This super-sleek LEGO robot figure looks like it could have stepped straight out of some Destiny concept art. Red mixes up regular System bricks, Technic connectors, and “Constraction-figure” pieces to great effect. The tan and dark grey colour scheme is nice and simple, and allows that splash of red in the robot’s face to really stand out. I love the shaping of the shoulders and that round boss on the chest, they give this creation an individual style.
SHIPtember may be over, but there’s still plenty more spacecraft measuring over 100 studs in length left in the sea. Feast your eyes on Christian Benito‘s fin-tastic, Spelljammer-inspired SHIP. In addition to a snazzy design, this beast has an articulated tail, exposed “rivet-style” studs, crystallization along the head, and a heavy-duty turret gun. What else could a space whale SHIP ask for?
For more photos of Benito’s creation (including several interior and work-in-progress shots) check out his Flickr page.
There are dozens of reasons to love both old and modern LEGO City sets, but still not all adult fans are happy with huge molded pieces that aircraft models are built of. Jussi Koskinen presents a very elegant alternative to bulky fuselages. No surprise it took him about three months to finish this brilliant ATR 72-500, which features a very smartly designed body.
Skilfully designed and executed interior holds 28 passengers, 2 pilots and even a flight attendant — enough room for all your City travellers!
At first glance, these LEGO popsicles look totally sweet. A collaborative creation by Carl Merriam, Niek, and Milan CMadge, the twin models perfectly capture the shapes of an ice-cream sandwich and a half-munched orange popsicle (or “ice lolly” as it’s known where I come from).
However, regardless of how nice the models are, you might wonder why it took 3 builders collaborating to create them. Well, it all comes down to the sheer scale of the endeavour. Perhaps the image below will make everything clear? It’s only when the massive size of these models becomes apparent that you can truly appreciate the effort and skill which went into their creation. Genuinely amazing stuff gents — well played.
What if intergalactic bounty hunter 4-LOM participated in the very fast, very dangerous competition of podracing? Tom Vanhaelen presents his idea of the rogue protocol droid’s podracer. The use of metallic colors on the turbines, as well as circular arrays of bars and robot arms, really nail the aesthetic of the heavily-customized podracer.
The use of a rubber piece as the safety harness inside the pod is a clever detail…
October has started, but we still have much to cover from SHIPtember — the month-long celebration of building massive LEGO spaceships. This particular addition, BSL Marcus Garvey by the OG LEGO builder Keith Goldman is actually a recreation of a concept art by another builder.
With dozens of top quality large spaceships built in the community each year, it is hard to be original, but Keith’s ship excels at being true to the concept art, nailing a color scheme, following complex angles and textures, and leaving no boring spots whatsoever.
A year on from building a remarkably accurate LEGO version of a vintage camera, Milan CMadge does it again with this excellent rendition of a Leica III. The model features brilliant shaping around the top with all those buttons and dials, and nice intricate bits of detail, particularly around the lens.
What might not be immediately apparent from the first photo is the scale of this creation — it’s absolutely enormous! The large-scale allows for the use of black quarter-circle tiles in the creation of the realistic texturing around the camera’s body. To give you a clear idea of quite how big this thing is, check out this fun image…
This isn’t “LEGO building” as much as “LEGO arranging”, but it’s nice work by McLegoboy! all the same. A well-judged selection of textured parts, coupled with good macro photography, creates a striking composition which wouldn’t look out of place in the universes of Judge Dredd or Mad Max. Not bad for a total of eight pieces!
You drove here in that? You’re braver than I thought. Lino Martins provides a LEGO reimagining of Star Wars as a 70’s buddy movie featuring a likable scoundrel named Stan Solo, his girlfriend Laura, and their big biker friend Chad Bacca. The car is the real star though — a beat-up 1977 Ford Falcon, so heavily patched it’s nicknamed the Aluminium Falcon.
This is a cracking model — it’s inspiration immediately apparent whilst being a decent build of a completely different style of vehicle. There’s an impressive depth of texture crammed into a relatively small footprint, with lots of lovely greebles nestled amongst the bodged repair work. As you’d expect, Lino brings his customary attention to detail to bear on the interior…
And don’t miss the group of miniland-scale reprobates created to go with the vehicle. It’s Stan Solo himself, along with the rest of the gang. I laughed out loud at Lino’s take on Artoo and Threepio…
You’ll need to look a bit longer at this creation by Doctor Mobius to see that it’s not just a photograph of 6929 Star Fleet Voyager released in 1981. The set has been completely scaled up into a larger version and the exposed studs are actually build out of round bricks. You’ll notice the difference when you see the two models side-to-side.
Best of all, according to the builder, “because it was swooshable when we were both little, so it should be swooshable now that we’re both big!”
When you think it can’t get any worse, sometimes life likes to surprise you. Such is the case with this band of pirates as Dwalin Forkbeard tells us: The pirates have survived an unfortunate battle with an Imperial ship, only to be attacked by an ancient sea monster. They are doing everything they can to escape, going as far as blowing into the sail, but will that be enough? Judging by the skeleton on the animal’s back, they do not even have to be eaten to meet a tragic end.
While the textures are somewhat simple, the inner construction of the creature has to be impressive to achieve the smooth, rounded shaping. The segment on the back resembling a small island is a common theme with sea monsters, but I have never seen it done in LEGO before, and a conservative amount of seashells and other sea animals spread across the monster really gives it a realistic impression. While the whale (or is it a fish? Is it any of that, even?) is obviously the focal point and the best part of the build, its surroundings help, too — the raft is positioned so that it gives a feeling of action and the water spilling off the diorama looks just so dynamic.
Generally, in life, bigger is usually better. However, that is not the case with this neat little starfighter by TOKYO TAG TEAM. The build is a wonderful blend of colors, shapes, and angles compacted into a very small package, but for me, it’s the stickers that really set the build apart — I dig the little symbols plastered over different parts of the fighter. In particular, the use of the long blue stickers on the windscreen were an excellent design choice. Without them, the windscreen would likely feel very bland.
After close inspection, I am only left wondering how the pilot steers the craft. Neuro-controlled maybe? That’s probably it.