Lech Kulina has achieved some real sorcery with this medieval watchtower. Its near-perfect cylindrical shape is an illusion, achieved by creating a 16-sided polygon that approximates a curve to the naked eye.
Lech was nice enough to give everyone a look at how it was done with some helpful cross-section pics. Although, to me, it still looks like magic.
What’s happening on the planet Duplovia? According to Wami Delthorn they process water there. It’s fun to just (ahem) soak in all the details. It has enough Classic Space LEGO goodness and playability to quench the thirst of any diehard fan. I’m particularly loving the communications tower, spaceship landing pad and the space train that traverses the entire build. The LED lights are also a neat touch. With all this expensive and important science-y space stuff I hope they utilize this water processing plant for something useful, intelligent and practical; like fueling the galaxy’s largest and most epic Slip ‘N Slide!
I don’t know about you, but I like my placid meadow villages free of marauding sea serpents. However, the folks were not so lucky at this fine farm by LEGO builder Faëbricks. The dark water looks ominous rather than tranquil, and the sand-green serpent rears his head in a pose that might be an easter egg for LEGOLand’s Brickley. As for the whole scene, I don’t know whether this builder was inspired by Valheim, but this moment seems to be drawn straight out of one of my games, from right after my boat got wrecked by a serpent and I’m swimming furiously to shore hoping my stamina holds out.
Every time you think you’ve seen the best LEGO version of a Star Wars vehicle, someone turns around and makes something else incredible. This awesome AT-ST by GolPlaysWithLego utilizes a combination of LEGO and a sprinkling of other brand elements (mostly wedge tiles), along with a whole lot of skill, to raise the bar yet again (in fact, we featured their previous AT-ST version in 2019). The shaping of the gangly mech is spot-on, but it’s the posing with the uneven terrain that really sells this one to me. It’s almost shocking how much adding a good base to a build can improve it, especially a simple and clean design like this one.
Another SHIPtember LEGO spaceship blasts its way through space! The bows from the Horizon game series serves as -soccerkid6‘s inspiration for this piercing craft. It comes in at 104 studs in length (or should we say height?) and weighs just over 3 pounds—the weight of such fine design! It’s nearly impossible to miss the bow influence in the design with the bend and curving bits at the top and bottom. Where an arrow could nock on a bow rests the central engine and the pointing bridge, giving a clue that it’s a microscale ship. I like the color choices of the build, with that yellow drawing you in to the middle with the teal highlights to balance it all out. The details of the ship stand out and work well together, allowing us to fully appreciate the look and feel of the clever craft.
Today LEGO Ideas has revealed the next fan-inspired set will be 21337 Table Football. LEGO builder Donát Fehérvári submitted the project to Ideas as part of the special We Love Sports contest on the platform, where it won the grand prize last summer. The finished 2,339-piece LEGO Ideas set created by LEGO Designer Antica Bracanov positions minifigures as the players inside a functional—if miniaturized—table with ball returns and score counters. Full-size table football games (frequently known by the trademarked name Foosball) typically include eight rows of players, with 11 players for each team. The LEGO version downsizes that to just 5 players on each team on the field, but the full complement of 22 minifigures are included in the set. Rather than including predetermined minifigures for the teams, the set includes more than 40 minifigure heads and hairpieces across a range of skin tones, along with an extra bit of stadium seating for the inactive players that also functions as a storage box for the spare pieces. 21337 Table Football will be available starting Nov. 1, 2022, for US $249.99 | CAN $309.99 | UK £241.99.
With the exception of the past couple of years, I’ve been a staple at BrickCon in Seattle since 2005 or so. This year, I wasn’t a registrant but snuck in unnoticed (almost). While there, I was treated to this wonderous LEGO stage show put on by Douglas Hughes. The table presence of this massive creation was quite impressive, even with the curtains closed. But as the curtains parted, the intro music started and the real show began! As described by the builder, “As the curtains part you can see biplanes circling both above and below the zeppelin which maneuvers up and down.The soundtrack transitions to biplane maneuver and machine gun noises, and a red biplane swoops to the center stage from behind a cloud, gently rocking back and forth. Soon enough the red plane sidles back behind cloud cover and the finale begins to unfold – a little biplane corkscrews down in an uncontrolled dive until it hits the zeppelin.” He goes on to say; “Red lights flash, explosions rock the air, and the zeppelin slowly breaks apart revealing smoke and fire rising from within. The curtains begin to close and the finale fanfare plays – the show is over!”
I guess you had to have been there. No, seriously, you had to have been there! The builder hasn’t provided a video of this beast on motion just yet but I can attest that this was an amazing work of art. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out, but this had to have won one of the top prizes, I’m sure. Chime in in the comments to let us know what awards this won or just to tell us what you think.
HBO’s House of Dragons has nothing on Dan Ko. Dan has crafted an adorable dragon rider as part of the yearly Creations for Charity fundraiser. Both the rider and the dragon have short limbs that extend from big cylindrical pieces for the torsos, almost like a couple of fantasy corgis. We’d be delighted to catch a glimpse of this duo flying overhead.
Ben Spector thought he could hide LEGO turkey drumsticks in the tower roof of this lovely build and get away with it. Well, this is surely not the case because we did notice this clever part usage. But that is not the only smartly used part. We get ice cream scoops used as smoke and cheese slopes representing stained glass windows. Since LEGO will probably never release non-licensed castle sets with skin-toned Minifigures, I always navigate towards creations that do match these criteria. One of the best things about this creation has to be the base of the tower which grows wider and wider until it is wide enough to support a full-blown tower on the first floor. Chapeau!
A LEGO builder who goes by the name of Simulterious tells us that they took apart the Ewok Village 10236 set and regretted it. Yeah, we know all about regret here at TBB, don’t we? Wait, what the hell does that mean? Anyway, they turned their regret into a redo and redemption of sorts by building a new version depicting what the set could look like today. I’m enjoying the use of shields as sort of a thatched roof design and the diversity of leaves is a welcome change from the old set. This builder also rectifies the obvious omission of the AT-ST from the original. Even though there seem to be slightly fewer Minifigures (that are visible, anyway) this would be an insta-buy for me if this were a real set. While we most certainly have our regrets, (wait, that again?) showcasing this builder’s work isn’t among them. Check out our Simulterious archives to see what I mean.
What do you get if you cross the hobbies of LEGO, butterfly collecting, and impossible bottles? It might well look something like this creation by Gayle Spiller. It is inspired by a surrealist painting, although I’m reminded of the Jam, which is paraphrased in the title of this post. It’s a superb execution with some unique solutions for the patterns on the butterfly wings. There are croissants, eyes, sausages, pies, and even guitars in there! The ship itself is beautifully sculpted as well, with the exaggerated curves matching the surrealist tone of the piece.
Big Easy Bricks has crafted a pair of wonderful parade floats that make me yearn for a big old LEGO-themed parade. Both feature some classic LEGO themes and some great microscale building! First up is a fan favourite – Classic Space. The float features two iconic space sets in the form of the Galaxy Explorer and Monorail Transport System. The trailer itself also has a rocket blasting away from the Earth and Moon, made up of a mere nine pieces!
Float number two is a bit more rootin’-tootin’, as it depicts the perhaps niche (although no less legendary) Fort Legoredo from the 90s Western theme. This time we have some miniature soldiers and cavalry to man the fort, which is a superb imitation of the original set. Take note of the miniature cannons as well! Once again the trailer captures the Western aesthetic with some stars and horns. It’s a simple touch, but a really wonderful way to tie it together.
I hope Big Easy Bricks have got some more floats lined up. There’s plenty of classic themes, and they would look great on parade together!
