meets the fuselage, which gets just at the right angle. It’s been a while since LEGO has released an official B-wing model, but I’d love to see them try to match this level of detail.
Cartoonist Bill Watterson has always been protective of his magnum opus Calvin and Hobbes, to the point where it’s tough to find any approved merchandise of the characters, but I like to think he’d smile kindly on this charming LEGO build of his two titular characters. Geneva Durand captures the boy Calvin and his tiger pal Hobbes crossing a log bridge in an image from one of their most iconic panels. Tiny white frogs make up Hobbes’s outstretched fingers, while Calvin’s characteristically touseled locks look good as sloped bricks. A red pot makes Calvin’s torso. Rocks and foliage spring up on either side of the bridge. It makes you wonder, what adventure are they off to next?
Christian Bale will always be Batman to me, and the Dark Knight trilogy remains my definitive version of the Caped Crusader’s career. So of course this Tumbler build by ABrickDreamer leaped out at me, so to speak. I love the Tumbler itself poised in mid-leap as it returns to the Batcave (presumably with a heavily drugged Rachel Dawes in the backseat), but as far as parts usage goes, the real MVP is probably the waterfall itself. Power blasts, trans clear minifig stands, rods, and the minifig “flying” stand all work together to give the impression of water cascading from different heights.
Here’s a view from the back, complete with a burst of flame to propel the Tumbler through the opening. Will it be fast enough to save Rachel from the Scarecrow’s toxin? Well, go watch the movie.
The Film Noir Detective from LEGO Collectible Minifig Series 25 appeared in shades of gray, but he came with a colorful accessory: an actual red herring. This clever vignette by ABrickDreamer makes masterful use of the same two-color motif to create an arresting crime scene (no pun intended). Each splash of red is dramatic and eye-catching, like the mysterious red-handed man watching through the window, the woman in the flowing red gown fleeing the scene, and the blood tricking into the river. But whodunnit? The answer to that question is a little less stark: Is it the man with the blood-red hands? Is it the fleeing woman? Are they accomplices? Or was it the snake all along? Hopefully, our intrepid detective can get to the bottom of it soon.
The LEGO 21334 Jazz Quartet is a great set, but what happens if the musicians need to swap out instruments? PaulvilleMOCs has their back, designing these amazing instruments as a supplement to the official set. Both the sax and the trumpet fully capture the intricacy of the real-world instruments, achieved with a few simple parts in the case of the trumpet. The saxophone uses a bigger assortment of pearl gold parts to suggest the instrument’s various tubes and valves, along with a black mouthpiece. The pads (the little round things that lift up to produce different sounds) are represented with well-placed round 1×1 rounded tiles. Both instruments are accurate enough to give me vivid flashbacks of junior high band class.
Can’t pick just one big-budget sci-fi franchise in which plucky insurgents strike back against an evil from the stars? Now you don’t have to. Moptoptrev‘s “Neytiri’s First Space Flight” blends the aerial rides of choice from both Avatar and Star Wars in vivid color. The LEGO creation is part machine, part creature, and all deadly. Even without the Avatar additions, the color scheme makes for a visually stunning X-wing, but the banshee parts take it to a whole new level. The craft’s signature S-foils have been replaced by banshee wings, and the laser cannons are now banshee heads. The largest head forms the nose of the living starfighter. I don’t know how all those heads work together, but one thing’s for sure: if you’re a bad guy, this is one thing you don’t want to see in your rearview mirror.
Grab your friendship bracelets, Swifties, because the queen herself has arrived. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has stunned audiences across the world, and now it makes a stunning LEGO diorama, too. The biggest challenge, says artist Paul Hetherington (aka “brickbaron”), was coming up with a design that could represent the entire tour in a single scene. So he focused on the Lover House, a symbol of Taylor’s extensive career and body of work.
The Eras tour continues after the jump!
In the early 2010s, while most people were watching LOST, I was engrossed in the mysteries of a different show: Fringe. It ran for five seasons before its unjust cancellation, but not before it proved itself to be one of the most thoughtful, creative, and well-written sci-fi shows on air. With that preface to anyone who missed out on Fringe‘s initial run, ledamu12‘s detailed LEGO recreation of Walter Bishop’s lab is a welcome blast from the past.
The wonders of the seafloor are on full display in this entrancing build by BardJaskier, where the variety of ocean flora and fauna represented is matched only by the variety of elements used to build them. In addition to using standard LEGO molds like crabs, octopi, rays, and fish, BardJaskier gets creative to fill out the rest of the marine life. The flame-and-umbrella pairing to create jellyfish is inspired, as are the simple but effective combinations used for the coral polyps. I can also pick out carrots, broomstick ends, purple minifig hair, and tan samurai swords. Go ahead—take a closer look and see what else you can spot. Just make sure to hold your breath.
We’re gonna go out on a limb and guess that this detailed creation by DW_Mocs is going to be the best LEGO camel you’ve seen all day. A close inspection of the hardy desert beast (created for the Middle East category of the Summer Joust 2024 building competition) reveals an insane level of intricacy in the parts used to get the shape right. Just look at the head, for instance—those are pith helmets for eyelids, with minifig arms and standard crash helmets forming the snout. The old Bedouin sitting atop the camel isn’t exactly a slouch in the parts department, either. His white beard is a magnificent assortment of wings and feathered plumes. The pipe with the curling smoke features a gold scorpion at the end. One sun-baked finger even sports a gold ring. There’s a story behind that pipe and ring, for sure. It makes you wonder what journeys these two have faced together, and where their path leads next.
It’s been a rough day for the merchant Steve. He’s just onshore to make a buck or two; unfortunately, he arrived at this idyllic Caribbean harbor town just in time for it to fall victim to enemy attack. Now he must join forces with the pirates of Captain Redbeard if he wants to get out before things get really rough. That’s the tale told in LEGO by Nicholas Goodman in this thrilling scene called “Escape from the Imperial Trading Post.” The thing is, I probably didn’t need to give you all that backstory. The build itself tells the story wonderfully, with a scene that feels ripped from a blockbuster movie: the pairs of combatants locked in desperate combat, the whitecapped waves crashing against the rocks, the palm trees swaying in the breeze. The cliffs have a natural, rugged look to them, and the fort’s whitewashed walls have just the right amount of weathering. Let’s hope Steve makes it to his ship okay; those cliffs look a little dicey.
