Posts by Theo Spencer

Itsy bitsy mechano-spider will exterminate all bugs in your home

When it comes to weird mechanical mashups, Caleb Flutur seems to have the market cornered. Fresh off the back of his addition to Sodor’s territorial defense , he has gone in an altogether different direction with this pair of steampunk insects. A lot of steampunk builds like to accentuate the use of, well, steam, but I like the focus on the electromechanical here. After all, that was one of the great advancements of the Victorian era. The clockwork fly makes ingenious use of a pair of window panes as wings. Meanwhile, the spider has a great whopping filament bulb forming its thorax (another Victorian bright idea). I normally think spiders get a bad rap since they eat all sorts of annoying bugs, but this is one arachnid I’d rather not have hanging around my house…

Caleb says this is the first of a few steampunk creatures in the pipeline, so we’ll be keeping a beady eye out for more! In the meantime, why not whet your appetite in our steampunk archives?

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Terraforming has never been so terrifying... Trust me

Pascal has created a vision of a truly terrifying dystopia. This may look like some neo-classic space robots helpfully planning the terraforming of a new, distant world, but look closer! This is a world devoid of mere mortals like minifigures. In this darkest of timelines, our new robot overlords spend their days playing God with the very Earth that sustains us. Rivers bend to their will. They literally move mountains. And we must acquiesce, as tiny figurines moved around on a Warhammer board, powerless to stop them. If only someone had a brick separator… Then we may be free of this torment that the machines call a game…

In the Super Mario universe, the mushrooms are not fun guys

What do people have against mushrooms? I love them, but I had a roommate at college who flatly refused to eat them as they “taste like dirt”. I reckon it’s a case of Goomba-induced PTSD – to be fair, these little walking mushrooms can be a real nuisance in the Super Mario games. Lokiloki29 has paid tribute to this under-appreciated foe with this frankly adorable LEGO Goomba. They’ve perfectly captured its cartoonish likeness. Sure, he looks grumpy, but wouldn’t you be if there was an Italian plumber constantly trying to stomp on your head?

Gawk at this good-looking gladiator in green

Take a look at this intrepid LEGO gladiator from Ivan Martynov. Named Araxacus, he’s resplendent in his green armour. Green is probably a better choice camouflage-wise than the usual gold and silver metal that ancient Greek and Roman warriors wore. Mind you, the big red cape might not help much in that respect. If you did manage to spot him, you’d see a whole host of interesting pieces. Araxacus is so intrepid he even uses some non-LEGO for his armour! The chest piece comes from a Hot Wheels car, of all things, that was designed to be compatible with the Mega Construx brands. I’m particularly drawn to that headpiece, which I’m sure I have a few of in my parts bins but always dismiss for being of no use. More fool me – it looks superb here.

Sailing the seven suds at bathtime

We love a good pun here at TBB, almost as much as we love awesome LEGO builds. So when you create a bathtime-themed pirate ship crewed by the Rubber Duccaneers, it’s going to grab our attention. As you can see, Random Vector has done just that! This build is chock-a-block with charm. Aside from the excellent wordplay in the title (seriously, I’m a bit jealous of that one), Random Vector has really committed to every detail here. Of course there’s the bathtubs that double as pirate ships, but equally the rubber ducky figureheads are a cute touch that unifies the three vessels. The bathroom furniture on the flagship consists of a shower head at the stern, and a plug doubles as an anchor. Genius! The bubbly setting is so effectively done using various transparent pieces, and really elevates this build from good to great. And, naturally, these cannons fire bath bombs, not cannonballs. So if you don’t want to get hit by one… Duck!

Build small, think big

Since being introduced with the LEGO Collectible Minifigure Series 2 back in 2010, the so-called trophy figure has been a boon for microscale and nanoscale builders. Sometimes this means creations at a truly colossal scale (relatively speaking), but Caleb Huet shows us that smaller, more introspective builds can be just as good. In this case, our nano-fig is walking through the desert. I’m not sure whether this takes place in the past or future though. At first, I thought the setting was some Egyptian ruins, but with the markings on the floor I’m not so sure. Did the Egyptians have floor lighting? That seems something more in line with extra-terrestrial civilisations. But the pyramids… What if the ancient Egyptians had help with their superstructures? Did the aliens take the floor lighting back with them? Is our intrepid nano-fig having the same epiphany?

See, small builds really make you think. Even if they’re not particularly sensible thoughts.

Come fly with MEE, let’s fly, let’s fly away...

A lot of the time when we see mecha here on TBB, they look as though they’re about go to an epic battle with a kaiju. But this one from Dicken Liu seems altogether more peaceful. In fact with what looks like a suitcase next to it, perhaps this is a holiday suit! In truth, Liu describes it as a Mars Exploration Exoskeleton, or MEE. No, not me, MEE! I’m not in there. I wouldn’t mind it though – it’s very stylish, considering it’s for space exploration, which is definitely not where you want form to come over function. The red and white colour blocking is excellent, and I love the use of a dragon head for the back of the helmet. It must be a nightmare when going checking in at the spaceport though. Do they still have luggage weight restrictions for flights to Mars? I’m not sure that case will fit in the overhead lockers. And that plant in its hand is definitely getting flagged up at customs.

“I suggest a new strategy, Artoo. Let the Wookiee win.”

Did you know that, despite their visual effects fame, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) only elected to use stop-motion animation once in the original Star Wars? The scene in question is the Dejarik board on the Millennium Falcon, depicted on Instagram by Shaun Sheepa (brick.sheepa). Shaun is a dab hand when it comes to Star Wars creatures, so the holochess board is a veritable feast. You’ve got, um, the big grey one, and, er, the dude with the hammer, and the red… Caterpillar… Thing? I won’t pretend to know their names. I bet Shaun could tell you – after all, he’s done a phenomenal job of building them!

Putting the creative into “Créative Technologie”

Although Finland is often called the home of rallying, in recent years you’d be forgiven for thinking it was France. Since 2003, every year bar one has seen a Frenchman (two Frenchmen, in fact, both called Sébastien) crowned World Drivers’ Champion. From 2004 to 2012, Citroën extended this dominance to the Manufacturers’ championship, although Reddish Blue MOCs‘s depiction is from their leaner, more recent years. Nonetheless, it’s a superb model! It’s built to the same scale as LEGO’s Speed Champions line and would look right at home among them.

The C3 WRC, as it’s called, is packed full of detail, making it very faithful to real rally cars. A spare wheel sits in the trunk, and it can accommodate bonnet lights for night stages. By far the coolest detail is the ability to swap between a tarmac setup and a gravel or snow one. This isn’t done by just swapping out some pieces (although the custom stickers are swapped from Monte Carlo to Finland, which is a nice touch) – there’s a tool in the back to do it on the fly. How cool is that! This car may not have won many rallies in its three years in the WRC, but it’s certainly won our hearts.

Crane your necks to get a good look at this MOC

I love spaceships with unusual shapes, and Pascal has come up with a doozy in this regard. He has dubbed it the Sky Crane; presumably to reflect its role as a cargo-carrying craft, but perhaps also because the cockpit shape is reminiscent of a crane bird. The unique cockpit is a wonderful concept neatly executed, using the transparent yellow windshields from 10497 Galaxy Explorer. Speaking of which, this set didn’t include the moonbase that the original in 1979 had. If it had done, it could well have looked like the mobile habitat slung underneath the Sky Crane here!

First name: Krog, last name: Torturer, middle names: Zaak, the

This friendly-looking chap built by Ivan Martynov is called Krog Zaak the Torturer. With a name like that, there was little chance he’d end up in a nice, safe line of work. Even if the Torturer is just a title, I don’t think you’d want him running the Krog Zaak Daycare or being an accountant. He looks the part as well, very T-800-esque – that is, he could crush you underfoot with those clever springy legs. The head in particular looks very menacing with the yellow popping nicely against the grey machinery. I wonder if he gives good hugs.

“Ernie, two double-deckers at twelve o’clock!”

We’ve seen a few versions of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in LEGO sets. However they all fail to replicate one of its most memorable tricks – distorting itself to squeeze between two London buses. Having done my fair share of rush hour cycling in London, I can confirm that this is no mean feat, and to be fair it’s quite hard to replicate in LEGO form. But that hasn’t stopped LEGO Instagrammer Gilderoy Blockhart from having a crack at it! There aren’t many LEGO pieces in purple (in fact a lot of them have come from Knight Bus sets), so this can’t have been easy. He’s even captured it mid-squeeze, going from six studs wide to a mere two at the front. And all this while still being able to fit Harry Potter himself – and some lights – in at the back! That really is magic.