With Lunar New Year upon us, what better way to celebrate than to feature the three stars of Happiness, Prosperity, and Longevity in Cubedude and Brickheadz form? Whichever style you prefer, these three figures by tankm are here to wish you all the best in the year of the dog.
Personally, I really appreciate the detailed mustache and beards featured on the Brickheadz versions
Detailed comparison of these two styles of LEGO characters after the jump
To keep up with cultural traditions, Chinese folks adorn their homes during the new year with decor that has deep significance. Builder Shirley Yoong creates a lovely assortment that would fit around a home easily! The red lantern is chosen to prevent ‘bad luck’ from entering homes. Red is chosen for its symbolism of being the color of prosperity, happiness, and success. The Lucky Bamboo is a considered to be good Feng Shui that brings luck and wisdom and peace into homes. Last but not least are the Mandarin Oranges, which in Cantonese or Mandarin is pronounced “kam” which also sounds like the word “gold”. When brought and offered in homes during visits, it symbolises one bringing the inhabitants of the home luck and prosperity!
From the team at The Brothers Brick, wishing all our readers a prosperous Year of the Dog with wealth, health and luck (and lots of LEGO bricks too) throughout the year!!
See more Lunar New Year LEGO creations
Talented Seattle-area builder Shawn Snyder has created a wonderful pair of Fire Dinosaurs based on the Dinotopia book series by James Gurney. For the uninitiated, Dinotopia is an isolated island inhabited by shipwrecked humans and sentient dinosaurs who have learned to coexist peacefully as a single symbiotic society.
Check out the latest in fire-equipped dinos the LEGO Dinotopia Fire Department has received, part of a collaborative build by ArchLUG displayed at BrickCon 2017.
See more of Shawn’s brick-built Dinotopia dinosaurs
If you visit the Chanel boutique in Amsterdam, you will find that the façade of Crystal Houses Amsterdam uses glass bricks to recreate the city’s traditional architectural style. The transition from bricks to glass has been elegantly captured in LEGO by builder YellowBox. This is a striking creation and, although there was some controversy over the actual building, the LEGO version works beautifully.
This is not just a façade but a modular building with three floors of the boutique shopping where fashionistas can plan their spring attire.
Click to see the interior of this modular building
By now we’ve seen almost every scene from the Star Wars franchise meticulously and repeatedly recreated as a LEGO diorama, except for one… When Luke receives the Empire’s calling card, in the form of the still-smoking remains of his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in Star Wars: A New Hope. So I thought I’d rectify this glaring oversight by the LEGO community!
I’ve found no satisfactory explanation for this surprisingly graphic scene in a seemingly PG movie franchise …which to be fair does feature its share of bodily dismemberment and a pretty significant body count. And while you might argue that this is an important moment of gravitas that propels Luke on his journey against the evil Empire, it’s interesting that he never once later mentions the demise of his only living relatives, who in all likelihood died guarding the whereabouts of their whiney nephew!
On the other hand, this sad event does furnish Luke with the perfect excuse to finally leave his godforsaken home planet in search of the adventure he had always dreamed of. So maybe he wasn’t that cut up about it after all. Then again, who cares – it’s just Star Wars, where nothing really makes that much sense. It’s all just a vehicle for a lotta big space battles and waving of laser swords by a bunch of space wizards!
This cordless drill by František Hajdekr shows how to hide functional elements in plain sight. Tucked under the handle, the Power Functions battery pack for this motorized technic drill looks just like the battery pack for a real cordless drill.
Of course, what good is a battery if it doesn’t power something? Pull the trigger on this model and the drill bit spins. The M-Motor that powers the drill bit fits neatly inside two half-cylinder “tipper drum” panels. By using a Power Functions control switch for the trigger, the drill can turn both clockwise and counter-clockwise.
You can also see this model in action on František Hajdekr’s YouTube channel.
Proving once again that all LEGO pieces are created equal, F@bz constructed this stunning vehicle which showcases the packaging cannister from the old LEGO Creator Sets. But this time he’s built a lovely rover instead of a big rig truck.
F@bz’s grey and gold rover has just enough metallic accents and space-age apparatus to perfectly balance out its wide-set wheels and large canister body. And the use of two Super-Adaptoids (sans wings) as the futuristic Martians is simply genius. Not to mention, that dog-sized mini-rover is adorable.
With the release of the LEGO Ideas 21313 Ship in a Bottle, many builders have taken a creative approach to using the transparent parts to create something unique. This build of a rose within a ‘glass dome’ is quite the exquisite and elegant idea executed by Chakhei Mok. He made sure to share a bit of his creative process – remember, Valentine’s Day is here, and if you’re behind time on your shopping list and have a Ship in a Bottle on hand, there’s still hope with elements that you have on hand to gift this gorgeous flower to your loved one!
Click for the instructions to build your own Rose in Glass
Well here’s a LEGO mech model which breaks the mould — it’s not grey for a start! Jayfa‘s creation is a creative mix of Technic parts, “Constraction” big-fig pieces, and regular LEGO, and it looks awesome. The hunched over shoulders and the “face” lend it an appealingly sinister aspect, and the lime green highlights provide impressive visual pop. A closer look reveals a wonderful depth of detail within the black greebling, giving the whole thing a Giger-esque, techno-organic styling — further enhanced by those demonic legs and cloven hooves. Nice flamethrower too!
The Life on Mars theme seems to be mostly forgotten by most LEGO fans, its nostalgia overshadowed by the more memorable early Star Wars and Bionicle sets. Some people, including Henry F., still seem to remember this lost jewel and give it the publicity it deserves — because it really was an imaginative theme with a positive message, unlike the loose reboot known as Mars Mission.
I love how elegant and compact the exo-suit is, with just enough exotic Technic pieces to give some texture while keeping the build clean. A few splashes of orange help the build catch the eye, and the tan used for tool-hands is a nice touch. A Martian figure fits in snugly and the lazy-looking alien looks like he is quite comfortable. It should also be noted that the use of the reddish background really helps create the feel of the red planet.
A Köf or Klienlokomotive literally means a “small locomotive”and, in the 1980s, LEGO utilised a yellow Köf at their German LEGO distribution center in Hohenweststedt. As a huge fan of the classics, builder Faust Chang has built a scaled replica model of the Hohenweststedt train, with details right down into the dashboard and engines. I’m sure for train fans and aficionados alike, it’s pretty cool to know that there’s a tiny train out there that once was run and operated by LEGO. Sadly in 2002 the Köf was sold by LEGO and was painted red by its new owners.
Builder HallBricks blends the functional with the beautiful in this Technic Motorized Bus. I watched this video several times in awe of its clean lines, compact design, and marvelous engineering. This model exhibits many design features that blend SYSTEM brick and Technic parts to form elegant curves. The rear pillars and roof combine Technic panels with SYSTEM rounded slopes for a smooth, semi-oblate shape. On the outside, the model’s headlights and tail lights consist of multiple translucent tiles for a multi-faceted effect.
Click here to see more interior views
