Years in the making, Blake Foster presents one of the finest examples of LEGO spacecraft masterwork with the Ugly Duckling Long Range Research Vessel. It’s a rare achievement; it boasts impressive measurements at 168 studs long, 47 studs wide, and 45 studs high (approximately 52.5×14.5×14 inches), yet its size doesn’t prevent Blake from carefully considering every stud on his craft inside and out.
See more photos of this amazing and huge LEGO spaceship
Japanese cars well-engineered and sometimes innovative, but in my opinion they are often not all that exciting. However, Japanese manufacturers do have a history of building some pretty neat sports cars, like the 240Z /Fairlady or Nissan GT-R or the Honda CRX.
A little more than a year ago, during a work trip, I was lucky to spend a day in Tokyo. It is an amazing city and ever since I’ve been thinking about building some Japan-themed LEGO models. I already have a collection of LEGO emergency vehicles, so adding a Japanese police car seemed like a good idea. Their typical vehicle is the Toyota Crown, which certainly fits the not-all-that-exciting category. However, a bit of internet research revealed that, until a few years ago, the Tokyo Police department also had Mazda RX-8 patrol cars. It’s a curvy coupé with suicide doors that was mainly used for traffic duties. Building one of those was a much more interesting prospect. I simply had to have one.
In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of February 2019.
TBB NEWS: Just like last week, The LEGO Movie 2 is dominating the news, while some awesome Star Wars sets are coming back to celebrate the theme’s anniversary.
OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:
LEGO seldom makes changes to their sets once they’re already in production, but it does happen from time to time, usually to correct a section of a model that’s discovered to be too fragile for play. However, the most recent case is an oddity even in this rare class of updated sets. Nearly a year after its release, set 75188 Resistance Bomber has been updated with a minifigure swapout, changing one of the pilots from a generic “Resistance Bomber Pilot” figure to Finch Dallow, a named minifigure sporting a new head and helmet. So, why did Finch Dallow suddenly become important?
Pharah is such a unique character in Overwatch, combining the classic rocket launcher/jump jet pairing with a futuristic armor suit influenced by Egyptian culture. The team at Build Better Bricks has built an impressive LEGO sculpture of this formidable flying hero. Their model features outstanding attention to detail in her blue armor with gold embellishments throughout and detail in her partially exposed face and braided hair.
B3’s Pharah model is fully articulated to duplicate several flying poses from the game. My favorite is the Ultimate pose, which reveals rocket salvos primed to rain justice from above. Also notable is the clever, compact build of the Overwatch logo on the display stand.
The story of the Trojan horse is one of the most well known in ancient Hellenic lore. In the classical version, following a fruitless and decade-long siege of the city of Troy, the Greeks constructed a gigantic wooden horse in which they had hidden their finest warriors. The Greeks feigned defeat, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night, the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war. It was a brilliant coup, though historians have argued its veracity ever since. Regardless of whether or not the Trojan horse actually existed, Martin Harris wonderfully brings the story to life in LEGO form with his depiction of that fateful gift-giving moment.
One has to admire the simple but imposing Trojan walls and gate, which stood up to 10 years of determined Greek attacks (the angled walls are a great touch, though a bit more landscaping around the bottom edge would help break up the abrupt edges). The Trojans lined up along the battlements and the Greeks laboriously pushing the horse depict the sheer scale of this creation. Continue reading
When builder Tomáš Kašpařík takes on a project, you can almost bet it’s going to be unpredictable and stunning. These two statues, an athletic woman and a child, are beautiful and have a feeling of piercing tranquility. Made mostly with 1×2 transparent LEGO bricks lit with LED strips from the inside, the sculptures contain about 20,000 bricks and 10,000 bricks respectively. For them to be stable for display and transportation, the pieces are glued using similar methods to those employed in the models at Legoland.
Out beyond the stars there’s a world of terror, and sometimes it comes closer than you might wish, especially if you live in a Lovecraftian tale. Among the worst terrors of that place is the legendary Cthulhu, imagined in LEGO form by Hongjun Youn. A multitude of Bionicle Kalmah masks gives the perfect tentacled element for otherworldly shaping for the head and torso, while Dino tails fill in for the larger tentacles.
With its uncannily flowing shape, it’s no small wonder losing one’s sanity was the most common reaction to the dread horror.
An ominous black dragon hovers low over Kale Frost’s stunning microscale castle. Although small, this model is filled with movement and atmosphere. The perfectly placed transparent slopes convincingly replicate waves crashing against its rugged coastline, and it’s matched by cleverly selected tile and foliage bricks, which complete the landscaping. The castle itself is a cunning amalgamation of unexpected pieces. It even manages to use what may potentially be the least useful LEGO elements ever, the trigger from a stud gun, which is doing duty as a detail in one of the towers – bravo!
Today LEGO has revealed four BrickHeadz based on The LEGO Movie 2 in a roundabout way, thanks to uploading the instructions to LEGO.com. The four characters are the film’s main characters, 41634 Emmet, 41635 Wyldstyle, 41636 Benny, and 41637 Sweet Mayhem. They’re numbered BrickHeadz 88-91. While we don’t have the official release date or price yet, it’s a safe bet that they’ll fall into the standard $10-per-figure range. Check them out below, and read our spoiler-free review of The LEGO Movie 2!
Click to see all four new BrickHeadz
Is it harder to build something purely from scratch, or based off of something already in existence? Having done both myself, I honestly can’t decide. Sometimes making LEGO resemble life-size objects is really tough. But it doesn’t seem to have been much of a challenge for Timofey Tkachev! This beautiful LEGO kitchen is based off a real one that is virtually identical. Of course, the real one does not include a human-sized penguin and a few other hidden gems.
Timofey is an incredible artist. We’ve featured many of his builds, but one of my favorites is the terrifying and thought-provoking representation of our oil consumption. Another, much lighter favorite, is his adorable and clever cockatoo. You can also learn more about him by reading more in our interview with him.
I love me a good spacecraft when I see one, and Onkel Ton has some mean LEGO skills indeed. While the additional decals give it a smashing sense of realism, the build structure, shape and greebling stands out on its own to a cinematic worthy quality to it all.
Together with the overall bulk of the ship, the contrast of the reds to the grey really emphasizes the look of a very futuristic military ready craft with heavy artillery.
