It is the start of December and that means my favourite month project is over. That does not mean, however, that we have stopped featuring recently built Vic Vipers, as you can see here. It seems NnoVVember is attuned to lazy builders, and that means most entries, including mine came in the last week (and apparently there is a wide-spread belief that November has 31 days…). A very unique part of this group is Jussi Koskinen‘s Baryon Vic Viper.
There are fast cars, classic cars, utility cars and many other kind of vehicles depending on their purpose. But hot rods are all about making an impression. This is exactly what this beauty by red 2 does; it makes an impression. This 1931 Ford Rat Rod has it all; it’s loud, low, chopped, with giant rear tires, open pipes. What is especially impressive about it is its sand green body; to be honest, it took me a couple of minutes to recall each of these pieces in sand green in official LEGO sets.
Welcome to Day 2 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the three mini-builds from the LEGO City, LEGO Star Wars, and LEGO Friends 2017 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 and posted in the evening every day, so we don’t accidentally ruin the surprise. The anticipation is killing us!
Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!
There is a strange beauty in decaying industrial architecture, with chipping paint, broken metal supports and collapsing concrete walls everywhere. Or maybe I am just nostalgic for apocalyptic LEGO creations that used to be all the rage when I discovered the online community. Whichever is the case, Exetrius has hit the nail on the head for me with this ruined communication tower.
Sand green is the perfect colour to make a creation like this, and combined with dark gray and limited splashes of colour it makes for a beautifully bleak colour scheme. This is further facilitated by great textures of disuse and weathering. The tower is 120 cenimeters tall (47 in.), a task made easy by using train tracks for its main segment. Everybody who uses train tracks in unique ways is awesome!
With the next installment of the Star Wars franchise nearing once again, we’re starting to see the amazing community of builders turning their incredible skills to a galaxy far, far away. These larger doll-sized builds by Herbert Lee from Hong Kong are a prime example. With a multitude of articulation points to give life-like poses from any iconic scene from the movies, these figures stand about 8-10″ tall and are a considerable step up from the LEGO Star Wars BrickHeadz figures.
Herbert has built eight characters from across all three trilogies. Let’s take a look at each one of them in their best poses.
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 City, LEGO Star Wars, and LEGO Friends 2017 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 and posted in the evening every day, so we don’t accidentally ruin the surprise. So without further adieu, here we go!
I have been participating in the annual NnoVVember project for the past few years and it has always been a blast. This year is no different, although I admit I could be more imaginative than milking the retro train tracks used in all of the portruding elements of the spaceship. I have gone a different direction than previous years, when I avoided the characteristic Vic Viper tail fin – this time I have embraced the theme and decided to make an especially prominent tail.
The build started out with the wings and tail, then continued on with a body to connect all the wings together. The body is based on the lime tail pieces with blue hull built over it, a Bionicle Kanohi mask as the “wind”screen and grey technical details on the bottom. In reality it is quite a simple build, save for the integration of curved elements. Most of all, with contests, displays and projects flying from all directions, it was nice to build a creation just for fun, without stress.
A true labour of love is one that takes years to bear results. After half a decade of constantly building and updating using LEGO pieces accumulated from garage sales, Larry Wilkinson has brought to life an iconic and picturesque skyline of New York City. A few key buildings stand out, including the Freedom Tower, the Empire State Building, and The Chrysler Building — all instantly recognisable.
As a visitor who’s been to New York for less than a handful of times, this brings back memories of the faraway place that will always hold amazing and one of a kind experiences around a diverse culture of music, film, theatre, art – a melting pot city that makes it one of the greatest cities in the world, one that never sleeps.
You can see lots more photos of this LEGO NYC in Larry’s photostream on Flickr.
Life on the Caribbean island of San Escobar is anything but peaceful. The conquering Spaniards have a strategic fort while some English sailors have just arrived on HMS Falcon in time for afternoon tea. On the other side of the island, a pirate ship approaches looking for hidden treasure! This huge and impressive diorama by Ciamosław Ciamek has everything required to tell a great story; a pirate ship, English sailors, Spanish soldiers, hidden treasure and a monastery full of moonshine-brewing monks. What could possibly go wrong?
A closer look at the monastery shows off its nicely designed red sloping tiled roofs, an impressive dome and the main façade that was inspired by La Estancia Jesuítica Santa Catalina in Argentina.
There are lots more close-up views to enjoy in the builder’s San Escobar album of images.
If this light-up LEGO hangar looks familiar, you probably spent some time in the mid 2000s playing Star Wars Republic Commando on the Xbox. Michael K.‘s impressive diorama is a recreation of one of the iconic scene from the game: the Battle of Hangar D aboard the Acclamator-class assault ship, the Prosecutor.
This creation is packed full of clone troopers (churning out witty one-liners), droids (pew pew), and tons of intricate details built into the hangar itself. You can check out even more photos (and videos!) of Michael’s Star Wars creation on Flickr.
We all know that Peter Reid’s robot turtles are cute in their unarmed state, but they have been becoming increasingly heavily armed and dangerous. When robot turtles undergo a population explosion and arms race, it is inevitable that other cute robots will suffer. To address this robotic imbalance, Luc Byard has designed the Blacktron Rectifier, a scorpion-like mecha that will help to calm those little turtles into submission.
Luc has kindly provided a parts list and breakdown instructions to build your own Rectifier.
See step-by-step instructions for this adorably terrifying Blacktron Rectifier
This Onith-Wing Starfighter by Ted Andes is so sweet that I think it should be woven into a Star Wars movie. It’s seriously that good — it has all the right elements that make it believable, with both the contours and the lovely muted grey, dark red, and white theme. It reminds me of a cross between a Y-wing with the modified engines of X-Wings with some A-Wings thrown in for good looks. The build is almost without any visible studs to give it smooth and clean lines.
While it seems that this beauty would not pack sufficient firepower to bring anything down, the underbelly sports a couple more hidden cannons.
See more of this really cool custom LEGO Star Wars starfighter
