Like many of us who played with Hot Wheels as kids, Brick Flag has fond memories of his first Hot Wheels vehicle, the Ramblin’ Wrecker. Being a skilled LEGO builder, he decided to model a few of his favorite diecast trucks in brick form. In order to get the precise shaping, he scaled them up considerably; his LEGO versions are about 9 inches long, or about 4 times larger than their metal counterparts, but they look deceptively small. Take a look at the details after the jump.
Although Destiny at this point is just over two years old, many players feel nostalgic for the first rifle your Guardian acquires in his or her adventure, the Khvostov 7G-02. A cracked reflex sight and custom attachments made this generic AR-15-like rifle special and one that told a story. In a bit of fan service from Destiny’s developers, one can, put simply, backtrack the first mission in a special quest to obtain an exotic version of the Khvostov (designated Khvostov 7G-0X) with wood furnishings and a repaired reflex sight.
I was inspired by this mission as it reminded me of what made me enjoy Destiny in the beginning. This, combined with a desire to build something that looked like a real firearm and to finally construct something life size with wooden components, led to the construction of my LEGO Khvostov 7G-0X. The build measures over 40 inches long, weighs 5.5 pounds, and has some working components including a removable magazine, moving trigger, and sliding charging handle. I also constructed two sights: the repaired reflex sight, and the original cracked reflex sight.
Watch a 360º view of the LEGO Khvostov and view its functions in action in the following video.
See more photos of this replica on my Flickr.
I’m reminded of the aesthetic of bosses in the Mega Man series with BobDeQuatre’s rad firefly drone. The flow of opaque white windscreen pieces from head to tail, as well as hot air balloon panels over the thrusters, complement the mechanical details and links to give a great overall living yet robotic feel.
Mark Erickson is well known for his castle and medieval-themed builds and his latest creation is a grand one. Entitled ‘The Grand Bazaar’, Mark has created a beautiful, bustling, colourful market scene packed with details and nice techniques. This bazaar has an exotic feel of the east with a camel, trees from warmer climes and a rare sighting of a yellow parrot. The architectural details are lovely, with arches constructed from bricks and slopes and a great combination of colours.
There are a great many details that require a closer look, but for me the combination of colours is the highlight of this build. I love the blue tiled roof with hints of sand and olive green on the more official ‘town hall’ looking building on the right. The use of the Belville oriental carpet as a canopy adds a lovely flash of bright red, while sand red makes a rare appearance on the sloped roof of the building to the left. A really captivating scene.
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.
