LEGO creations inspired by the enduring Warhammer tabletop games are a pretty regular feature here, although often skewed toward the more futuristic Warhammer 40K. So it’s always nice to see some Warhammer Fantasy units appear in brick form, such as these malevolent-looking Sylvaneth Dryads created by Marcel V. as part of his wood elf army:
This month’s issue of Blocks magazine pits Captain America against Iron Man, as six brilliant builds go head-to-head in the superhero showdown of the century. Continuing the Marvel-lous theme, Daniel Konstanski dissects every LEGO Quinjet so far, while MOD Squad member Chris Wight demonstrates how to improve the latest version. Civil War movie coverage is rounded out with reviews of the latest sets and an exclusive interview with TT Games head honcho Arthur Parsons, who talks all things LEGO Marvel’s Avengers.
There’s also plenty of non-superhero goodness, including a celebration of the latest movie adaptation of The Jungle Book with a series of exclusive builds. Meanwhile, Minifigs.me’s Nick Savage gives advice on starting your own LEGO business.
Patrick B has created a traditional wooden tavern that lies in the fictional kingdom of Brandküste, one of nine kingdoms from an online role-playing game on the German-language LEGO fansite Imperium der Steine. The tavern has some lovely architectural details and a sloped roof with a mix of tiles and studs on show to add texture. The character details are fun and engaging: an archer aims his arrow at the apple on top of his friends head, there’s a basin of water being used to wash some of the dishes and a comedy moment as some poor soul falls down the stairs.
Does anyone else agree that the two statues on the staircase are wild boars? I may have to check with the builder as I am not an expert in zoology.
Screen-centric builder SPARKART! does it again with these spot-on versions of Gyspy, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo from the cult 90’s TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. This groundbreaking Saturday morning show recycled bad movies by having a captive astronaut and his dysfunctional robot buddies wisecrack over them. The robots of course were played by puppets, which is why the creations don’t feature much below the waist!
After the Creator Islands mobile game released back in Fall 2014, here comes a new themed app — the Creator App. This time it’s not just a game, but a number of digital activities for kids. The app features a monthly building contest (the current one is about racing accesories), a number of videos with building secrets and ideas, and a stop-motion studio, which allows the creation of simple videos up to 75 frames (~20 seconds) in length. Assuming the interface is extremely simple and freindly, the app might become the first stop-motion animation experience for many children.
The LEGO Creator App is availiable for both iOS and Android.
It’s been almost a decade since we had our hands on a new Half-Life game. A generation missed out this amazing gameplay experience and many of us older ones began to forget how it all started. Fortunately Dorian Glacet stepped up to remind us how the Earth descended into chaos, with this digitally rendered LEGO diorama. Resonance Cascade was the single most important event in the original Half-Life video game, where the protagonist Gordon Freeman tears a rift between two worlds. Dorian perfectly captures this moment with LEGO bricks and we are left to suffer the Unforeseen Consequences…
A train crashing over a collapsed wooden bridge is a classic Hollywood peril that we now get to see built in bricks thanks to W. Navarre. Many aspects of the model are built without using prefabricated parts such as the train tracks, train wheel chassis, and even the cow catcher on the front of the train. Check out more photos of this detailed creation on MOCpages.
LEGO Bionicle pieces are among the most hard-to-use parts, but it doesn’t mean they’re useless. They usually end up as table scraps after another huge project, so you definitely need a fresh look to find an application for them — just like Dead Frog inc. did. Bionicle masks are a vast range of pieces available in dozens of colors, and thanks to their curvy shapes they fit amazingly well as armoured parts of mechs.
Meanwhile Olga Rodionova takes advantage of the complex coloring of mask pieces to give a pair of Protector Masks of Ice a second life as incredibly beautiful insect wings. This is the best illustration of the idea that the more useless the piece seems to be, the more amazing it looks when used properly.
Congratulations! You’re thinking about going to your first LEGO fan convention. So, now what?
That’s a great question. Making the decision to attend is the hard part; the rest is just details. But the details are where things can get awfully bogged down. We here at TBB have collectively attended nearly a hundred conventions across the world, so we have a thing or two to say about attending LEGO Fan conventions. Each event has its own unique flavor, so even seasoned convention-goers attending a new event for the first time feel the same excitement of the unknown. This guide will benefit newcomers and old-hats alike.
We’ve boiled down the convention-going experience into three segments: Pre-Convention, During Convention, and Post Convention. We’ll be publishing guides on these for you over the course of the next two weeks. We’re going into a new year of conventions and want to help everyone be prepared!
Actually, I have no idea what kind of fish this toothed-beastie is supposed to be. Regardless, this 3D mosaic by anries shop is offishally awesome. Those golden wings make great fish fins and the way Anries made colorful scales out of 1 x 1 round plates is stunning. My favorite detail is that poor worm made from two different types of LEGO snakes. It really looks like one piece suspended in water. Perhaps Anries’ next build will feature this fish mounted on the proud fisherman’s wall. Unless, of course, our fishy friend gets away with a full belly.
A LEGO store in the Netherlands has released high-res photos of a bunch of sets scheduled for release later this year, including sets from Star Wars, Marvel, DC, the new Volcano Explorers sub-theme from LEGO City, and Friends. (Via Brickset.)
75157 Captain Rex’s AT-TE from Star Wars: Rebels appears to include the ever-popular clone trooper in retirement.
Spider-Man may be joining the Avengers with Captain America: Civil War, but he still gets his own, separate line of LEGO sets. The largest is 76057 Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle.
Click through to see more summer 2016 LEGO set photos
Anpanman was a popular Japanese children book series that ran from the early seventies until 2013, and among its record-holding 1,768-character roster was the main series antagonist, Baikinman. A devious bacteria man from the Germ Planet, he fought the title character in endless battles. Depicted here in a more serious (and deadly) manner by builder Moko, Baikiniman is clearly a monster you don’t want to mess with. That is, unless you have his one weakness on hand, soap, which causes him to shrink down to the size of a fly.
