We’ve seen a lot of impressive LEGO takes on the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise over the years, but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one as perfect at minifig scale as this take from twin brothers Brandon and Taylor. The micro model packs in 41 LEGO elements and manages to capture the biomechanical menace of Giger’s design despite being smaller than a juvenile newt. The designers were generous enough to share the instructions so that you too can dabble in creating the perfect organism.
I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of seeing LEGO models of the Xenomorph from Alien. For one, it’s a design that’s as iconic as it is innovative. And when you get builders like Łukasz Alagierski flexing their creative muscles, the result is truly epic! It’s actually not his first time building this extraterrestrial, but it’s undoubtedly the one that captures its skeletal, bio-mechanical nature the best. Even the stand has a touch of HR Giger about it!
With the new alien movie coming to theaters this summer, the offspring of sci-fi’s scariest endoparasite is back. An endoparasite is defined as a creature that lives or is born inside another animal, like the appropriately named chest-burster built in LEGO by VelociJACKtor wrapped around some poor soul’s heart. Small gears make the perfect set of teeth, while a curved white shoulder piece from the buildable Obi-Wan figure forms the iconic rounded forehead. I can almost hear the squelching….
The xenomorph queen from the Alien franchise has always been one of sci-fi’s most terrifying monsters, but now it might also be one of the tastiest. Joey Klusnick‘s LEGO “Xenolobster Queen” takes everything you love and fear about the titular alien and adds a dash of lemon and garnish. It also makes excellent use of bright red Bionicle parts for the creature’s otherworldly shell. The xenomorph-lobster is a feast for the eyes, but we wouldn’t recommend inviting it to any all-you-can-eat buffets. It might get the wrong idea.
Feeding wildlife is generally frowned upon, even at your local park, but more so on alien worlds where lifeforms have too many legs, teeth, or tentacles and where the only thing protecting your body from asphyxiation or worse is a brightly colored space suit. I’m not sure if the happy-go-lucky LEGO spacefarers in Dicken Liu‘s playful scene are taunting the local fauna for science or just for kicks, but I sure hope they brought enough gems to share with all the locals. Last year we named Dicken Liu Builder of the Year for his clever parts usage and joyful models and this vignette lives up to that reputation. For the surface of the alien world, he uses hexagonal rotors from the Nexo Knights line, which tessellate nicely with 2×4 wedge plates. Red crowbars make for convincing legs for the insectoid aliens, while Nexo Knights make a return for the larger alien’s half-dome head. Liu titled this build Scavengers Reign, perhaps in reference to the creepy cool animated series which offers many clear reminders of what can happen when you get up close and personal with strange lifeforms.
Natural forms abound in this outdoor LEGO scene by Mark van der Maarel. Birch trees topped with dark green foliage stand in the foreground of a massive stone archway, overgrown in places with creeping vines. A brilliant medium blue stream babbles through the scene, highlighted in round while plates and slopes to give the water a level of unease. But one figure stands alone, quite out of place with its environs. A visitor, clad in white, ponders the beauty of a brave butterfly. With no indication of how this extraterrestrial nomad arrived or what its intentions are, the viewer is left to fill in the gaps on their own. And its that mystery which makes this work truly outstanding in my eyes!
I don’t know if you’ve seen E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or not, but it’s a delightful film that has been long overdue for some LEGO love. I’m happy to say this build from Alex Jones comes right from the heart (and for ours!). What’s not to love about this brick-built figure? E.T. has some of the strangest proportions for an alien lifeform, but that LEGO has some strange pieces. Alex brings them both together in wonderful harmony in E.T.’s shaping and details. Alex even got the iconic glowing heart and finger of the alien being incorporated into the build, courtesy of lightbricks. If you don’t phone home about this one, then lend your phone to E.T. so he can make a call! Just a warning, though — it’ll be a long distance call. A long, long distance.
Here at The Brothers Brick, we love the Alien franchise. We really do! Most of us have been fans ever since 1979 when the first Xenomorph (ahem) burst onto the scene and we still can’t get enough of the chest-bursting, acid-spitting antagonist, by golly! We’ve seen great LEGO versions of Nostromo and even the horrifying Xenomorph. What you don’t see much of is The Betty from Alien Resurrection and Alien Resurrection 2 (because the first resurrection went so well for the aliens they pretty much had to do it again). Thankfully, Carlos Valero has us covered there. We can all sleep better now, preferably in a cryogenic years-long slumber, because what can go wrong with that? I mean, seriously, what can go wrong?
Whether it be the aforementioned Xenomorph or other unearthly critters not-from-around-here, you’ll find them all in our alien archives.
Space LEGO creations aren’t my area of expertise at all, but Tommy Frost’s latest creations for the Febrovery rover challenge have been catching my eye. I am not a pro when it comes to building vehicles or space crafts, so it is hard for me to properly compliment Frost’s amazing builds, but I do know that they have a really vintage feeling to them that perfectly matches the figures who drive them.
What truly caught my eye is the cute little brick-built creatures surrounding and driving all the great vehicles. The ones in the vehicle above use minifigure armour for the faces of the aliens. The backs of the armour have studs to which the printed eye tiles are connected. They are placed upside down on the neck of the torso of the minifigure. But the best thing about this creation is that it is called “B is for buddy” which means Frost is doing an alphabet within this theme for Febrovery, and I can’t wait for the rest. Check out all the ones finished so far in Frost’s album.
Whenever I think of creepy alien LEGO creations, I always think of Bart de Dobbelaer. His creations are always out of this world, on a much bigger scale than I personally am used to working on. Bart has the ability to perfectly use seemingly single-purpose parts in a way they were not intended to. The latest creation is called Legion and there we can spot the Belville horse saddle in black in the pillar-like creatures. This makes me wonder why Bart actually managed to get his hands on 16 black Belville saddles.
In the middle of the creation, there is the ‘mother’ of all the black critters. For her eyes, Bart used a combination of coffin bases and rolled-up Dots bracelets. Using mainly black bricks can be tricky, as those creations usually are really hard to photograph, but if you look closely, the little critters aren’t all the same. There are a couple of designs scattered around the base, making it look like each of the creatures has its own specific talent or ability.
Throwing a Classic Space twist onto a concept design from Alien: Covenant sure is one way to do SHIPtember. Flickr Builder Space Kook brought their A-game this September with at least five different ships over 100-studs, either in length, width, or height. Jumping around between scales, Space Kook drew inspiration for their fourth build, the LSS Covenant. Taking design cues from early concept art of the USCSS Covenant Colony ship from the Alien movie, large solar panels flare out at the rear of the ship. Progressing further up the body, past the cargo holds, you’ll see a little fighter or drop ship peaking over the main hull of the colony vessel. Decked out in blue and yellow with white and black accents, the choice to craft this ship in Classic Space regalia allowed Space Kook a plethora of parts and design cues. Between the two references, it’s no wonder this creation has such a satisfying bow. The bumble bee stripes and yellow view screen complete the Classic Space homage while sensor arrays and directional boosters grab the eyes as satisfyingly accurate greebling.
This builder really went the extra mile during SHIPtember to accomplish the Herculean task of building not just one, but five massive 100-stud vessels. The techniques and parts used show off Space Kook’s ingenuity with the process across all five and it’s definitely worth checking out the other four ships that they created this year.
Once again famed LEGO builder Bart De Dobbelaer is the Supreme leader when it comes to fleshing out unsettling alien worlds. In his own words he tells us; “With little to no natural light keeping greenhouses on Exobudria 9 seemed impossible. But thanks to a clever symbiosis with the indigenous insects, the light and warmth of their hives proved to be exactly what the plants needed.” True to his style, he provides just enough clues to entice you in, like the opening scene of a great sci-fi movie, then leaves you wanting to know more. Like what exactly are those plants for? What’s with all those greebly bits? And why is space so damned creepy? Check out our Bart De Dobbelaer archives that will likely answer none of these questions but is enticing as heck anyway.
