A few months ago, we featured the Arvo Brothers‘ beautiful white Porsche 911 Targa. The Spanish duo have since revamped and recolored their design in the iconic black and gold color scheme prevalent in the 70’s, and it’s definitely worth another look.
While identical in shape to the rear of the white version from this summer, we didn’t highlight the Targa’s cute little rear end with its dual exhaust, so here it is. Don’t stare.
We got breathlessly excited about a trio of mid-scale LEGO starfighters from Rogue One a few months ago, centered on the amazingly detailed U-wing dropship. Now, Tim Goddard has updated his classic T-65 X-wing and gives us a closer look. Tim has rebuilt the rear third of the X-wing’s fuselage with more detail and better accuracy, and added a cool stand depicting the Death Star exhaust port.
But what’s so striking about his X-wing design (something we just didn’t notice last time, distracted as we were by the U-wing) is the tiny details of the astromech droid, with 1×1 half-round tiles built into the body of the X-wing as the droid’s legs. Amazing!
Household waste disposal sites are more commonly called Recycling Centres here in the UK, and putting it out onto the street for collection is definitely discouraged. Marion would find herself reported and fined after leaving such a large amount of household waste in the street if she lived near me! Thankfully in the LEGO world, everything is awesome, and that includes household waste left outside on an autumnal day. There are so many objects in here to love: the blackboard, old mattress, children’s chests of drawers, adjustable spotlight, folding table… Even the cardboard boxes are cleverly built with ‘interlocking flaps’.
It’s a melancholic scene in some ways as it looks like there’s been some growing-up in this household with old toys, a tricycle, high chair, booster seat and bike pump lying amongst the other discarded items.
This simple scene by Justin Chua demonstrates a keen skill essential to any microscale build: achieving great accuracy with the smallest number of parts. These three distinct tank models, when compared to images of the real thing, manage to capture essential details in a delightfully simple way. The many varieties of trees and the brick-built road round this vignette out quite nicely.
Master Wu Dragon in the Ninjago animated series seems to be on a leave of absence. This is Tan Kok Mun’s reimagined tale of it popping by after being in hiding for a while. I love this build for its tiny little details all poured into a single baseplate.
A tiny gazebo adorned with golden parts, Sinsei Wu sitting on a bench under a full-blown sakura tree, and the mighty dragon peeking out from the cave… and in case you missed it, a lovely Ninjago themed lamp post.
Imagine a future where the sea levels rise rapidly, causing massive flooding to coastal regions and changing seaside resorts into underwater history. Jonas Norlen has used this scenario as the back story to his latest LEGO creation, Storken, a giant robot developed by the Coast Guard to salvage things from the bottom of the sea. The Storken looks super futuristic with cables and lights aplenty, albeit with a hint of comedy thanks to those gangly limbs. The hovering Coast Guard helicopter above the robot is ideal to give a sense of scale, and the same goes for the cute little truck in his hand and the blue tractor at his feet. I particularly love the colour blocking used for the robot, which gives it a very realistic Coast Guard ‘corporate’ feel.
Utilising a Storken to find the soap in the bath tub is definitely considered overkill.
Over the last few years, LEGO has released a number of limited-run sets and sold them at non-LEGO events like San Diego Comic-Con. Invariably, the sets reflect highly collectable subject matter like Star Wars and Marvel super heroes. We reviewed Detention Block Rescue (the set LEGO sold at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year), and we recently purchased the New York Comic-Con exclusive 41498 Boba Fett & Han Solo in Carbonite BrickHeadz on eBay for $105 so we could bring our readers another review of a set you may not be able to get yourselves.
41498 Boba Fett & Han Solo in Carbonite includes 329 pieces, and while it was sold at the event for an already inflated $40, its original price during NYCC frankly doesn’t matter — it’s currently available ranging from $110 to $300 for Buy It Now listings on eBay and $112 to $145 for Amazon.com marketplace listings. This review, in addition to providing a vicarious build experience for those not privileged enough to attend NYCC or able to purchase the set on the secondary market, will discuss LEGO’s business practice of releasing limited-run products in ways that prevent most actual builders and LEGO fans from ever getting their hands on the set.
Click through to read our hands-on review of 41498 Boba Fett & Han Solo in Carbonite BrickHeadz
Roanoke Handybuck has built Sandyman’s Old Mill from The Lord of the Rings, which you may briefly recall from The Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf arrives in Hobbiton by crossing the bridge. The sculpted look of the bridge and landscape adds an organic, rustic feel to the scene.
You can see some work in progress shots on MOCPages.
If like me, Jonathan Samson, you were a child of the 80’s, chances are higher than a snowflake in the White House that you’ll remember LEGO Classic Space. As long as I can remember I have always wanted my own Classic Space Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP – allow me to present the Fruit Bat.
Affectionately named for the Megabat family Pteropodidae – due in part to its stunning manoeuvrability at high-speeds, but mostly because the pilot is a lotta bit nuts.
A builder that goes by the name Classical Bricks (Timothy Shortell) would probably find it challenging to choose a more appropriate theme to build in – there are few things more Classical than the Renaissance in western culture, which Timothy is a part of. His creation, built for the Time Isles collaboration at BrickCon, represents Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance.
The scene is bursting with the style and characteristics of the depicted time and place; the buildings are packed tightly to give an impression of an old city, but the buildings themselves are obviously screaming Renaissance too. Arches, ornate decoration and colours show us a rich city that was instrumental in bringing western culture to where it is today.
The digital era has pushed a lot of state-of-the-art technology into vintage obscurity, and one such piece of audio equipment is the reel-to-reel tape recorder. Imagine the tape removed from a tape cassette and wound onto a reel, press a button and twiddle some knobs and voilà, your slightly crackly audio recording will be transferred onto the reel. Yul Burman has built a great looking LEGO version complete with reels, buttons, twiddly knobs and some bygone bling!
I want this on my shelf next to Carl Merriam’s vintage LEGO movie projector.
I’ve been a Porsche fanboy all my life. And since I love LEGO, when I say Manuel Cara‘s Porsche 956 gave me goosebumps, you’ll understand why. With its custom decals and clever building techniques, this perfect scale replica looks amazing. The 956 was originally designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. This car holds the all-time record for the fastest vehicle ever to lap the famed Nürburgring, completing the 20 km circuit in 6:11.13 during qualifying.
I love the technique Manuel has used to create the exhaust port in front of the rear tires and although I am not quite sure exactly how they are attached, using the levers as wing mirrors is a stroke of brilliance.