Sculpting an organic shape in LEGO is tricky. Nathaniel has pulled this off spectacularly with King Bowser, who is offering you a blue shell. I don’t think I’d trust Bowser with that, but that’s just me. This build is just lovely: that expression! The big hands with claws! The hair and shell!
A great LEGO build isn’t always about the best part usage, or the most amazing technique; sometimes, it comes down to great presentation.
These builds from Anders Löfgren are a great example of presentation and lighting and how it just makes the photo. I didn’t realize this was LEGO, at first. I thought it was just a lovely picture of a doorway with a play on light and dark. The build is simple, and the photograph does an excellent job of tricking you into seeing something other than LEGO.
Recently Heikki Mattila has been building scenes depicting cool-looking interiors, like the LEGO spa we covered a few weeks ago. This latest diorama wouldn’t look out of place in an IKEA catalog — a smart, modern living space, all geometric lines and stark colors. The clock is a nice touch, and I like the tree in its stylish pot, but what makes this image pop for me is the splash of red provided by the sofa cushions. This is a great example of what happens when a nice model combines with decent photography and an eye for a smart color scheme — great stuff.
Michał Kaźmierczak is one of many LEGO builders taking part in this year’s SHIPtember, a contest where the rules are simple: one month; one SHIP; one hundred or more studs in size. The term S.H.I.P. stands for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts, and Michał’s creation is an impressive 202 stud long ship named Sword. In addition to some stickers, Sword features windows added using ultraviolet paint to help create the beautiful lighting effect in the image below:
The detailed underside of Sword is full of delicious greebles that contrast with the smooth lines of the main hull:
A side view allows for a greater appreciation of this 170cm long LEGO creation. The blue stern area really stands out and makes for some eye-catching contrast to the grey hull. As with all ships, regardless of size, one key aspect is the SWOOSH factor. And I think this one has more of a SCHWING!
Fifteen years ago today, the United States was attacked: one plane crashed in Pennsylvania, one plane was crashed into the Pentagon, and two planes attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. The attacks took nearly 3,000 lives and forever changed the identify of a nation and the course of the world.
Rocco Buttliere gives us this beautiful LEGO build of One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial, which are situated on the site where the Twin Towers once stood. We invite you to reflect on how the world has changed in the last 15 years and take a moment of silence today in remembrance.
It may be less than two weeks ago since I blogged a build by Maksymilian Majchrzak ( [MAKS] ), but it seems he very much likes the same sort of things I do and he builds them well. Case in point: his latest crane.
For those of you who are crane geeks, this is a Liebherr LTM 1350-6.1 in the colours of Mammoet (Mammoth) — a famous company from the Netherlands that specialises in heavy lifting and heavy haulage. This behemoth is built to my favourite scale of 1/22, which makes it roughly 100 studs long in road-going configuration.
The model is very detailed and has numerous working features such as steering, a telescopic boom that can be raised and lowered (which does involve inserting an extra part to lengthen the hydraulic ram), side supports that extend and retract, and he has included a brick-built figure. If there were a checklist of things I like, he has ticked almost all of the boxes.
Grant Davis has built this spectacular little microscale castle. Like most LEGO microscale creations, it’s awash in terrific creativity, with lots of unusual pieces used in new ways, and the finished product belies its complexity. Fortunately for all of us curious viewers, Grant made a short video that shows some of the techniques he employed as he walks us through the disassembly of the model.
Finnish builder Eero Okkonen has built a fabulous character model of Excela Noa Aura, an Imperial Princess and Dragon Knight from the roleplaying videogame Shining Resonance. Whilst I don’t know anything about the source material, I know a great LEGO creation when I see one. This model is packed full of nice touches and detail — don’t miss the hinges and arches used on the unmistakably anime hair, the smart use of “big fig” pieces for the rather shapely legs, and the near-genius deployment of a neck ruff from the collectible minifig Shakespeare for the lacy cuffs peeking out of the sleeves.
Dead Frog Inc builds great mechs and spaceships, and presents them in a stark style which has become something of a signature. This satellite model makes great use of the still-relatively-new balloon pieces to create smooth flowing lines around a central core of functional-looking details. I like the satellite’s “face” — the central curved grey eye and the flanking lenses (provided by minifig binoculars) are excellent. I have no idea if this is meant to be a recon satellite, but I imagine it panning slowly round in low-Earth orbit, keeping an unsuspecting target fixed in its implacable gaze.
When Ana Amari was revealed as an addition to the Overwatch hero roster, I knew I wanted her rifle added to my LEGO arsenal. It was an interesting short rifle design, had bolt action that would be fun to build, and even the concept of a healing sniper was a rad idea. The most challenging part of the build was the bolt action itself. There were countless iterations of the bolt itself that can simulate chambering the biotic round, the chamber walls hiding the bolt’s slots inside the body of the rifle to reduce gaps, and the trigger mechanism that released the bolt. All this design work led to a LEGO rifle that has realistic looking firing action, despite not actually firing.
Watch this firing action, as well as other functions including a folding stock, removable magazine with opening mag cover, and glowing biotic round powered by BrickStuff lights, in the video below. You can also view all photos of the biotic rifle in my Flickr album.
Томас Чижаускас mixes Star Wars and LEGO’s Classic Space to great effect in this X-Wing-inspired build. I can just imagine the arguments between Luke Skywalker and Benny The Spaceman over who got to take this out for its maiden flight.
I’m sure LEGO builders have mashed these themes together before, but I don’t recall having seen it done, and certainly not with this level of impact. The combination of that signature shape and the nostalgic color scheme is ticking all the right boxes for me. There’s some smart greebling but it’s not overdone, and I’m enjoying the builder’s work on the “anti-stud” surface of the lower wing — those turntable pieces make for some cool detailing. The only thing missing for me is the Classic Space black and yellow striping — whilst there’s a hint of it in the Technic wing-opening mechanism, it might have featured as a more prominent nod to the theme’s conventions.
I’d love to fly this model around and make engine and pew-pew noises — it looks eminently swooshable. Judging by the facial expressions on the guys in the cockpit, everything is obviously awesome when it comes to piloting this wonderful spacecraft…
Gabe Umland brings us this nifty vibrant LEGO floating rock, topped with a warehouse for steampunkery. Never underestimate a mundane subject for your models — nearly anything can look magical when built with skill, even an industrial warehouse in the middle of the sky. Don’t miss Gabe’s great technique for paneled siding using stacked and twisted 1×1 bricks, and be sure to scrutinize the hodgepodge of goods for sale; scenes such as this are a way to find uses for that pile of unusual pieces you have.
