Caleb Flutur had always wanted an old brass scale to display, so he decided to build one. Looking like it just came out of an apothecary shop, Caleb’s work definitely measures up to the real thing. Capturing such an ornate design with such a limited color pallet must have been tricky, but the final looks to balance form and function brilliantly.
Feeling crabby? Maybe this this cutie from Matt Goldberg can lift your mood. This creative crustacean has all the great organic shaping you’d want and is topped with a lovely bouquet of greenery. Is it the aquatic equivalent of an FTD delivery person? A decorator crab doing its best to camouflage itself? Perhaps this is prom night and the corsage was overzealous. Whatever the case, I adore this fun build.
If you’re still crabby, though, there are plenty more critters in our archives!
Aido Kessler knows that LEGO can be an expensive hobby. As piece counts in official sets continue to rise, so too does the price of the sets. Heck, I paid less for my first car than I did for certain Star Wars sets on display in my house. That’s why it’s so nice of Aido to remind us that you don’t always need a lot of bricks to stage an epic build. Here, Aido has recreated the iconic Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back with scarcely more than a dozen pieces. It’s a budget build that’s big on blockbuster action.
When it comes to weird mechanical mashups, Caleb Flutur seems to have the market cornered. Fresh off the back of his addition to Sodor’s territorial defense , he has gone in an altogether different direction with this pair of steampunk insects. A lot of steampunk builds like to accentuate the use of, well, steam, but I like the focus on the electromechanical here. After all, that was one of the great advancements of the Victorian era. The clockwork fly makes ingenious use of a pair of window panes as wings. Meanwhile, the spider has a great whopping filament bulb forming its thorax (another Victorian bright idea). I normally think spiders get a bad rap since they eat all sorts of annoying bugs, but this is one arachnid I’d rather not have hanging around my house…
Caleb says this is the first of a few steampunk creatures in the pipeline, so we’ll be keeping a beady eye out for more! In the meantime, why not whet your appetite in our steampunk archives?
This Sakura Crab by Sandro Quattrini lives up to its name. Not only are there cherry blossoms on the crustacean’s shell, that cherry color carries over to the anthropomorphic critter itself. I love the construction in the eyes, and the quarter-circle tile used on the legs. The mouth is also pretty cool, with minifigure arms making perfect mandibles. The greens of the lily pad offsets the red, making this unusual crab a bit more integrated with nature, too.
There’s a lot of fun crab builds happening in the LEGO community these days. Why not add your own into the mix? We have plenty of inspiration in our archives!
Ever wonder what your cats do while you’re away? If this fun LEGO diorama built by Okay Yaramanoglu is to be believed then they’re out plundering the neighborhood for catnip in a box hideout. I had my suspicions that was the case! In Okay’s words; “PlunderCats are a band of ferocious feline pirates lead by the fearsome Captain Fluffybeard. Their ship is basically just a box with sails since the cats are usually more interested in the crate that the pirate ship parts arrive in than the actual ship itself. Their hideout is located in the middle of the Catribbean on Cat Skull Island (which used to be inhabited by Mouselanders) and is essentially a big cat tree. This is where they are keeping their enemy, the scurvy dog Admiral Barkington, hostage and where they are hiding their most prized treasure, the Golden Cheezburger.”
That explains much of the tomfoolery going on around here, actually. In case your tuna supply has run low in your neighborhood as well here are a lineup of the usual suspects.
There are a lot of important questions facing the world right now. One that keeps coming up in particular is “Who’s hungry?” Steven Stelter has a suggestion: Maybe you should head to Culver’s for a burger and shake combo. This brick-built beauty beacons you from the highway to delight in the realistic ductwork on the roof, the colorful brickwork, and the custom stickers that ensure you know just where you’ll be blowing that diet of yours.
Pascal has created a vision of a truly terrifying dystopia. This may look like some neo-classic space robots helpfully planning the terraforming of a new, distant world, but look closer! This is a world devoid of mere mortals like minifigures. In this darkest of timelines, our new robot overlords spend their days playing God with the very Earth that sustains us. Rivers bend to their will. They literally move mountains. And we must acquiesce, as tiny figurines moved around on a Warhammer board, powerless to stop them. If only someone had a brick separator… Then we may be free of this torment that the machines call a game…
Today LEGO has taken the wraps off the latest Marvel Superheroes set for adults, revealing 76215 Black Panther. The massive bust of the superhero with arms crossed in a Wakanda salute measures over 18 inches tall (46cm) and contains 2,961 pieces. It’s slated to be available Oct. 1 for US $349.99 | CAN $449.99 | UK £299.99, just in time for the sequel Wakanda Forever, which premieres Nov. 11.
Click to read the press release and see more images
Here’s a gorgeous little LEGO diorama by Simon Schweyer of a bit of mountains and a waterfall. The first thing that made me stop and look was the beautiful yellow autumn trees, which look a bit like poplars. They mesh well with the lime green grass to give a crisp, September feel to the scene. The waterfall itself is worth noting, too, as I’ve never seen that large cockpit (originally designed for Jango Fett’s ship) used as flowing water before, but I think it looks wonderfully placid here.
This waterfall hides a secret within, as there’s a cave behind the flowing river where the crew can make plans—though whether they’re brigands or heroes I’m not sure.
You don’t need me to tell you that life can be a wild, wondrous, and sometimes convoluted journey. Daniel Cloward (AKA Dan the Fan), with the help of his friend Julian, has built what might be a LEGO homage to how wild and wonderous a journey his own life has become. I love the odd shapes, whimsical colors, and textures. I also very much enjoy the title of this article, not made up by me, but by Dan. Sometimes whatever happens next is not entirely controlled and maybe we have to just enjoy the journey for now. He tells us the confusing proportions and wacky details are a testament to what may be happening in his own world. We’re a fan of yours, Dan the Fan. You all can be too. Check out our Daniel Cloward archives to make it happen.
What do people have against mushrooms? I love them, but I had a roommate at college who flatly refused to eat them as they “taste like dirt”. I reckon it’s a case of Goomba-induced PTSD – to be fair, these little walking mushrooms can be a real nuisance in the Super Mario games. Lokiloki29 has paid tribute to this under-appreciated foe with this frankly adorable LEGO Goomba. They’ve perfectly captured its cartoonish likeness. Sure, he looks grumpy, but wouldn’t you be if there was an Italian plumber constantly trying to stomp on your head?
