I remember playing with some of these as a kid. We’ve featured jtheel‘s work before with their fantastic Simon Says; I think it’s high-time to kick the nostalgia factor up a bit and relive the best toys from the 80s. Or 70s. Maybe a bit of early 90s. At any rate, let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
To start, an alternative classic building toy: Lincoln Logs.
Click for more of your favorite childhood toys!
ZaziNombies built perhaps my favorite replica from him yet in terms of screen accuracy with his LEGO Soldier: 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle prop from Overwatch. The V-shape of the muzzle area and the blue barrel paneling are especially outstanding when compared to source material. The build is rounded out with nice touches like a removable top-loaded ammo cartridge and a light-up, wearable tactical visor. See it all in action in the video below. If you’re not familiar with Overwatch, don’t worry; some Soldier: 76 gameplay captures are also shown.
Overwatch has been a wildly popular subject for LEGO builds lately. Check out more of the Overwatch creations we covered, including brick-built heroes, Ana Amari’s rifle, and Jesse McCree’s revolver.
When Ana Amari was revealed as an addition to the Overwatch hero roster, I knew I wanted her rifle added to my LEGO arsenal. It was an interesting short rifle design, had bolt action that would be fun to build, and even the concept of a healing sniper was a rad idea. The most challenging part of the build was the bolt action itself. There were countless iterations of the bolt itself that can simulate chambering the biotic round, the chamber walls hiding the bolt’s slots inside the body of the rifle to reduce gaps, and the trigger mechanism that released the bolt. All this design work led to a LEGO rifle that has realistic looking firing action, despite not actually firing.
Watch this firing action, as well as other functions including a folding stock, removable magazine with opening mag cover, and glowing biotic round powered by BrickStuff lights, in the video below. You can also view all photos of the biotic rifle in my Flickr album.
LEGOLAND Florida and Southern Ford Dealers have partnered to create a truly unique anniversary gift: the Brick Pony is a bright blue 1964-1/2 V8 Coupe Mustang, and she is just lovely.
This life-size LEGO build was created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Mustang Club of America, and was unveiled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Macaws are stunning birds, and smart to boot. I’ve heard plenty of great stories from those who get the chance to interact with them regularly. Felix Jaensch has posted this beautiful sculpture that captures the bird perfectly.
The curve of the beak is spot on, and the face sculpting is excellent.
TBB perennial favorite Jason Allemann is at it again with a gorgeous brick-built book. This book can feature different scenes, all showing different parts of your favorite story. When you’re ready to put it away, the whole closes up and would fit snugly on your shelf.
hachiroku24 is bound to set Trekkie hearts a-flutter with this lovely rendition of a LEGO phaser from the original TV series. The colors and shaping on this model are just spot-on, with some fabulous greeble touches that give it a real old-school sci-fi vibe. This makes me want to seek out new life and new civilizations and then shoot them.
David Hughes is building a series of wonderfully creepy LEGO skulls. They have a definite Mexican Day Of The Dead vibe going on with bold color choices and geometric patterns. Our hobby is generally dominated by minifig-scale models depicting scenes or vehicles — sometimes it makes for a pleasant change when we get these kind of larger-scale art pieces beautifully put together from good old-fashioned bricks.
A fantastic selection of primarily Technic elements come together in a LEGO double-barreled steampunk handgun built by nobu_tary. All kinds of interesting details are found throughout, such as the split paneling revealing the barrels, compass piece as some sort of gauge, and a thin wire trigger guard.
Effectively utilizing custom chromed LEGO elements, ZaziNombies creates a stunning replica of Jesse McCree’s Peacekeeper six-shooter from Overwatch. I particularly like the use of a Technic gear as my favorite touch of detail on the Peacekeeper in-game: the spur on the handle. See ZaziNombies’s overview of his revolver replica, featuring a fold-out cylinder, in the following video.
If you like LEGO and Overwatch, be sure to also check out D.Va’s pistol and mech, as well as Reinhardt’s hammer.
The infamous red and blue robots of yesteryear, Rock ’em Sock ’em robots are always good for a little sport when plain old thumb wars won’t do. Bruce Lowell has made this terrific version featuring minifigs as the robots, and it’s just perfect. Go get em, champ!
Back when LEGO was still making wooden toys, the company produced a wooden pull-along toy styled like Mickey Mouse’s pal Pluto. LEGO historians these days have argued that this was LEGO’s very first licensed product, ultimately leading to LEGO Star Wars, SpongeBob, Ghostbusters, and many more. Today, that wooden toy is vanishingly rare. BrickJournal Editor-in-Chief Joe Meno has built this adorable version of that vintage toy using modern LEGO bricks.
Like his wooden predecessor, LEGO Pluto’s legs move when you pull him around by the string attached to his collar. Check out this video to see more of LEGO Pluto’s play features.