Posts by Theo Spencer

A detailed LEGO plane that’s no mirage... Or is it?

LEGO builder Beat Felber is well known for his enormous models of industrial vehicles (exhibit A: our Beat Felber archives). But he’s ringing the changes with his latest model! It’s smaller than his usual fare, of military rather than industrial nature, and more at home in the air than on the ground. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the flawless attention to detail. This plane – and its loadout – is based on a real Dassault Mirage, on display in Beat’s native Switzerland. With the help of some custom decals, it compares very favourably!

It wouldn’t be a Beat Felber model without a bit of functionality as well: on here, the landing gear retracts into the undercarriage. You can see what it looks like in flight on this very smart display stand!

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Mega Star Wars MTT makes me marvel!

Originally introduced in the Phantom Menace, the Multi-Troop Transport (MTT) has seen several LEGO iterations in official Star Wars sets. But none of them have shown the vehicle in the blue-and-grey CIS livery seen in the Clone Wars animated series. The Minikit Guy has also previously built an MTT in Trade Federation brown – but they have updated it to its Separatist colours! And what a model it is, made up of either 10,000 or 11,000 pieces. Hang on – 10 or 11 thousand? Why the difference?

You’ll have to click through the link to find out!

Heading off some flowery NPU

The Botanical Collection has been a great source of Nice Parts Use (NPU) by the standards of LEGO sets, and it’s inspired builders to find their own clever uses for unusual parts. The latest to dig around in their parts bin is Jaroslaw Walter. The result is not one, but two flowering plants, presented in a nice little pond. The lilypad plants make use of some minifigure headwear: a crown in the middle, and the Collectible Minifigure series 21 ladybug figure headdress. There’s another headpiece in the bigger plant too: Ahsoka’s montrals sit at the centre. But what really catches the eye are the pterodactyl wings used as leaves! It borrows some of the floral tech from 10280 Flower Bouquet.

This jade dragon won’t leave you feeling jaded

If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for in LEGO creations of mystical worlds, it’s floating rocks. And had Mihał Ch (AKA BardJaskier) just shown us this serene scene of floating rocks and waterfalls, that would have scratched that particular itch. But he’s gone one further and thrown in another favourite of mine in the shape of a majestic jade dragon! I must confess that I first thought it was a Pokemon called Rayquaza – and in my defense, I think it does bear a passing resemblance. But its presence does lead to some questions; primarily, what is that mysterious figure at the top doing? Although he has a sword in hand, it all seems quite peaceful here, at least for now. Has he come to seek the dragon’s guidance, or challenge it? Or has he just stumbled across it by (mis)fortune?

Chow down on some Chow Mein at this brick-built noodle cart

I love me a bit of Asian food. Korean BBQ chicken, a nice bit of sushi, phad Thai, and you can’t beat some good pho. But right now, I’ve got a craving for some noodles done Chinese street-food style. And for that, I have Khang Huynh and his LEGO noodle cart to thank! For a build seemingly devoid of life, it’s very atmospheric. In part that’s helped by some judicious editing and lighting choices, but it’s as much down to the build. The little details like the soy sauce bottles or the stickers (borrowed from Monkie Kid and Lunar New Year sets, among others) really sell the scene. And there’s the juxtaposition of the old-fashioned cart with the very-much-20th century folding table and stools. I can practically smell the waft of fresh noodles from here… And it’s as good as this build looks!

A holiday home for beach-lovers

Architectural LEGO whizz Pan Noda is taking us to the seaside! There’s just one problem: their apartment is nowhere near the sea (I presume). So what to do? Bring the seaside to the apartment! Pan’s builds skirt that fine line between realistic and whimsical so well, and this is another fine example. At first glance it could just be a painted wall, but when you notice the sandcastle and the water on the floor, it makes you wonder if someone really did make a beach in their own digs. A touch of forced perspective with that excellent deckchair in the foreground really sells it as a surrealist artwork in its own right.

Cooking up a storm in the Iron Builder competition

There’s another round of Iron Builder going on at the moment between Jonah Schultz and Maxx Davidson. As you’d expect, they’ve both been knocking it out of the park, and that’s at least partly helped by the seed part: a LEGO minifigure baseball bat! Maxx’s kitchen is what’s caught my eye. There’s some nice retro styling here, and of course you can see the bat used in the fridge handles and as a utensil handle in the pot. Less conspicuous, but no less ingenious, are the uses as an oven tray and what I believe is a pepper mill or grinder. The latter also makes clever use of a Technic clutch part in red!

LEGO Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, Super Mario & more among LEGO sets revealed at San Diego Comic Con 2024 [News]

San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) has become a favourite place of LEGO’s to reveal new sets, and we’ve been treated to five all-new reveals over the first day of the convention (as well as a first look at the previously-announced 41838 Travel Moments). The pool of characters for your Dungeons & Dragons adventures is increased from September 1st thanks to a Collectible Minifigure Series, 71047 LEGO Minifigures – Dungeons & Dragons. No doubt these will pair nicely with 21348 Red Dragon’s Tale, and you can pre-order them now for US $4.99 | CAN $5.99 | UK £3.49. Another noteworthy minifigure makes a comeback in a Star Wars set, too: 75388 Jedi Bob’s Starfighter turns LEGO folklore into a tie-in with the upcoming Rebuild the Galaxy mini-series. That one releases in just a few days on August 1st, retailing for US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99.

Sets from Super Mario, Minecraft and Sonic the Hedgehog themes have also been unveiled for release in October this year. Pictures of those – and more of the above – after the jump!

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An awesome minifigure redux needs an awesome set redux to go with it

Retro minifigure callbacks have become something of a theme in LEGO’s Collectible Minifigure Series. In CMF Series 25, for instance, we got a callback to the beloved Fright Knights of the 1990s, with Basil the Batlord re-imagined as a Vampire Knight. But what’s a Batlord without a noble steed? Enter talego, who has reduxed the dragon in 6007 Bat Lord to go with the figure. And the results are awesome! It looks suitably frightening in all-black, with some custom red wings to match. Take a close look at the head, too: a sausage gives the dragon not only eyes, but pupils too. And not only are the Batarangs thematically great, they double perfectly as both eyebrows and horns!

Learn how to build spaceships like a true master AFOL [Instructions]

There are some LEGO builders who, every time they present a new build to the world, have us scratching our heads wondering how on earth they’ve made those pieces fit together like that. For no one is that more true than Nick Trotta, whose spaceships feature frankly mind-bending ways of connecting things together. Have you ever wanted to see how he does it? Well, he’s just released instructions for one of his models, so you can do just that! This spaceship was featured here way back in 2018, and it still looks just as good now as it did then. You can build your own using the instructions over on his website!

And while you’re here – why not take a look through some of his other builds that have graced our Nick Trotta archives since the Resonance made its first appearance?

Aye-aye-aye... Is our reaction to this surprisingly creepy jungle critter

Long-time TBB readers will know that our unofficial mascot is a lemur. Why? Well, not only is A. Lemur our resident dogsbody, he’s also the cutest* member of the TBB team, and therefore best suited to the role. Don’t tell him, obviously – he’ll ask for a snack raise, and he already pretends to be the boss when Andrew isn’t looking. In all seriousness, we should count ourselves lucky; we could have ended up with something creepier, like Velocijacktor‘s aye-aye. Now these little primates can be pretty un-nerving in the flesh, at least if Google Images is anything to go by. But rendered in Bionicle pieces, and eyeing up that poor little beetle, suddenly it looks like an other-wordly horror. Yep, we can be content that we just have to contend with our lemu-hey! No! For the last time, the server cables are not for eating!

*relatively speaking, of course

LEGO’s Fortnite collaboration extends to four new sets, all available now for pre-order [News]

Last year, LEGO announced a collaboration with Epic Games and their smash-hit Fortnite, culminating in the TBB review of LEGO Fortnite survival game that we shared just as 2023 ended. Since that first announcement, many have been wondering if some of the Fortnite favourites would make the jump from the screen to actual bricks. Today, we have the answer with four new sets releasing this fall. With some sets meant for play like the minifigure-laden LEGO Fortnite 77073 Battle Bus and others intended for the mantle with the 1,414-piece LEGO Fortnite 77072 Peely Bone statue, these sets offer tons of references to the game and it’s perennial characters (however, mainstay Jonesy remains missing from these offerings). All four sets are available now for preorder (with links and pictures below), and will be released on October 1st.

Drop in to see all four sets and pre-order links after the jump!