Maybe a T. rex chasing after you won’t be as scary if it’s only 2 inches tall. That’s what’s going on in Sami Mustonen‘s mini Jurassic Park. The rendering of the models look so real you probably didn’t think it was all digital Lego.
Category Archives: LEGO
Have a smurfy day!
Despite more comebacks and fewer female characters than the Star Wars franchise, the Smurfs are still wildly popular today, almost 60 years after their first appearance as a Belgian comic strip. With two new Smurf movies behind us and another one in the works, it was only a matter of time before fans got tired waiting for LEGO to get in on the action, and took matters into their own hands. Which is exactly what Lee Jones and a team of builders did at BrickWorld Chicago did last month!
This huge diorama depicts the Smurf village, complete with forest landscaping, mushroom houses, and a forced-perspective version of Gargamel’s castle. All beautifully rounded off with the giant intruding faces of Gargamel and Azrael (courtesy of Tyler Halliwell and Kevin Lauer).
But the most remarkable part of this display have to be the Smurf minifigs. No, you’re not seeing things… Those aren’t shoddy clone brand figures. And no, LEGO didn’t secretly launch a line of collectible Smurf figs when no-one was looking. These are 100% custom manufactured! Lee’s team worked with BrickForge and Brick Fortress to design and produce custom components (heads, tails, even rotatable arms) all to “LEGO quality”. The results speak for themselves. Our pals at Beyond the Brick talked to Lee at BrickWorld and got the low-down…
Crazy Arms are a crazy cool idea
Regular readers of this blog will be no stranger to Guy Himber’s Crazy Bricks, which has been classing-up the world of figs for years now with top hats, skulls, and all manner of other unique accessories. But Guy’s latest offering, Crazy Arms, could be a game changer for mini-fig fans.
These patent pending replacement arms not only offer better poses for your figs, but also solve the problem of how hard it has always been to remove and re-insert the standard arms into the standard torso. How? Watch the video below to find out!
Crazy Arms will only be available through a Kickstarter project. So if you want to get your posable fleshy hands on some, you’d better back it before the end of the month!
I live, I die. I LIVE AGAIN!
Jordan Schwartz built the vehicle driven by Immortan Joe from the latest Mad Max movie. It features the stacked 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Villes along with the powerful engine and front plow. Surely getting a ride in this bad boy will take you straight to the gates of Valhalla!
Avro Arrow
The Avro Arrow is steeped in Canadian History as it was once the leader in advanced aviation, and to this day is still regarded with special heart in many Canadians. So today as we were setting up for Canada’s largest LEGO convention, Brickfete, I spotted this amazing recreation of this fabled fighter by Bill Kernohan (CapitalBricks):
Usually known for his Starwars MaxiFigs, Bill’s use of stickers for both cockpit as well as the details on the wings shows that he can build just as well at minifig scale.
If you’re in Toronto this weekend, you can check out Bill’s MaxiFigs and his Avro Arrow, and a host of other builds this Saturday and Sunday at Brickfete.
Massive LEGO StarCraft display has more pylons than you’ll ever need
Gaming fans, get ready to reattach your socks once you’ve marveled at this 14 foot long microscale LEGO StarCraft diorama, unveiled at Brickworld Chicago last week:
Whether you identify as Protoss, Terran or Zerg, there is so much detail to enjoy in this monstrous display, built over the course of 3 years by 9 builders in 4 different countries. How many bricks were used? We don’t know – the team lost count! I’m guessing “quite a lot”.
Huge props to the amazing team of Cecilie Fritzvold, Tim Schwalfenburg, Matt De Lanoy, Chris Perron, John Moffat, Bart De Dobbelaer, Sean and Steph Mayo and our very own Simon Liu. And rumor has it parts of this epic layout may be appearing at other LEGO fan conventions in the not-too-distant future.
Meanwhile, check out their cool fly-through video, or pore over dozens of closeup images of the layout and it’s many individual units on their Flickr group:
Crowbar from Transformers
There’s no shortage of greebles and details in this Lego model of Crowbar from Transformers by jake_tp. While the model makes use of some custom elements, they blend in well and contributes to the organic biomechanical look of this villain.
TBB cover photo: July 2015
Summer is here – and so is the Minions movie! Appropriately, the winner of our informal monthly TBB cover photo contest is this amazing spread of Minion variants by Oliver Kude. Utini!
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REMINDER ABOUT COVER PHOTO SUBMISSIONS: Please only submit photos that meet our guidelines and therefore stand a chance of being chosen. Do not use the cover photo group just to promote your latest MOC. It makes more work for us, and your spamming could get you blocked! If you want your MOC to get our attention, simply add it to the Flickr LEGO group. Or send us cupcakes.
Around the World in 80 Days
One of the great joys of Brickworld is to see the massive collaborations that take place, and this year’s most ambitious and massive feat of LEGO engineering was VirtuaLUG’s Around the World in 80 Days:
Based off the movie and book, written by Jules Verne, it tells the story of the misadventures of Mr. Phileas Fogg, his manservant Passepartout and Inspector Fixx. Much like the Fogg, the tale of this group build stretches all around the world, with 25 contributors, bricks were sent from all over the United States, Canada, Belgium and even New Zealand to complete this masterpiece.
This build was an amazing 10 feet by 20 feet in size and a whole year of planning, organizing and building, not just LEGO bricks, but custom table and supports for the series of mosaics chronicling the 80 day adventure. It is made up of of 224x 32×32 stud baseplates littered with both minifgure-scale and micro-scale builds, several operating trains, and one big world – with spinning sign.
Our friends at Beyond the Brick take us through an in depth interview with the Project Leader Heath Flor about this layout:
You can see more details photos of this display in the Flickr Group
Guns don’t kill people... George RR Martin kills people
Winter is coming, and it’s adorable! This chibi-like White Walker by simplybrickingit reminds us that while the television version of Game of Thrones is over for another season, and all your favorite characters are now dead, there are other ways to get your GoT fix. Like building it in LEGO…
LEGO Star Wars Mos Eisley Cantina 75052 [Review]
LEGO Star Wars Mos Eisley Cantina was released last summer and continues to be a popular Star Wars set. It retails for $69.99 and is available on Amazon. Below is a brief video review and my remarks regarding the set.
This is one of the more unique and iconic Star Wars sets that’s not a ship or features an overabundance of gray or black. It’s a neat playset with unique colors such as the flesh colored plates on the landspeeder. There’s also an above-average number of minifigs with exclusives such as the Bith musicians, Obi-wan, Greedo and sandtrooper. The landspeeder is similar to the previous design from 2010, but the use of the flesh color and decals are welcome changes. The cantina is much improved over the 2003 version, and with some more effort, you can certainly expand the cantina to its complete design like Joshua Morris has done. The 578 pieces included in the set is typical nowadays for a Star Wars set with a $70 tag, but it’s a more reasonable buy at less than $60.
Welcome to the Grid
This Tron diorama by Tim Schwalfenberg perfectly captures the glowing cybernetic world of Tron and even features a crisp and detailed interior where the party has just begun.
