LEGO gave a breath of fresh air to Classic Space with the Space Exploration theme, and Julius Kanand is taking that design sensibility to explore the moons of the outer rim in this clean spaceship. Four occupants fit snuggly between two beautiful engines. I can practically hear the sounds of this ship taking off with the exposed connection arms to the sleek engines. “To the moon!”
Long time fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles know that it’s Donatello who does machines, but the team’s resident party dude is rocking a mighty machine of his own, courtesy of Bas van Houwelingen. A giant robot suit might not be quite in line with the teachings of the ninja, but the Turtles never really seemed bothered by that kind of thing. Besides, look at all this suit has going for it, from the pizza loaded belt to the giant nunchucks and tonfas. And those trashcan forearms are a detail that it’s easy to imagine someone at Playmates dreaming up in the early nineties.
Speed cameras have taken over most European metropolitans at this point, but William van Beek may have found the answer: a Mini Cooper may be too short for the cameras to catch a good picture! A wonderful little LEGO vignette, just like other pieces of art, can offer a great commentary for what we see in the world around us.
It’s hard to escape the juggernaut that is K-Pop Demon Hunters. The movie just broke another record, holding for its 15th week in Netflix’s Top 10. It’s such a phenomenon, in fact, that I wouldn’t bet against LEGO producing some official sets someday. But, until then, we’ll settle for LegoWyrm’s take on Zoey, Ruma, and Mira. The characters are brought to life in a chibi form that’s a perfect compliment to the film’s tone, with plenty of great technique on display. I love the studs not on top construction of the trio’s eyes. And the way the printed design on Zoey’s pants is brick-built strikes a perfect chord.
Without wishing to toot my own horn, I’m proud to count being a fluent francophone as one of my diverse skills. That list also includes making mediocre LEGO builds and being able to recite the first 10 digits of Pi off by heart. There’s nothing mediocre about seb71‘s tiny water craft; a build which, despite using only 30 pieces, still conveys a great sense of movement and drama. But it did pose some questions, not least of which was what a ‘coup de tabac‘ is – the title of this piece. As it turns out, despite literally translating to ‘hit of tobacco’, it’s a maritime term for a sudden, violent squall or storm at sea. And with such careful selection of constraction pieces, Seb has really nailed his impression of just that!
The dark fantasy worlds of FromSoftware’s games have been a huge influence for many AFOLs with their bold character designs, ornate gear, and haunting medieval settings. Builder panc4kez has been creating LEGO models inspired by From’s genre-defining Dark Souls, which perfectly translate the game’s aesthetics into brick form. After months of individual construction, Dark Sun Gwyndolin, The Nameless King, and Dragon Slayer Ornstein appear together in LEGO.
See more of panc4kez game creations after the fold, From Dark Souls to Zelda
Frogust may have concluded over a month ago, but is that going to stop us from featuring awesome LEGO frog builds? You bet your bottom brick it won’t! This delightful dancing duo comes from BigBrickStan. The one on the right is in colours we’ve become accustomed to seeing in LEGO: green and white, with some orange highlights and big beady eyes. Why change a winning formula, right? But the use of prints on the left is equally eye-catching, in particular the torso. That part was originally a Dreamzzz turtle head! Even these amphibians are turtles all the way down, it seems…
Grab your preferred hammer or axe, a pint of ale, and join us on a tour of this Dwarven sanctuary nestled within the Red Mountains. Dwalin Forkbeard brought this imposing mountain fortress to life, and nearly every chamber and foothill of it is bustling with Dwarven activity.
The faces chiseled into the very face of the mountain bear resemblance to many of the characters within, and the sheer amount of gold and stone that is used tastefully throughout this build feels very true to character for these delvers. The water technique here is lovely, and I’m half-tempted to check for a treasure chest behind one of the waterfalls.
Take a sip and join us on the full tour of this Dwarven stronghold!
We’ve seen so much creativity in how minifigs can be customized, from creative use of existing parts, to custom printed minifig torsos, to third-party cloth accessories, to hand-crocheted minifig coats! But for fashionistas, there’s only so much that can be done at minifig scale. Recent buildable figure sets for Wednesday and Wicked offer a new template for creative accessorizing, as seen in this custom couture from Maachi.
Click for more thoughts on LEGO x fashion
Inspired by Wes Talbott’s ‘Dungeon Dangers’ template and series of MOCs (see those fantastic sets here), TBB alum turned fellow set designer Carter Baldwin set out to make his own dungeon crawl with an ancient Greek mythological twist. The color choices and contrast are stunning, and the assembly behind the stark blue decorations on the pristine white pillars are more complex than they may first appear. The imposing minotaur is riddled with fun build techniques, my favorite detail being the usage of a full hand and arm assembly to round out its eyes and face. This is a beautiful build that manages to capture both the elegance of Greek architecture and the thrill of a fantasy adventure at once.
Over the course of 20+ years, Nintendo released a number of Game Boy models – but none as tiny as this. Pending the release of the official LEGO Game Boy set, builder mc tung shared his micro Game Boy that puts the original Game Boy Micro to shame. It’s an impressive feat at this scale, though I doubt any of us who were around for the original Game Boy are playing anything on a screen this small these days.
You can see a breakdown of the micro building techniques used here (and build your own!) by following the tutorial on YouTube. The technic axle D-pad is especially inspired!
![[LEGO] It's GameBoy](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54269265306_0c9b0e81ff_b.jpg)
There’s something magical about creating stained glass in LEGO with transparent colors. We see many techniques for creating patterns in “glass,” but one of the most reliable is using a 1x2x3 window frame to hold 8 cheese slopes. GothGirlBricks uses this technique and adds a beautiful spin by including black slopes as negative space to create a picture in the glass.
Each window pane pairs two complementary colors for a gradient. Blue and purple transition to purple and pink, into pink and red. The completed mosaic art suggests a tree at sunset.
A work-in-progress shot shows the artist’s process, using transparent slopes to hold the black mosaic image in place while she figures out the gradient. So much lovely cheese!
