I love a good microscale LEGO creation, and this model by flambo14 delivers in a big way. There’s a pretty well established trend in the LEGO community where builders challenge themselves (and each other) to create original vehicles and environments inspired by a specific minifigure, but this may well be the first environment built to suit a LEGO Construction Figure. The scene, taken from the latest Marvel Studios summer blockbuster, depicts the celestial being Galactus at his most down to earth, yet somehow simultaneously with his head in the clouds. Flambo14 places an unaltered Galactus model from LEGO set #76316 in a custom cityscape that much better reflects the celestial giant’s true size than the set’s accompanying minifigures suggest. Smart use of textures and a limited and contrasting color palette make this mini metropolis marvelous.
Category Archives: Models
Returning to Medina Al Musawrah – the massive Middle Eastern city collab from LEGO legends
Last year, 10 builders came together to build a fictional city inspired by cities of the Middle East and North Africa called “Medina Al Musawrah.” It was one of TBB’s favorite LEGO projects of last year, and you can read our interview with the organizers of this remarkable collaboration here. At last month’s BrickFair NoVa, a year of planning with triple the number of collaborators came to fruition as Medina Al Musawrah made its return, bigger and more spectacular than ever.
While the collaborators based elements of the build on different specific locations from personal travel or research, the city like a Pakastani transport truck and La Pyramid hotel from Ivory Coast. As Michael said in our interview, “It’s Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Casablanca, Beirut, Istanbul. It’s anywhere at any time.”
Our tour of the Medinah continues
Vignweek Day 2: Color us impressed with these monochrome creations [Feature]
Vignweek is an annual competition hosted by RebelLUG that challenges builders to assemble a vignette around a daily theme. Just 24 hours to turn around a build with no rest days! It’s a marathon and a sprint for some incredibly talented LEGO creators. We rounded up our favorites from day 1’s “Archaeology” theme here. For day 2, the theme is “Monochrome,” challenging builders to make a vignette using just one LEGO color. Here’s just a sampling of the amazing creativity born from this challenging constraint.
Jakub Kozina gets his greebling on with a tribute to the knobby little bits that space and machine builders so adore. Excellent glue and modeling scissors too!
Sydrarian offers a microscale scene of a tower in the clouds. There are so many impressive curves in this lovely composition. The builder also gets a bonus color through use of negative space to give the tower windows that pop.
NikiFilik‘s creation may be red, but I’m feeling green with envy at the skillful technique on display.
More monochrome creations await
Did you know it is currently Frogust?
Maestro of LEGO whimsy Maxx Davidson has declared that it’s Frogust and furthermore has stated that he and Grand Poobah co-frog-conspirator Simon Liu will increase their frog-related output. They also encourage you to join their little frog cult should the desire for doing so arise. But was it on purpose that they timed their LEGO frog uprising at the same time our amphibious friends emerge from their summer slumber? This can be confirmed with the uptick of smooshed frogs on my road and the symphony of frog calls that occur nightly. It’s certainly froggy out there! With cool build techniques such as using a LEGO watchband for the prehensile tongue, I’m beginning to see the appeal of Frogust. Plus I long to join in on the croaking symphony and flies are suddenly looking scrumptious. Should I be concerned?
Traders on the sea of bricks
When I first saw Andreas Lenander’s Ancient trade I thought the skiff was moving across the sea of tiles. With one look at the skiff’s bound pontoons, you can hear the creaking and feel their texture. But past the boat, there is still a full island to explore…
The open-air structure is not only true to the Polynesian-inspired setting, but it allows us to see more of island life. Like coconuts being harvested, cleverly made from minifig acorn hats. Andreas has long been sharing amazing island builds with a more Mediterranean flavor, so it’s refreshing to see the builder branching out with new palm tree techniques, like these chunkier trees made from stacked barrels.
The footpath down to the beach showcases Andreas’ skill at rockwork. The nested, with SNOT curves makes for an inviting place to gather crabs or conduct trade.
If you like this ocean oasis, be sure to check out Andreas’ other island builds, like the Falcon Chapel.
An inconceivably good LEGO tribute to The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride, the classic film based on the book by S. Morgenstern William Goldman has it all: Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles… It’s a wonder we don’t see more tributes in LEGO. Thankfully, FS Leinad has stepped up with a fabulous build of Westley and Buttercup fleeing through the Fire Swamps. There’s a lot to love in this compact model, from the dense forest of dark grey tree trunks full of odd parts like Bionicle joints and jackhammers, to the evocative flames made of carefully twisted trans-orange chains to the spot-on minifigs. Having escaped the Lightning Sands and figured out how to avoid the Fire Spurts, the only other hazard these true lovers need worry about is the R.O.U.S.es. But the Rodents of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.
It’s only fitting that FS Leinad return to The Princess Bride, as the builder’s first shared creation was an Ideas tribute to the film that made it to the 10k club. It’s impressive how far Leinad has grown as a builder in the years since.
Digging up some awesome LEGO vignettes as Vignweek 2025 kicks off [Feature]
Vignweek is an annual competition hosted by RebelLUG that challenges builders to assemble a vignette around a daily theme. 5 weekday builds and a weekend build, for a total of 6 builds in 7 days. It’s a marathon and a sprint for some incredibly talented LEGO creators. The contest kicked off on Monday with “Archaeology” as the theme. Here are some of our favorite creations from day 1.
Carson Lacy zooms in with Johnny Thunder exploring a lush jungle site. I hesitate to call them “ruins” as this location seems as slick and studless as they day it was built. It’s probably cursed, but this beautiful build certainly isn’t!
Behold_The_Loaf offers up an alien archaeologist scanning a future Earth. What do they make of this Octan fueling station?
Join us as we dig up more amazing LEGO vignettes
Magic school is back in session with this LEGO tribute to the wizardy world of Owl House
Over three seasons, Dana Terrace’s The Owl House cemented itself as maybe the best stories ever told about a misfit from the mundane world finding family and purpose in a magical world. It has school drama, magical team sports, sorting into your ordained role, complicated families, fantastic creatures, and some of the best wizard duels to ever hit the screen. It also won a Peabody, each season was nominated for a GLAAD award, and the creator never punches down. Builder Timofey Tkachev recreated the series’ most iconic location, the titular Owl House, home of Eda “the owl lady” Clawthorne, out of over 4000 LEGO bricks. Timofey adeptly captures the house’s unusual angles but it’s the stunning stained glass window that really catches the eye. Another version of the Owl House made it to the review stage on LEGO ideas, but unfortunately didn’t make the cut, but you can find instructions for Timofey’s version on Rebrickable.
This farmer and carabao exceeds our grain expectations
Summer Joust is heating up and this time the category is Farms and Fields. LEGO builder Byldan tackles the challenge in a big way in an exotic locale; The Philippines. Here we see an upscaled shirtless farmer and his trusty carabao ( Filipino water buffalo) plowing a rice paddy field. While our farmer isn’t without his charm, I’m rather smitten by the build techniques comprising the expression of the carabao’s face; and those horns are curved just right. No wonder this hard-working beast of burden is the national animal of the Philippines!
Beyond the spider-verse – these creepy fantasy minifigs and creature builds will catch you in their web [Minifig Monday]
LEGO will soon be venturing into the Marvel Spider-verse for the next line of Collectible Minifigs, but you don’t need to wait until August to find weird and wonderful fig creations of the arachnid (and arachnid adjacent) variety. Today on Minifig Monday we’re catching a bevy of bug and spider flavored figs and mini builds in our web!
Kicking off this week’s lineup is The Seamstress by Brennan (brickbot_studio). Animation fans might recognize this wicked weaver from the film the post-apoc “stitch-punk” film 9. Brennan has made some incredible mini character builds but this might be my favorite thing he’s ever shared. Excellent use of the Samukai minifig head from Ninjago.
Keeping to the spinstress theme, we have the Song Weaver by Aris (bricks.for_bricks). This arachnid character brings an aristocratic air to the spider theme, with One Ring bangles and an impressive headress mixing cloth, plastic feathers, and rubber bands.
Eight limbs? Ha! This Friendly centipede from Dicken Liu has arms to spare! Who would have guessed that minidoll toros make such grotesquely perfect bug segments? I haven’t been able to unsee this amazing creation since Dicken shared it a few months back, and if it’s new to you, you’re welcome.
the creepy creations continue after the fold
Teddy Town is the talk of the town
At a quick glance, this colorful LEGO Teddy Town built by Anne Mette Vestergård is a feast for the senses. Upon closer inspection, though, the town is broken up into quadrants divided by a river and joined in the center by a covered bridge. Maple, from the popular Animal Crossing sets revealed last year, lends a head to all the residents of this sweet little town.
Join us for a tour of Teddy Town after the jump
A LEGO builder earns their stripes by re-visiting a fan favourite
Last year, we featured a terrific LEGO tiger from DeRa that was so good it made onto our Creation of the Year shortlist. As it turns out, that was just the latest iteration of a design that DeRa has been gradually improving over the years. Now, we have another update to investigate! In some ways the changes are subtle. The overall shaping is just as good, and its excellent posability has been retained. But the devil is in the detail, and that’s where this big cat truly shines.
Click here to see what upgrades DeRa has made to their feline phenomenon