Kiwi builder David Hensel (who appropriately goes by the handle Legonardo Davidy) describes his take on the Vitruvian Minifig idea as a “study in mosaic making, SNOT, minifigure proportion, and endurance – and lots of tan cheese”. And the fact that David has been noodling on this mind-boggling mosaic on-and-off for two years comes as no surprise! I’m sure the Master himself would be impressed…
Category Archives: Models
Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines
When, back in 1960, race car driver Paul Frère asked Enzo Ferrari what limited the top speed of his Ferrari 250TR at Le Mans, probably wondering whether the rather large and ungainly windscreen on said car had anything to do with this, Enzo replied that aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines.
More than 40 years later, the company Ferrari built the Enzo, named after its founder. This car’s shape was undoubtedly designed to be reminiscent of a Formula 1 car, with its V-shaped hood and front air intakes resembling a front wing, but I’m sure the designers spent a lot of time fiddling to get the aerodynamics right. A lot of things have changed since the sixties. Getting the shape of his car right has taken Nathanael L. a fair bit of fiddling too. This is his fourth attempt at building an Enzo and it just keeps getting better. I’m glad he stuck with it. I also think it’s particularly neat that, despite the complexity of its shape, just about everything on the model opens and the engine looks good too.
Walk Away. Just Walk Away
I haven’t seen the new Mad Max yet, but I’m certainly a fan of the original trilogy. Calin (_tiler) evokes memories of The Road Warrior with his Nomad. This thing is the epitome of minimalist, stripped down road-going power. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a stipped-down car rendered in LEGO. The use of flexible harness pieces as a frame is an inspired way to render the look of a simple cage.
This game is messed up
Video gaming has become so dominated by ‘shooters’ that Nintendo finally decided to get in on the action. But in a brilliant move they managed to create a family friendly one in the form of Splatoon – a new multiplayer team game for the Wii that takes the concept of paintball to a whole new level! I have a feeling this game is gonna be massive. Weapons master Nick Jensen was so impressed by it that he whipped up LEGO versions of a Splatoon character in both human and “Inkling” form.
Go to your room!
Portuguese builder César Soares has recreated his childhood bedroom, and along with it a kind of organized chaos that I’m sure all of us remember well (or as parents, are still dealing with on a daily basis). But far from being just a random collection of objects, there’s much attention to detail in the background of this scene too, from the furniture to the walls and even the floor.
The use of Modulex to represent LEGO bricks is a particularly clever touch. See if you can find anything in this scene that dates César’s childhood in the many wonderful closeup images.
The end of the road
This foreboding compound represents the end of the road in an enormous post-apocalyptic LEGO diorama created by Swedish LUG Swebrick for an exhibition they held last month. The full diorama is quite impressive, both in its scale and in its attention to detail …and also in the amount of dark tan used! Thanks to Jonas Wide and Christer Nyberg for the photos.
May you always make your saving throw
Dungeons and Dragons, the grand-pappy of role playing games, has endured decades of poor imitations, ill-conceived spin-off products, and even the arrival of the digital age. Yet today it remains a permanent fixture of popular culture, and the new 5th edition rules look to be the best version yet. Love him or hate him, most D&D fans will recognize Dungeon Master (aka “Red Yoda”) from the short-lived Dungeons and Dragons TV show, recreated here in all his super-patronizing glory by Chris van Vliet.

After dragging a bunch of kids into the D&D universe to do his dirty work, and providing cryptic clues in order to avoid being legally implicated, it turned out in the end that Dungeon Master could have returned them to Earth at any time. More like “puppet master”. What a git!
NASA’s latest discovery
I rather think the conspiracy theorists would have a field day with this one. Way to go, Paddy Bricksplitter. Can you imagine this conversation with CAPCOM? Especially if the print was fresh. I mean, seeing a foot print (beautifully rendered, by the way) would be mind-blowing enough. Toss in some moon or martian soil, and it’s something else entirely.
Though to be fair, I don’t imagine it’d be that hard to get funding for any future space exploration.
Here there be dragons
I grew up with the sea, and am an absolute sucker for pretty pretty ships. Aardwolf_83 delivers with this lovely galleon in her four-masted glory. I love the little details, like the beginnings of rigging, and the lines of this beauty are just lovely.
TBB cover photo: June 2015
This month’s winner of our informal TBB cover photo contest is this invigorating breakfast scene by Swedish builder LegoJalex. Yes, every single part of this scene (even the kitchen) is built from LEGO. And if you’re confused, that’s a popular brand of caviar paste on the toast. Just think of it as the Swedish equivalent of Vegemite!

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British Petrolheads
Joe Perez (mortalswordsman) works for Bright Bricks in the UK, where he builds LEGO models for a living. He is also a bit of a petrolhead; a British term for people who are crazy about internal combustion engines.
This made him the perfect choice for a recent Bright Bricks project that involved building miniland scale (1/20) vehicles, including a fair few motorcycles. Despite building with LEGO for a living, he still finds the time and interest to build just for fun. He has obviously caught the bug of building motorcycles, as shown by his groovy chopper.
Talking of petrolheads from the UK who are also professional LEGO builders, Carl Greatrix (bricktrix) launched a Lego Ideas project for a Caterham Seven model several months ago, which has now passed 10,000 votes. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the design review.
Look Children – The Colors!
I’m a sucker for weirdly colored alien landscapes. With his latest creation, A Plastic Infiity has given us that, plus some funky alien technology, and a floating rock. The scales of justice look balanced in the photo, but they feel tipped towards awesome to me. Also, I had no idea those minifig hats came in a purple shade, I’ll be needing some of those for my own funky landscapes.