Posts by Theo Spencer

Fear the Gods worshipped in this Cathedral

Around this time last year, we featured a terrific (if slightly unsettling) creature build from Aidan Hayward (AjRed17). As it turns out, it was the first in a series of awesome beasts all using some common features: mostly grey builds, with spindly limbs and gold-and-brown appendages, using the Gungan shield as the eyepiece. The latest entry, named Cathedral, is the biggest one yet. It seems to have grown out of… well, a cathedral! The way various spires and other elements of Gothic and Neo-Gothic architecture have been woven into its structure is superb. But like the others, my gaze is invariably drawn towards the eye at the ‘entrance’ to the cathedral. It’s almost hypnotic… I’m obsessed! I can’t wait to see more in this vein.

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Bringing the might of the Empire to the podracing arena

One of the great things about the podracers in Star Wars is that it’s quite easy to put a creative spin on it. Two massive engines, link it to a cockpit with some flimsy cables, and voila! Having said that, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an Imperial podracer like Rubblemaker‘s here. Using the TIE fighter’s signature ball cockpit as the pod is really clever (and probably safer than the open cockpits some other podracers have). The engines also take some design cues from the Empire’s main starfighter. Like the cockpit it just seems like such a natural design choice, but I’m not sure I would have thought of it!

This think tank will steal your tank engine

We’ve just had a whole month of themed builds in the form of Febrovery, but now we’re in March we’re going straight into another one. It’s Marchikoma! And who better to kick things off than Cole Blaq? This particular tachikoma (or think tank, if you prefer) draws inspiration from Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky, with a microscale city on its back. The link to the viaduct is particularly neat. Either this city exists as a massive turntable to turn the trains around, or it lies in wait for trains to stop before stealing them. In that sense perhaps it’s a bit more Mortal Engines than Studio Ghibli. Either way, it’s a great way to kick off the month. Why not have a look at what previous Marchikomas have brought us while we wait for more?

“I came in like a cuuu-rling stone!”

I love this fun scene from Ids de Jong. It depicts the beloved classic space minifigures enjoying a game of curling. While the curling stones are cleverly made using a Dots decorative piece, Benny has taken to launching himself down the… Whatever a curling playing field is called. A rink, I guess? Anyway, it’s much to the amusement of the onlookers, with the exception of the brown spaceman. He’s the only one who seems to have noticed the baby on the rink. What drama! For a relatively simple build, the careful posing of the figures and choice of facial expressions really breathe life into this scene.

The everblue trees in the everglow forest

Here in Finland, many of the forests (and there are a lot of forests) are made up of evergreen trees, which stay green all year round. Eli Willsea has created a LEGO scene that could well be in one of the Nordic countries: a reindeer wandering through a peaceful Everglow forest. Wait, everglow? I guess the trees aren’t very green here… And that’s intentional. Eli says this was a LUG challenge to build things in unusual colours. So we have lavender water, light green rocks, dark orange forest floor, dark blue leaves, and a pink frog. It all looks quite mystical, underlined by the glowing fruit in the trees that, presumably, give the forest its name.

Rover (noun): a person who spends their time wandering

When it comes to the LEGO monthly challenges, sometimes it takes something unique to stand out in a crowded field. In fact, when it comes to standing, that’s exactly what Louis Barbedor (Loysnuva)‘s latest Febrovery entry is capable of! This really is a rover in the pre-space-age sense of the word. It’s a cute idea that made me audibly chuckle when I saw it. It’s not the only clever rover to have graced our site in the past month, though – take a look at some of the others.

In the tropics, even construction work can feel like a holiday

High-visibility equipment and overalls are as much a staple of building sites as spades, diggers and portacabins. They don’t come much more high-visibility than this fabulous excavator-walker-flamingo hybrid from Redverse. Inspired by artwork (and indeed a sub-theme, of sorts, called Tropicon) conceived by Yannick Godts, it makes great use of some of the more unusual colours in the LEGO palate. However, the local health and safety authorities likely won’t be completely happy. Sure, it’s all very high-vis, and our construction worker does have head and face protection, but no safety harness at that height? And working in swimwear? We’re not on holiday here, you know!

Video killed the... Humans?

At first glance, I thought this LEGO TV mecha by Sebastien Racicot looked rather charming. Bright colours on the screen, big expressive eyes, and generally a neat idea for a robot-mecha-thing. But that was before I noticed the wasteland that it’s walking around in. And the ominous caption, which simply reads “LEGO robot TV domination”. Suddenly those big red eyes and grabbing claws look a lot more menacing. It makes you wonder if he might have listened to the Buggles one time too many, and killed a little more than the radio star. Although I’ve just remembered a ‘minifigure’ called Tee-Vee from the Alpha Team sets, so maybe this is just that character’s bigger sibling looking for him? Yeah, let’s go with that. That sounds much less scary!

Dieselpunk for the electric age

We have here an electric automobile, rendered in LEGO, named after Nikola Tesla. Thankfully, though, Flickr user Ghost Hunter Gunn doesn’t spend their spare time making questionable decisions about social media sites and acting like a second-rate Bond villain. Probably. Of late, they’ve spent their spare time upgrading an old build of theirs. This creation is a digital render, but is still faithful to the original. And what a cracking design! Dieselpunk always looks cool to me, but sometimes strays a bit too much on the greasy side. Ghost Hunter Gunn has really leaned into the art-deco with this one, producing great results. It’s definitely more of a looker than the Cybertruck, that’s for sure….

Some LEGO icons – but not as you know them

As far as motor races go, they don’t come much more iconic than the Monaco Grand Prix, made in LEGO here by alex_bricks. Not content with choosing an iconic circuit, he’s chosen an iconic race as well: the 1988 edition. As a result, one of the most dominant cars in F1 history also makes an appearance in the form of the red-and-white McLaren MP4/4. And driven by the legendary Ayrton Senna, no less. There’s more LEGO icons here than in a LEGO store! While the immersive setting is superb, I’m most impressed by the cars. LEGO F1 cars are sometimes prone to being either oversized relative to minifigures, or looking too bulky. Alex has absolutely nailed the design here though. The sleek noses are expertly crafted with some wedge slopes and angled tiles, which look just perfect at this scale. That the cars are so recognisable without any custom decals is a testament to the quality of this build!

Super-sizing a super-sized Bionicle titan

Bionicle? Sure, it was great. But not the Toa – the bigger Titan sets were where it was at! There’s been a glut of builds from the Mahri Nui subtheme surfacing lately, and Mitch Phillips has contributed this awesome re-imagining of Maxilos and Spinax. I recognize a lot of the pieces from the original set here, which is always nice to see in re-dos like this. Of course, Maxilos (the… I was going to say human one; bi-pedal one, I guess?) has his mask, but he’s also clearly been hitting the gym. Dude has been getting ripped since being taken off the shelves!

The dog-like Spinax has also bulked out a bit. So much so that the original headpiece is big enough to be used as the upper legs, as well as the head. I love meta parts use like that! The yellow cables on its back are probably my favourite addition though. With the added lighting, they give off a very cool cyborg feel. I see only one problem with this build: it makes my copy of Maxilos and Spinax look like mere Matoran…

Swell house: Does what it says on the tin

This swell house is, well, pretty swell! It comes courtesy of Pan Noda, and is as beautiful as it looks unstable. Did the architect have one too many shandies while designing this one? Or perhaps the building company had the instructions upside down? I can’t help noticing a lot of wizard’s wands used as decoration, so it could be that it’s magic holding this house up. I do wonder how such a property would be described by an optimistic estate agent… “Quaint countryside house, four floors with excellent views, and in a quiet neighbourhood. Property includes a lush garden with rock features. Unrestored property with period charm.”

To be fair, I’d be tempted to move in, albeit very carefully. Thankfully if you’re worried about dropping stuff off the side, there are plenty of nets hidden in this house. This cutaway shows exactly where: they’re used to give the walls their curves!