Minifigures wearing costumes have becom quite common with many of the Collectible Minifigure Series includiong them, but this LEGO model by filbrick takes the costumed character to a whole new level! This brick-built kid wearing a Triceratops costume is full of great details. from the tussled hair to the little nose to the oversized feet. I especially like the eyes, which inlude a 1×1 transaprent blue tile for the pupils. The expresion is pure joy!
Buzz Lightyear flies again in this LEGO model by Inthert aka Tom Loftus, bringing us a custom take on the movie starfighter previously depicted in the official set 76832 XL-15 Spaceship. Strap into your cockpit, because there’s oodles of great building techniques on display in this model. From the outside, the techniques are so smooth that they’re almost hard to see: The red stripes on the wings are separated by white ingots; the winglets are made from claws; and there are tonnes and tonnes of cheese slopes to help create all the angles of the fighter.
Tom has also kindly provided us with in-progress pictures of the internals of the fighter. I’m sure I can’t even describe the half of it. There’s boatloads of various brackets and 1×1 bricks with studs on the side. There’s also 1×2 round plates, and 1×2 round plates with bars. Finally I’ll point out that there’s a few little minifigure utensils scattered throughout the build. See if you can find them!
LEGO ships come in various shapes and sizes and are captained by different factions. Builder Andreas Lenander transports us to a scene where the Black Falcons are embarking on an adventure. The builder shows off with the construction and placement of the sails, as I’m sure those things weigh quite a bit. Undoubtedly this portion of the build presented a challenging task as well as a unique approach to a frequently visited part of a ship build. Brick-built sails are not unique, but the approach here diverges from the often-seen use of borrowed capes and other fabrics and provides depth and volume to the overall build. Although the sails are great, a closer look at each shipmate intrigues me as I try to determine where the hairpiece was borrowed. I see a couple of familiar options- Ariel? Leia? Finally, the water caught my attention. Although the approach is simple, it almost seems obvious now. I don’t know if this builder utilized a groundbreaking approach to depicting water via LEGO bricks, but I sure enjoyed seeing it for the first time here.
At first glance, the most show-stopping part of ARKUM ELO‘s LEGO diorama of the planet Geonosis is the stunning array of organic-looking rock formations. A second glance highlights the elite clone Delta Squad taking on a detachment of Geonosians and battle droids, the action so vivid that you can almost hear the whine of superheated plasma as both sides trade blaster bolts. But what makes this model stand out are the extra touches from the LEGO Star Wars video games: the health bars hovering over the action and the floating studs ready for collection. Good thing both parties appear to be at full health because it looks like the battle is about to get nasty.
Joao Nunes is sharing some pictures of his latest plastic kit. The painting is done, he’s got the brick separator and scalpel ready, and all that’s left to do is… Hang on. We’re confusing our LEGO bricks with our Airfix here! This is a very convincing facsimile of a Tamiya-style model, where instead of simply clicking bricks together, you need to painstakingly cut and paint each piece before gluing it all together. (With Kragle, presumably.) To the purist, that might sound like a nightmare – but fear not, no LEGO pieces were harmed in making this tableau. Even the box and sticker sheet are as good as new!
Whether you’re a video game veteran who’s been wandering the Wasteland for years or a Brotherhood initiate who just gleefully binged the Fallout show, there’s plenty to love in Raymond Stuijvenberg’s LEGO diorama of the Red Rocket Truck Stop from Fallout 4. The details are too numerous to mention them all, but let’s start by properly appreciating the building techniques involved. You can’t see them—which means they’re doing their job—but the builder used ball joints to get the roof and support at just the right angle. And yes, those are Dogmeat and Mr. Handy at the vault-dweller’s side.
The stacked adobe houses of Taos Pueblo are an architectural wonder whose living history goes back a thousand years. Brothers Brick alum Nannan Zhang takes inspiration from Taos for his breathtaking model The Enchanted Pueblo. While the pastel colors are much more vibrant the the walls of Taos Pueblo, they absoultely reflect the palette of a desert sunset and art of the region. The offset houses with their rounded roofs and exposed viga beams are unmistakeably pueblo, but serindipitously echo the architecture of LEGO House in Billund. There are so many lovely details with brilliant parts use, from the strings of dried chilis that hang by the doors, to the custom red soil base, to the incredible array of desert succulents (love that flowering yucca on the left!). If, like me, you’re wondering where those curvy pots that fit so well on the terraces come from, they’re sourced from old Scala flower pots. Nannan estimates the build took 60 hours over 2 months to achieve, but the results are truly timeless.
You don’t have to travel to Billund for LEGO-themed thrill rides. Skip the queues and visit Gregory Coquelz‘s Disney park mini-builds instead! Space Mountain was the second of Disney’s E-ticket mountains and unique among roller coasters for its fully enclosed light-and-sound experience. Four of the Disney parks followed the original 1975 design of a retro-futuristic white cone, but for Disneyland Paris, the Imagineers took a different approach, taking inspiration from Jules Verne and remaking the ride with a steampunk veneer. Gregory pays tribute to this incarnation, with a tan and azure roof and the signiture barrel of the space gun up the side (true to the Jules Verne roots, this ride launched visitors into space via good old-fashioned ballistics). I love the use of interlocked domes in dark red for the loading shute. The Verne theme extends to a micro Nautilus moored next to the “Mountain.” Should you visit Disneyland Paris today, you’ll find the shell of the mountain largely the same, but inside your coaster is accompanied by projected X-Wing fighters and TIE Fighters as part of a Star Wars retheming.
To see more Disney Parks mini builds, check out Gregory’s Tower of Terror and Big Smol Thunder Mountain.
According to LEGO builder extraordinaire Cecilie Fritzvold, your once beloved toys get lonely once you cast them aside. That’s why Teddy here has learned the art of topiary trimming so that he can trim himself a new friend that he can care for, just as he was once cared for many years ago. Sweet moments like this make Cecilie one of our favorite builders lately.Check out our Cecilie Fritzvold archives to see what I mean. Maybe it’s time I phone up the ‘rents and have them send my childhood stuffed animals to me.
In my household there is only one batch of laundry to do on laundry day; darks. Why bother with pretty pastels when your soul is as dark as a raven’s wing? That’s why I was so attracted to this LEGO Darkrei Pokémon built by Dan V. This shadow figure is known to infiltrate your dreams and turn them into nightmares, but not in any kind of malicious way. It doesn’t try to do that; it just does so because that is its nature. It has claw-like hands and skinny protuberances for legs and hair that cover one blue eye and leave the other exposed to peer into your soul. Everything I described above also can be said for the lead singer of my favorite Goth band so…there’s that.
One of the great things about a fandom like LEGO is that it can accommodate and celebrate so many disparate special interests, from tractors to ancient Rome to ornithology. Builder voxel123 give the full otaku treatment to a subject I’ve never seen in LEGO before; radiology. Voxel has previously built medical scanners at minifig scale as well as BrickHeadz tributes to pioneering radiologists, but for his latest series of models, he works at a larger Miniland scale, using Belville dolls to staff the facilities. Each piece of machinery is part of a larger vignette where studless surfaces are crafted with the bright colors and geometric patterns you might see in a medical facility catering to children.
First, we have an open MRI system, a scanner that can accommodate those who might have trouble with the standard tunnel MRI machines, like children or claustrophobic patients.
A waiting room puts younger patients at ease with a miniature MRI model and boxes of plush toys to scan. I especially like the quarter circle tile mosaics, balanced inside a transparent brick, a variation of a technique I first encountered in the Ninjago City Markets karaoke lounge.
But wait, there’s more medical imaging fun to be had!
Something I really like about the global LEGO community is when builders take inspiration from their local surroundings for their creations. Sérgio Batista, for instance, has crafted this nice freighy convoy with a train from his native Portugal. Now I can’t confess to being a train expert, at least not where south-western Europe is concerned, but having seen Sérgio’s model, I’ve now gone down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole reading about the history of railways in Portugal. So I can say with a modicum authority that this is a CP4700 series locomotive, with an attractive brick-built livery!
And you know what’s better than one great scale model of a Portuguese freight train? Two scale models of a Portuguese freight train! Here’s another slightly less modern consist, with the so-called ‘Nez-Cassée’ 2620 series built by Alsthom. Fun fact: ‘nez cassé’ means broken nose in French, and the stubby cab front is where they get this nickname from. Thanks for the educational trip, Sérgio!
