ONE WEEK TO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS! Okay, phew. Breathe, Andrew, breathe… For our daily dose of Star Wars, here’s a lovely pair of lightsaber hilts by Will Galbraith. One of the more unique weapons we’ve seen so far in trailers is Kylo Ren’s red three-bladed lightsaber — that’s the black one in the photos below.
Click to see more photos of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber!
Being a plastic toy, LEGO doesn’t really lend itself to recreating metallic objects – unless you have the skills to do so. Two builders with more than enough to pull it off are Jimmy Fortel and Legonardo Davidy, both of which have created something that – if you don’t look too closely – could easily be mistaken for anything but LEGO.
First up is this soldering scene by Jimmy Fortel. There’s a little bit of cheating here as the green baseplate forming the PCB is faced down, so nothing is actually connected to it. But when it looks this convincing, who cares?
In contrast, this microchip by Legonardo Davidy is a little more “legal” but just as good.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 didn’t grab my interest as much as Halo 5 and Fallout 4 recently, but that doesn’t prevent this 3-foot, 1,200-piece Purifier replica by YouTuber ZaziNombies from being awesome. ZaziNombies takes his presentation style a step further by adding real fire (though it is not fired by pulling the LEGO trigger). Watch his demonstration with real flamethrowing in this two minute video, but please don’t try this at home!
David Hensel presents two pieces of musical equipment at what appears to be full scale. First up is a mini guitar amplifier that makes clever use of a LEGO net, as well as sword hilts as dials.
The second build from David is a replica mechanical metronome. Notice the tempo markings are created with stacked individual track links. I can just hear that constant ticking looking at this build.
At a smaller scale than David’s musical builds, Jimmy Fortel shows us a rock-n-roll drum set played by a rock-n-roll drummer with a rock-n-roll haircut. 16 hour drum solo!
I swear I can feel a strong smell of ginger while I’m looking at the latest confectionery masterpiece by Koen. The key to success here is that this gingerbread cottage is actually the second version; the first one was baked and served a little more than a year ago. Compare both and you’ll easily notice how much the Friends sets have added to the official LEGO color palette just in this past year. Excuse me for now, I have to go and ask for the recipe.
Star Wars is clearly a hot topic at the moment and Rhys Knight has created his LEGO weapon of choice, Han Solo’s DL-44 Blaster.
The BlasTech Industries DL-44 heavy blaster pistol was a powerful sidearm from the time of the Galactic Civil War. It was the weapon of choice for Han Solo and the Rebel Alliance and also wielded by Luke Skywalker throughout The Empire Strikes Back.
Rhys’ 1:1 model has a raised scope, and he shared with TBB that as the model is primarily black, he wanted there to be a clear separation. He notes that the ‘fiddly’ aspect of the build was the rear of the telescopic sight as it had to be circular, but also flare out. The trigger guard is actually upside down, and is attached to the grip via Part 60470 (1×2 plate with double clips) and attached to the power cell via a simple slot for the guard.
Best part for me — it cocks!
2015 is an exciting year for Star Wars fans, with The Force Awakens coming to theaters and a long-awaited new entry in the Star Wars Battlefront series of games. I’ve been having a blast playing the new Battlefront on Xbox, so I was inspired to expand my arsenal of gaming weapons with the classic E-11 Blaster Rifle.
Battlefront was lovingly crafted by EA Dice to be true to the Star Wars original trilogy (they took 3D scans of the original props to create their digital counterparts), so I trusted that their in-game model of the E-11 was accurate enough to build from. For scale reference, I used the dimensions of a Sterling SMG, the gun from which the original E-11 film props were built. Working features on the LEGO replica include a moving trigger and a folding stock.
Finally, I’ll leave you with a first person perspective view. It should appear familiar to those who have played Battlefront.
As we all know, “Iron Man” isn’t actually made of iron, but rather gold-titanium alloy. Robert Downey Jr wouldn’t lie to us, would he? At any rate, definitely not made out of iron or any alloys (but still as impressive) is this new creation by nobu_tary. We’re not sure if this helmet would actually fit on a person’s head, but taking a guess from the size of certain pieces, it does look up to the task.
This will pair nicely with other Iron Man creations we’ve featured in the past, like a gauntlet or the famous arc reactor. Everyone keep up the good work, we’ll soon have an entire suit.
Brick-built interior decorations are something for which I have a great weakness. Miro Dudas surprises us with an excellent cuckoo wall clock in the style of a traditional German timber-frame house. You may even think these two collectible minifigures were designed specially for this model – that’s how perfectly they fit in! (They’re actually from Series 8 and Series 11.) The clock-face might be an unrecognizable part, but that’s because Miro has built the clock around a spare working mechanism from a real clock. This makes it a beautiful example not just of a nice-looking model, but also a functional one.
ZaziNombies is well known on YouTube for creating Exotic-tier weapons from the popular video game Destiny. His latest is the Sleeper Simulant, an exotic fusion rifle new to Destiny’s The Taken King expansion. The paneling surrounding the barrel as well as the use of custom chrome LEGO parts makes this replica pop. Watch as ZaziNombies demonstrates and discusses his Sleeper Simulant replica in this short 2 1/2 minute video.
It’s Halloween tonight, and if you were competing against Sean and Steph Mayo in a costume contest, you’d probably have lost.
Ok, so they didn’t actually build this life-sized mask for a Halloween costume, but it sure could work for one. The exquisitely sculpted horns remind me a bit of the Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth, one of the few scary movies I actually enjoy, though the creators say it’s the guise of a sea queen.
Jack R. constructed a convincing LEGO replica of a Barrett M82 anti-materiel rifle. A full-scale model this realistic is impressive, but design alone isn’t enough for Jack. His M82 features a working trigger, working bolt, flip-up backup iron sights, removable magazine with release catch, folding bipod, and removable monopod. As a 1:1 scale builder, the details that fascinate me the most are the properly scaled .50 caliber rounds in the magazine, and the structural integrity of the bipod and monopod, which support the weight of the model.
