hachiroku24 is bound to set Trekkie hearts a-flutter with this lovely rendition of a LEGO phaser from the original TV series. The colors and shaping on this model are just spot-on, with some fabulous greeble touches that give it a real old-school sci-fi vibe. This makes me want to seek out new life and new civilizations and then shoot them.
Jme Wheeler has created a brilliant vignette featuring Maleficent and the fearsome dragon she transforms into at the end of Sleeping Beauty [ oops, spoiler alert! ]. I love everything about this scene — from the impressive billowing smoke effect, through the fabulous sculpting of the dragon’s neck and head, to the touches of gold on the base. But it’s the shaping and coloring of that dragon’s eye that makes the model for me — an instantly recognisable detail that’s perfectly-captured.
If you’ve ever seen the Phantasmic show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park then this model will instantly grab your attention. It reminded me of the massive version of Maleficent in full “dragon mode” which ends up rearing over the entire stadium. Great stuff.
Angela Chung has made great use of the new baby minifig in an excellent hospital scene depicting the arrival of a new baby. Sometimes “obvious parts usage” makes for the best models.
The details of the delivery room surrounding the central action are nicely done with a variety of mobile medical machinery at the ready. I particularly like the incubator trolley with it’s little heat lamp waiting to keep the new arrival cosy. However, close attention to the scene does raise one troubling question…what is the screwdriver for? Regardless, this is a lovely model, and is all the more refreshing for depicting the sort of real-life events we don’t often see “in the brick”.
David Hughes is building a series of wonderfully creepy LEGO skulls. They have a definite Mexican Day Of The Dead vibe going on with bold color choices and geometric patterns. Our hobby is generally dominated by minifig-scale models depicting scenes or vehicles — sometimes it makes for a pleasant change when we get these kind of larger-scale art pieces beautifully put together from good old-fashioned bricks.
Maarten W is proving himself the master of the LEGO street scene. We’ve previously featured his Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and desert market creations, but this WWII-inspired diorama is his best yet. It’s a recreation of the moments when Allied forces liberated the Dutch town of Venlo on 1st March 1945.
The damaged buildings are beautifully done, giving a sense of what the townsfolk must have endured as the battle raged around them. Maarten has included numerous small vignettes throughout his diorama, such as the American GIs interacting with the survivors.
The details of the left-hand house are particularly poignant — the remnants of the upper-floor telling a tale of shattered domesticity. And whilst I’m not a “dog person” myself, even I can appreciate the message of hope for the future as one of the townspeople finds his pet amidst the ruins.
Rogue One continues to inspire new Star Wars LEGO creations. Check out this fantastic beach battle scene, lifted from the Rogue One trailer and “chibified” by Boba-1980. The microscale vehicles are really good — I particularly like the versions of the U-Wing and the TIE Strike Fighter.
Aside from the good landscaping and figure posing, there’s a whole ton of action packed into a tight space in this diorama — justifying the builder’s choice to go with an unusual scale for the vehicles. Nice work.
Isaac S. proves Castle models haven’t all moved into a world of ramshackle angled walls and twee color-schemes. Ignoring the prevailing fashion pays off wonderfully in this excellent little build — there’s great landscaping, a lovely depth of texture in the walls, and even a nice splash of color which manages to look realistic. To top it all, it looks like this model might stay in one piece if you turned it upside down — something you couldn’t say of many of the “wonky-style” Castle builds.
The model looks almost as good from the rear. Check out that smart little stained-glass window…
So the first full-blown trailer for Rogue One has been out for all of a few hours, but that hasn’t stopped Vaionaut building a cool LEGO version of the new U-Wing ship which looks like it will be ferrying our intrepid heroes across the galaxy.
This sort of thing is why I’m getting pumped-up for Rogue One. I’m looking forward to seeing new ships and vehicles and characters and planets, all for the first time, yet all carrying that unmistakable whiff of Star Wars. However, we’re not featuring this model just because I’m excited — it’s a smart build in and of itself. It captures the lines and colors of this interesting new spaceship design, and features some nice details, particularly around the rear and the engines.
Dwalin Forkbeard‘s latest is a brilliant little pocket-battleship called the Yamamoto. This is an unusual scale for this kind of chibi-style building and I love the level of detail it has allowed the builder to include — particularly good work around the bridge and the funnel. Top off a cute and cool model with excellent presentation like this and you’ve got a cracking LEGO creation.
I misread the name of this model at first and got all excited, thinking this was a rendition of Space Battleship Yamato. Although I love what Dwalin’s done here, I demand he now produce a version of that craft in the same style.
Olivier Lego says this model is a first attempt at microscale LEGO. If so, it’s pretty damn good and I hope they keep building at this scale. The use of textured and wedge bricks, alongside grille tiles and panel pieces, creates a lovely sense of depth and detail, despite the minimalist color palette employed. I particularly like the temple on the hill overlooking the jumble of buildings nearer the port.
Every so often you come across a model which makes you sit up straight and PAY ATTENTION. This unusual mech from tankm does exactly that. The combination of atypical shaping, the double cockpit, and the in-your-face color scheme creates immediate standout from the crowd of regular LEGO mechs which appear on a regular basis. However, this model isn’t all just bluster and noise, there are also some great building details which reward a closer inspection.
I’m not sure if this is a walker or a flyer, or some sort of chimeric combination of the two — the rear view suggests this bad boy can take to the air if it needs to. All I really know is this thing looks like a two-headed death pigeon decked out for a Blacktron parade. I like it.
Fresh from delighting us with a rusty hot rod, Austrian builder sanellukovic turns his building skills to more organic shapes with his Midgardsnake creation. The curves and scales of this mythical water-serpent have been captured brilliantly with some nice use of slopes and smart color choices. Whilst the splashes and water running from the serpent’s body are well made, the mix of trans-clear and trans-black plates used for the water itself is just inspired. I can’t say I’ve ever noticed that particular combination being used like this before — it certainly creates a great impression of water in motion. Lovely stuff.
