Nefarious Blacktron forces may inhabit the remote reaches of space, but that doesn’t mean they lack sweet infrastructure. We’ve already brought you a peek at Stephan Niehoff’s take on Blacktron’s new battle tank, the Scorpion II, and now Stephan lets us get a good look at the sleek Rhino, Blacktron’s on-planet wartime materiel supply solution.
We’ve featured nobu_tary‘s creations many times before. You think we’d stop being suprised by great builds. But his latest creation is one of those models you need to stare at for a few seconds before realising it is actually made from LEGO bricks. The robot being at a relatively small scale only serves to make the model more impressive.
Far from the present, at the Futuron base
A small ship alit on the platform with grace
No ruckus was raised, no alarm began screaming
But the alleys have ears, and data was streaming
A blue and white robot did power itself on
And began to creep silently through the cold dawn
Fly, little ship, you’ve got nothing to prove!
Strategic Pursuer 1 is on the move…
Model by Andrew Lee.
Maarten W‘s diorama brings us a fabulous slice of Middle Eastern market life, with an added dash of adventure. There’s a great sense of activity and the hustle and bustle of commerce at the base, and then an exciting rooftop chase going on above. I wonder what treasure the stolen map will lead our intrepid thief to discover?
That wall behind the snake charmer is a lovely detail and there’s just enough texture on the fortifications to avoid “big tan wall” syndrome. This is the latest in the recent spate of Middle Eastern-themed creations we’ve covered, including this beautiful mosque, also built by Maarten. I hope this trend continues.
Although Batman is best known for tangling with cats, solving riddles, and punching clowns–that’s really just his “special” workdays. Most nights he’s terrifying more common everyday criminals and ensuring they have long painful hospital stays. Builder Roman (th_squirrel) depicts a normal day at the bat-office, showing the moment where everything goes wrong for two unlucky criminals. One expresses understandable fear, the other displays a foolish “we can take him” confidence. A dramatic one-sided fight is about to begin.
.Tromas is particularly talented at designing compact minifig-scale starships. He’s back again with an awesome model of YB-81 bomber. Its main weapon might not look to impressive, but don’t be fooled. In fact, this small craft is packed with all kinds of gun barrels and bombs. There are dual laser cannons, a bomb bay, a modular concussion missile pod… you name it.
The bomber’s rear also deserves your appreciation. Those nozzles and the spot-on use of irregular pieces here and there make this starfighter into a lovely model.
There aren’t many places more picturesque for a castle than on a cliff by the sea, so that’s precisely where Alex Jones has placed his new fortress. Giant walls encircle this palatial castle, and the king even gets a strip of beach to relax on, as well as his own ship anchored in the harbor. You can see more of the diorama on Alex’s website.
Nikita Lazarev has built an interesting desert scene featuring a sinister-yet-lovely floating obelisk of peculiar design. The lone figure guarding the obelisk is also wonderfully weird. This is one of those models which prompts questions and flights of fancy in equal measure…
Is it alien? Is it sentient? Is it dangerous?
If you’ve ever dreamed of having your own chibi menagerie, Chungpo Cheng has got just the thing for you. We’ve got practically an entire zoo here. Or, at least if the zoo focused on animals from Africa, but you get the picture. Each one has such character!
What I find particularly fantastic is that should you need to study for your African mammal anatomy test, we’ve got you covered. Check out the rib cage and internal organs on this hippo! Just fantastic.
You can further explore the whole safari on flickr. Which is your favorite?
South Korean professional building team Olive Seon specialize in creating huge layouts for retail stores to showcase official LEGO sets (like this epic UCS-scale Star Wars trench run or a true minifig-scale Stay Puft marshmallow man terrorizing the city). Though the official sets are the focus, the team are masters at integrating them into beautiful custom backdrops, and I never tire of seeing the official sets nestled into dioramas like the LEGO catalogs from the 80s and 90s. Olive Seon’s latest diorama is worth it just for the epic shuttle launch they’ve portrayed. Never has the 60080 Spaceport shuttle looked so good.
The famous monument Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile stands in Paris as an iconic memorial to French soldiers, and LEGO builder Brian Yu has recreated it splendidly in brick, awash in the French tricolor. Brian’s model makes great use of greebling and the undersides of basic plates to mimic the relief sculpting on the arch, and the result beautifully tricks the eye into seeing finely sculpted details.
Galaktek from Seattle has been working on some pretty cool vintage fire trucks recently and now we get to see them all together. Galaktek has particularly done some nice work on the classic open-cab hook and ladder truck. The smooth lines can be hard to accomplish in minifig scale. These fire trucks makes you want to build something red!
