It’s not often that we see LEGO creations that incorporate the large Technic figures that LEGO included in sets back in the late 80’s through the 90’s. Similarly, most of the LEGO xenomorphs we’ve featured largely use standard System bricks to recreate the terrifying creatures from the Alien movies. Weilong Yao breaks with both of these traditions by building a work loader around a Technic figure and incorporating lots of Bionicle in the alien itself.
There’s something strangely familiar and yet haunting in this simple creation by Chris Maddison. Maybe it’s the loneliness of being in space or on a far-away planet that evokes the terror of the unknown. What horror lies ahead that seems partially organic and yet at the same time part machine that preys on an unknowing space explorer? Chris pulls off a frightful yet calming scene inspired by an artist who dreams up of things that preys on what we fear the most.
The power loader from Aliens is difficult to pull off at minifig scale because of the inherent lack of movement in a minifig. But Daniel Schlumpp has done a darned good job with this LEGO version, as well as an appropriate Xenomorph alien to go with it.
And while we’re in the Aliens universe, be sure to check out the 1:1 scale motion tracker we featured recently.
The quote above is from Arrival and it refers to the linguistic complications that can arise when trying to communicate with someone who speaks an unknown language. I won’t spoil the film by trying to explain what is happening, but I will say that this simple LEGO scene by Simon Liu perfectly captures the overall tone and eerie feeling of the movie. Even the floor has the perfect texture!
The lifecycle of the xenomorphs in the Alien franchise is fascinating — from egg to facehugger to chestburster to a rapidly growing black monster. While we’ve seen many LEGO xenomorphs over the years, including a great minifig-scale version by TBB’s own Tim Lydy, but not too many other stages in the creature’s lifecycle (other than the amazing LEGO chestburster by the Arvo Brothers nearly 10 years ago). Tim has corrected this with a wonderful vignette featuring a facehugger leaping from its egg sack towards a surprised Colonial Marine.
Tim uses minifig hands to represent the facehugger’s flailing arms, and suspends the jumping facehugger above its empty egg case with clear LEGO. The expression on the doomed marine’s face is priceless.
For myself, the wonder of being a licensed theme builder is the fact that everything I create is not only something new, but never before possible. With the release of the LEGO Doctor Who set we finally have official minifigures of our favorite Doctors, and it’s now possible to build our own adventures for the famous time traveler.
Not only that, but with LEGO we can create cranium-exploding crossovers. So while the epic sight of the 11th Doctor marveling over the appearance of a Xenomorph may never happen on TV, it can surely happen in LEGO. And we’re all the better for it – well, until the Alien starts attacking that is.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Aliens. It has everything a little boy would want: cool SHIP, fun dropships with APC, lots of action, and of course let’s not forget adorable aliens! So with the TBB’s Chibi MicroFighter contest, I was absolutely delighted to see not one, not two, but the three iconic builds from my favorite movie.
First up, we have Letranger Absurde (vitreolum) and his Chibi M77APC:
Sadly this doesn’t fit into our next build:
Angus MacLane and his Chibi UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship:
Of course if we continue with our Russian nesting vehicles, it would bring us to:
Halfbeak and the Chibi USS Sulaco:
There’s still plenty of time to enter to build your favorite movie/TV/lego set vehicle in chibi-microfighter form for a chance to win some great prizes!
Check out some other entries on our flickr page.
H. R. Giger has passed away unexpectedly, at age 74. For the few that do not recognize the name, Giger was a surrealist artist and sculptor who applied his unique “machine/human hybrid” style of work to the design of the iconic monsters from the Alien movie franchise.
Regular readers will know that many LEGO builders have recreated creatures, scenes and vehicles from the Alien movies over the years. So it seems fitting for us to celebrate Giger’s life with some Alien-themed LEGO builds. The two shown here, by the Arvo brothers, are no doubt familiar to many of you.
But instead of reviewing a lot of older builds, I’d like to show you some completely new ones! Flickr member Missing Brick has carefully recreated memorable scenes from the 2nd movie in the franchise using customized minifigs, huge sets, creative lighting, and vehicle designs adapted from the work of fellow builders.
Click below the fold to see them all. WARNING: What follows is several pages of glorious LEGO Aliens movie scene-porn! Revel in it at your own peril, and remember to nuke the site from orbit afterwards. It’s the only way to be sure.
“Hey Bishop, do the thing with the knife!”
Aliens meets Bionicle in the latest cool creation by Kyle Peckham called Cervatus and his Power Loader. Built for the annual Bio Cup competition on MOCpages, the exosuit is designed to accommodate a 10 inch tall Bionicle figure while being fully poseable and removable from the character itself. The competition is bringing out the best of the Bionicle tribe, so check out the other entries if you have the time an inclination.
