About Rod

Rod likes building stuff, particularly steampunk and microscale. He's built for a number of the Dorling Kindersley LEGO books, including LEGO Play and the Awesome Ideas book. When he's not building, he writes, and has published a trilogy of old-fashioned adventure stories. To pay the bills he works in innovation and marketing for one of the world's biggest brewers, inventing new beers and ciders. This is clearly the best job in the world.

Posts by Rod

Bleak but beautiful

If I had to pick one element of the LEGO world where building styles and expectations have changed the most in the last few years, I’d suggest landscaping has seen the biggest transformation in techniques and general quality. The level of detail, clever brickwork, and creativity on display in a good piece of landscaping now is amazing. EdgelessAbyss provides a great example — a scene where the rockwork is the absolute star of the show. The restrained use of colour, the way the tumbledown ruins blend into the surrounding earth, the solitary figure — the elements all comes together to make a bleak and beautiful fantasy scene.

The builder says this was based on the style of the Dark Souls III and Berserk videogames. However, I’d love to see them use these techniques and styling on a version of Ahch-To, the Star Wars planet whose distinctive rocks and twisting stairs were filmed on the Irish island of Skellig Michael.

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TBB sits down with LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon designers at exclusive launch event to talk about the biggest set ever [Interview]

Tonight the LEGO Store in London’s Leicester Square hosted the midnight launch event for the stunning new 75192 Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon – the largest LEGO set ever made. Fans queued outside for hours to be amongst the first to purchase the new set, and the atmosphere as the doors opened was something akin to the air of hysteria which might accompany an iPhone launch. The patient fans were welcomed inside at midnight by a pair of Imperial Stormtroopers and the unforgettable opening fanfare of John Williams’ score.

Those first in line were greeted in-store with rounds of applause from the gathered LEGO staff, and a wall of brown cardboard boxes – perhaps visually uninspiring, but a reassuring signal regarding stock availability for those further back in the queue.

Happy purchasers saw their sets signed by designers from the LEGO Star Wars team. Even those who had waited longest in line said they’d had a good time, genuinely delighted as they wheeled their massive sets off into the darkness. The entire event was a testament to the continued power of Star Wars, and the enduring appeal of a really, really big box of bricks.

Director of Lego Star Wars Design Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, left, and Design Manager of Lego Star Wars Michael Lee Stockwell

Prior to the midnight opening, the Brothers Brick joined other members of the press to meet with the lead designers for LEGO Star Wars – Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and Micheal Lee Stockwell. They shared some of the challenges of building such a large model, and their thoughts behind some of its features…

Click to read the interview with the set designers

Blade Runner 1849

We’ve seen excellent LEGO versions of the Blade Runner Police Spinner in the past, but as soon as I saw the title of the new movie I’ve been waiting for an 1849 steampunk remix. Jonas Kramm is happy to oblige with this clanky update (back-date?) of the classic sci-fi vehicle. The black piping makes for a pleasant change from the grey or gold steampunk builders tend to use for greebly details, and those brown whips uncurled against the dark blue panelling look excellent. The lanterns are a nice touch too.

Now to properly combine cyber and steam, what this really needs is a massive Neo-Victorian Neo-Tokyo diorama setting. Come on Jonas, what’s stopping you?

The Detective and the Big Boy Scout

Whilst Batman and Superman have had their fractious moments in the past, this pair of cheerful LEGO models by Tony Ng seems to depict them during one of their friendlier periods. Chibi-style “super-deformed” building can often result in highly-stylised and simplified characters, but don’t miss the details here — Batman’s utility belt with its associated gizmos is great, and both of our heroes look like they’ve been hitting the gym. Nice abs boys.

I’d have loved to have seen Superman’s hair rendered in a different shade than Batsy’s trademark black. If only the appropriate bricks came in dark blue.

A tiny corner of Transylvania

We’ve previously featured alego alego‘s imaginative parts usage in a microscale LEGO castle made of minifig torsos. This new creation is no less imaginative in its parts choice, but delivers an altogether more sombre and gothic look. The six-barrel shooter creates an excellent impression of castle crenellations, and the spikes atop the towers lend a real feeling of height. But it’s the big drill piece as a floating rock, coupled with the elegant spiral stair which pushes this model out of the ordinary. I can just imagine a tiny Count Dracula surveying his domain from a window in the highest tower.

I think this think tank’s pink is perfect

Since a spate of builds inspired by the live-action Ghost In The Shell earlier this year, things have felt relatively quiet on the LEGO Cyberpunk front. German builder Ordo aims to noise things up again with this fantastic pink-accented “Candykoma” Think Tank. This beastie is fun and super-cute, but also looks like it packs a punch. I particularly like the functional-looking greebles in and around the “shoulder” joints.

Preparing for an early departure

A LEGO scene or model doesn’t have to be massive or packed with unusual building techniques to be impressive. Sometimes all you need is a nice set-up and great photography. That’s certainly the case here, as Marco Zanconi brings us a beautifully composed image with lovely lighting. The old sea captain’s bedroom is a relatively-simple build, but the play of light through the window, and the focus employed, turn the image into something worthy of a Hollywood cinematographer.

Snowbound fortress offers small comfort

You don’t have to wait for winter to see a snow-covered fantasy castle. Isacc Snyder follows his microscale LEGO Rivendell model with this equally cool teeny-tiny fortress. There’s a nice selection of parts here, with Technic cogs providing excellent depth of texture on the towers. I also like the ice-clear frozen lake at the castle’s foot, and the white tooth plates suggesting a spill of snow over the edge of the base. Personally, I might have added black screwdrivers to the turrets on the topmost towers, increasing their “spindle-y-ness”, but that minor reservation aside, I love this model.

Ole!

Microscale LEGO building tends to focus on buildings and vehicles, but Teabox(henrik_zwomp) has taken up the challenge of depicting a figure and an animal at a tiny scale. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s pulled it off admirably with this adorable little matador facing up to a bull. Immediately recognisable, the subject matter not be to everyone’s taste as a sporting spectacle, but there’s no doubting the building skill on display.

Not everything in black and white makes sense

Pacman gobbling the power dots — check it out! Fresh from wowing us with a massive Medieval Village display, French builder ilive now knocks it out of the park with a wonderful LEGO optical illusion. Yep, there are no curves in this build, nor fancy photoshopping — it’s just your own eyes and brain messing with you.

If you like a good optical illusion, check out this brick-built rendition of the classic Escher terrace illusion we covered a while back. Personally I’m a huge fan of this kind of thing and wish we saw more of it in LEGO creations. I built one of my own a long, long time ago — the Castle of Illusion.

Malt, hops, water, yeast, and ABS — the perfect pint

LEGO and beer — surely the perfect combination*. Austrian builder sanellukovic certainly seems to think so, having put together this fabulous Medieval brewery. I love the frame of poles out front supporting the hop vines, and the presence of a well — clean water being the single most important ingredient in good beer, and generally the reason for a brewery’s location.

The model has a nice interior, and there’s some great low-level photography to showcase it. I love when builders get their cameras down to minifig eye-level. It gives a wonderfully realistic feel when the images are up close like this…

*Always drink responsibly. Especially if you’re building something. Building whilst under the influence of alcohol often results in terrible models. And don’t even think about drinking beer if you’re not over the age of legal consumption in whatever country you live in. You hear us? Don’t be telling the cops that TBB told you it was okay.

Magic bricks are not as solid as they appear

Platform Nine-and-three-quarters has never looked so good. Jonas Kramm brings one of the most famous scenes in Harry Potter to life in LEGO bricks. There’s just enough detail here to stop the model looking too sterile, but not so much that it distracts the eye from the central action — the trolley disappearing into the wall. The half-trolley is really nicely done, with excellent shaping of the hole in the wall which creates the illusion. And the use of a butterfly net for that owl cage? Inspired.