If you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 yet, this adorable LEGO Baby Groot by Markus Rollbühler should help get you hyped up for it. The use of ball joints as the eyes was a smart choice, making this version almost as cute as the original. And don’t miss the spot-on recreation of Rocket’s explosive device — very nicely done.
Elliott and E.T.’s flight over the forest has been described as the most magical moment in cinema history — probably why it was featured on the film’s advertising poster and became Spielberg’s company logo. You may recognize the building style here as Chris Adams has been building a series of 80s movie posters in LEGO. We already featured his brilliant Ghostbusters and Jaws 3D posters, now he brings us E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The piece stands 16″ tall by 14″ wide and 5″ deep (40 x 34 x 14 cm), and consists of about 2300 bricks. My favorite features are the perfectly executed silhouette in front of the moon, and how Chris has captured the sparkle between Elliott and E.T.’s fingers — brilliant!
Sometimes things can be so cute they become ugly. And it works the other way too — “The Ugliest Thing Ever” by Unijob Lindo looks so wrong in all the ways it can, that I can’t take my eyes off of it. The uninterested expression on its face and the balance between edges and curves is just so imperfectly perfect. I should point out the ingenious use of the street sweeper brushes as eyebrows and the retro castle cloak piece as the tongue.
The builder’s photostream is worth taking a look if you like this little monster, as Unijob has many more crazy and whacky creations posted there. One of my favourites would have to be this Moai statue with Super Mario’s hat and moustache.
LEGO’s BrickHeadz sets seem to have triggered an avalanche of increasingly clever custom versions of late, and it’s all we can do just to keep up with these adorably super-deformed critters. Meanwhile in a parallel dimension, the significantly uglier REJECTZ line continues to grow… The male superheroes from my first collection desperately needed girlfriends, so I decided to give Disney Princesses the REJECTZ treatment. Sorry.
…so pretttttty.
Whether he’s hurling barrels at Jumpman, riding a rhino through the jungle, or power-sliding around a tight corner in his go-kart, Donkey Kong is one impressive ape. And vincentkiew‘s LEGO Kong has all the charm and style of the iconic gorilla. Just look at those opposable digits! There’s also some tremendous Nice Parts Usage (NPU) in the necktie, mouth, and banana peels.
Can you picture this mech wandering across a post-apocalyptic wasteland scavenging for parts and power? Bregma Nicle has built a scavenger mech called Bad Diesel who packs plenty of attitude and more than a little intimidation into his bulky frame. I love the breathing apparatus and his ridiculously oversized weapon system. There are a host of scavenged parts that help to emphasise his hunter-gatherer nature, for example the “lobster sighting device” on the weapon or the round light tiles from the racing buggy sets as goggles.
You can see more of his scavenged equipment on show with his weapons system dismounted and on display. Bad Diesel has plenty of pose-ability despite those thunderous thighs and heavy armour.
Disney’s Frozen left us with a couple of heavy earworms still playing in the very background of our minds, but CK HO doesn’t let our favourite winter characters go. Recreated in the style of BrickHeadz, Elsa and Anna (featuring Olaf and Swen) do not look as excited as the versions by YOS Lego we featured previously, but this time they include not only bananas, but also some croissants.
This brilliant little LEGO recreation of Snoopy and Woodstock was apparently a commissioned model. I really hope _BrickBro_ didn’t get paid peanuts for it. This is a deceptively simple build, and I predict it took a long time to get it this perfect. The use of old-style minifig capes for Snoopy’s ears is inspired, and the version of Woodstock captures the scruffy bird’s character in a handful of tiny yellow pieces. This would make a lovely desk ornament for any Charles Schultz fan.
You can’t get much more adorable than this little blocky representation of Disney’s most famous elephant. David Liu says that he built this because Dumbo is his wife’s favourite character. And I am glad he did, because that has always been one of my faves as well.
David has done an amazing job portraying Dumbo at a relatively compact scale. But the little display stand really takes the overall build to the next level. With some very efficient parts usage David created an instantly recognizable scene, in particular the use of the black 1×1 clip plates as the three crows is super clever.
Toronto builder Mel Finelli has built a rather wonderful model of the character from the 2012 indie game Journey. I am the first one to admit that apart from Mario Kart I don’t know a ton about most video games, in particular when they are indie, but that doesn’t take away from the appreciation I have for Mel’s beautiful model. She has done a fantastic job of layering curves and slopes to create the flowing robes of the character, something that is anything but easy to do with LEGO.
The resulting 15″ character is interesting to look at from every angle, which Mel was nice enough to provide in her composite image. Those of you that are lucky enough to be going to BrickCan this weekend will be able to see the model in person.
Immediately recognisable, and packed with a whole heap of attitude — that’s Miro Dudas‘s latest LEGO model: Princess Leia Organa, dressed for cold weather, hand on hip, all ready to give Han a hard time. In a relatively small amount of bricks, this creation really manages to capture Leia’s feisty character. The padded jacket and the boots are nicely built, but it’s the way the model has been posed which does all the work. The stance is perfect. I can almost hear her speak. “I don’t know where you get your delusions from, laser brain.”
We’ve covered one of Miro’s brick-built Leia figures previously, but he appears to be on a roll with a whole series of them. As well as the great Hoth-variant above, there’s an excellent rendition of the Princess disguised as Boushh the Bounty Hunter. Don’t miss the clever use of the printed letter-E tiles on the mask, and the great brickwork to create the belt and harness…
There’s been a lot of LEGO creations inspired by LEGO’s new Brickheadz line recently. So it takes something special to catch the eye and rise above the rest of the blocky crowd. James Zhan does exactly that with these renditions of the Staypuft Marshmallow Man and Dr. Venkman from Ghostbusters.
Mr. Puft is looking very dapper in his sailor’s hat, and there’s good work on his little red bow tie too. Setting him loose amidst some microscaled buildings is a nice touch to give an idea of a different scale. Peter Venkman looks fetching in his boiler suit, and the ghost trap is excellent. But just check out Smiler — the use of a green minifigure tub as his mouth is absolutely inspired!