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

This Shadow Hunter fighter’s alien design makes me feel uncomfortable

Great creations are those that are able to stirs emotions — joy, amazement, compassion or even uneasiness. Somehow Sheo. has developed such an unusual building style, that almost each of his works looks a little bit disturbing to me — of course, in the best sense of the word.

When you hear the word “starfighter” you prepare yourself to see an awesome cockpit, some huge engines and a couple of powerful laser guns. But not this time. I can distinguish engines on the back and at least a dozen of gun barrels on the front, but the overall appearance gives me shivers as I can’t tell what these silver wings or round golden tiles are for…it’s convincingly alien. And don’t even tell me there will be Mark III!

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The human element

No doubt, World War II has had an enormous impact on modern society and culture, from cinema, books, art and even LEGO creations. Behind dozens of amazingly precise scale models of aircraft, tanks and ships there still hide just a handful of touching scenes telling stories of ordinary people who had to fight for our freedom. One of them is this powerful work by Dmitriy and Anna.

Builder Olga Rodionova also contributes with her heartwarming scene of a young girl meeting her beloved as he is returning home from the war. I don’t think this scene needs any description; the poses created by Olga say more than any words can. Also, the birch in the background is something I have never seen before – such a brilliant texture!

Quick! Hide your chrome LEGO pieces from this curious magpie!

Birds have already become an independent genre of brick-built sculptures. And whether they’re redoubtable birds of prey or it’s a sly magpie — as built by Felix Jaensch here — they all look fascinating and wonderfully realistic.

The title picture of the model barely reveals its main peculiarity. Besides an astonishing, instantly recognizable shape for the bird, its color scheme is much more interesting than one may think. Dark green and dark blue pieces, which are clearly visible from another angle, create the same play of colors as real feathers.

One man’s toys are another man’s treasure

French builder sweetsha puts on display this cute and funny scene where he uses regular bricks as just… bricks. But inside such a huge and awesome wooden chest they look absolutely precious. The use of the pearl gold wheel is quite clever, and looks perfect.

We can only imagine how long did it take the pirates to dig the chest out, but they seem to be the happiest minifigures in the whole world!

No one warned me that battle dragons can be so cute!

Girls’ themes like Friends and Elves have granted us a huge variety of new pieces, from minifig accessories to some lovely dragon heads and wings. So as soon as the 2016 Elves sets were revealed in January, it was just the matter of time before the fan community found better applications for all those new parts. LEGO 7 makes a perfect upgrade of the fire dragon from Elves set 41175.

I’m quite confused, as all the armour parts go amazingly well with each other and the whole figure is truly impressive, but I still can’t take my eyes away from the dragon’s face. Just look at those charming eyes and cute teeth! And who could know that the new wings would have such an astonishing color gradient. Simply perfect!

Dave, stop. Stop, will you?

…but we all know Dave won’t stop. RichardBoard conquered us with just a single picture of his recent build recreating the scene of probably the most tense confrontation between a human and artificial intelligence, from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Although this vignette is much smaller than the original spaceship from the movie, Richard did an amazing job lighting it, making all the small transparent plates look awesome. HAL 9000’s red eye being blurred in the background gives the whole shot a truly cinematic look. But Dave’s spacesuit is the only thing that looks a little bit odd; that’s due to a tiny Classic Space logo on his forearm, which, in fact, is an amazing way of combining too universes — LEGO and Stanley Kubrick’s — in one picture.

Antigravity sentry drone invades the world of Ma.K hard suits

Rarely do we see new mechs and drones in the style of the Ma.K universe. This genre is quite specific and demands some extraordinary thinking and use of common pieces for impressive greebling. Marco Marozzi continues to amaze us with his alien-looking droids, and the way he treats the most useless parts leaves me speechless.

The structure of the drone is not overcomplicated, still there are so many parts that catch your eye. The secret of the Marco’s creations lies in his ability to combine pieces whose shapes complement one another best. For instance, in this drone he uses a bunch of round bricks of various sizes and colors. They all go pretty neatly together with a couple of sharp lines and corners, not to mention a dazzling choice of stickers.

Ceci n’est pas un armadillo

Tremah is at his best when building with Bionicle and Hero Factory parts. But this is what happens when such a top-class builder gets his hands on a handful of System pieces. He tries to persuade us that his latest build is not an armadillo, but we all know what is going on…

The more you study the picture, the clearer it becomes just how simple the model actually is. Tremah perfectly captures the shape of an armadillo and its peculiar armour shell. The tiny paws and cute round eyes turned out pretty nice as well.

LEGO Friends pop group brings their first music tour to your neighborhood with this awesome rolling stage

Tyler Sky has shared his latest creation, which is so remarkable it could almost be an official set. This rig and trailer are packed with tons of stage equipment, and the girls look ready to throw a concert even in the middle of nowhere.

The concept of a LEGO rig with a trailer is not new, as we are already familiar with them from the various Ferrari racing sets. But a trailer transforming into a stage looks absolutely glamorous, not to mention its cool smooth shape when folded up. And while the outside of the trailer is missing a huge logo of the band with a promo picture, this truck would be a great addition to the LEGO Friends set 41106 Pop Star Tour Bus.

This first class lounge is so luxurious, you won’t regret missing your flight

Airport has been one of the coolest subthemes of LEGO Town sets since the 90s. But while planes have become bigger and better, airport buildings have become more crowded and basic. Andrew Tate rectifies the situation with an outstanding luxury lounge right from the 1950s.

Sharp lines and plain colors are the most memorable features of architecture from that golden age of flight, and Andrew recreates that style perfectly with basic and curved lines. Even the minifigures in this scene fit right in: notice two charming flight attendants in their chic uniforms, taking a break before their next flight.

Agile Hawk will take you on a breathtaking flight above the clouds

Creating a beautiful model is a lot like cookery – you need right ingredients, carefully prepared and elegantly served. I worked up my appetite while checking out this Agile Hawk 2.0 by Thomas W. Saying that stickers contribute a lot to the appearance of the aircraft won’t do much for the description of the model. The combination of white, lime and dark blue has always been great for tiny models, but completed with stickers it’s a double win solution.

But what I love the most about this aircraft is the fact that is not quite an original build. Actually it’s a makeover of an old model by rongYIREN that first appeared in 2012. An obligatory cloud next to the aircraft is simply the best way of creating an atmosphere around it with just one simple detail.

Birdronica Mark 1 is the definition of the birds’ anger

The Angry Birds Movie will not hit screens until the middle of May, but since the official sets are already in stock, we have some impressive Angry Bird themed creations to share with you. Kelvin Low does his best to help birds defeat greedy pigs by summoning up Tony Stark’s engineering talents. The result is the brutal Birdronica Mark 1. Take a moment to appreciate the iconic cartoonish style of the mech; those exaggerated proportions and the expression on the mech’s face are hilarious. There’s even a tiny cockpit on top. You can check all the details on the creator’s Flickr stream.