Tag Archives: Castle

Dragons! Knights in shining armor! Trebuchets & ballistas! From enormous LEGO castles buttoned up for battle to peaceful village market scenes, we’ve got your LEGO Castle needs covered right here.

A toy-like tower showcases tremendous LEGO technique

Pan Noda has only been active sharing original LEGO creations for a few short years, but they’ve quickly cementented themselves as one of the most exciting builders around. Pan Noda’s creations are united by a love of texture, patterns, verticality and liminal spaces. Their latest work, simply titled “Castle of building blocks,” is an architectural wonder existing in limbo between earth and sky, childhood and sophistication. The red slope rooftops evoke a nostalgia for the earliest LEGO buildings, only these are weathered from age with a rash of studs popping out. The red door (taken from Isabelle’s House Visit) and poofy brick-built clouds evoke a safe Nintendo childhood, in contrast to the pokey brown technic frame (building on a technique from another of their vertical marvels) that almost says “Don’t touch!” Once again, Noda floors us with a towering achievement in LEGO artistry.

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There will be blood (and relaxation!)

We all need to unwind and blow off some steam sometimes. And if someone’s form of recreation involves bleeding a caged victim to make a nice little wading pool, who am I to judge? Mihał Ch‘s creepy vampire pleasure den imagines such a scenario in LEGO. The scene itself makes my stomach crawl a little, but I can distract myself from the visceral reminder of my own fragile mortality by checking out those cool building techniques. I love the way simple 1×2 bricks are stacked at slight angles to make the columns, and the trans-red antenna stands in for the steady drip-drip-drip of the victim’s blood into a viscous pool below. I hope that poor victim gets out soon, but it doesn’t look good.

LEGO Swamp Hut is anything but bog-standard

Medieval architecture might be a thing of the past, but it’s a wellspring of innovation for adult fans of LEGO. I’m constantly amazed at how members of the community find clever new ways to recreate decidedly old-fashioned aesthetics with the latest in plastic bricks. Builder david zambito, a long-time innovator in medieval techniques, returns from a lengthy hiatus with a singular Swamp Hut scene that shows he’s been honing those skills since we last saw his work.

The unusual choice of colors first catches the eye, with the wonderfully-mottled green walls of the hut echoing the mire of the swamp. By keeping to a narrow and muted palette, the few accent colors in the flowers and berries really pop. The stonework is perhaps the most impressive aspect of the build, both with the flagstone path nestled between brown stems (someone had fun at the Pick-a-Brick bins!) and especially the hut’s stony ground floor built from a truly eclectic mix of round parts in dark grey, from slide shoes to helmets, and even a frog. Nice parts usage (NPU) are sprinkled throughout the build; the Islander hairpiece topping the lantern and the arachnid arches over the windows are standouts and add to the witchy vibes.

A half-timbered, full-hearted fairy house

There’s beauty in clutter. Unconstrained by the LEGO Group’s internal design standards, builders like Satnis creations push the limits of construction into a mix of architecture and collage. Satnis’ Fairy House is a colorful, traditional cottage design packed to the rafters with clever and unconventional parts usage. Wands and tubes are wedged into place for the half-timbered effect. Shutters hang on by tension alone. Rocks and foliage are created from surprising elements placed so meticulously that I suspect tweezers were involved. Satnis uses controlled chaos to create an utterly charming and cozy cottagecore masterpiece. I love it.

What awaits you beyond Greenmire Gate?

If there’s one thing we at TBB never get tired of, it’s castles. The LEGO community never fails at using both innovative and tried-and-true techniques to bring castle walls to life, and this build by JakobKaiserMOCs (“Gothic: Twilight – Greenmire Gate”) is no exception. The first thing that drew my eye was the stunning vaulted arch that serves as the entryway, made from curved stacks of 1×1 round bricks set on top of microfigs to suggest carved figures in the stone. Another standout feature is the lovely set of windows along the gallery on the left, with some 1×1 studs providing an effective accent. It’s worth trudging across that dodgy-looking pond (itself worth a good look) just to get a better view.

A colorful blast to the medieval past

A medieval LEGO scene with nary a brick in black, white, or grey? It’s harder than you might think, but castle fan Klaas de Wit proves more than up to the challenge with the village of Tranquil Brook, “where everything is calm except the colors.” The bustling tableau makes up for the lack of swords and masonry with vibrant foliage, brightly painted buildings, a traveling goldsmith, and plenty of livestock. The colors and church steeple remind me of a Scandinavian village in the summertime. Klaas’ model is a great reminder that sometimes adding constraints can be a great way to unlock creativity.

Klaas built the Tranquil Brook for the first round of the Summer Joust, an annual contest for LEGO Castle fans that always inspires amazing medieval builds from the LEGO community. We can’t wait to see more colorful Castle creations in the days to come!

The Windmills of Winter

While you’re waiting for the sixth Game of Thrones book to arrive, check out this LEGO build by /Sam\! For those of you looking for a new haircut, you might not need to look that far. The snowbanks on either side of the entrance to this cozy windmill are made from minifigure hairstyles! There’s also a couple helmets detailing the top of the chimneys. Don’t forget to take a closer look at all the work that went into shaping the windmill tower and the neat use of bars on the windmill blades!

Ye olde bricks meet bright new ones in yonder castle

As an American, I’ve always envied Europeans and the fact that they can’t seem to throw a rock without hitting a gigantic, majestic castle in their backyard. So I adore Jako of Nerogue‘s LEGO Dovern Castle, which has all the things I love about its real-life counterparts: soaring banners, jagged ramparts, and of course towering walls! And speaking of walls, let’s talk about my favorite part of this model: the rich, textured look of the stone. Plates, ingot bricks, SNOT (studs not on top) bricks, and the occasional exposed stud give the stone a weathered, uneven look. To that end, one of the most ingenious aspects of the build is the organic use of sun-faded gray bricks. I used to have a box of those, which I threw out because they didn’t match the rest of my gray elements. Here, however, Jako has blended the old bricks with the new to give the castle wall a look that says, “Behold! I’ve been here for many a year and shall endure for many a year hence.”

Bridging the Gap

Lego castle builds always seem to tell a story at just one glance, or perhaps it’s simply my overactive imagination. Lego builder Taylor has titled this one “Unexpected Visitors”, giving us a starting point to envision the scenario presented here. Is the visitor the king and his personal guard? Or do we see a herald on an important mission delivering a message? The bridge in this scene could tell a story on its own, but the inclusion of the minifigures deepens that narrative to another level. The façade of the bridge conveys both its age and strength while the rockwork and plants create the impression of the bridge connecting two mountains. What do you see? The start of a battle? The start of an alliance between factions?

What awaits the weary traveler within the wintry walls of the Crow’s Nest?

“Halt! Who goes there?” A lonely warrior, his cloak billowing in the frosty air, approaches ZCerberus’s formidable tower known as Crow’s Nest. Along the way, our intrepid LEGO hero passes an assortment of slopes and angles used to evoke snowdrifts and half-buried evergreens. He gazes upon the light bluish great accents on dark bluish gray stone and steps beneath inverted sloped elements used to create dramatic battlements. My favorite part of all, though, has to be the brick-built coat of arms above the door, including upside-down feathered wings. We don’t know what this solitary traveler seeks within those sturdy stone walls, but we know what he’ll find: an impressive display of building techniques that bring this wintry scene to life.

This LEGO Schloss is definitely boss!

While it’s hard not to fall in love with the LEGO Icons 10305 Lion Knights Castle, it still has its roots in imagined lore. But what about a real castle? An honest-to-goodness fortification built in 1882 by a German baron, Schloss Drachenburg has had quite the history through several owners, two world wars, near-demolition, and finally attaining “monument” status in 1986. Builder -Brixe brings the castle to life in this stunning LEGO model, featuring a combination of microscale techniques of the verdant and architectural varieties. I particularly like the ingenious use of a dark orange 2×2 brick with grooves on all sides. You can see its underside under one of the dark nougat arches in the build. Original architects for the project Leo von Abbema, Bernhard Tüshaus, and Wilhelm Hoffmann would be proud!

A tiny kingdom of towering LEGO trees

A vertical kingdom of stone surrouned by towering pines overlooks a pale blue lake in Eli Willsea‘s stunning LEGO diorama titled Heart of the Kingdom. The whimsical architecture, lovely colors, and striking verticality are reminiscent of the Monument Valley games, but the details are utterly original and evocative. This build marks Eli’s return after a busy 2023 when he competed in three heats of the Iron Builder competition and is a clear reminder of why he’s a NPU (Nice Parts Usage) star. How to pick a favorite detail? The elegantly angled tooth bars serving as micro stairs? The grey roller skates adding a decorative touch to the 1×1 towers? The wands still on their sprue for the portcullis? I have to go with the grey popsicles flanking the cave beneath the castle. Even though there is nary a stud to be seen, with its right angles and clean lines, Eli’s model celebrates the aesthetic of the brick.