This LEGO castle tower creation by Roger Cageot is a fun exercise in creating round walls and combining muted and vibrant colors. I love the green color of the lake and the way the yellows are combined. The simple wooden drawbridge is a fun feature, and the morose tree adds a somber feeling to the creation. This could easily live in the world of the LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith with its dilapidation, colors, and energy.
What does NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Stephen Pakbaz do for fun when he’s not working on real-life Mars vehicles? Well, it turns out he builds Mars vehicles in LEGO. Here is a 1:1 scale, motorized model of the Ingenuity Helicopter that spans about four feet (1.2 meters) across. In case you’ve been living under a meteorite this past month this craft has made headlines with a number of historic flights.You can keep up with the latest real-life shenanigans of the helicopter on Mars on Nasa’s official website. As for LEGO-life shenanigans, you may notice that Stephen has also built the Ingenuity a leeetle friend in 1:3 scale. That one he has launched on LEGO Ideas in hopes of gaining the votes needed to maybe make it an official set at some point. This isn’t Stephen’s first orbit with LEGO Ideas. He was successful in turning the Curiosity Rover into an official set back in the early days when LEGO Ideas was called Cuusoo. Check out our interview from 2013.
There’s something mysterious about ruined temples weathered by years, and the forces of nature, like this sun temple by Mountain Hobbit, while the steps and the path have fallen apart and the broken pillars no longer hold up whatever it was they help up, the symbol of the sun is completely undamaged. The patchwork arrangement of plates and bricks at 90-degree angles gives a very man-made touch to the wall, and while the sun may be the focal point of the model, I think the real star of the show are those rocks, constructed with multiple separate assemblies with studs pointed in all directions, intertwined with brown vines.
The simple yet mesmerizing features of a roll-top desk have always been interesting to me. I’m not sure why we’ve found creating round shapes out of smaller straight ones so amusing, but nevertheless we can’t help ourselves. More intriguing still is the tambour desk or drawer. Named such for the typical design of wooden slats glued to stretched canvas, opening one drawer reveals two! And it’s even cooler in LEGO form. This version by Jason Allemann couldn’t be better executed – at first glance it doesn’t seem all that exciting…
But how do you open the top? Don’t let the treasure-chest look fool you – it doesn’t lift it like a lid. Just pull the front drawer and you have access to both top and bottom compartments! See? Mesmerizing.
Thankfully, the tag-team duo of JK Brickworks loves to show how they build things, and often post instructions too! While you’re here, check out more of their LEGO creations!
Ralf Langer teased us a while ago with the stern of a beautiful LEGO ship. In the comments he mentioned that it was actually never going to be a full ship, but a city made out of ship parts. And here it is in all it’s gloomy glory. This creation might as well be called a study of ship windows as are several lovely techniques for you to choose from. Let’s zoom in on them.
Both brown ships feature the same technique using a net between a layer of trans plates and trans tiles. This creates a stained glass effect which is just stunning. A lot of variation in colour can be achieved by using different colored trans elements. The dark brown ship with the blue glass windows uses a different technique. Here we have the 1967 fence filled with bars stuck through a technic pin.
The last window technique I want to highlight is the one on the building on the right. It uses small smooth tires filled with trans cheese slopes. This city of ships also features a lot of cleverly designed lanterns with some clever parts usage. I can spot wands, link chain and link tread. The only question I have now is: Will this connect to my Ninjago City?
LEGO custom creations that play with scale and perspective remind me of old-fashioned movie special effects. There’s something magical about matte paintings and models and perfect camera angles combining together to make the viewer believe they’re watching a vast expanse of space when it’s really all set up in a parking lot in Culver City. Mountain Hobbit has produced a little classic sci-fi Hollywood magic of his own with this Iron Builder submission. The seed part is the Crane Grab Jaw with Axle and Pin Hole, which he used to create the “teeth” on the hangar door. He’s also used orange ingots to bring a little pop of color detail to the largely gray interior. The complementary hues of color on both the spaceship and the landing bay give us a sense that they’re part of the same sci-fi universe.
And the best part is, the doors are functional.
If you suffer from coulrophobia, you have nothing to worry about, cuz this clown…fish by Joffre Bricks is not that kind of clown. Known for their bright orange bodies with white stripes, the clownfish, which also has a fancy Latin name (Amphiprioninae), is such a happy little fish that wouldn’t scare anybody. The gently swaying tendrils of the anemone may be deadly to other fish passing by; the clownfish has nothing to worry about.
When you think of fleas, you might think of those tiny insects that bite your pets and feed off of their blood. And occasionally star in a tiny circus. Well, not anymore. There is a new fleet of fleas causing a riot across the internet, and these fleas are fearsome! Take this Riotflea 29, codenamed Scorch, by Anthony Wilson, please take it, and take it far away. As the name implies, this bot is flaming hot, from the bright orange color scheme to the numerous flammable fuel tanks on its back. The series of angled pipes around the mid-section is a great detail, and the pipes are used again to wrap around the upper legs. The four eyes flanking the face give the bot a particularly alien look.
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I’ve never understood bombs created by movie or TV villains. They curate such beautiful-looking weapons of destruction, carefully wire them in rainbow-colored wirings to help differentiate which ones to cut (typically the red one) or which one to leave alone. Big countdown timers telling you exactly when you meet your demise and they sometimes leave some kind of mechanism to deactivate, maybe punch in a pin code or passphrase so you can save the world and be a hero at their expense. Nevertheless, this time bomb creation by Moko meets and exceeds all those niceties including a bundled wire cutter using cleverly placed LEGO Technic parts.
The right way to do things is to leave a black box that’s ready to go off at your pre-planned, remotely timed, or triggered with as little as innards showed to be a successful criminal, but hey, that’s going to take all the fun away from the suspenseful movie minutes yeah?
Alex’s latest LEGO creation is nightmare fuel and not only because it looks scary. This reminds me very much of the series Hannibal. In the show, a stag man-creature appears to the main character. It is a reference to the Wendigo. A Wendigo is a mythological creature or evil which originates from the folklore of the First Nation. It is often said to be a malevolent spirit which possesses human beings and invokes feelings of insatiable hunger. Is has a desire to cannibalize other humans. I am not sure what Alex’s inspiration for this creation was, but this is what it invokes for me. So as if that is not nightmare fuel enough I felt it necessary to look up some of the parts for you. With Bionicle and Hero Factory not being my field of expertise, it took quite a while. The head itself is a true work of art using only two pieces. The Hero Factory Witch Doctor was used for the lower part of the face. The top part was realized using the Bionicle Mask Iden. One of the best things about this creation is the small peekaboo the ribs give you. You can see the internal organs right through them. I love how even a touch of pink can’t make this thing look cute.
For years I didn’t really care much for minifigures. I tend to be fussy about the scale of my models and, since minifigures are far too wide for their height, it is awkward to use them with a proper scale model. Furthermore, a larger scale makes it easier to incorporate a lot of details and functionality, which are both things that I enjoy. So, most of my builds don’t feature figures.
Read more about these Scania trucks
Say that ten times fast! I’m just keeping you on your toes, like these busy little creatures. If you’ve ever worked on a farm or ranch, you know the job can be hard work. Barn swallows, named such because they often nest in barns, are no slouches! These beautiful birds, recreated here in LEGO by Bricolé, spend countless hours building their mud nests and raising up to 10 babies (in two clutches) a year! They’re always in a hurry and even eat while on the go! They earn their spot in the barn by scooping up tons of pesky flying insects.
As wonderful of a color it is (and as great as it looks here), LEGO “earth blue” or “dark blue” doesn’t quite do the bird justice. In real life it’s pretty stunning. That said, I love the movement in this build – especially the windswept vibe of the “grass” as the wings swoosh past. The katanas for the swallowtail are also a nice touch.
While you’re here, don’t miss out on all the other incredible animal builds we’ve featured!
