In space, enemies can come from any side. And so rigorous armor is needed in addition to heavy armaments. Enter Patrick Massey‘s UNN-717 Olympia, replete with rows of chunky armor paneling and heavy turrets and a subtle submarine vibe (complete with rudder and diving planes). The nearly unbroken grey of the ship’s hull lends weight and scale to the model, helping it convey the ship’s monstrous size. And speaking of size, the LEGO model is no slouch either, ringing in around 3 feet in length.
Wow–either someone cast engorgio on a dementor (and who in their right mind would do that?) or diminuendo on Hogwarts castle. Whatever happened, this brick-built dementor by Maxime Cheng hovering menacingly over Hogwarts is magical. Special recognition goes to the dementor’s mouth, made from two collars from the William Shakespeare collectible minifig. The sculpted body and the streams of tattered cloak give this model a very sinister appearance. The school grounds and building are also very nicely detailed at this scale.
It’s that time of year again! Break out the hot cocoa and stoke the fire, because The Brothers Brick is counting down to Christmas the only way we know how: with LEGO Advent Calendars! Each day, we’ll reveal the three mini-builds from the LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Friends, and LEGO City 2018 advent calendars along with commentary from our team.
If you’re opening one (or more) of these advent calendars along with us, we’ve made sure the pictures and commentary on each day’s models will be behind a jump so we don’t accidentally ruin the surprise. So without further adieu, here we go!
Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!
For about the past decade, LEGO castle builders have trended towards what I like to call a ramshackle aesthetic, with precariously towering walls and gravity-defying roofs attached with a song and a prayer. It’s natural that builders would flex their chops in that manner, as that painterly style requires a great deal more skill than the simple, studs-up brick walls of classic castle sets and many early castle builders. However, equally difficult is building more traditional, real-world castles and avoiding the dreaded “grey wall syndrome” of thoroughly boring architecture. Isaac Snyder‘s walls of Carcassonne accomplishes this excellently, featuring a short segment of the French city’s fortifications. The walls and even roofs are no less detailed than any you’d find in the more ramshackle style, yet are thoroughly grounded in authentic style.
Perhaps next time Isaac can include a road though, as I’ve been needing a straight wall segment with a road to complete my city for ages!
One of the defining subjects of the Maschinen Krieger sci-fi world is the hardsuit, an environmental suit that is meant to help the wearer survive in hostile environments like outer space or in radiation-heavy post-apocalyptic locations. While mini-fig scale LEGO hardsuits may be more common, this one by Marco Marozzi is built to a much larger scale, and as such, is packed with details. Like many of Marco’s mechs, this one has plenty of poseability. I especially like the ball-socket shoulder attached through a wheel rim.
The white engine cowl found on many space shuttle sets provides the hardsuit with the pod-like look that seems to take some inspiration from early deep-sea diving suits, and an abundance of tubes and canisters come together to lend an industrial feel to the model.
What do you do when you get your hands on a giant pile of white ornamental fence pieces? Build an extravagant winter village of course! At least, that’s what builder Joe Gan did. The lovely white houses definitely make this picture zoom-worthy, but my favorite part is the giant purple Christmas tree. The color choice, in addition to the other accents throughout, make for an eye-catching build.
The Interlace is an exquisite, award-winning design of a residential apartment in Singapore. The seemingly disarrayed yet artistic placements of the apartments makes it stand out. The layout resembles layers of blocks stacked on top of each other at odd angles, forming a maze-like arrangement. This LEGO Architecture styled custom build by Daniel Stoeffler captures the real-life buildings elegantly in LEGO, with 2×1 grille parts for the windows.
See more views of this Singapore landmark and compare it to the original
We’ve been following the ongoing evolution of a series of mechanical LEGO dinosaurs built by Dan Schlumpp. Each iteration has become more and more streamlined, and the latest addition to his Mesozoic menagerie is no exception. The body-shaping is excellent, as well as the color choices.
This stegosaurus not only looks great, but lumbers around beautifully! It’s amazing to get such an organic body while still trying to create and hide all the right mechanical components.
If you’re curious about the previous iterations, check out our feature on one of Dan’s previous dinos.
“Get over here!” for one of the most iconic one-on-one fighting games. Julius von Brunk brings us a LEGO rendition of Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion, complete with the character’s signature fire-breathing fatality move. Back in the 1990s, imagery like this freaked out parents and helped contribute to the development of the modern ESRB rating system. However, we think even Joe Lieberman would have to agree that Julius’ scene is spine-chillingly good. When we learned he used practical effects in rendering this scene, it left us screaming, “finish him!”
LEGO Technic is a fantastic system for creating functional models with working mechanisms. However, it’s less often that we see Technic parts (particularly panels) integrated brilliantly into a “regular bricks” creation. However, this fabulous model of a Landrover Defender by ianying616 goes to show that the best builders select the best pieces for the job, regardless of which branch of the LEGO parts family they may originally come from. The shaping here is excellent — a good combination of regular System bricks and Technic axles, joints, and panels — perfectly capturing the recognisable lines of the Defender.
This thing is a BEAST — bulky and beautiful, with a striking black and red colour scheme. Beyond the overall styling, the details deserve appreciation: a rooftop lamp rack, a detailed interior, working suspension and steering, and opening doors, boot, and bonnet. And lurking beneath that bonnet? A gleaming engine block, ready to propel this bad boy through any obstacle in its path. Great stuff.
There’s one at every beach, looking just a bit decrepit, with ratty curtains in the windows and a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror. The Volkswagen Van has been captured as LEGO sets a few times, including the hugely popular 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van (still available after more than 7 years). David Liu has used 31079 Sunshine Surfer Van (not officially a VW, but who is LEGO kidding?) as the basis for a rather spectacular mecha. But this mech has a very important purpose!
Find out what this mech does after the jump
A red 1958 Plymouth Fury triggers memories of the movie adaption of Stephen King’s book Christine, and the car has a cult following for that reason. I’m not sure you’d want to keep this tiny version around any more than you’d want the living car from the movie — you might just find it in pieces on the floor when you wake in the morning, there to torture you with the pain of stepping on LEGO pieces. We’re pretty sure that builder hachiroku24 made it safe for us by performing an exorcism in advance, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
If you’re willing to take the risk, here are the video instructions and parts list to build your very own tiny sinister vehicle.
Click here to see the parts and video instructions