Titled “Temptation” and haunted by an enormous black monster, Ben Cossy‘s latest LEGO diorama feels like it’s set in an alternate Middle Earth where our heroes face down their worst desires made manifest, rather than struggling quietly against the thrall of the One Ring. Ben shares that he’s glad to build something in the fantasy/castle theme that doesn’t require quite so much green (or gray, for that matter). The autumnal color palette of the trees contrasts beautifully with the white architecture.
Category Archives: Models
We all remember our first castle
The Castles line holds a special place in the hearts of us Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs). For some, a Castle set gifted during childhood brought us back into the hobby as grown-ass adults. For MaxMaMoc their first castle is easy to remember as it dates back to just a few days ago. It’s an impressive creation for a first castle; who am I kidding, it’s impressive even for a seasoned castle builder. I really enjoy the stonework, waterfall, and action going on throughout this diorama. It’s made clear that, even if they’re not primarily into castles, their attention to texture and detail is phenomenal. A quick perusal of their Flickr stream confirms that detail is important to this builder. One detail that is also of note is this seems to be our first time featuring this particular builder, at least under this name. Let’s give them their well-deserved TBB bump and with creations this well-detailed, we look forward to whatever else they may get into.
Dengar’s dangerous in this Dieselpunk dynamo
Greg Dalink is a builder on a mission. For the last couple of years, Greg’s been outfitting the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back with themed mechs that would make Tony Stark swoon. Greg’s latest proved to be a bit of a challenge. Unlike his fellow bounty hunters, Dengar isn’t a Mandalorian, or a lizard person, or a cool droid. He’s just some dude with some bandages on his head. So Greg kept to Dengar’s color scheme, but let the build move beyond the usual “giant robot version of the character.” The result is a Dieselpunk-style walker with an incredible arsenal on its back – everything from missiles to a couple of old pirate cannons. Now I kinda regret calling Dengar “just a dude with some bandages.” No hard feelings, right, Dengar? Old buddy? Pal? Yikes…
Teddy Spacepants enjoys the moon in his new rover
LEGO builder Tommy Frost tells us that R is for Rover and according to the very limited research I did just now that checks out. I didn’t really bother to fact-check that because The New York Times we are not. But while we’re here, let us admire the awesomeness that is this rover. I love the camber of the oversized tires and that color scheme is the bee’s knees. Tommy also tells us that he’ll be building a rover every day this FebRovery so that will ensure job security for us, entertainment for you and the continuing adventures of Teddy Spacepants will grease the wheels of this here machine we call The Brothers Brick. Or something. I don’t really know how the internet works. Anyway, hit up our archives to see the other times Tommy Frost had greased up our spacepants.
We are Legion, we are many
Whenever I think of creepy alien LEGO creations, I always think of Bart de Dobbelaer. His creations are always out of this world, on a much bigger scale than I personally am used to working on. Bart has the ability to perfectly use seemingly single-purpose parts in a way they were not intended to. The latest creation is called Legion and there we can spot the Belville horse saddle in black in the pillar-like creatures. This makes me wonder why Bart actually managed to get his hands on 16 black Belville saddles.
In the middle of the creation, there is the ‘mother’ of all the black critters. For her eyes, Bart used a combination of coffin bases and rolled-up Dots bracelets. Using mainly black bricks can be tricky, as those creations usually are really hard to photograph, but if you look closely, the little critters aren’t all the same. There are a couple of designs scattered around the base, making it look like each of the creatures has its own specific talent or ability.
Architecture in black and white
Experienced LEGO builder Ralph Langer is back with another stunningly elegant creation of mysterious architecture. Like Lavender Dream from last year, this build features an otherworldly white structure with a striking presentation. The huge black cobblestones make me wonder if this is located on some ancient lava flow, while I can’t decide if the building itself is more Narnia or Elder Scrolls, though Ralph’s description indicates that it’s some form of Victorian fantasy. Either way, we can all agree that it’s beautiful.
The Assault on Kobaria isn’t an assault on our senses.
In a LEGO Star Wars universe of Endor, Andor and lovable robots, Stuart N takes us off-off-off world to a lesser-known location with this diorama called The Assault on Kobaria. Kobaria, as we all know, is from that one…thing we really, really like. It features that one guy we love and the other guy, too. And let’s not overlook that one hover-tank-spaceship-y thingie that I’m definitely not drawing a blank on—so don’t get that idea in your heads! Kobaria is home to the Kobarian swamp dogs so that certainly clears everything up. OK, you got me. Look, maybe I’m not as well-versed in the Star Wars expanded universe as I can be but even Wookieepedia wasn’t much help here so you can’t blame a guy for trying. Still, I know a cool LEGO creation when I see one and this is pretty cool. So either show me up on your extensive knowledge of Kobaria in the comments or take a deep dive into our Star Wars archives, whichever floats your hovertank.
A fairy and a hedgehog walk into a bar
Sometimes something looks familiar and you just can’t understand why it does. This happened to me when I came across ‘Hedgehog and Elf’ by James Zhan. I knew that little hedgehog looked familiar but I wasn’t sure from where. As a primary school teacher, you get exposed to a lot of children’s literature. So that could be the source. It sure looks like it could have walked straight out of a fairy tale. I still couldn’t pinpoint it. After googling ‘hedgehog’ and ‘Pokemon’ I must conclude that it looks familiar because it reminds me of the Pokemon Shaymin. And to be honest, that one looks like it is straight out of a fairy tale.
Use LEGO flora to build LEGO fauna
I’ll just come out and say the LEGO Botanicals line is the best line to come out in recent history. Each is a refreshing and visually compelling break from the norm and that’s a flowery hill I’m willing to die on. I’ll even fight you freaks who think otherwise. Wow, that escalated fast! Anyway, Ian Hou probably knows what I mean as evidenced by this lovely owl. It repurposes several flowers from at least two copies of the new Wildflower Bouquet set. In the wings, I’m also seeing leaves from the Bird of Paradise set and I’d wager much of the brown tree branch comes from the Bonsai Tree from 2020. Not in the mood to get into fisticuffs over it? Yeah, neither am I. So instead let’s leisurely peruse through our Ian Hou archives to see the decidedly tranquil stuff he likes to build.
There are pirates aplenty amid these LEGO islands made from 800,000 bricks
You know you’re in for a seriously large LEGO creation when four great builders (Joshua Morris, Rod Fiford, Gavin Rich, and Handoko Setyawan) put their heads together on a pirate scene. And with the Cerulean Straits clocking in at a fully-detailed nine square meters, they did not disappoint! All 144 baseplates of brick were on display recently at Brickvention in Melbourne, Australia. I’ll do my best to cover as much of the 800,000 bricks as I can….
Click here to discover the treasures buried within this build!
Dig this Imperial base carved from alien stone
Jonas has crafted an original Imperial headquarters that speaks directly to my inner child. See, when I was a kid, there was absolutely nothing cooler to me than a base built into a huge chunk of rock. Whether it was Cobra Commander’s latest hideout, Boulder Hill, or the Autobots’ ship crashed into the side of a volcano – if you combined a high-tech headquarters with a massive hunk of rock, I was all in! And now to add Star Wars into the mix? It’s too great. This smooth metal space headquarters, with its curved edges, blends brilliantly into the hard, studded angles of the nearby alien landscape. It suggests we’re just seeing a single piece of the puzzle and there’s a whole cliffside that stretches on beyond the frame. It’s exactly the kind of place I always wanted to work. Instead, I have a home office in a duplex in SoCal. Which is kinda cool, I guess. Anyway, check out more of Jonas’s work blending nature with Imperial tech in our archives.
This mighty Komatsu with 250-ton trailer can move your whole LEGO collection with ease
People who design and build massive, powerful, yet very accurate LEGO trucks are unlike any of us, ordinary minifigure collectors. Look at Beat Felber. I bet he doesn’t even bother purchasing any LEGO wheels smaller than enormous 84mm’s that his newest Komatsu HD785-5 runs on. And it’s not even truck’s best feature.