LEGO train track used to be blue, but 40 years ago the Grey Era started, and Holger Matthes built this beautiful and functional Roundhouse “Bamberg” with some very modern parts and techniques, but still perfectly in the style of those classic 1980-1987 sets.
See more of this LEGO roundhouse, including a video!
This black castle by Aaron Newman which he calls Grimstone is a delightful blend of classic fantasy and a bit of industrial revolution, with smokestack-looking towers, and a hint of castle Greyskull, with those black claws flanking the main gate. The sloping bridge over flaming hot magma leads to a dilapidated town that is looking a bit worse for wear. I also love the many shades of orange plates used for the lava.
Giant spaceships are cool, but I think we’ve seen the strength of the small one-man fighter to slip in and do some real damage. Blake Foster created the Grumpy Gnat Attack Fighter in under 24 hours…a level of speed this thrust-heavy vehicle understands. Built in Classic Space colors, the transparent-yellow windscreen hails from 2011’s 7985 City of Atlantis, and the blue cowling is sourced from a variety of Bionicle parts. I particularly like the Rahkshi Back Cover along the top and sides. The gap designed for the Rahkshi spines makes a perfect place to have the ship’s fins extend through. And the little touches like the red and green navigational lights just make me smile.
This isn’t Blake’s first foray into new Classic Space vehicles. Not by a long shot! Check our archives for more space-y goodness.
The eighties: hair and shoulder pads were big, smoking was cool and greed was good. If you wanted to show off your financial success, the car to buy was the Porsche 911 Turbo. Because of the weight of its rear-mounted engine and the massive turbo lag, flooring the throttle pedal whilst driving through a slippery curve resulted in a fair few investment bankers wrapping their Porsches around a tree. However, in the hands of a good driver, these things were rally monsters. Dennis Glaasker brings us 1/14 scale LEGO models of two of these classic racers.
This pair competed in the 1984 Ypres Rally in Belgium. Henri Toivonen, with Ian Grindrod as his navigator, won the rally in the white and dark blue car in ‘Rothmans’ livery (a tobacco company). The red and white car failed to finish, though. Belgian racers Robert Droogmans and Ronny Joosten didn’t wrap it around a tree, fortunately. They retired from the race because their gearbox failed. There is much to love about the models. For instance, note how the B-pillars (the struts under the roof at the back of the doors) are sloped slightly aft, just like on the real car. Everything opens and the cars have realistic interiors, with racing seats and roll cages. Dennis recreated their colour schemes using a mix of different coloured parts and perfectly matching custom stickers. Best bit: those iconic whale tail spoilers.
This build actually has nothing to do with the defunct theme, but you can’t help but notice that Galidor staff in the center. When Cody Avery designed this angelic LEGO character inspired by the renaissance art adorning the tombs of saints, it might not have been intended to be the focal point. But we certainly admire how perfectly it fits. It’s also ironic that something from LEGO’s least “LEGO-like” theme could be used to make something so lovely. It’s a beautiful story of rebirth, with or without the staff.
A different Galidor-inspired build better explains the history of the theme. We feature loads of creations using similar parts. Also, check out another of Cody’s builds, The Elder Beast.
Did you ever have that dream where you’re back in high school and all the kids are riding to school in a chopped rusto-mod school bus and everyone is thrashing out to Alice Cooper’s School’s Out? You haven’t? That’s like my second-most recurring dream beside the one where we’re in high school and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden is teaching gym class. High school for me was in the late eighties so you can forgive me if all my dreams involve hair metal. Red2 may or may not have the same dreams but they at least have the chopped rusto-mod school bus down pat. This LEGO creation features a chromed-out Cummins Deisel motor and an opening folding school bus door.
You need a tetanus shot just to look at this thing! I remember tetanus shots. Our school nurse administered them to us while smoking Virginia Slims. As I said, school for me was a long time ago and it was a different time back then. No one smokes in school anymore and Alice Cooper is now a conservative old man who enjoys golf.
Instagram user legotruman renders a LEGO version of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night and we’re all pretty impressed. See what I did there? Impressed. Because Impressionist. Get it? This is why I make the big bucks here, people. Anyway, we can all appreciate good LEGO art here. I particularly enjoy the plates set at all those crazy rakish angles representing those crazy rakish clouds. The moon with its halo glow is also quite charming.
It’s been ingrained in my mind that when I see a LEGO build with a yellow body and a blue transparent cockpit, it’s going to be an aquatic vehicle. This is all thanks to the classic colour pallette from LEGO ‘s Aquazone theme. This stylistic submersible is quite compact and sleek and allows travelling to the depths of the wide ocean in style. I see a similarity to the silhouette and curves of a dolphin jumping out of the water and it makes me wonder if that was builder Thomas W.’s inspiration.
Read on to see this little submarine in its natural habitat
I love a good micro-build and General 尓àvarre brings on the details in this tiny temple. There is some great parts use here with the upside down picket fences being used for the temple walls. The color variation of the roof is nice and adds to the aged feeling of the building. The photos depth of field with the slightly blurry statue in the background helps give a sense of grand scale to a model that is really only 12 x 12 studs square. Like all of the models I tend to favor, this one has a story although it may not be obvious to the casual viewer. In this case, it’s a story best told by its creator.
In the heights there lies a massive temple complex, with a giant statue of the god Terrus in his four armed form above, and a large temple built as a shrine to him below. The priests continually keep the beacon on the heights burning to let Terrus know that they are still honoring him.
Builder Heikki M. brings us memories of childhood with this simple but perfect little LEGO bedroom vignette. Sometimes models don’t need to be over complicated to make an impression. The color work and studless modeling are just perfect and give an air of reality at first glance. I love the small pink play kitchen with its little details and the pop of green in the striped rug. The bunk bed looks like it just stepped out of IKEA catalog and probably took longer to build than it seems, just like real thing. The pillowcases and the rumpled sheet are not LEGO but are made from a real life pillow case. Non-LEGO additions can sometimes look disjointed, but here, it blends right in and adds to the realism of the model as a whole. The toys scattered around the room are a terrific final detail, but my favorite is the pink bird, seemingly tossed casually under the bed, just waiting to be picked up and played with.
What can you build using eleven pounds of Technic beams and wedge plates? If you said a LEGO midi-scale Star Destroyer you might be correct. However, if you said White Spirit Wolf you are likely Michael Kanemoto. Wedge plates and Technic beams are not the first things that come to mind when replicating natural elements but Michael pulls off the look nicely. He tells us this labor of love took about one-hundred hours on and off from April 30th to July 14th.
I particularly love the eyes; there’s a depth and cunning knowing to them. I’ve only viewed wolves from a safe distance but this LEGO creation possesses the same mesmerizing gaze as a real wolf in the wild. How can you stare into this face and deny it whatever it is that spirit wolves want? I’m smitten!
Well, not really. We think this fiendish-looking organ is pretty cool. But it sure is scary! There are pipe organs found in churches and then there’s this. LEGO builder [VB] says that his inspiration came from the “Hellmouth” of the middle ages. The unfaithful would perish within its fiery maw. Organs, while beautiful, often have a creepy sound to them, and we can only imagine what this would sound like. Wondering if that face (faces?) is what people of the 1300s were having nightmares about? Yep, this matches the Google images. Sweet dreams.
While you’re here, check out [VB]’s other creepy creations.
