The recent tradition of LEGO releasing special collectible sets for the official Star Wars convention, known as Celebration, never fails to capture anticipation and attention. This year’s event – which also coincided with the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars – happened a few weeks ago and LEGO did not disappoint eager fans. This year’s exclusive LEGO item is a 220 piece set called Detention Block Rescue, and features Luke and Han in detention block AA-23 from Star Wars: A New Hope.
In advance of the release of Alien: Covenant, Grant Masters brings us a fantastically creepy LEGO rendition of a crimson Alien Queen. Clips and minifigure hands do a brilliant job of capturing the unmistakable mechanical/organic Giger styling of this classic beastie. I dread to think how fiddly this was to put together — any time I try to use clips like that something always pops loose. Grant must have the patience of a saint. Nice work on the base too — the dark grey really makes the red figure pop out of the image.
I really hope we get to see something as cool as this creation in the new movie, but I am nervous of suffering the same “anticappointment” I felt with Prometheus.
Excited for The LEGO Ninjago Movie? The movie trailer has been out since February, and we got our first official look at some of the sets last month. But whether or not you’re going to take a pass on the film or are already in line (6 months early), you can surely appreciate this awesome fan design of a brick-built scroll of the movie’s title by ZiO Chao. The lettering is perfect, both for the small text in Latin characters on the top and bottom and the main title with hànzì characters.
Building micro-scale brings a unique set of challenges, and finding the right piece to represent a particular feature can often be a particularly tricky task. Builder yang wang seems to have a knack for it though, as demonstrated by these two delightful domed dioramas. The first is a wonderful Romanesque revival style castle poised on a rock over the sea. The highlights for me are the tiny ship with smokestacks, the small tree made from a brown droid arm, and the spindly towers with golden ski pole spires.
Continuing the colorful creation on a rock under a dome theme, the second build is a vertical wooden town atop a rocky outcrop, complete with bell tower and windmill. I love how the builder has used the grill plates to give the small buildings windows — plus there’s that cute little car made from a rollerskate. And not only does the dome make the building inside look wonderful, it also keeps the dust off!
When two brothers, Jake and Elwood Blues, reform their band in the movie The Blues Brothers, they have high hopes of saving the orphanage in which they were raised from financial ruin. One slight issue is the requirement for musical instruments, and this leads the brothers to Ray’s Music Exchange where R&B genius Ray Charles has a cameo as the store owner. Nate Flood has built a perfect LEGO version of the infamous store, complete with a fantastic ‘LEGO-ized’ version of the famous mural.
Nathan’s build is not just an exterior though, as inside we can see Jake and Elwood strutting their stuff, with Ray Charles at the piano and the guys shaking some tail feathers with their guitars and saxophones.
Imagine a time when the Dominion war is over and the Borg threat has been defused. In this timeline Starfleet will return to its primary mission of exploration. Ben Smith has created the USS Utah, a survey vessel designed to orbit promising planets and use her expanded sensor capabilities to extensively map their surfaces. She is a beautiful ship with those red and yellow highlights and the grey greebles visible just to the rear of the bridge. I love the two shuttles launching from the large central shuttle bay, jetting off to explore the unknown.
Ben’s inspiration for this ship actually stemmed from a piece of concept art of a ship called the USS Iowa by Ryan Dening.
Austria may not have any ocean beaches, but that didn’t stop Austrian builder Sanel Lukovic from building this lovely scene featuring a rockabilly dude hauling his board from his heavily customized “rat rod” to the inviting blue surf. True to the rat rod aesthetic, the vintage car has an exposed engine and what I’m assuming is a rust-bucket body — truly lovely. The surfer features a pompadour hairstyle and a rather hirsute custom torso from Citizen Brick. Sanel completes the scene with little details like a trash can and pilings with tree rings.
I can scarcely believe it but the classic Bond spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was released 20 years ago today! To that end, I present to you my latest shagadelic LEGO creations: The out-of-his-era gentleman spy, and his equally time-shifted nemesis Dr Evil. I think I’ve managed to capture Austin’s mojo, but apologies to our evil readers for the lack of any sharks with frikkin “laser” beams. Oh, behave!
Hot on the tail lights of a series of Wacky Races-inspired LEGO creations, and a fun version of FAB1 from Thunderbirds, Martin Redfern brings us another wonderfully-retro vehicle — this time a mashup of the classic TV-series Batmobile and a fairground bumper car.
The chunky styling is fantastic, with lovely colour-blocking and stripes, and a nice fat bumper running all the way round. Don’t miss smart little touches like the use of a whip for the vehicle’s power antenna and the four golden rings down the side. What we need now is a purple bumper car for the Joker as an appropriate opponent in the arena (hint hint Martin)…
LEGO builder Tan Kok Mun brings together a Fett family reunion with two creations in markedly different styles. First up: Boba in Brickheadz form. Everyone’s favourite bounty hunter is looking good here. The detailing around the helmet and the eye frames is excellent, and we’ve got all the accessories for an accurate finished look, including a cape and jetpack.
Next up: Papa Fett. Jango is created with parts from the LEGO Constraction big-fig series, which (although sometimes criticised as not being “real LEGO”) work really well here. The redesigned torso makes Jango look more buff, and I especially like the detailing of the jetpack…
Bonus points if you spotted the use of DUPLO bricks in the base of the Jango model — it’s certainly one way of saving bricks!
Everyone needs a bit of downtime, even in space! This month’s TBB cover photo is this scene from English builder Jon Blackford showing what Benny the Spacemen gets up to after hours. When I first saw this it immediately reminded me of that scene from 1972 movie Silent Running. But that’s because I’m practically as old as space itself.
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While this throne room by Henjin_Quilones looks great, knowing it is a redesign of another builder’s creation puts it into a whole new perspective. The creations are linked both in style and storyline, as Henjin stays true to the original while improving on it with modern pieces and techniques. On the other hand, there is a significant difference in theme, with the first version being menacing and evil looking, while the redesign has more of a normal castle interior appearance. The focal point of both builds is a central mosaic, which is especially intricate on Henjin’s version.
