Me knows Roanoke Handybuck love LEGO and me sure he likes Star Wars too! Me think he try to be funny and hide me cookies so me be hungry. That’s not good. Me see cookie flying and me confused! This cookie taste funny though, it feel like it has chewie texture and me not sure if me sees raspberry or strawberry toppings, but you know Cookie Monster no care because me love all kindsa cookies! Om nom nom nom nom!
The story of the frog prince has been updated many times over the years. Maybe in this LEGO version by Ivan Marynov the prince has just realized that social distancing is going to make smooching a princess a lot more difficult. Whatever the case, this is certainly an expressive frog. A golden crown from the 2006 Knight’s Kingdom II theme is all that remains of this fellow’s past, and a bit of red cloth forms the interior of the gaping mouth. But for me it’s the eyes (yellow radar dishes surrounded by tires) that really get the horror of the moment across. I also like the Technic ball joints used for the toes. The tiny fly(ing) magic user is also full of fun part usage. From the blue wizard hat to the Parademon wings, this little fellow clearly wasn’t someone to mess with.
You know, sometimes existential angst is just darn cute.
Ivan’s other featured creations aren’t quite as adorable, but you should still check them out!
We’ll all anxious to get out and about again, and LEGO builder Andrew (CRCT Productions) has found a safe way to do that. Well, depending on your definition of “safe.” I suppose there’s a certain amount of risk in getting up to the International Space Station. And more risk deciding to go on a spacewalk from there. But you have to admit the risk of catching COVID-19 at that point is pretty low.
Designed in a scant eight hours, this creation shines with quality greebling. An abundance of grey ski poles, binoculars, and 1×1 round flower plates add texture, complemented by a heavy use of 1×2 cheese tile and curved slope. And it may be an obvious thing, but I also like how the astronauts are posed to be floating rather than attached to the surfaces by their feet. It adds some nice context to the build.
Okay. So this is obviously a depiction of a spacewalk. But did anyone else also think that this was a photo-realistic LEGO camera? Just for a second? I can’t be the only one…
LEGO isn’t all cheery minifigures and bright colors, sometimes builders conjure up imagery guaranteed to haunt your nightmares. VB‘s latest — The Red Death — is one such creation: a lurking horror surely deserving of its own chapter in the Cthulhu mythos. The overall frame is a wonderfully creepy form, the shape immediately evoking a hooded figure, with skeletal claws offering a deadly embrace. But then the eye is pulled in, we are powerless to resist, and we become aware of the egg clusters and the black tentacle form nestling within the red worms. The puckered purple mouths at the end of the red tubes provide a final, disgusting, glorious highlight to this sinister figure.
“The panda who shot up the restaurant” is a classic example used to illustrate the importance of punctuation — he “eats, shoots, and leaves.” But thankfully these beautiful LEGO pandas by Vincent Kiew don’t appear to be toting any weaponry. The bears are well-sculpted, and their faces are excellent. I also like their angled ears — a subtle touch that adds a lot to their realism and character. The bamboo stalks and tree are simple but effective, and offer the opportunity to show one of the bears in action-clambering-mode — something which happens for about 15 minutes in a day with real-world pandas!
Vincent has been on a roll with the LEGO animals recently. In the past few weeks he’s given us an adorable LEGO hedgehog, and an impressive show-jumping LEGO horse.
Builder Aiden.builds pulls plenty of feathers to create this beautiful LEGO model of a magpie in flight. I must admit to really loving LEGO bird models, especially seeing how builders treat the wings. This magpie has a beautiful wingspan using one of my favorite pieces, Shaft Ø3.2 Wing 9M inserted in a Bad Robot arm and clipped on to a flexi tube (Outercable 160Mm). The result is a lovely organic shape using a variety of thoughtful colors. The body is equally well done using quite a few different Technic fairings and the beak and eye are a perfect finisher.
A recent excavation in Northern Scotland uncovered evidence of the fabled miniature Viking, remarkably preserved inside a clay gourd. Discovered by Nicolas Carlier, who has done a marvelous recreation of the tiny village, using a variety of curved bricks and slopes to recreate the terrain upon which they were commonly constructed. Trees created using inverted clip plates are a bold interpretation of these hardy conifers.
If you enjoyed this miniature model, be sure to stop by Nicolas Carlier‘s Flickr site for more examples of diminutive domeciles.
In other news today The Elder Beast has escaped from a cosmic sea. LEGO builder Cody Avery has illustrated the unspeakable abomination from the cosmic depths and describes it as “…an entity of great strength. Its maw a mass of tendrils like that of an octopus.” He goes on to say; “Remnants of its imprisonment remain.” 2020 has proven to be a tumultuous year and The Elder Beast is added to a long list of cosmic anomalies that has already hit the fan. This is problematic as sources in the know tell us The Elder Beast was not scheduled to be unleashed until mid-July. The astral monstrosity is here to either put a damper on your weekend plans or devour your soul, depending on which news sources you follow.
With Hollywood shut down and most movie theaters closed worldwide due to COVID-19, new entertainment has been a little harder to come by lately. I’m not sure our current global pandemic was the inspiration behind Eli Willsea‘s scene, but we find the protagonist (played here by the Lucas minifig from the LEGO Stranger Things set) fishing for DVDs from what is apparently the very last Redbox to have survived an apocalypse that turned the water a toxic green.
Eli’s build features a slew of wonderful details, such as the rebar or conduits sticking out of the elevated roadway and electrical bits on the power pole built from pieces like a rollerskate (the new universal greeble piece). Eli makes good use of printed pieces on the Redbox machine, including old-school LEGO Space 1×1 button panels and window panes from the TARDIS in the LEGO Ideas Doctor Who set.
My wife and I played and replayed Final Fantasy VII on the original PlayStation, grinding character levels and farming materia so we could survive the insane boss battles like the Ruby Weapon. It’s incredibly disappointing that Square isn’t releasing Final Fantasy VII Remake on any platform but the PS4 any time soon. Nostalgia and minor rant aside, I love this chocobo and carriage by Kevin Wanner (Brick Ninja), depicting the scene in which Cloud rescues Tifa Lockhart from Don Corneo, the mafioso of Wall Market. The detailed chocobo and colorful carriage take center stage in the scene, with Cloud and Aeris simply providing a bit of narrative context on the side — Cloud is of course instantly recognizable from his enormous Buster Sword.
See more Final Fantasy VII scenes recreated in LEGO
Where most minifigure-scale LEGO builds lack the space to have functionality, many larger-scale LEGO Technic models emphasize visible functionality over aesthetics. It’s a rare LEGO creation that combines a high degree of functionality with a visually stunning look. With his Kobelco SK210HLC excavator, Polish builder Maciej Szymański manages to achieve this feat, in gorgeous dark turquoise, no less!
Maciej says that he spent more than a year and a half building this model, which integrates ten motors, eight pumps, LED lights, and pneumatic cylinders that he custom-built himself. The resulting excavator is fully operational, remote controlled with pneumatic actuators.
Read more about Maciej’s LEGO Technic excavator and watch it in action
Owls are fascinating creatures. You may be disappointed to find that they are not the wisest of all animals, as suggested in much of western pop-culture. (Or even birds for that matter.) But they have several extraordinary traits. For one, they have a special row of comb-like feathers on the edge of their wings that help provide silent flight. They also have superb binocular and night vision, with a neck that can turn 270 degrees, giving a much wider field. They also have “facial discs” like this LEGO model built by Eero Okkonen. The rounded collection of feathers on their faces aren’t for show. They, combined with asymmetric ears (a pair of off-set and different-sized holes on either side of their head), allow owls to determine exact positioning of their prey.
Although this build is, of course, for show, I admire the effort Eero puts into giving his creations realism. Using the dishes and chain links to decorate his Great Grey Owl’s face, along with that classic stern expression, was an excellent choice!
While you’re here, you should take a look at more of Eero’s excellent work. And for those birders out there, we have plenty of builds of the avian variety in our archives.