This LEGO gumball machine by Anthony Sejourne is adorable. The colorful gumballs, the shiny red body, and of course the accurate spinning crank, make this thing look like the real deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tried to drop a quarter into the coin slot before they realized it was a fake.
Category Archives: Models
Classic space station high in the Martian sky
A mix of spindly spires, smooth curves and hard angles floats above a red planet. Considering that orange and blue are complimentary colors, I’m surprised you don’t see more classic space themed ships around Mars – luckily for us Damien Labrousse has an artistic eye.
What I really appreciate about this build is that it looks just as striking from the bottom as from the top. Instead of having to skimp on style for adding a stand, Damien hung the model so that the lower antennas and towers could stay tastefully uneven.
I am one with the Force and the Force is with me
I am one with the Force and the Force is with me, I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. I am one with the… Ok, sorry. I’ll stop now. Even if you haven’t seen Rogue One yet (and by this point, who hasn’t?) you’re sure to recognize Dunedain98‘s fantastic LEGO Star Wars scene.
This little slice of the war-torn city of Jedha looks just about perfect. Dunedain perfectly captured the city’s sandy color palette, interesting angles, and crumbling facades. He even included the imperial hover tank and Chirrut Îmwe, everyone’s favorite non-Jedi force user. (Although he’s not shown here, I’m sure Baze is just hiding behind the corner somewhere waiting to save the day.)
Madventures of these Finnish travel dudes
Madventures is a top-rated travel documentary in Finland and the brainchild of popular Finnish TV host Riku Rantala and compatriot Tuomas ‘Tunna’ Milonoff. Eero Okkonen‘s ability to build characters in LEGO is well established and this time he depicts the intrepid duo armed with their camera and sense of adventure.
I love the poseability of these characters and their resultant chunky, solid stances. Eero has employed some ingenious parts use such as dark tan minifigure arms for Tunna’s moustache, minifigure hands for Riku’s eyebrows and tan skeleton arms for their fingers. The resultant LEGO characters seem as dynamic and unpredictable as their real life counterparts.
Evolution brings us the Ninjabread Man
What happens when a Gingerbread Man can no longer tolerate countless bites from his person? This is what happens when cookie species eventually evolve. Scorched and shaped by Matthew Hockers, he introduces the Ninjabread Man. Straight from the oven, baked to perfection, deadly but still savoury (if you can catch one of them).
Rollin’ on a Hot Rod on Route 66
This little road trip has got lots of details going on by Thomas W. First of all, you can’t miss the Hot Rod that’s built to perfection. I love the subtle details like uneven, worn-out road and the Route 66 sign that’s about to tumble over. The details of the flora and fauna are great too—in case you missed the perched vulture. The exposed LEGO studs make for natural detailing on the saguaro, too.
Lights! Mecha! Action!
When I have an idea to build something, it usually comes together pretty quickly — often over the course of a single evening’s LEGO-building. However, this creation has been slowly coming together for about 2 years! The mechs made their first appearance at the BRICK show in London in 2015, before being cannibalised and tweaked and rebuilt almost incessantly until now. Building them a maintenance hangar is an idea I’ve been mulling over for ages, and I finally got it finished a couple of weeks ago.
See more of the Alpha 3 mechs after the jump
Lead the charge with a sick metal tune
How does one person go from creating How I Met Your Mother vignettes to building an epic Mad Max: Fury Road Doof Wagon? We may never know, but the fact is, Speedyhead did it. I have yet to meet a person who did not like the latest Mad Max film, be it for the insane vehicles and action or the underlying theme of equality and freedom. The Doof Wagon is many people’s favourite “character” of the film. I can’t imagine many things more awesome than a metal concert riding into battle on a huge postapocalyptic truck.
All the details are in the right places and the whole thing is just like in the film. It has everything from the weird guitar-flamethrower player to the huge speakers. The base adds a lot to the presentation too, and even some sense of motion and power.
Back to a time when LEGO meant wooden tractors
LEGO wasn’t always about plastic bricks. Back in 1932, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, a master carpenter and joiner, establishes his business in the village of Billund, Denmark. Ole’s firm manufactures stepladders, ironing boards, stools and wooden toys. By the early 1950s, LEGO was producing not just wooden toys; plastic toys account for half of the company’s output. The older wooden toys remain in circulation today, often as rare or collector items depending on their condition. Bailey Fullarton has used an apt mix of an original wooden LEGO tractor from the late 1940s/early 1950s and the plastic parts we all know and love to show off the vintage toy.
The LEGO Group’s many wooden and plastic products from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s took inspiration from social change and technological progress. In the early 1950s, the LEGO Group set up production of a Ferguson tractor in plastic. A range of implements is also available for the new toy tractor, including a cultivator and a plough, for hitching on the back of the tractor. These implements fit not only the plastic Ferguson tractor, but also the wooden tractors that are also part of the LEGO® products at the time. The collection below shows the same tractor as Bailey used bit in better condition and with some of the accessories for working the land.
I personally prefer Bailey’s worn tractor with its played with, nostalgic feel. I get the impression the tractor has had a hard life as a toy and now it is resting by the creek, enjoying the peace and quiet of retirement.
Brick built replica of the Disney LEGO Shanghai Store
The Disney LEGO store in Shanghai opened its doors to the public in May 2016. If you can’t visit it in person, there’s no excuse for you to not enjoy the next best thing: this brick built version. Builder Qian YJ took about 3 weeks to build this and its current on display on the 2nd floor of the very same LEGO store in Disney Shanghai!
Hostage negotiations on the high seas
It appears that there’s a rather tense hostage negotiation in progress on W. Navarre‘s lovely little sandbar island. I imagine some not-so-nice words are being thrown about, but the worst sin of all is the fact that this group of ragtag, cutthroat pirates are likely completely oblivious to the beauty just below their feet.
W. Navarre’s tiny scene has a nice contrast between the dark (and possibly murderous) pirates and the soft, pastel coral reef below the water. The ethereal flora and fauna beneath the water look like they’d be more at place in a Friends build than a pirate one. But that just adds to the awesomeness of W. Navarre’s building in my opinion.
If you’re interested in finding out what’s really going on in this build, check out the accompanying story that W. Navarre wrote over on MOCpages.
Preserving history, blending old and new
This restaurant in Beijing, China by Qian YJ shows how real life can be imitated and brought to life by the magic of LEGO bricks. The exquisite outdoor detailing of the curves of the roof and color scheme shows clear attention to detail during the build process. The the red lanterns hanging remind us how little details can bring out life in architectural builds.
The inside the restaurant is a contrast to the exterior with modern facilities to feature all the creature comforts that we so much are used to these days. What a way to preserve our past and merge it with today’s needs, mixing both form and fucntion.