I seriously don’t know what this is, but it definitely looks like a grunt that you’d want to stay away from. Builder Leonid An must have had an inspiring day to be able to dream up of this one – someone must have made him quite cross indeed. I did notice Grunt has a great choice of clothing! I wonder where he does his shopping or did Mrs. Grunt go for sewing lessons?
Click to see Grunt show off a few more poses
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison? You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo. Okay, terrible jokes aside, here’s an excellent pair of LEGO bison put-together by Jens Ohrndorf. The shaping is excellent, as is the restrained colour scheme, and the mix of smooth and studded pieces used creates an effective simulation of the bison’s patchy shaggy coat.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen bison models by Jens. Check out this cute pair of tiny LEGO bison and a mammoth we featured a couple of years ago.
Yes, boys and girls, if you really want to stand out amongst the crowd when all your friends have regular dart guns, here’s one that’s guaranteed to make them go green with envy. Astonishing Studios built a fully working Nerf Dart gun using LEGO.
Well, the only caveat is you’ve still got to purchase the foam darts, which is going to still put a hole in your pocket.
Click to find out how to build your own
When it comes to LEGO houses, Sarah Beyer builds some of the best. We’ve taken a look at her jungle holiday home previously, and whilst this house might be less exotic in its setting, it’s no less accomplished in its construction and fit-out. The tan walls with their black detailing offer a sharp contrast to the feature wall, letting its striping really stand out. The landscaping and planting around the house create a sense of a cared-for property situated in a pleasant urban neighbourhood.
As ever, Sarah has included a detailed interior, including this stylish upstairs bedroom with its floor-to-ceiling windows. However, all that natural light comes at a cost — I notice there are no curtains, so the privacy may be somewhat lacking.
Click here to see more photos of this lovely model
This microscale LEGO landscape by Emil Lidé offers a picturesque insight into the expansion of the LEGO colour palette — particularly in green. The model’s colour scheme effortlessly recreates a realistic forest feel, and the variety of colours is supported by the variety of construction techniques used amongst the trees. Beyond the forestry, there are some lovely touches — don’t miss the tan Technic pins used to create the wheat field, and the fence built from brown minifigure hands. The only thing I’m unconvinced by is the elaborate border on the diorama’s base — I think it distracts from the central build and would have been better as a plain construction. However, that’s a minor quibble with an otherwise excellent creation.
Brick-built aquariums are often extremely cool, but how many can say their LEGO sea-creatures actually move? My guess is not too many. But one clever builder, Mark Smiley, has managed to create an adorable little “LEGO Clockwork Aquarium” that does just that! With the turn of a crank, the fish move in a circle along the tank perimeter. There’s also a crab that hops up and down, and a starfish that spins! If you look closely, you can even see a little Easter Island head in the corner, and a shrimp in the helmet. The whole thing is modular and customizable. But just wait until you see it in action!
Click to watch the video of the tank coming to life!
When it comes to the “Sky-Fi” Dieselpulp style of LEGO building, one man is the undisputed master of the air: Jon Hall. He strikes again with his latest retro-flavoured aircraft — the P-98 Nemesis. The shaping of the hefty triple-fuselage structure is excellent, and there are loads of lovely touches on display — the strong colour-blocking, the raked exhausts peeking from beneath the engine cowls, and the racks of ordnance slung under the wings.
Packed full of Jon’s trademark attention to detail, the model includes custom stickers, a folding undercarriage, and a detailed cockpit interior. Check out this view of the seat and the instrumentation panel with its trio of joysticks. And don’t miss the spanner mounted up-front as a gun sight — great stuff.
Shortly before the release of Titanfall 2 in October 2016, talented builder Marius Herrmann uploaded his first Titan build of Ronin. After that he went on to recreate the rest of the mechs from the game, but stopped short of Scorch. But now Scorch has been completed, and it may be the best of the bunch.
Like the other Titans, Scorch was done in his base colour, which translated into mostly light tan. But the amount of added detail from black, dark tan and a few printed pieces make this far from boring. The overall shaping is just about perfect but it’s the small details that make this build so incredible. This continues around the back of the build and you can spend a long time staring at this and pointing out all the great parts usage. The only thing that’s really missing is the thermite launcher, but that’s more than forgiven here.
This railway contraption by Akiyuki seems to have a single objective: mesmerizing viewers with an incredible orchestration of moving trains while appearing to be doing something relatively productive.
Its only function is a closed looped system that transports LEGO balls. This type of machine is commonly known by LEGO fans as a Great Ball Contraption. Here, the machine consists of a circuit of tracks and seems to perform a crucial task, and that appearance is itself quite a major feat of design and ingenuity. For me, I’d prefer to call it out as an Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) machine—which is a fancy way of saying it gives me the shivers—and it makes me want to stare at it continuously.
Consisting of several modules and utilising four carriages to transport the balls from section to section, let’s take a look at the various modules that make this thingamajig tick.
Click to see the modules in detail
Lego artist Martin Redfern has a unique signature style to his builds: they always seem to be from a bygone era, and captured beautifully. This police cruiser is loosely based on a 1950’s cruiser like it was straight out of a mobster movie. He even built an engine under the hood and loaded it with full decor on the dashboards. You’ll definitely want to check out all the details on this one.
Click to see more under the hood
Large LEGO sculptures made out of mostly regular bricks are most commonly created by LEGO itself for promotional displays, but fan builders sometimes make their own too. Felix Jaensch has done just that with this great rendition of Yoda, which instantly reminds us of the old 7194 Yoda UCS set.
There’s a lot of good shaping here, especially because a large percent of the character is a robe, which you can see better in this shot of Yoda’s back.
If you’ve never seen a red-crowned crane, they are certainly a site to behold. Standing at 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, with a wingspan of 7-8 feet, and weighing up to 25 Lbs (over 11 Kg), these endangered creatures are among the largest birds in the world. Their mating dance is also incredible! Native to East Asia, the sacred cranes have significant symbolism in Japanese tradition. They represent luck, longevity, and fidelity, and they often show up in art, like this elegant diorama by ggwingx.
The background and base are a perfect tribute to the homeland of these beautiful animals. But what really stands out is the terrific use of those white clamshells, and black and white feather pieces to really give them dimension. The legs, necks, and heads are also clever. Altogether it’s a great use of simple parts to make something that truly embodies the gracefulness of these creatures.
