What is a Catbus? Well, it’s a cat that’s a bus of course! This particular Catbus has been crafted by CK Tsang and is an excellent depiction of Catbus at this scale. Catbus is a character from the classic anime movie My Neighbor Totoro by legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. The wide grinning smile and bright ‘headlight’ eyes are perfectly captured in this build. Don’t worry about the lack of a door, as one of those windows will elongate should you want to climb aboard for a ride.
Milan CMadge is on a roll. We’ve only just featured his fabulous LEGO camera and then he comes out with this brilliant cactus model. The color choices here are superb — the olive green offering a smart contrast to the bright blue of the tub. The plant shaping is pretty cool, but don’t miss the use of loose 1×1 round plates for the soil. I’m not normally a fan of models you couldn’t turn upside down, but this seems an appropriate and effective use of the loose brick technique. I want one of these for my desk at work. I think I could cope with the amount of maintenance and care it would require.
Continuing our ongoing coverage of LEGO’s 2017 lineup, here’s your first look at five new Creator sets. These are probably only the smaller half of the 2017 Creator line, so keep your eyes out for more in the near future. In the meantime, take a look at this sweet dinosaur 3-in-1 set that builds a T-rex, triceratops, and pterodactyl, and check out the rest below.
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 City sets
2017 Nexo Knights sets
2017 Technic sets
BMW R 1200 GS Technic set
2017 Friends sets
And don’t miss that Amazon has some good deals on current Creator sets right now, such as 31050 Corner Deli for 25% off and 31052 Vacation Getaways for 20% off.
The Humble Bundle is well known in the gaming community for offering packages of excellent older titles and letting buyers choose how much they want to pay. They’re now offering ebooks as well, and the current Humble Book Bundle features a selection of 4 great LEGO books from No Starch Press if you pay $1 or more. If you choose to pay over $15, you can get digital downloads of a full 16 LEGO books. We’ve reviewed several of them, including The LEGO Neighborhood Book, Beautiful LEGO, The LEGO Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles, and The Cult of LEGO, so you check out what we thought before you commit. If you’re a longtime TBB reader, you’ll recognize a lot of terrific builders in these pages that we’ve featured over the years.
Don’t want to get a digital version? You can find all of these books on Amazon, and many are even on sale right now, like LEGO Space which is only $17.36 in hardcover.
Full disclosure: We builders here at The Brothers Brick are featured in Beautiful LEGO, The Cult of LEGO, and Steampunk LEGO.
This LEGO mosaic by Joe Perez features a fiery sunset behind the Statue of Liberty in sharp silhouette, combining standard mosaic techniques for the sunset with sculptural techniques for Lady Liberty. Joe says he created the sculpture based on a photo he took in New York on his honeymoon.
He’s been known by many names: The Mind Sculptor, Architect of Thought, Memory Adept, Telepath Unbound, the Living Guildpact, Unraveler of Secrets, and Vryn’s Prodigy. But now he needs a snappy LEGO-themed name because Magic: The Gathering fan Sergio just built Jace Beleren out of LEGO. Built in the classic LEGO miniland scale, this LEGO creation is based on original artwork by Chase Stone.
Sergio has also built the other members of the Gatewatch: the lovely necromancer Liliana Vess; the fire wielder Chandra Nalaar; the elven nature-mage Nissa Revane; and their commander the warrior-mage Gideon Jura. In addition to the great figures, the composition and lighting on these photos is simply phenomenal.
Pico van Grootveld‘s latest spaceship is a smart little model. The building techniques and bricks usage are on point — wheel hubs and dishes creating a selection of smooth curves. The stark color scheme works well, particularly against that lunar backdrop, and the presentation is simply perfect. Too often LEGO space builders can overdo the photo-editing on their images, leaving models marooned in a sea of garish lens flare. Pico gets it just right here — subtle effects providing the streak of engine trails, and colored spots on the twin weapon prongs and the drone’s central eye. An eminently swooshable design, presented well — this is my kind of space building.
This stunning steampunk sculpture was first revealed at BrickCon in 2015, where it won a well-deserved Best In Show award. Although we covered this creation in our BrickCon roundup post at the time, the builder Paul Hetherington has only just posted his own images — a perfect excuse for us to feature this beautiful LEGO model in more detail.
In addition to the new Technic, City, and Nexo Knights sets we’ve seen in the past few days, there’s a fresh batch of LEGO Friends. The first wave of 2017 includes a full half dozen new puppies, a photo studio, and a great inventor’s laboratory. Take a look at all 15 new sets below!
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 City sets
2017 Nexo Knights sets
2017 Technic sets
If you’re looking for some gifts this holiday season and have your eye on some new Friends, check out some of the great sales going on right now on Amazon. 41130 Amusement Park Roller Coaster and 41101 Heartlake Grand Hotel are both 20% off!
LEGO announced one new Technic set yesterday morning, the first ever licensed BMW motorcycle. Here’s the rest of the Technic lineup for 2017, though. We don’t have price or piece counts for these sets yet, but this year on the docket we’ve got an awesome scientific exploration vessel, construction crews, and even an RC-controlled tracked monster truck. Check out all seven sets below!
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 City sets
2017 Nexo Knights sets
A lot of real-life things recreated with LEGO bricks look bizarre and mind-boggling. But what about some of the most alien-looking lizards on planet Earth? Not one, but two brilliant chameleons came across our radar lately. The first one is by Dvd; it’s a little bit clumsy yet such an adorable lizard. And if its design looks slightly imperfect to you that’s because it was built solely out of pieces from LEGO Creator set 31034 Future Flyers. What a gorgeous alternative creation!
Another chameleon by Mitsuru Nikaido is a great example of an animal mech. These tiny pads, huge round eyes and a long spiral tail give this lizard such a credible design, and putting it on a twig is a beautiful way to present the creation.
legostrator has built a very nicely detailed interior belonging to a banker. The scene is loaded with all sorts of cool bits but my favorites are the chair and the fireplace. I love the ornate nature of the chair. It’s a design that I may borrow in the future. The brickwork on the chimney is particularly nice, as is the arch above the fire. Everywhere I look in this small scene, I find more to like. This scene really has a lot going for it.
