Indonesian builder Dennis Qiu brings us another stellar example of the amount of character that can be captured in LEGO. This Chinese lion would fit perfectly into mythology or, because I love robots, an episode of Zoids. LEGO has been going gold-crazy lately, but the use of it here is superb.
It’s time to travel to Discworld and enjoy this fantastic series of characters from the works of Sir Terry Pratchett, brought to us by Eero Okkonen (Pate-keetongu). Eero started these shortly after the death of Pratchett in March this year. His first build was a large-scale creation of his favourite Discworld character, Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully (back-row, far left in the photo below).
The Archchancellor, Professor of Unusual and Cruel Geography, Dean, Librarian and The Luggage.
If you’re not familiar with Terry Pratchett, he was the author of a series of 41 comic fantasy books that take place in the Discworld, a flat circular world that rests on the backs of four elephants who are standing on the back of a turtle.
I simply must point out a few of my favourite parts, although it is hard to narrow this down to only my top three. In no particular order: the Archchancellor’s ‘winged’ beard; bananas used to represent the peeled banana skin held by the Librarian; and the dark red windscreen used as the Luggage’s tongue! Well one more… look below, Commander Vimes toes are minifigure legs!
Commander Vimes
Susan Sto Helit, Granddaughter of Death
Now that Finnish builder Eero “Pate-keetongu” Okkonen has completed his LEGO Discworld characters (well, completed them for the moment, he happily admits), TBB asked him a few questions about the experience:
I’ve been playing a LOT of Halo 5 recently – it’s a welcome return to form for the series after the slight let-down of Halo 4. As a result, I’m embarrassed I missed this stunning build until now. Cody Fowler took 3 years to put together this excellent recreation of UNSC Infinity, the spaceship star of the Halo franchise…
Cody has managed to perfectly capture the ship’s lines — no small feat when it’s such a collection of angles. I’m sure he was pleased, but also slightly nervous, when the latest game featured the Infinity so prominently on its loading screen. If you’re building a model from a source with such a rabid fan-base, you’re going to have to get the details right!
Beyond the shaping and the impressive scale (134 studs long), the blue LED lights within the vessel really add to the feel of a working starship. But for me, the little touch that sets this model apart is the attention Cody paid to the base. Often big spaceship builds like this are supported on ugly stacks – a functional afterthought detracting from the appearance of the model as a whole. Here, Cody has gone the extra mile, lavishing the same attention to detail on this element as the main ship itself. Great stuff.
German-based Australian builder Arran Hearn is ready to fill the dancefloor and raise the roof with his 1:2 scale DJ setup! This creation started with a brick, namely part 58846 (Brick Round Corner 10 x 10 with Slope 33 Edge). Four of these bricks make up each of the platters on the turntable and, from that simple beginning, the 1:2 scale creation began to take shape. Arran’s DJ setup is complete with two turntables and a mixer, in the brilliantly named ‘battle-mode’ position – definitely beyond my knowledge as a mere easy-listening, sing-a-long chick!
![Lego DJ Setup Half-scale [1:2]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/22633122287_872bbaae19_z.jpg)
Arran went to great lengths to accurately reflect the details with custom chromed “Barraki eyes” used for the spindles, custom designed transparent stickers for the outside rim of the platters and the custom boat studs used for the detailing on mixer controls. I had to look twice at the initial Flickr photograph to check I was actually looking at LEGO. It is all hooked up and ready to go, look at those cable tidies keeping all the wires in position.
![Lego DJ Mixer Half-scale [1:2]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23051449145_fab2a22efc_z.jpg)
And as if the attention to detail was not enough, power functions are brought via a 9V train controller to light the LEDs on the mixer and spin those platters. Arran also created this video showing off his model next to the real deal:
Star Wars microfighters — although being a fine source of minifigures — aren’t always the best in terms of both collecting value and building experience, mostly because of their size and scale. We all know: if you’re looking for aesthetically pleasing models, you should go in for sophisticated UCS-sets. I have been sharing this opinion, but only til last night when my eye was caught by a couple of CHIBI (cute-huggable-idiotic-baby-inspired) spaceships by Kim Do-hyun.
Building large Star Wars ships in such a peculiar scale and style is an advanced challenge in itself. However, Kim nailed it — and not at the expense of elaborate greebling. All the dished and tiles on Millennium Falcon are pretty familiar and look absolutely cute. At the same time, the Imperial Shuttle is genius in its simplicity. It’s just a couple of regular and curved slopes and a wedge at the nose that make the shuttle so recognizable. A slight disproportion in the size of its parts gives the model its totally adorable look.
I just want to take both ships in my hands, embrace them softly and never let them fly away. Full stop. Sorry, ewoks, you’re not my favorite any longer.
Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann brings us a new bit of mechanised walking glory with his Black Boa “Blitz” BB3 Infantry Assault Division (Type Flight Mode). Wow, both those names had a lot of words in them. Anyway, this is definitely a model you should zoom in on and appreciate the details and the fine shaping.
The latest creation from Tim Goddard (aka roguebantha) is a beautiful microscale space exploration vehicle. It’s a great model with a real sense of heft – you can just imagine it pushing its bulk out into the cosmos, the crew peering out from the stubby bridge.
The build features a load of Tim’s signature greebles, the fiddly grey machinery details which do so much to suggest the model is much bigger than it is. Alongside those, the azure striping is an obvious treat against the relatively blank canvas of the white hull. The way the stripe continues back around the domes and the little disc at the rear is just clean and classy building. Tim says this model was an exploration in broadening his use of color. It’s a success as far as I’m concerned.
But away from the colors, what I’m enjoying most is the little gaps in the main body, offering glimpses of machinery within. All too often spaceship models can look as if they’re just tombstones of bricks strapped sideways onto a hollow shell. The gaps here suggest there’s actual stuff going on inside that pretty hull – a really nice little touch.
Our Pimp Rey’s Speeder contest continues to heat up, with over 70 entries now submitted, and builders demonstrating the same flair, imagination and downright weirdness that we enjoyed with last year’s Micro Fighter contest. Not surprisingly, movie and TV adaptations of this Star Wars speeder design seem to be popular, as you can see from the examples below. Get your entry in before December 5th for a chance to win!
WALL-E-Speeder by smallestrobot
You Will Ride Eternal, Shiny and Chrome by IamKritch
Men in Brick’s Speeder by Priovit70
In October it was “Back to the Future Day”, the day irresponsible time travelers Marty McFly and Doc Brown caught up with the future. Now that we’ve reached and passed that time, we’re all a bit disappointed that we’re not scooting around on floating skateboards. What would be even better though, are these nifty little scooters from nobu_tary. The green one reminds us of the hovercars from Dragonball Z.
Nick Barrett proves it is possible to capture the lines of a Lamborghini Aventador beautifully with LEGO parts. His 1:10 scale replica includes working suspension and steering, a detailed interior and V12 engine covered by cleverly built glass panels.
The world watched in horror Friday night as terrorists apparently loyal to Daesh attacked innocent people across Paris. It hardly seemed possible that something so evil could be happening so soon after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January. Over the following days, LEGO builders around the world have reacted with a variety of LEGO creations showing support for Paris and the people of France.
Are Heiseldal posted this understated image of the Eiffel Tower against the French tricolor. The dark lighting provides a subtle statement about the world’s grief.
Chris Maddison has built a LEGO version of French graphic designer Jean Jullien’s Eiffel Tower peace symbol — rapidly becoming the iconic symbol of the nation’s response to this act of war.
This heart-wrenching creation by French builder Jimmy Fortel reflects the pain caused by such senseless horror, and states emphatically that this attack on Paris is truly an attack on the whole world.
While cruising through the myriad of new LEGO uploads on Flickr, I spotted this beautiful but deadly looking starfighter from Adam Dodge.
The high-contrast color scheme quickly caught my attention. But then, I read the name Switchblade. It is aptly titled because this craft can open and close much like its namesake.
The builder describes how the poseable wings provided quite an engineering challenge to fasten on securely. It must have been an intriguing task. It looks great in the final product and the flexibility really makes this starfighter stand out.
This creation was build for the long running Starfighter Telephone Game. The point of the game is to build a spaceship off of the design of the previous person in the line. I think Adam did a great job incorporating some of the style and flair of John Matz’ earlier starfighter (on the left below).
