When this image of a forgotten temple came to my attention, I knew I wanted to feature it here. Nathan Hake has created an immersive scene that ticks a lot of my favorite boxes. There’s lovely organic building in the trees and vines. There’s interesting part usage in the idol made primarily of golden weapons. And I’ve just got a thing for ruined architecture. Add a dollop of the depth of field from the minifigure in the foreground, and you have something pretty special. But when I visited Nathan’s photostream to learn more, I found that this is only a detail shot of a much larger build. Keep reading to find out just how much bigger!
Category Archives: Models
A brick-built feline friend for you
There’s nothing that can replace a real, cuddly feline friend, but this adorable life-size LEGO cat by Felix Jaensch is a pretty good contender, at least as far as the realm of inanimate objects goes. While the majority of the build employs the classic studs-up style using mostly basic bricks that’s familiar to LEGOLAND visitors the world over, the result is excellent shaping of the cat’s smooth curves. The grey tuxedo coloring also adds a lot of interest to the build, breaking up the shape. Plus, I’m just a sucker for life-size builds. I’d totally have this in my office—wouldn’t you?
Where’s Herbie these days?
It’s been a long time since everyone’s favorite love-bug hit the big screen. From 1968 to 2005, millions of hearts were warmed by the sentient VW Beetle’s escapades. But somehow, with as awesome as he is, he still winds up broken down and abandoned from time to time. (Lame humans!) But who knows where he is these days? According to Hachiroku92, he’s in a barnyard someplace, needing a little love. This sad but adorable LEGO version of Herbie makes great use of the small quarter-round curved slopes for that iconic body shape, and adds frying pans for headlights. That windmill is excellent too!
Stick around and you’ll find more Volkswagen builds and news in our archives! How do you feel about the new LEGO Volkswagen T2 Camper Van? Tell us what you think in the comments?
The most adorable LEGO Loki you’ll see this week
Now imagine for a moment: you are a world-famous artist and LEGO builder with thousands of subscribers among your social feeds. You combine plastic bricks, memes, movies, and celebrities like no one other, building the reality the way only you can. You know exactly what fans want, and you can give them that and even more. When building a tribute to Loki, how hard could it be to include Mobius on ski jet? But for some reason, TBB alumnus Iain Heath decided not to include Owen Wilson’s latest character altogether. I totally get it: the brick-built alligator Loki deserves its own official LEGO set, but what’s wrong with some fun on a jet ski..?
All poking fun at our friend Iain aside, we love this lineup of LEGO Lokis. Despite the relatively small scale, he’s managed to capture the personality of each of the characters perfectly.
So, head or no head?
Guys only want one thing and it’s disgusting. However, in the world of praying mantises, that doesn’t always work out. It’s the lady who gets the head — literally. Expert builder Djokson sets the table for a romantic candlelit dinner, with fancy tablecloth and a glass of wine. Lady mantis appears to have been stood up by her suitor, until her meal is served on a big platter.
While this is a fun scene, we have to talk about NPU when we write about Djokson’s many ingenious creations. For example, Lady mantis wears pieces of cloth that can only be from either Scala or Belville — two old LEGO themes full of large dolls. It’s just hard for me to pinpoint which cloth piece is from which. However, the eye sockets of each mantis are the shoes of said dolls, with the good old minifigure arms wedged inside them. Other pieces include the rubbery Krana and Kraata from Bionicle, which Djokson uses in the head and stomach respectively. I also enjoy the use of the fantastical key element from LEGO Elves, which gives the elbows a spindly look.
I guess you could say Djokson’s builds make me… lose my head.
Elvish minstrel serenades woodland creatures
This fun LEGO build from Markus Rollbühler was created as a reward for the fan challenge Summer Joust 2021. The color choices work well together, and there are some creative parts used, like minifigure hands and feathers for the birds, and the cat tail piece used for the squirrel’s tail. I especially love the orange/white balance between the tree and the minstrel.
LEGO microscale Razor Crest from Star Wars: The Mandalorian [Instructions]
The hit Star Wars series The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+ in 2019 introducing us to an instantly iconic ship, the pre-clone wars era starship known as the Razor Crest. And before you make your jokes about a microscale model of the Razor Crest really just being a pile of loose parts, I like to remember her in her prime.
Wait, what am I saying? From the very first episode, she’s been grabbed by a space walrus, scrapped by Jawas, shot at, jumped on by space spiders, dunked in the sea, shot at again, and more. But if you want to remember her as she once was, soaring through the sky over Navarro blasting TIE fighters to bits, you can follow along with these instructions for a desktop model, designed by me. It even includes a poseable stand! Click here to download the LEGO Razor Crest Instructions by Daniel Fortine
Away from the hustle and bustle
Riff raff! Street rat! I don’t buy that! But I would definitely purchase this little scene if it was an actual LEGO set. There’s nothing like a quiet Middle Eastern street to bring peace to my day. Builder Jesse van den Oetelaar easily captures the tranquility of this moment with his skill in using a variety of building methods. I love how the street was formed in a way to allow for cracks, with plants on occasion growing through. The brickwork of the buildings speaks to the age of this setting: long ago, yet the houses and walls have already existed for centuries. The wooden container in the corner is made of two buckets and two black rubber bands, cleverly making it look like a real barrel. There’s so much I want to explore in this little alleyway!
Cop these crispy, deadstock kicks
It seems that Sneakerheads have found a new way to collect their favorite classic designs without devastating their bank accounts. Ever since the introduction of the LEGO 10282 Adidas Originals Superstar set, I’ve personally been looking forward to seeing how sneaker fanatics would adapt their own bricks into iconic shoes from the past and present. Builder John Huang is one such inspired fan. He’s made a few different sneakers so far but this Adidas Stan Smith model is the first to feature a brick-built display. The shoe itself is well built, capturing the sleek, simple design of its namesake and its patch of vivid green on the heel. The display stand for the shoe is based on the lid of an Adidas shoebox and John did a great job at capturing the angles of the iconic Adidas stripes, as well as the logo on the sides of the lid.
This pipe is occupied by a pernicious piranha plant
You’ll need perfect timing to get past the snapping jaws of the lovely and deadly piranha plant unless you’ve got a power-up or an extra life up your sleeves. This pixel-perfect model of the most deadly of deciduous plants from the world of Mario, by ZiO Chao is packed with great details. From the gently curving leaves to the rounded Mario-munching mouth to that shiny pink tongue.
Check out the poseable stem on this beauty!
Vampire gets his crypt redecorated
In 2002, LEGO released the studios sets in which the heroes battled the classic monsters. Vampire’s Crypt was one of the 2002 sets featuring Dracula. Dracula has been doing more than fighting heroes and biting necks for the past few years. In 2012 the exterior of his castle got a serious upgrade with the Monster Fighter theme. The interior however stayed quite simple. In this creation by GunnBuilding it looks like Dracula hired the Fab Five to redecorate the inside of his castle. If you take a close look at the 2002 sets you’ll notice that it came with two cardboard backdrops. The brick built backdrops GunnBuilding created for the build match the original backdrop’s aesthetic perfectly. Elongating the candelabras with some gold parts is a very nice idea. The best thing about this little build however, has to be the torches mounted on the wall using 1×1 round plates with a hole in the stud and a minifigure screwdriver . The cross shaped pedestal for the coffin is a very nice touch.
The houses of blues
This is a street that makes me feel the opposite of the blues! Kristel Whitaker built a collection of identical townhouses inspired by the colours of the world’s oceans – and also LEGO’s many blue colours. Titled “Ocean Drive”, this build is not only the modular houses but an immersive scene of its residents. The children – currently on summer holiday – are playing outside with the cats while their grandma sits on the front steps. The others come and go, both for work and leisure, and the resident flamingo watches the neighbourhood amongst the flowers. Life is good in the big city.
I love how this is reminiscent of London’s famous Portobello Road, which features similar Victorian-terrace houses. Each of LEGO’s common blue colour looks good – especially teal! This scene radiates a certain warmth, both because of the inclusion of light aqua and medium azure, and also the flowers in each garden. I also like the architectural detail of white flowers in the crest that separates the first and second floors. It’s definitely a street that I would love to live in!
Check out more of Kristel’s lovely builds here!