“Calmwater Cliff House” is a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired multistoried LEGO house nuzzled into a rocky cliff by a sandy beach. Created using black, dark tan, light tan, and reddish brown — or, as betweenbrickwalls puts it, “the colours of the 20th century” — this is a modern home integrated into the landscape to suit a 21st-century lifestyle.
See more of this Wright-inspired LEGO architectural masterpiece
Airships are one of the hardest types of aircraft to model accurately in LEGO. As a result, a good steampunk dirigible is a creation to be treasured. This fabulous sky pirates model by Thomas van Urk is a classic — a collection of steampunk staples (chequered envelope, boat-styled gondola, unlikely cannon-based armament) that soars effortlessly, somehow avoiding the risk of being grounded by genre tropes.
Whilst a sepia-tinted image is de rigeur for a steampunk vessel, this baby looks excellent in new-fangled colour. That red and black gas envelope is a stunner — the result of careful shaping using Mixel ball-and-socket joints, according to Thomas. The integration of the boat-hull gondola and domed pilot’s station is really nice too.
Lastly, don’t miss the elaborate rigging which runs all over the model. It’s touches like this which really elevate (!) this creation above its peers…
GKR: Heavy Hitters is an upcoming board game by Weta Studios, the folks who develop physical props for big movies like Ghost in the Shell and Power Rangers. As is the LEGO way, talented builders are already reproducing the eponymous Giant Killer Robots. This model recreates the “Thunderhappy Pharmaceuticals” mech. It’s a fantastic lookalike, especially at this scale. The only real part that’s missing is all the decals, but then perhaps builder Grantmasters is a purist like me?
The Rainbow Lorikeet is a species of parrot found in Australia — unmistakable with its bright red beak and colourful plumage. Gabriel Thomson has built this fantastic LEGO rendition, complete with a tree branch to perch upon, and a little avian friend, a Superb Wren. I love the bright blue plumage of the Wren, a display of colour designed to attract the ladies in real life. Both birds have been well-shaped to give an accurate, natural appearance — no mean feat with plastic bricks instead of feathers.
If you want to see this model ‘in the brick’, it is on display in LEGO House — the new LEGO experience over in Billund, Denmark.
We’ll be getting an official LEGO Voltron set soon thanks to LEGO Ideas, but the designs of the individual lions may not be quite as detailed as you’d like — presumably to save on part-count and/or to allow them to fuse together. The creator of the original Ideas submission, Leandro Tayag offers this fantastically-detailed Black Lion in mitigation.
The shaping around the chest and head are my favourite parts of this near-perfect creation. There’s a lot of little details that deserve attention too, though. The claws, for example, are made with only two pieces, but still manage to look just perfect.
These two adventurers seem to have come across quite an interesting structure – mysterious ancient catacombs. While in real life the dangers are limited to unstable ceilings and toxic mold, I expect a more fantastic fate to befall them if the builder, Forlorn Empire, continiues their story.
But for now, all that we know the catacombs contain are some amazing techniques and architectural details built from cheese slopes and masonry brick. The builder mixes different earth tones and careful lighting to create an immersive scene, and while the details and construction techniques definetely are the best part of the build, it is the composition in the photo that really brings it all together.
I apologize for my supercilious vocabulary, but Swedish builder o0ger has named his most recent YT Corellian Light Freighter-inspired spacecraft “The Nadir” which, by definition, pretty much means rock-bottom. Either the owner of this ship has very high expectations, or nadir means something else in Swedish, because this ship is quite remarkable, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t be the crown of any space shipping fleet. The integration of the cockpit into the side wing is superb, and there is just the right amount of color throughout.
If you feel inspired by this sublime spacecraft, feel free to check out our contest where you can build the Millennium Falcon herself.
Who wouldn’t want to sit down at this lovely LEGO piano and pick out a tune? Robert4168/Garmadon has put together a fantastic model — from the spot-on shiny black curves of the shape, through to the instrument’s innards visible beneath the hinged lid. There’s a bunch of nice details which also elevate this creation out of the ordinary — in particular the gold touches on the pedals and the rings used at the feet of both piano and stool. Excellent presentation too — that wooden floor is the perfect setting. It doesn’t distract attention from the main model, but creates a simple surrounding impression of a stage or practice room.
John Donne wrote that “no man is an island”, but when it comes to LEGO creations, famous poets do not restrict your imagination. Ben Fitzsimmons has turned that saying around with his huge LEGO diorama depicting a multitude of islands each inhabited by wandering travellers. Each unique little island is a place for rest and trade above the expanse of dark azure ocean. This is a beautiful, fantastical build with a touch of steampunk. The islands are all full of creative buildings like the tall lighthouse on the far right, and nice landscaping such as the waterfall spilling back into the ocean and the colourful trees.
A closer look at one part of the diorama shows some of the fun details. I love the propeller-powered pack that one traveller is wearing to cruise between islands, while the use of the ‘hot air balloon part’ as a sail works well at this scale.
Ben’s diorama won the Steampunk category at Brickfair Virginia this year and I imagine the build was even more impressive to see in person.
We’ve seen many LEGO versions of Kaneda’s red motorcycle from Akira, but they’re often larger-scale models like the beauty we saw last year. At the other end of the size spectrum, Grantmasters‘ latest creation is a tiny microscale version of the iconic bike. Grant has used the perfect combination of red pieces for this little masterpiece, although purists may quibble that most of them seem to be balanced atop each other rather than attached. Nice work on the figure too. Overall this passes the “microscale test” — ie. is it immediately recognisable? There’s no doubting that. All together now… “Kaaaannnedaaaa!”
The SHIPtember challenge is in full swing, when LEGO builders around the world look to build large-scale spaceships of at least 100-studs in length. German builder Stephan Niehoff breaks the mold of the more common microscale capital ships with this highly-detailed Gunboat from Star Citizen. The model is minifig scale and very impressive, particularly as it was put together in less than 3 weeks!
The bold colour scheme really stands out, aided with some carefully placed stickers. Yellow lines accent the complex angles well, and the use of different grays allowed Stephan to achieve some nice details. My favourite areas are the nose, with its rich collection of guns and utensils, and the “air intakes”, with the pin connector construction above it.
Nothing valuable is safe from the hands of pirates in Mark van der Maarel’s harbor scene. The construction of each building, the movement of the water, and the scene populated with sketchy pirate operations are all well done without making the overall build appear busy.
The close-up of the alley showcases the subtle offsets to achieve the detailed features of the two buildings. The use of minifigure hands as clothespins, both in appearance and suspension of the tiles, is quite clever.
