A LEGO scene or model doesn’t have to be massive or packed with unusual building techniques to be impressive. Sometimes all you need is a nice set-up and great photography. That’s certainly the case here, as Marco Zanconi brings us a beautifully composed image with lovely lighting. The old sea captain’s bedroom is a relatively-simple build, but the play of light through the window, and the focus employed, turn the image into something worthy of a Hollywood cinematographer.
You don’t have to wait for winter to see a snow-covered fantasy castle. Isacc Snyder follows his microscale LEGO Rivendell model with this equally cool teeny-tiny fortress. There’s a nice selection of parts here, with Technic cogs providing excellent depth of texture on the towers. I also like the ice-clear frozen lake at the castle’s foot, and the white tooth plates suggesting a spill of snow over the edge of the base. Personally, I might have added black screwdrivers to the turrets on the topmost towers, increasing their “spindle-y-ness”, but that minor reservation aside, I love this model.
One of my favorite video games of all time is Final Fantasy VII, released more than 20 years ago on the Sony PlayStation console. Such iconic characters must inevitably undergo the BrickHeadz treatment, which works very well for the anime styling of character designer Tetsuya Nomura. LEGO builder Ben Fong has captured the look of the two antagonists Cloud Strife and Sephiroth as they’re depicted in the 2005 film Final Fantasy: Advent Children.
Cloud wields his enormous Buster Sword, and Ben has even included the stud in Cloud’s left ear.
With its sleek fuselage and arrowhead profile, the Seraphim reconnaissance jet by Corvin Stichert seems to resemble the stepping stone between the SR-71 Blackbird and the SSV Normandy SR-1 from Mass Effect. Although the builder had more of the former in mind when building, surely it’s ultrafast aircraft like this that will eventually eliminate the boundary between sky and space. Corvin puts all the curved slopes and wedges to excellent use in shaping the body, resulting in a craft that seems primed for radar deflection rather than merely a little pixelated as a consequence of the bricks.
My favorite touch on this model is the realistic, working landing gear and ordnance bays on the underside.
Corvin has also created a full ground crew to accompany the aircraft. Now all it needs is an Area 51 hangar.
Bosco Verticale is a skyscraper full of lush greenery in Milan, Italy . Built by TBB’s own Elspeth De Montes, this micro-version is a fantastic urban forest coupled with beautiful architectural details. There are a lot of things to love in this build. I particularly love the use of non-traditional green bits to bring diversity and life to this miniature forest: I spot cheese grater slopes, quarter-circle tiles, brushes, and combs. There are teeth pieces, taps, blades, and Medusa’s hair from Series 10 of the Collectible Minifigure line. Repurposing the Eye of Ender tiles from the Minecraft line as solar panels is a fantastic use of that piece.
Fans of the TV show The Expanse will recognize this sleek vessel. Named by James Holden after Don Quixote’s horse, described in the book as a “stubby black wedge of metal” and visualized in the show as a lean, mean fighting machine, the Rocinante is a former MCRN Corvette Class ship previously known as the Tachi. Julie vanderMeulen had been mulling over building a LEGO version since seeing the show earlier this year. She decided to go with 2/3 minifig-scale to make it a nice, even 100 studs long.
As a proof of concept, she built the drive cone and then shelved it for a while. When she finally decided to give it a go, it just so happened to be the same day SHIPtember 2017 was announced, so she ended up speed building the whole model — and it is gorgeous! Julie has captured the Roci in all her glory, heavily armored and heavily armed — every detail has been stunningly sculpted in LEGO.
In the words of James Holden, “As long as we’re living and breathing, there’s more we can do. We just have to be strong enough.”
Current students at the University of Colorado in Boulder will not need an introduction to the Koelbel Building as it’s part of the Leeds School of Business. Older graduates may not immediately recognise the building as it reopened with a new name in the autumn of 2007 after renovation and expansion financed by the Koelbel family. Imagine Rigney’s LEGO version has accurately captured the contrasting brick building with its central curved balcony atop tall columns and the ribbed dome.
If you fancy seeing this build in person, then it will soon be installed at Old Main for the Hit the Bricks exhibit on campus at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Some gamers are celebrating the launch of action-adventure first person shooter Destiny 2 with all-nighter gaming sessions. Then there is BrickinNick, celebrating the second entry in the franchise with three LEGO Hunter-class Guardians unleashing their super abilities. Nick captured the iconic futuristic cloaked warriors well, recognizable with just a handful of pieces.
Microscale LEGO building tends to focus on buildings and vehicles, but Teabox(henrik_zwomp) has taken up the challenge of depicting a figure and an animal at a tiny scale. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s pulled it off admirably with this adorable little matador facing up to a bull. Immediately recognisable, the subject matter not be to everyone’s taste as a sporting spectacle, but there’s no doubting the building skill on display.
Pacman gobbling the power dots — check it out! Fresh from wowing us with a massive Medieval Village display, French builder ilive now knocks it out of the park with a wonderful LEGO optical illusion. Yep, there are no curves in this build, nor fancy photoshopping — it’s just your own eyes and brain messing with you.
If you like a good optical illusion, check out this brick-built rendition of the classic Escher terrace illusion we covered a while back. Personally I’m a huge fan of this kind of thing and wish we saw more of it in LEGO creations. I built one of my own a long, long time ago — the Castle of Illusion.
In anticipation of the latest screen adaptation of Stephen King’s classic coulrophobia-inducing book IT, builder Tim Lydy has crafted this wonderfully creepy bust of Pennywise the dancing clown. Guess I won’t be sleeping tonight! I also love the added touch of the brick-built origami sailboat.
I think Tim might be a bit of an IT fan, as this isn’t the first time he’s rendered these characters in LEGO. Check out his “adorable” Brickheadz versions too. We all float down here. (shudder)
Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Mpyromaxos has created a particular battle from this war, the Battle of Sphacteria, when a small force from the Spartan army was isolated on the island of Sphacteria by the Athenians. The scene depicts the Athenian forces landing on the island after a surprise attack which included a risky move to attack the Spartans from the rear, thus forcing their surrender. The main focus of this build is on the land-based action so I rather like the way that only the front portion of the Athenian’s ship is included with some sea spilling over the edge of the build.
On the left of the diorama, Mpyromaxos has included the Temple of Athena and statues of gods Dioscures, Kastor, and Polydeuces, who were all worshipped by the Spartans. The close-up view below shows some of the battle enfolding. I love the little arrow stuck in the wall of the Spartan fortifications.
If you want to see more close-up views of the action, the builder has an album on Flickr, entitled Battle of Sphacteria.