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 portion of medieval village that has us eager for more

We see a lot of enormous collaborative LEGO dioramas here on TBB, albeit often through the individual modules that make them up. At first glance, this serene windmill scene by Sandro Damiano might seem like one such module. There are some conspicuous holes to connect to other parts of the diorama, and after all, it is referred to as “Module #2”. But the only person Sandro is collaborating with on this particular project is… Himself! He has taken on the construction of an entire medieval village. This section is already pretty big, so this could end up being very impressive once finished!

Not only that – if the other modules are as well-built as this one (and with Sandro’s skill, there’s no reason to doubt they will be), it could be pretty stunning too. Take a look at the river flowing over the weir here, for instance. Using trans-light-blue cockpit is the perfect way to capture the movement of the water! We can’t wait to see more, Sandro…

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The LEGO bricks of 1995 are not to be underestimated

What happens when you’re restricted to the bricks of a certain LEGO era? Builder Ids de Jong thrives with such limitations, bringing us a castle that looks at home in modern-day Castle themes. Without access to modern plant parts, we still have an excellent-looking birch. Lacking today’s complement of bricks made for SNOT construction (Studs Not On Top), Ids throws together some exquisite cross-windows with the help of minifigure legs. And despite no masonry profile bricks from back in the 90’s, the old school approach of layering standard 1×2 plates to recreate the masonry texture works just fine instead. This makes me wonder what other themes could be revisited with only 1995 parts.

When hosting a banquet, don’t forget to invite the dragon

I vaguely remember once seeing an account on social media that found images from real life that looked like Renaissance paintings. I bet they would’ve liked Ids de Jong‘s mediaeval LEGO tableau! Every pixel is perfectly placed, and there’s so much going on. The jester is seemingly trying in vain to impress the guests at Majisto’s feast. They seem more interested in either reading or, well, eating. They’re about to get some more unwanted excitement though! I like the cheeky look the dragon has on his face, and the use of minifigure legs for the snout is ingenious.

The terrific LEGO tower of technique

It’s never too late to learn a new way to connect these LEGO bricks! And Maxim Baybakov shows us how it’s done with this North Tower creation. Fully embracing the half-stud measurement (the most important unit of measure in LEGO building, in my opinion), this tower slowly converges into a tight square of 10×10 studs using a brilliant studs-out technique that I’ve never seen put into practice like this. The finished model looks clean, with the only exposed studs included for effect. There’s even room for such great details as that adorable brick-built front door!

Maxim gives us a peek at the interior technique with the graphic below. Such a complex means of generating that half-plate indent while ascending up the fortification, employing SNOT (studs not on top) with bar and clip connections to bring the tower into being. I’m definitely going to give this a try on my own as soon as I can!

LEGO Majisto is a BIG Dragon Masters fan!

The Dragon Masters faction (a.k.a. Dragon Knights, outside of the US) from LEGO’s Castle theme has been on the minds of many thanks to the upcoming 40601 Majisto’s Magical Workshop gift-with-purchase. And for builder terauma, it’s clearly a big deal! I mean, that explains this jumbo-scale minifigure of the wizard himself. Based on the proportions of 40649 Up-Scaled LEGO Minifigure, mega-Majisto makes the dragons from his faction look like whelps by comparison. It’s a great reference to my favorite of the brick-built medieval armies of the 90’s.

Classic LEGO set Majisto’s Magical Workshop re-imagined as Gift with Purchase 40601 [News]

Not content with releasing nostalgia-laden sets, LEGO has also been re-visiting some smaller classics as Gifts with Purchase. If you picked up 40567 Forest Hideout, the latest offering is sure to be worth a look as well. 40601 Majisto’s Magical Workshop is an update of the 1993 set of the same name. Composed of 365 pieces, also included are the titular wizard Majisto, alongside a female Dragon Knight. At the time of writing there is no information on how much you’ll need to spend to get your hands on it, or how long it will be available for. That said, LEGO Insiders weekend is coming at the end of this week, so there’s a good chance it will be available then.

Click here to see more pictures of this re-imagined classic

Winter is coming? No, winter is already here!

For some, this time of year is closely associated with falling leaves, scarves and things being suddenly pumpkin-flavoured for a few weeks. But for those of us in the more Northerly latitudes, autumn is already starting to look like Michał Kozłowski‘s wintry scene. In fact, as I type this, there are two inches of snow forecast in a few days, and muggins here still haven’t changed over to winter tyres. How did they manage that in medieval LEGO villages? Do you think they had horsecarts with studded wheels? Or did the horses just have to look for the studs to lock themselves in? You’d have to hope your builder hasn’t exclusively used slopes and tiles to model their snow.

This seemingly tranquil scene hints at a much larger story about to unfold

With so many things to look at in this wonderful build by Kit Nugent, it might be easy to miss the drama unfolding on the steps of this pastoral scene in the forest. While the somewhat blocky trees are stars of this build, I like the little details, like using the underside of plates as roof tiles, and the dappled light filtering through the trees to land on the face of a mysterious woman. Showing the scene at an angle, and filling in the base with black really draws your eyes to the center of the scene.

In my tower of solitude

Just look at this lovely new LEGO creation by Thomas van Urk. The shapes and textures here; I’m almost lost for words. The slopes and tiles along that very interesting red roof are masterfully sculpted. A lesser builder would have just spired the roof and called it good but Thomas taunts us with first a spire, then an onion dome, and back into a spire. I frankly can’t even fathom how he did that! The Tudor-style detailing is not entirely uncommon in LEGO. The medium most certainly works well in that style but there are parts of the Tudor detailing that, like the red spire I can’t fathom. Thomas calls this The Princess Tower and I’d happily be a princess for a day if it means hanging out in this fantastic world for a while.

Even the gray stone part of the tower utilizes both new gray and some sun-faded old gray. I recall in 2004 when LEGO changed their gray bricks there were starchy, rigid LEGO fans who vowed to leave the hobby forever. I imagine either they eventually warmed up to the new color shades or indeed remained in 2004 with their flip-phones and AOL email addresses.

A tremendous LEGO castle fresh from Canada’s BRICKSPO

The Saskatchewan LEGO Users Group (or SLUG) enjoyed their annual BRICKSPO this past weekend, and builder Taylor whipped up quite the fortified creation for the show. The Emerald Keep is a citadel of epic proportions, sporting light gray walls and sand green roofs. The builder doesn’t shy away from angled walls either, creating interesting and unique angles throughout the construction. I also like the wooden door to the left side of the structure, no doubt concealing a boat launch of some kind. It’s a great feature, and one that doesn’t make it into every castle creation. But I’m sure you’d like to see some more details, right? Well read on, my friend!

Like I said, read on!

Is a LEGO builder’s work – or a church – ever truly finished?

I used to live down the road from a cathedral, and the one thing I have noticed about them and churches is that more often than not, they seem to always have scaffolding up somewhere for restoration work. This is based purely on anecdotal evidence of course, but I will use Margrabia Mokotowski‘s beautiful LEGO church as another datapoint to support this dubious claim! Inspired by a real church in Margrabia’s native Poland, it wouldn’t look out of place as the centerpiece of a medieval township, even with the heavy weathering in evidence with some nice texturing. The ever-present scaffolding, though, belies its true setting in a modern-day LEGO city. It’s funny how a few minifigures and safety barriers can change the context of a whole build by a few hundred years!

This medieval-themed skyrock is made of over 22 pounds of LEGO

I wouldn’t have said that you could fit all the fixings LEGO Castle onto a single floating rock, but here Joe (jnj_bricks) has done just that! Clad in dark bluish gray brick, the multi-layer marvel begins at the bottom with a darling windmill. The use of balloon flaps as sails on the mill is a great touch, with its scooped form catching the wind from more complex angles than your standard land-based model. The fortification at the apex of the rocky mass is beautiful, utilizing some great techniques to form the walls of its towers. While impressive, the castle fits in well with the rest of the build, and doesn’t take attention away from the rest of the structure. This allows us to enjoy all the great minifigure scenes hidden throughout. Just check out the fella free soloing up the rock above the mill!