For years, LEGO has offered a wealth of options to delight space enthusiasts. This year has seen a resurgence in space-themed LEGO sets, and today, LEGO introduces two new additions in this vein: The 10341 Artemis Space Launch System, joining the LEGO Icons collection, and the 31212 The Milky Way Galaxy, expanding the LEGO Art line of products. These sets will be available on LEGO’s website on May 15th for LEGO Insiders (May 18th for everyone else).
As a three-time member of the LEGO Ideas 10K club with some of the most stunning modular buildings we’ve ever seen, Jiwoo Seon has become something of a celebrity in the LEGO community. But those past works didn’t prepare us for her latest masterpiece: a gallery-ready floral artwork built for the (now-concluded) Create Your Own Exhibition contest. Overture of Blossoms: Journey to Freedom is the builder’s most personal work to date.
LEGO has revealed a new mosaic set featuring Legends of Goth. The adult-targeted set contains 7,182 pieces, a large brick separator, and instructions and extra parts to build all five album cover designs by The Cure, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This set comes with a curated soundtrack that is downloadable via a QR code and will enable fans to listen to their favorite Goth albums while building.
The LEGO Goth Legends set comes in a box the size of a large pizza and will retail for US $219.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £250.99 with a global release date of May 1st.
A picture of a brick-built monkey puppet giving you the side-eye might be on your LEGO BINGO card for today, but the Internet works in mysterious ways. This model by Renauld Petit Lego takes the famous meme to its natural next incarnation. If you’re unfamiliar, the Awkward Monkey, as it’s known, is a famous meme used to convey the ever-relatable uncomfortable situation … like explaining a meme, I guess. There’s nothing awkward about the techniques used here, however: sloped cheese bricks for the snout, curved bricks for the face, and layered plates (much like you’d find in the official LEGO Star Wars helmets theme, like 75349 Captain Rex) to achieve the rounded head. And let’s not forget those eyes, of course. I can feel them staring right at me. And away. And back again.
I don’t know about you, but the famous Le Chat Noir poster has to be in my top ten cat-themed Art Nouveau advertisements for nineteenth-century French cabaret establishments. Anthony Forsberg’s LEGO rendition captures this iconic piece of art with an attention to detail that would make the original artist (Théophile Steinlen) proud. Two aspects stand out to me: first, the plates and tiles at a variety of angles and configurations to get the lettering just right; and second, the vertical and horizontal plates in dark tan to achieve the outline of the cat. All the techniques come together for (I’m deeply sorry for the pun in advance) a near-purrfect recreation of a classic artwork.
What would you get if you combined the LEGO Architecture theme with LEGO DC and threw in a splash of LEGO Art? A massive Gotham City skyline from the 90’s hit television series, Batman: The Animated Series that can either hang on your wall (if you have a stud finder) or display on your shelf. The animated show from Warner Brothers Studio aired from 1992-1995. The visual style was dark and gritty, taking much inspiration from the Art Deco movement with sharp angles for both the architecture and the characters, and a muted and dark color palette. Combined with a stellar original musical score and great storytelling, the show was instantly popular with audiences young and old, and introduced some of the franchise’ most-loved villains like The Joker, voiced by Mark Hamill, and his Psychiatrist/lover/henchwoman Harley Quinn. LEGO Batman 76271 Gotham City comes with 4,210 pieces including 4 minifigures and will be available on April 1st for LEGO Insiders members and on April 4th for everyone else for US $299.99 | CAN $389.99 | UK £259.99
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Greed can be a divisive topic: what one person sees as greedy can be viewed as merely desire or the pursuit of success by another. In this model, TBB regular Andreas Lenander employs artistic expression, using the ubiquitous light bluish gray LEGO to depict a hand drained of its life essence. Contrasted with red and maroon bricks, it shows the negative result that can arise from gripping the pursuit of wealth too tightly. The builder skillfully incorporates sought-after LEGO parts to emphasize the object of greed: the pearl gold ingot and chrome gold ring, which most LEGO enthusiasts recognize as “The One Ring” from the Lord of the Rings theme. With all that gold, is this perhaps a retort to a treasure chest we covered recently?
And we’ve got plenty more of Andreas Lenander’s LEGO creations in our archives.
2024 is seeing celebrations for 85 years since Batman was introduced to the world. LEGO, for its part, is choosing to mark the occasion with a set based on Batman: the Animated Series (which, coincidentally, also has 85 episodes). Made up of 4,210 pieces, 76271 Gotham City Skyline depicts a 3D backdrop of Bruce Wayne’s hometown in a similar vein to LEGO’s Art series. Gotham Cty’s art-deco buildings are recreated in the brick alongside references to moments in the 1990s TV show. Four minifigures are also included: villains Harley Quinn and the Joker; some-time antagonist Catwoman; and, naturally, Batman himself. Retailing for US $299.99 | CAN $389.99 | UK £259.99, 76271 Gotham City Skyline will be available from April 1st for LEGO Insiders, with general sale starting from April 4th.
Forced perspective is one of those artist’s buzzwords (or phrases) that means to achieve the illusion of a vast depth of field within a very narrow space. LEGO artist Jaap Bijl understands forced perspective quite well. The central road bisecting the composition down the middle appears to trail off into the long distance, but from the sky to the foreground, the composition is no more than twenty studs deep.
The builder tells us the width is more than a meter across, which certainly helps create the illusion of depth. The other trick Jaap clearly understands is the use of color. This is a world bursting with color for sure but the brightest of which is relegated only to objects in the extreme foreground. Midground is awash in a bit more subdued pastels, clueing us in that, even that far down the road, this is a colorful world but dialing back the intensity and details helps create the illusion of depth. The sky shifts the color palette and dials back the amount of detail, giving us a suitable background. This builder is a true artist indeed, but check out our Jaap Bijl archives to see what I mean.
Thanks to the Lego Ideas challenge: “Celebrate Japanese Culture” we’ve been seeing a lot of Japanese-inspired creations lately and we’re all for it. Oskar tells us this 2486-piece mosaic was built for that challenge and that eventide- 宵 (yoi) is a Kanji character symbolic of the hours of evening until midnight. It also signifies the eve of an event, particularly of festivals. In celebration of the many various flower festivals held in Japan, he chose to depict a flower motif blossoming from the warm orange glow of the setting sun – symbolizing the growing merriment on the eve of festivities. With this intention, he went with a blend of inspiration from traditional woodblock motifs and modern graphic design to offer a broader imagery of festive values both past and present in Japanese culture. I’m rather smitten by each petal; made from four triangular tiles.
In a LEGO world of castles, spaceships, and battle mechs it’s sometimes nice to enjoy something a little different. Kristel Whitaker presents us with a stunning piece of art inspired by Japanese art. She tells us that the plum blossoms in Japanese culture represent hope, renewal and vitality, being the first to flower in spring (before the more famous cherry blossoms).The background is based on shoji, the paper sliding doors and windows common in Japanese homes. With the bold red sun against the white background, this piece almost looks like the Japanese flag, a notion that was surely not lost on a talented artist such as Kristel. This wouldn’t be the first time we were totally delighted by her LEGO creations. Please click the little blue link to peruse our Kristel Whitaker archives to discover more.
LEGO Art started out three years ago with four portraits, where the most variation in physical depth was the height of a stud. LEGO 31206 The Rolling Stones broke out of the rectangular frame and added a bit of depth and 31208 The Great Wave took the depth a bit further, but with LEGO 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man, LEGO have boldly gone right out of the frame! The set also combines larger plates and slopes with varied size tiles to replicate the style and shading of a comic book. Let’s take a closer peek together at the set, which checks in at 2,099 pieces and is available now for US $199.99 | CAN $259.99 | UK £169.99.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Read our hands-on review of LEGO Art 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man