Peeled from the pages of Crayon Shin-chan is this intense rendition of Kantam Robo by Moko. I’ve got to say, this robot sports some incredibly clean lines, utilizing a wide variety of studless slopes and tiles to adult-ify the character from the manga by Yoshito Usui. All the contours and sharp corners along the build help to add depth to a creation that’s primarily green, creating pockets of shadow and bright reflective surfaces. But my favorite bit has to be the detail put into the mouth grill of the mech. It utilizes, among other parts, the minifig shirt collar to get the perfect spacing. Overall, it’s a significant step up from Moko’s first attempt at the character almost a decade ago (which was already pretty awesome).
Category Archives: Models
A ship called Soulless from that galaxy far, far away
General Grievous’s ship from Star Wars gets some love in this great LEGO build from Fuku Saku. Known as Soulless One, the ship is a customized starfighter that features some slick lines. This build makes plentiful use of curved LEGO pieces and tiles to keep the shaping true to the ship’s design. The clean appearance allows our eyes to pass over the ship’s lines with ease. The orange and yellow details draw us to them, breaking up the overall grey of the ship. I particularly love the construction of the orange and yellow sections that join the wings to the main body. These are typically more muted, but in this build they’re brighter, making the ship feel a little bit like a hotrod. Looking at this build, the ship looks sleek and fast–I’d love to see this thing with some racing upgrades for a galactic contest.
Take a quick peek inside the cockpit to gander at Grievous’s controls. It’s a truly spectacular culmination of angles creating that cabin-sized cavity.
A Pokémon sun & moon from the Ruby & Sapphire era
I’ve been following the LEGO Pokémon creations of pino_creations and nunsseugae for a while now. But when these two trainers combined their talents to handle the duo Solrock and Lunatone, they really knocked it out of the park! The pockmarked craters on Lunatone’s surface are perfect, as is its little beak of a mouth nestled right inside its crescent. And I particularly like the use of this T-bar for the vertical pupil on this ‘Mon in the moon. Solrock’s eyes are also spectacular, utilizing the minifig handlebars to great effect. The flame yellow fins jutting out in all directions are wonderful, as are the pyramidal points bisecting its body.
The Mil Mi-24 means business. Serious attack helicopter business!
If you see this hovering out your window chances are you’re in some deep trouble. It has a capacity for eight troops so you know things are about to get hairy. Thankfully for the rest of us, we can enjoy this LEGO replica built by Stefan Johannson from the relative comfort of our homes. Even as a LEGO model, this thing oozes menace! I particularly like the sag of the rotor blades. Initially introduced by the Soviet Airforce in 1972, this timeless gunship is currently being used by fifty-eight countries and has served in dozens of skirmishes, including the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This particular model is sporting Ukrainian colors so there is a high probability its real-life counterpart is defending its people and giving those invaders the business. Serious attack helicopter business! News reports cite that the resilient Ukrainian people have been successful in taking down Russian forces with pickled vegetable jars and farm equipment. I can only imagine what they can do with this.
A song of trans-neon orange and trans-light blue
While we don’t often feature LEGO works-in-progress here on TBB, when an update is as impressive and “complete” on it’s own as this amazing build by llego_pig, we make an exception! Acting as part one of a Red Keep build from Game of Thrones, this chunk of medium nougat tower is astounding, with it’s impressive texturing and occasional splotches of added color. The rockwork next to it is superb, as are the two little shacks at the base of the wall. Each construction is perfectly ramshackle for the setting, and utilizes some great technique in creating the walls. But my favorite part of the build by far has got to be the high tide waterline visible along the dock. What a fantastic little detail that does so much to bring the build to life!
A LEGO headdress from a forgotten time
No stranger to excellent LEGO bricksmanship, Andreas Lenander travels back to southern Mexico in the 1500s for his latest build. For the Aztecs of that time, feathers were of great importance and were frequently used to make intricate headwear such as this. Birds were seen as beasts of great power, were central in the story of the founding of Tenochtitlan, and were a part of their belief in rebirth after death. It’s no wonder that Lenander goes to great lengths to use a variety of feather parts in this headdress. The shaping is astounding, and pairs perfectly with the golden filigree and tri-leaf pieces used throughout.
Raise a glass to a clearly important profession
I learned today that a glazier is someone who cuts and fits glass in windows and doors, demonstrating the educational application of LEGO with this colorful build from gGh0st. This workshop build is gGhost’s entry for the Bricklink Designer Program, and it’s an awesome entry! The design of the workshop is amazing with the color palette, the round windows throughout, and the colorful clips used within the roof. I do think it’s pretty cool to use the bar with ball piece for the texturing of the roof, something I’ve not seen before in a build. Notice the use of the transparent pieces along the midsection of the workshop and even the sign–small details that really contribute to the beauty of the profession. This is a great addition to any medieval village!
The Star Wars N-1 Starfighter before it was made famous-er
While it is true we all soiled our collective Beskar pants at the awesomeness that is The Mandalorian’s new hot-rodded N-1 Starfighter, it’s nice to see someone show a little love for the original version. Ciamosław Ciamek has rendered a handsome LEGO N-1 in its original yellow and gray (chrome if you squint) color scheme. Artoo sits in his Astromech station while cute little Anakin pilots the craft before he got all huge and brooding. It’s certainly one of the more stand-out designs from the Clone Wars era.
There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow this St. Patrick’s Day
LEGO builder Dan Ko wishes us all good luck and fortunes on this St. Patrick’s Day. I checked my lineage and I’m Portuguese, French-Canadian, Polish, and Ukrainian. No Irish. No matter our heritage we can still appreciate the neat techniques used to construct this lucky leprechaun. If it’s alright with everyone I may still have a healthy pour of Jameson later and toast in honor of all my Irish friends. And if anyone kisses me today thinking I’m Irish, then I’ll just smile, raise my glass, and take it all in stride. If you celebrate the occasion, then Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you and yours.
A bold color towers above the rest
It’s not very often you get to have bold, beautiful colors like pinks and lavenders in LEGO Castle-style sets or builds. This is what brought builder Ben Cossy to construct this amazing scene! Wanting to experiment with non-traditional colors for a castle build, Ben chose the color palette of pink and lavender for the tower and surrounding landscape. The whole scene has a great flow and movement, from the lower areas to the tower’s top. Browns and tans help with the color blocking of the tower, keeping the greys from dominating. There are some really cool building techniques at work in the build here, and Ben kindly goes over it all in a video. I recommend checking it out if your interests lie in the details behind the scenes.
Storage wars in the 1700s
I’ve had a soft spot for white-washed buildings guarded by red- or blue-coated troops in tricorns and shakos ever since I got LEGO Pirates 6267 Lagoon Lock-Up for Christmas around 1991. This supply depot by Ayrlego tickles that nostalgia, while bringing it up to date with much more detailed building. My favorite part of this build, though, is that Ayrlego has figured out the perfect use for all those yellowed and dirty white bricks that are probably floating around in your collection. While they’re normally unsightly and probably relegated to the filler-brick bin (or worse), they’re on prominent display here and couldn’t look better as the weathered stucco on this colonial-inspired structure.
Upgrade-o to the ‘Bago
When the future eventually gets here, I have to imagine the car modding community will go nuts. They already do mad match-ups with cars and engines that have no business being in the same package. Unfortunately, the future isn’t here yet, but that hasn’t stopped LEGO builder Isaac Wilder from adding some crazy machinery to the humble Winnebago. No way this thing is holding up traffic on the highway with that massive rocket on the back. It’s an authentic upgrade as well, rather than being a completely new build. We featured the original caravan nearly two years ago!