Sergeant Chipmunk is the master of texture. First, it was insanely beautiful, jagged rockwork. Then, a sleek and stylish castle of ice. Now, it’s a deceptively simple castle with extra-blocky crenellation surrounded by autumn-time trees. The new texture? Well, Chipmunk put a handful of 1×1 round tiles to great use by carefully stacking them into dragonscale-like textured walls for his castle. I can’t imagine the zen-like patience this man must have.
Timothy Jones says that he hasn’t previously built water effects or large organic creatures from LEGO, but his first attempt is rather impressive. A monstrous creature rises from the sea right next to a castle on a rock, lifting a tiny boat in its enormous maw. I don’t have very much confidence that the ballistas aimed at the big blue beast will have much effect…
I remember the first time I ran across Dwemer ruins in Morrowind. It was a mysterious cavern full of strange pipes and hissing steam, and then I heard a noise, and something rolled at me and I died. Needless to say, I came back for more, until I’d vanquished the curious Dwarven artifacts left to guard the riches of the lost Dwemer race. I enjoyed the amazing steampunk relics again in Skyrim years later, and LEGO builder Bartłomiej H brings that experience to the brick with these fantastic Dwemer ruins. They truly evoke the feel of the disheveled passageways and abandoned rooms filled with metal machines and odd artifacts. He even includes an intrepid adventurer (like you!) to fight through the devious Dwarven devices.
Click to see more of Dwemerium
Nice woodwork here from KaiNRG/Geneva. This courthouse is appropriately grand and intimidating with some excellent parts usage to create the wood panelling and the strip of carpet. Those NEXO Knight shields also look good — nice to see these parts showing up in a low-tech Castle creation.
aido k has created a wonderful piece of microscale cartography depicting England’s south-eastern coast in 1216. The different castles are all excellent and this feels like the sort of map a medieval lord might have planned his attacks with. I admire these kind of creations based on historical reality, but I can’t help but imagine a microscale model like this depicting Westoros…
Elaborating on his theme, the builder has gone on to create another model of Dover Castle itself — still in microscale, but closer-in. Particularly nice work on the defensive walls and towers, although I suspect the carefully balanced tiles might not stand up to sustained attack!
The LEGO Shop online has just reduced its free shipping threshold from $75 to $35, and in July they’re giving away a Classic Castle knight to all LEGO VIPS with purchases over $50.
Hitting both the $35 and $50 minimum is easy this month with the release of some great new sets. 75828 Ecto-1 & 2 retails for $60 and includes 6 minifigs with 556 parts. Read our review, and it will also be this month’s TBB LEGO giveaway.
10253 Big Ben retails for $250 and includes 4163 pieces (you can read our recommendation in our review from a few weeks ago).
Check out this fun scene from aido k—a troll in its cave about to be interrupted by a group of soldiers. I’m not sure who’s going to come out best in this encounter, but I think my money is going on the big guy. There’s fabulous parts usage here for the troll’s hair—that’s an octopus! It’s so good it actually distracts attention from the equally cool use of an upside-down treasure chest as a mouth.
This past weekend saw one of the world’s great annual LEGO conventions arrive, Brickworld Chicago. With it came dozens of new builds and spectacular collaborations to dazzle the public. One such dazzling display came from the builders of Eurobricks, a popular online LEGO forum, who built a spectacularly intense and hilarious snail race for the ages.
This award-winning collaboration was a truly large and world-spanning operation kept together with tight planning and a singular cohesive snail design made by team leader Mark Larson. His design, which was itself awarded the title of Best Creature at the convention, was used by nine other builders to construct more snails which were individualized with unique colors and themed castles–and then finally placed into an epic race.
See the rest of the layout after the break
This street scene by Maarten W was inspired by the architecture of the Old Town in Scotland’s capital city. The Royal Mile runs from Edinburgh Castle on its plug of volcanic rock, down the ridge, to Holyrood Palace. It’s one of the most famous streets in the world and Maarten has brilliantly captured its picturesque architecture.
There are some lovely LEGO techniques on show here. Check out the blend of bricks used on the left-hand and central buildings, creating an excellent sense of texture without looking scruffy. And the details in the arch above the church door are a fantastic little touch.
I’m an Edinburgh native myself, and I used to run a pub right behind the Tron Kirk (the inspiration for Maarten’s church here). As a result, I really appreciate how well this model captures the spirit and character of my home town. Great stuff.
This Asian-style castle by Henry F. is so beautifully put together that I can’t stop looking at it. At first glance, this build appears clean and simple, but further reflection reveals tons of amazing details like the wooden lattice-style steps with multiple landings, the iron-barred windows, and the amazing texture Henry built into the rock formations. Henry cleverly designed this build with multiple levels, each one stepped up a little higher than the previous level. This results in a terrific photo composition that shows all the details of the build in one clear photo.
You can check out close-up photos (including a shot of that sweet, mullet-rocking soldier) on Flickr.
LEGO builder Omar Ovalle has spent the last two years working on and off recreating the iconic house sigils from Game of Thrones, from House Stark’s iconic wolf of Winterfell, to House Lannister’s majestic lion of Casterly Rock, and on to some of the lesser known sigils such as House Baelish’s mockingbird. The collection is still a work in progress, but Omar has also taken some time to build a few cool LEGO busts of characters from the series, including the ever-faithful Hodor. Check them all out below!
House Stark
Hodor
Click to see the rest of the house sigils
Check out this fantastical scene from Brother Steven. We’ve got medieval-style treehouses, a brawl in a bustling marketplace, and a tethering tree for magical flying boats! Excellent work all round.
This model pulls of a difficult trick — creating a scene with fantasy elements which still manages to feel realistic. It’s well worth clicking through to the original image and zooming in to see all the lovely detail on display in the marketplace around the base of the trees.
