Once you see this clever LEGO tissue box built by Dicken Liu you really can’t unsee it. I dare you to forget about it. See, you can’t! But that’s how it goes with really fun and clever stuff. The ever-vain Guile from Street Fighter is known for his Sonic Boom and sweet flattop haircut; the latter replicated nicely as tissue. Now you can dream of knocking M. Bison’s lights out every time you blow your schnozz. If that’s not a flawless victory I don’t know what is!
For the Geneva sisters Anna, Sarah, and Geneva (aka Three Little Mice, Tayaya, and Geneva D), creating with LEGO is a family affair. The three talented builders collaborated on a series of life-size swords to showcase at this year’s Brickworld, each forging a personal blade with its own personality.
Geneva’s broadsword, dubbed Kalypso, is the largest of the three, requiring two hands to hold. Using brown and metallic silver (and a touch of Spinjitzu!) on the hilt for a studded leather look, this is clearly the blade of a warrior. She pairs the sword with the smaller and more play-friendly dagger, Acheron, which boasts a serrated blade and a menacing Hero Factory spiked ball on the hilt.
Read on to see unsheath the other blades!
Nostalgia bomb, incoming. This delightful build from Jonah Schultz is three things in one: a tribute to timeless preschool toys, an homage to the ubiquitous I Spy puzzle books from the ’90s and a showcase of an Iron Builder‘s ingenuity with LEGO bricks. There are so many details to love, from the perfectly proportioned BRIO trains in primary colors to the wonderful debossed lettering on the alphabet blocks, to the judicious use of specialized elements like the Bellville teddy bear, Duplo balls, and Race Car Guy accessory to complement the studs-free build. The most impressive feat of all is how the seed part – baseball bat in silver – is incorporated into the build as train axles, domino pips, and a camera button. And it’s a hidden object puzzle! Can you spy all of the secrets hidden in the picture?
Much like cartoons, LEGO themes, and pop-tart flavours, every generation will have its own favourite Joker from the Batman series. If they’ve seen the Batman movies, that is. Or the TV series. Or read the comi- you know what, maybe that’s a bad comparison. But my point stands: every Joker is memorable in their own way. Heath Ledger’s take on the character stuck in TBB alum Nick Jensen’s mind. The opening scene of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight had the villain of the piece robbing a bank in a clown mask, faithfully recreated here. It’s extremely accurate, and very artfully shaped, and the Joker’s calling card is a great touch, too.
As for Nick’s calling card, that’s undoubtedly his myriad collection of 1:1 scale LEGO builds. Our archives are full of loads of great examples of his work.
We’re constantly inspired by the strange creatures, swooshable ships, and epic dioramas shared by LEGO builders each day that instantly grab your attention. Ironically, we nearly missed one of the most impressive builds of the week because it’s so lifelike and mundane that it doesn’t even register as LEGO at all! This retro electrical fan at 1:1 scale is a nearly studless masterpiece from builder ruby_lego that begs the question: “Is it LEGO?”
The seed parts are the rare trans blue doors from the Aquanauts Neptune Discovery Lab. Ruby built the cage out of flex tubes from the T-Rex Breakout. To minimize seams, the base is made from an IKEA Byylek lid. The dial utilizes a clock face from Big Ben. Even though the plug and pneumatic tubing power cord is purely cosmetic, the stand hides official LEGO Power Functions so the lifelike fan really works! It’s a powerful piece of nostalgia and NPU (nice parts usage) that made us instant fans of ruby_lego.
Joao Nunes is sharing some pictures of his latest plastic kit. The painting is done, he’s got the brick separator and scalpel ready, and all that’s left to do is… Hang on. We’re confusing our LEGO bricks with our Airfix here! This is a very convincing facsimile of a Tamiya-style model, where instead of simply clicking bricks together, you need to painstakingly cut and paint each piece before gluing it all together. (With Kragle, presumably.) To the purist, that might sound like a nightmare – but fear not, no LEGO pieces were harmed in making this tableau. Even the box and sticker sheet are as good as new!
You won’t believe his lies your eyes when you see the details that go into this Polaroid SLR 690 from master of life-size LEGO props (and tbb alumn) Nick Jenson. This version of the iconic instant camera is a collapsable point-and-shoot model from the ’90s made famous in Christopher Nolan’s breakout film Memento. Nick is a stickler for accuracy as with all of his impressive 1:1 scaled models. The seed part that makes Nick’s model so accurate without stickers is the Polaroid tile from the film packet on the recent LEGO Ideas’ Polaroid set. Even the nylon strap is sourced from a LEGO-branded bag. To make this a proper tribute to Momento, the camera is paired with appropriately lo-fi photographs to match those in the film. Here the photos are real Polaroids, but the subjects are brick-built facimiles of Teddy and the Discount Inn from the film. At least I think they are… I can’t remember that far back. Thankfully I don’t need a tattoo to remind me when I see an amazing LEGO build like this one.
Once again, builder Maxx Davidson has treated us to some delightful eye candy, skillfully incorporating not only LEGO bricks, but also other assorted elements that might require a deep dive into the internet to confirm their authenticity as “LEGO-branded.” Titled ‘Assorted Childhood Toys,’ the undiscerning eye would be hard-pressed to identify these as toys built out of other toys. However, the builder has expertly used LEGO to transport the beholder to a place of reminiscence.
Check out more pics of each of the toys below
Famously, stepping on LEGO is one of the most painful experiences known to humankind, second only to stubbing your little toe. (Woe betide you if you stub your little toe on a LEGO creation.) But what does stepping in LEGO feel like? We should ask Takamichi Irie. He has made the bold choice of creating a red Nike sneaker out of bricks. They say you need to suffer for your art, but even so, it’s a brave builder who willingly makes something where you’re always stepping on studs!
Thankfully for Takamichi’s feet – or one of them, at least – he has got a normal shoe to complete the pair. And to be fair, the brick-built one does compare very well to it! It’s so well shaped, it actually looks kind of comfy. And you wouldn’t need to worry about finding one in your size: you can always build it a little bigger. You know, maybe there’s something in these brick-built shoes after all…
From his class on LEGO functions each year at BrickCon to his day job educating children on STEM principles by way of the brick, Brandon Jones has a reputation not only for the creations he concocts, but also for the builders he inspires. And I’m certainly inspired by his latest creation, a replica of a plasma ball lamp, complete with moving lines of “electricity” powered via a Mindstorms motor. The central hub spits out bolts of transparent light blue and pink bricks, dancing in a seemingly random manner thanks to the programmed motor hidden in the base.
But why talk about it when I can show you the build in action? Make sure to watch until the room’s lights are shut off, showcasing the interior lighting in the globe that illuminates those electric lines of blue and pink. It’s hard to imagine a closer replica made out of LEGO at this scale.
While Jeff Kinney may be the original creator of Manny Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise, builder SDR. may be the first one to immortalize is visage in LEGO. Younger brother of series protagonist Greg, the smallest of the Heffley clan is also the most spoiled (or at least from the perspective of the Diary, he is). And this brick-built doodle looks like it’s been lifted – or rather torn – right off the page! There’s quite a bit of minifigure headgear used in this caricature, notably relying on the standard space helmet to form those great big buck teeth. And the paper background is no slouch either, with some brilliant linework forming that wide rule on the notebook paper. The blue lines are even show the varied shades of color thanks to cheap printing on thin paper. What a great detail!
In case you were wondering, this collection of ghostbusting gear is actually made of LEGO, and not the movie props they appear to be. Centuri Chan has done one heck of a job recreating the Ghostbusters logo, ECTO-1 license plate, proton pack, and ghost trap out of our favorite plastic bricks. This smorgasbord of paranormal paraphernalia was on display earlier this year at the Christchurch Brick Show back in July, but was only recently uploaded to Flickr for all of us not able to make the trip to New Zealand. Now we know exactly who we’re going to call…
Check out more pictures below, but don’t cross the streams…