Tag Archives: Blocks

90 years of The LEGO Group — A family company [Guest Feature]

The LEGO Company was founded in 1932, and this year LEGO is celebrating its 90th anniversary. Graham Hancock, editor of Blocks magazine, has been delving into the company’s history for the magazine’s own 90th edition. Graham is here today to give us a brief look at the LEGO company’s founding family and their involvement with the development of our favorite bricks.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, son of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Christiansen.

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Behemoth bricks are the best builds

It’s so common anymore to see any owner of a 3D printer making their own large-scale LEGO pieces. But it takes some real skill to make those huge parts using LEGO itself! Just take a look at these jumbo pieces by Flickr master-builder Purplesprout458. I love his daring use of bricks to build up the walls of each model. It’s amazing he was able to achieve that kind of shaping given the limitations of the blocky medium! I mean, those 6×6 studs almost look as round as the real thing! And don’t even get me started on how he managed to source all the yellow brick needed for the giant 1×6 plate. With all the other shades of yellow out there right now, it’s so hard to come by!

Four 10x Bricks

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to talk about color choice, here. When working on large, single-color LEGO models like this, it’s essential that the shade remain consistent throughout. This is usually a painstaking process, finding those bricks and plates that are the same exact version of red, blue, yellow, and black for each model. In some instances, this can require a builder’s collection to be sorted not only by part and color but also by year of manufacture. Purplesprout has managed to steer clear of the off-color and brittle blue parts from 2007 when making that gorgeous blue brick. And there’s not a printed or stickered piece to be found on that giant 4×4 black plate. All four mammoth blocks are immaculate, and such an excellent display of builder prowess. Well done!

A fun bit of Super Mario nostalgia in these custom LEGO cubes [Video]

If you ask me, the combination of Super Mario Bros. and LEGO can equal nothing less than awesome. There certainly is lots of it out there, but this is definitely one of my favorites. Sean from Build Better Bricks has graced us with this bit of awesome: a quartet of the iconic blocks from the beloved Nintendo game.

Arguably the best part about the blocks is the fact that they are hollow and designed to hold various things. The mushrooms fit perfectly inside the question/mystery block and the brick block is naturally a coin bank! Watch the video to see more!