This is not just any fire truck, but one modelled after the real-life Scania P410 Fire Truck. The build also features a fully functional boom and extended supports for stabilisation. I like how in absence of the Brick Arch Mudguard elements for the wheels, Builder Robson M still manages to pull off a great looking alternative.
Martin Sanders, LEGO’s Director of Innovation took the stage to showcase LEGO’s integration with Apple’s new revelation of ARKit 2 during the 2018 World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose earlier this week. ARKit 2 is a platform that allows developers like LEGO to integrate shared experiences, bringing together a virtual experienced tied to a physical play set.
Click to read more about the showcase
We’ve been pretty excited about the new Pleistocene megafauna (large, extinct Ice Age animals like mammoths and saber-toothed cats) in the LEGO City Arctic sets released on June 1st, particularly after we had a chance to play with them during the Fall 2018 Preview event in New York City a couple weeks ago. With the sets now on store shelves, we’re digging in to bring you an even closer look at the new vehicles and creatures, starting with 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base, which includes 786 pieces, 6 minifigures, and a frozen mammoth and retails for $119.99 in the US (149.99 CAD in Canada | £84.99 in the UK).
Read our full, hands-on review of the new LEGO City 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base
Krzysztof Cytacki’s Technic version of a Landrover Defender is an excellent version of Great Britain’s gift to the world of 4×4 offroading. While the model itself is nice, the photography is what first attracted me to Cytacki’s work. By taking pictures of his Landrover in the wilderness, Cytacki perfectly captures the feeling of a televised auto ad. You can almost hear the roar of the engine and smell the earthy aroma of mud kicking back as the vehicle scales the rugged terrain. The natural setting does better justice to Cytacki’s model than a plain background could achieve.
See more photos of this gorgeous LEGO Technic Landrover
BrickHeadz is going under the sea, as today LEGO has published pictures of this new pair of characters from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Ariel and Ursula are joining Beauty and the Beast in bringing classic Disney tales to the collectible figure theme. 41623 Ariel & Ursula will have 361 pieces and will be numbered 64 and 65 in the BrickHeadz series, and although there’s no definitive word yet on the pricing, we expect it to be on par with previous two-packs. LEGO’s also given us a better look at the new BrickHeadz from Frozen that we announced last week, now including the box art. Check it all out below.
Click to check out all the images
Spanning the river Cher in the Loire Valley, Château de Chenonceau is one of the most charming castles of France. Built in the early 1500s the place have seen many owners. Today it belongs to the Menier family, who are famous for their signature chocolates. Last year we got acquainted with the chocolate box château thanks to a wonderful microscale model by Isaac Snyder. And now it’s Aaron Newman turn to wow us with an off the charts model of the castle. Full of the tiniest elements the building is much larger than one might think; the final model measures more than 12″ (31cm) tall, 17″ (44cm) deep, and 40″ (102cm) wide!
Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, the hit sequel to The LEGO Movie released in 2014. Reprising their roles are Chris Pratt as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks as Lucy aka Wyldstyle, Will Arnett as Batman, Nick Offerman as Metal Beard, and Alison Brie as Unikitty. New characters that will join the lineup are Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, Sweet Mayhem and Ice Cream Cone voiced by respectively Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, and Arturo Castro.
LEGO Mechs come in all shapes and sizes and a well-designed mech is usually packed full of details and mind-boggling parts usage that can leave you wondering, just how does that fit together? This Seraphine II mech by Devid VII is a great example. Using the mech cockpit part featured in many LEGO Nexo Knights sets at its core, Devid VII has created a slender but battle-ready mech. One of my favorite details is the orange rollerskate part used as part of the mech’s jaw.
We feature a lot of X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Star Destroyers, and other well-known ships from the Star Wars universe, but rarely do we see the CSS-1 Corellian Star Shuttle, beautifully constructed here in LEGO form by Gamabomb. You may have blinked and missed it, but this ship got a bit of screen time in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace when it brought Chancellor Palpatine to Naboo following the defeat of the Trade Federation army. The builder has done an outstanding job capturing the shuttle’s smooth curves and rounded front end. The fact that it’s so rarely seen built from LEGO — unlike some other Star Wars ships — just makes it all the more awesome.
Click through to see more photos of this wonderful build!
LEGO Pirates have been sailing the seas for nearly 30 years. We’ve seen any number of impressive pirate vessel creations in that time, but only a handful where the sea itself has taken a starring role in the presentation of the model. Jerome Kloou‘s pirate ship is a good example of the genre — an attractive colour scheme, smart cloth sails, stacked barrels used for the masts, and an impressive array of minifigures making up the scurvy crew. But the main attraction here is surely the rolling swell of the sea — fashioned from innumerable stacks of transparent blue 1×1 round pieces. Whilst this must have been a nightmare to put together, the effect is undoubtedly worth it — providing a visually striking and dynamic base for the model.
In the last year or so, I have been steadily building a collection of classic US Navy aircraft. The latest addition is the A-3B Skywarrior, a twin-engined carrier-based jet bomber.
Back in the late forties nuclear weapons were large and heavy. According to the US Navy, a jet built to deliver one over a meaningful distance would have to weigh about 45 tons and be the size of a small airliner. Given that they wanted to operate their nuclear bombers from aircraft carriers, where space is at a premium, this posed an obvious problem. To add insult to injury, the first of a new generation of super-large aircraft carriers intended to operate these bombers was cancelled within a week after its keel had been laid. So, when the brilliant designer Ed Heinemann, also known for the A-1 Skyraider, proposed that Douglas Aviation build a bomber of about 30 tons that could fly from existing aircraft carriers, he definitely caught the Navy’s interest.
The resulting aircraft entered service in the mid fifties as the A-3 Skywarrior. It was still a big beast. It was the heaviest aircraft to routinely fly from aircraft carriers, which earned it the nickname “Whale”. The LEGO model is a pretty big beast too. At my usual scale of 1/36, it is about 78 studs long.
Read more about Ralph’s latest airplane, including the design process
I’m always amazed by fan-built constraction (construction + action) figures like this old fisherman by Dylan Mievis. Dylan’s fisherman brings together Bionicle, Technic and System parts to pull off an almost believable looking human figure. Cloth elements are also put to good use, providing the fisherman with a proper net and second layer of clothing. When it comes to the boots, I like how the different parts form their shape, including the upside down barrel halves. His long, gray, grizzled beard and imposing harpoon make me thing this guy has a whale tale or two. With the modification of one of the legs, this would make a great Ahab.
