The LEGO Ideas project hit a record milestone with the most qualifying number of fan submissions to be considered back in September 2020 with a total of 35 projects. After 4 months of evaluation, LEGO has announced that Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night by Truman Cheng (aka legotruman will be made into an official set.
LEGO has announced that the next Ideas set will be SEGA’s legendary speedster, Sonic the Hedgehog. Selected from 26 Ideas projects that hit the 10,000-vote threshold last May, the concept design for Sonic was submitted by Viv Grannell. Viv has been interested in the world of Sonic for almost her entire life and thinks it is a perfect fit for the LEGO system. Her design was inspired by the Green Hill Zone level from SEGA’s 2017 Sonic Mania. There’s no word yet on when the set will be released or how much it will cost, but it often takes a year or more for an Ideas project to go from approval to final design, so we’ll have to wait to see the official design.
Click to read more about the LEGO Sonic Madness Ideas project
We all love to build LEGO creations and occasionally some of us even make a bit of money doing it. I don’t know much about Fitec Supply but I hope they paid handsomely for this stunning oil platform by Niek Geurts. It’s tough to pinpoint what scale this is. It’s bigger than what we’d call micro-scale, maybe more in the realm of midi-scale and certainly smaller than minifig-scale. Regardless, the detail here is top notch. I’m loving the cranes, the oranges lifeboats and the helipad. The overall industrial feel of it makes me want to put on a hard hat and some coveralls and check temperature and pressure gauges or whatever else it is they do on oil platforms. With LEGO creations this good, we’ll be certainly be checking the gauges on what Niek is up to from time to time.
We all know you can build things out of LEGO, but “building something that you build something out of, out of LEGO” is a sentence that I don’t get to write all that often. Brickleas gave me the chance with this fun diorama of in-progress model building. It makes use of the clip-flag seed part from Iron Forge a whopping 30 times, and finding them all is a fun exercise. My favorites are the bird’s beak, the dab of paint, and the blade in the well-built craft knife. The rest of the scene has some great details, too. I’m fond of the interesting texture in the hobby mat from the dark green tiles. And the branch the bird is perched on makes use of the minifigure tree disguise. It might be obvious in retrospect, but it feels clever to me.
This year’s Iron Forge has gifted us with a ton of interesting builds, as our archives show. Go take a look!
If you’re a blacksmith, odds are you have a supplier of ore and metals coming from a nearby mine. In this case, the mine is built by -LittleJohn. Clearly taking inspiration from the new LEGO Ideas Medieval Blacksmith set, builder -LittleJohn made this creation for the Colossal Castle Contest. The Allanar Mine is run by dwelves (dwarves + elves) who offer a warm meal and a soft bed to any travelers passing through.
The level of detail here is staggering. The landscaping, the mine building, and the inn are a work of art. I’d have to say my favorite part of this build is the windows. They’re beautiful! Both paned and double-paned are built so creatively. I’m going to have to see if I can replicate -LittleJohn’s techniques in my next medieval-themed creation.
When LEGO introduced the Ninjago theme back in 2011, no one could have guessed that it would come to be one of the company’s most popular themes. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Ninjago is getting its biggest set yet, 71741 Ninjago City Gardens. At 5,685 pieces, it’s the fifth-largest LEGO set ever, and the third entry into the cyberpunk modular buildings collection known as Ninjago City. A series of high-rise buildings containing all manner of city life, Ninjago City Gardens houses restaurants, a museum, an arcade, a dojo, and apartments, along with 19 minifigures. Ninjago City Gardens is available now for US $299.99 | CAN $399.99 | UK £274.99. Let’s see how this one stacks up to the previous Ninjago City sets.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Click to read the full, hands-on review
Just two weeks ago, LEGO Ideas allowed fans to vote for a classic theme to be revived for the LEGO 90th Anniversary Set. The results are now out and phase 2 begins. Bionicle, Classic Space and Pirates are the top three winning themes. Because of not considering subcategories properly, the Castle theme will be included for the second fan vote.
Click for details of the winning themes
An experiment occurred when Christian Lintan accidentally discovered some cool connections with another project which, in turn, led to this. What you’re looking at is a transforming LEGO Gundam-type mech who can become sort of like Mechagodzilla. He tells us he’s beyond thrilled with the result and we agree. Working in monochrome can be difficult at times but the end result is just about always visually striking. You ought to take some time to check out other LEGO artists who have worked in a monochrome palette.
I’m often reminded that good landscaping can really make or break LEGO scenes or buildings. When builders like Jake Hansen build their structure right into the landscape through – chef’s kiss – words are hard to describe how good it can look. Jake is pretty masterful at LEGO landscaping, and his new pieces never cease to amaze me. The composition of slopes gives the perfect look of natural stone. The natural curves of the landscape perfectly nestle the structures of this hidden jungle temple and the smooth spring water it surrounds. A couple features I’d like to point out are the curving staircase, brilliantly constructed out of flags, and the table made from a brown witch king’s crown. Does anyone else wish this was a real place we could go and explore?
LEGO is a beautiful medium to use. When sharing your creations you share the visual aspect of what you have made. Some creations are mainly visual appealing, some creations manage to evoke emotions. It rarely happens that a creation reminds you of a smell or a taste of even a sound. KitKat1414’s creation does this all for me. I can just smell and almost taste the pasta. And the best thing about this creation, next to the build itself, has to be that it appears to come with its own soundtrack. The song ‘That’s Amore’ by Dean Martin has been stuck in my head ever since seeing this lovely build.
February’s cover photo brings some luck along with it. /snirk/snirk/
These lucky cats, by Ruobing Dai, are adorned with different decorations symbolizing good fortune and making money, and the detailing is exquisite. Meeeeeow.
But seriously though, I wouldn’t mind putting one of these in every room in the house to bring any kind of luck to this year. They’re super cute and each cat has a unique design on his tummy; a treasure basin, a teeny cat set, and a carp. They’d actually go great in my living room.
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Maxim Baybakov is a master when it comes to building modular houses. His latest creation is no exception to this. The grey building appears to have a lot of detail. The joint profile pops more in the eye thanks to the use of headlight brick in combination with various tiles. The tan building seems quite simple. However, if you zoom in on the picture, a lot of details in the brickwork appear. The construction of this building is actually quite complex. Luckily Maxim is kind enough to offer us an insight into the construction of both buildings. In his photostream, you can view a break down of the window techniques.
