About Alexander

Alexander Alekseev is an active member of the Russian LUG since 2007. Linguist by education, he believes that LEGO pieces are the most effective mean of self-expression and communication between people.

Posts by Alexander

Love is in the air

Pete Strege reminds us of one of the most powerful things in this world — no, not about the Joker’s sense of humor, but about love. Because what could be more romantic than a breathtaking flight in a hot air balloon above Gotham city?

The balloon’s envelope is something of a masterpiece. Those are just regular plates and wedges, but the shape they form is simply perfect. In case you missed it, the black and red diamonds are an extremely smart combination of LEGO parts, including the newest 2×2 wedges.

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An adorable tsar on his adorable little throne

You don’t usually put the words “tsar” and “adorable” in one sentence, but here is the exception… This LEGO tsar is adorable! A charming sketch by vir-a-cocha depicts the famous Tsar Gorokh from Russian fairy tales. A little bit shy, a little bit silly and naive — all these traits are perfectly conveyed using a handful of pieces.

If you take a closer look you may notice that this figure features no regular bricks or plates. That’s because this creation was an entry in a local building contest, where builders were not allowed to use any basic pieces. The result is an outstanding mixture of modified plates and hinges that simply puts a smile on your face.

Chillful William, ladies and gentlemen!

Famous cartoon character Chilly Willy is probably the most charesmatic penguin in the whole state of Alaska. (Yes, he’s from Alaska — I double checked that!) His enormous charm fits in just a hanful of hand-drawn lines. Tremah put together a dozen or so black and white armour pieces and captured all the charm this little penguin has. Even his adorable hat! I wish I could place this build on my work desk, so that it would show people who distract me from blogging where the door is!

This giant LEGO Tower Bridge replica can fit two real Land Rovers

Remember that giant record-breaking ferry built in Copenhagen, Denmark not so long ago? Now we finally got just the right bridge for that ferry to pass under! LEGO Certified Professional Duncan Titmarsh and the rest of his team at Bright Bricks have brought to life one of the most ambitious LEGO projects we have ever seen.

With almost 6 million bricks (5,805,846 pieces, to be precise) this bridge became the biggest LEGO sculpture ever built — 500,000 bricks bigger than the previous record, the life-sized LEGO X-wing revealed in New York’s Times Square as part of the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon promotion. This bridge is about 13 meters (more than 40 feet) high, and can easily fit two heavy Land Rovers on its deck.

The culmination of the building process, which took 5 months, was a spectacular opening show. It featured some of the most prominent British celebrities, including Bear Grylls (in the picture above), sailing Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie driving the new SUV under the bridge, and the British equestrian star Zara Phillips. Some of the most impressive shots are in the video below.

The Bright Bricks team has also posted a great little animated “making of” video to their YouTube channel.

Train station diorama has everything a railway enthusiast dreams of

Polish builder Maciej Drwięga has spent more than 3 years meticulously planning and building this mind-blowing railway diorama. This is one of those LEGO masterpieces which, once noticed, will make you fill a cup with your favorite drink, lean forward, and spend a good half-hour eyeing every little detail.

The highlight of the scene for me is an unremarkable but appealing model of an ST43 locomotive. I love that Maciej has put no logos or symbols on it. The result is a nifty train, featuring a winning combination of sand green, dark green, and yellow.

However, it’s not just the trains and track that make the diorama, but also the surroundings. A couple of platforms, the train station building, goods storage with ramp, diesel fueling facility, a workshop, an engine shed — you name it, it’s there. Some stunning retro trucks? Here you go!

Truly magical things happen when night falls on the town. The longer you look at these pictures, the more clearly you can hear night shift staff servicing locomotives in the engine shed.

And, of course, go and check the builder’s full album featuring more than a hundred pictures!

Helicopters of the future are just like regular helicopters, but from the future

Have you ever wondered what the helicopters of the future will look like? Wonder no more, as mini gray is here to show us one. You may think “Hey, I’ve seen this one among the World City sets in 2003!”. Close, but not exactly. This orange beast features many cooler building ideas, including an awesome application of Technic panels and a brilliant choice of the cockpit windshield. I bet there must be a military modification with a couple of massive guns on both sides, but let us dream about a peaceful future tonight.

Jubilee Seaways ship sets the world record with more than 1,000,000 LEGO bricks

September is traditionally the month when LEGO fans all around the world design huge ships. Many of our readers are taking part in the annual SHIPtember event, building spacecrafts more than 100 studs long. We’ve already covered a couple of the more impressive projects.

DFDS Seaways, Northern Europe’s largest shipping and logistics company, throws its hat into the ring with an enormous futuristic concept of a ferry. The head of the project, world-famous LEGO builder Warren Elsmore, took help of 7000 assistants from DFDS to put together over a million bricks to complete the largest LEGO ship in the world.

Of course, this giant is no spacecraft, but her dimensions can be compared to those that are orbiting our planet out there. At more than 12 meters long (almost 40 feet!) no wonder it demands its own truck to be transported around.

My favorite part of the project is not the ferry herself, but the (relatively) small cars and trucks on her deck. Not only do they help reveal the scale of the ship, but also look adorably cute for such small and relatively undetailed components.

Bonus points for those readers who can guess which official LEGO set this little beauty resembles:

This starfighter’s design is terribly good

Designing a starfighter is fairly easy. Designing an outstanding starfighter is, well… a bit harder. Finally we may have a universal recipe for that, courtesy of Cole Blaq. Take out your notepads and write down the ingredients:

– One half of a B-Wing base (choose a firm one, not wilted)
– Two X-wing engine modules (not too big)
– One slung-under TIE fighter cockpit (the juicier the better)
– If desired, one small Star Destroyer laser battery
– A pinch of creativity

Combine well, and freeze on Hoth for 60 minutes. Then serve cold. Sprinkle servings with a pinch of astro-droids.

This battle carrot be for real

Even though there are some spooky carrots in this year’s harvest, most of them fight on the light side of the force. Dvd introduces us to the terrible confrontation between the Vegetarian Republic (cute fluffy bunnies) and Carnivore Empire (even cuter puppies). Honestly, I don’t see any reason for the conflict – I can imagine both sides happily coexisting in any Friends set.

The meat TIE fighter is neat, but the carrot X-wing deserves special attention. The amount of vitamin A in its adorable carrot guns should be just right to feed any imperial trooper, while its sprawling stems are a brilliant engineering solution for better maneuvering ability. Don’t forget to check out the builder’s photo stream for more awesome creations and hopefully more stories about the vegetables far, far away.

Ask for help from an adult if you need to use sharp cutting tools

Nobu_tary‘s photo stream is a bizarre repository, storing a steampunk gun, a chunky knight, (my personal favourite) a delicious yummy slice of pizza and many more brilliant extraordinary ideas — extraordinary to the point when you stop guessing a certain LEGO piece or the way it is attached to other pieces, but start admiring the way the builder sees the world around them.

These nippers are the cutting edge of LEGO building. Useless tail pieces from Ben 10 finally get a second chance as plier handles, completed with some smart use of a couple of Technic connectors and small claws. And I can’t wait what all those gray pieces will be once they are painted and glued together…

LEGO City 60122: Volcano Crawler [Review]

Well, raise your hand if you miss good old Rock Raiders sets. They were huge, brutal and were all about fighting rock monsters and crashing rocks — and that was cool. Technically, crashing rocks with huge machines is still pretty cool, but something went wrong when the Power Miners sets hit store shelves in 2009. Of course, they looked fresh and bright, but something has irrevocably changed at that moment. The new Volcano Explorers City sub-theme is a new brave attempt to revive the all-time classic. 60122 Volcano Crawler is the most well-balanced set of this year, containing 324 pieces, 3 minifigs and retailing at the price of $39.99 / 29.99€ (currently on sale for 20% off on Amazon), and includes almost everything the new sub-theme has to offer.

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Japanese serenity recreated in Danish bricks

“Elaborate” and “enchanting.” As simply as that, these two words define Japanese culture for me. Surprisingly, this pair of words perfectly suits these two LEGO creations below.

Andrew JN charms us with this tiny diorama. It is hardly bigger than a medium Creator set, but take your time to choose what exactly you’re going to behold first: an astonishing roof, some charming usage of color in trees or river water calmly flowing by.

Gzu Bricks presents us another tiny vignette featuring one of the giant bonshō bells. I especially love that both creations are of the same concept — Japanese architecture surrounded by Japanese flora — but look how different building techniques are! Gzu Bricks’ build might look a little simpler, but I can’t imagine anything that could make it more complete.