Marcin Grabowski is at his best designing aggressive-looking LEGO starfighters. This vertically oriented vibrant beauty has the distinct shape of a wasp and is also loaded with a ton of formidable weapons. It’s hard not to fall for the brilliant choice and distribution of stickers across the fighter’s body — the fonts, the numbers, and even some tiny warning signs, all work well in highlighting the ship’s edgy frame.
The Prometheus movie wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t stop it providing inspiration for good LEGO models. Grant Masters has created a wonderfully eerie scene of curious astronauts about to get themselves into a whole world of trouble. The build itself is relatively simple (although I do like that backdrop of arch pieces), however the use of dry ice and LED lighting, coupled with good photography, creates a striking image.
This orange truck by LEGO 7 is a nice little build, but perhaps unremarkable — until you spot the clever use of the orange brick separator to provide the stylish stripes of the tipper bed. This is a great example to show anyone who ever talks about “useless parts” or “specialist pieces removing the imagination from LEGO nowadays”.
You can get a better view of the truck’s rear in the image below, and see the shaping the brick separator provides to the lip of the tipper. Sometimes the deliberate use of an “unusual” piece can stick out like a sore thumb, a gimmick rather than really adding to a model. But that’s not the case here — the separator is well-integrated and genuinely enhances the creation.
We see plenty of well-built LEGO recreations of weapons from videogames, and I’m full of admiration for the scale modelling skills on display. But I also love when builders produce something which doesn’t rely on existing sources for inspiration. This steampunk machine gun by Martin Redfern is a lovely model — full of chunky cartoony detail and classic ray gun styling. The bullets on the belt are excellent, and the flared muzzle and touches of gold give this a wonderful Flash Gordon feel. And don’t miss the use of a gold elephant trunk part for the trigger.
The classic LEGO Castle themes, like Forestman or Wolfpack, charmed fans with their simple and straightforward designs — faction colors and plain symbols providing the only distinctive elements for each clan. IamKritch makes the most of the styling, reviving two heroes of the past — a couple of fancy Brickheadz warriors. These guys look adorable with their small bow and sword!
In December 1941, the National Service Act made the conscription of women legal in the UK, employing those of working age in essential work for the war effort. When production of tanks, planes, boats and munitions were needed, the women of Britain were called on to come into the factories and build the war machines, and without them success would not have been possible. Martin Harris has built a tribute to these women, and his scene is set in a converted railway station, using the track as an assembly line for the British-made Churchill tanks.
Women are the primary workers. However, you can see that there is an older man who has just turned up after work to help with turret placement. I had to try and forgive Martin for having a yellow faced minifigure with flesh hands in the scene …perhaps it is just me that finds that distressing to look at! The overall scene is beautifully tied together as a cohesive whole. I particularly love the old railway station backdrop with its large light fixtures and combination of glass, dark red brick and stone grey pillars.
After watching The Walking Dead, most people have trouble sleeping. Jonas Kramm must have had a bit of insomnia too, as he had to build something from the TV series out of LEGO. I like how Hershal and the rest of the undead-fighting underdogs get to cultivate some small fields and hold pigs while keeping the area safe from walkers. The Tower looks just like the real thing, and the detailed plants and garden look beautiful — I love the little wheelbarrow. Using Technic wiring and minifig hands as the barbed wire fence was a touch of genius, and using it to hold up the LEGO cargo net as the fence is a masterstroke. It is certainly holding up well against the zombie hordes.
If there’s one clear sign the Cyberpocalypse is upon us, it’s that indoor plumbing has ceased to exist, and we are forced to use communal toilets on the street, or (though a little more civilized) public porta potties for our sanitary needs. Thus, my most recent build for the ABS builder Challenge features exactly that: a communal porta potty smack-dab in the middle of the shantytown. How much would I have to pay you to use it?
The roof of the main black building was my main inspiration for building this scene. I was able to come up with a cool roof technique using the seed part for the challenge: the handheld minifig fan, which enabled me to use the part a total of 24 times in this build.
I didn’t grow up with the classic space sets, so naturally I was never overly inspired to build in the colour scheme and building style. I did, however, grow up with classic Bionicle sets. Having built a 1:1 Toa Onua replica a while ago, I contemplated the comparison between the two themes as core nostalgic focal points of LEGO fans from different ages, which gives this casual looking MOC some surprising symbolic depth. Toa Enstau wasn’t started with an intention to be a Classic-Space/Bionicle mashup, but since I had borrowed a blue Hau kanohi mask and light gray is the easiest colour to build robotic details in, Classic Space turned out as the only logical choice.
The build is based on my experience from my earlier system-style bionicle, but since it is a completely original creation, I had less restrictions in recreating details and shapes. I realize the solar pannels don’t fit very much in either of the stlyes, but I still decided to use them, as it makes for a more unique character and I personally like them. The figure is well articulated, but fragile. There are more pictures of other angles and poses in my Bricksafe folder.
Microscale builds are great for fantasy castles and sprawling sci-fi cities done on the cheap, but it’s also a great tool for recreating real buildings with a reasonably small number of pieces. Brazilian builder Gilcelio chagas has done that with the Penha Convent, which is located in the Vila Velha region of Brazil. Compare the build to pictures of the site and you’ll see the effort that has gone into making this look authentic at such a small scale. Make sure you also spot the clever used of an army helmet as the top of rounded tree and an alternate view that offers a better look at the build of the mountain that the convent sits on.
There is a sense of playful curiousity in this bear cub creation by Miro Dudas. The effect comes from the animal’s posing, with a raised paw and a tilted head, which really makes the bear look alive. Carefully chosen colours and studs pointing outwards at all sides round off the build as an almost photorealistic recreation. While many builders would stop there, Miro goes an extra step, adding a few rocks and foliage to enhance the presentation. This bear cub is the latest of Miro’s creations for his woodland creatures series.
Serbian builder Milan Sekiz surprises us with a truly remarkable design of rims for his newest futuristic rover named Duster. Rounded 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 windows work stunningly well shaping both round and elliptic wheels. Rounded windows like these can make any building look very elegant, but coupled with Technic chain tracks, they contribute a lot to this vehicle’s somewhat militaristic look.
