LEGO Certified Professional Prince Jiang has created a splendid replica of Dazheng Hall, a historic landmark from the Northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. Dazheng Hall is the oldest part of the Shenyang Imperial Palace, which was built in 1625 and served as the home of the Qing Dynasty’s first three emperors. Prince Jiang’s model was built to kick off the grand opening of the LEGO Certified Store in Shenyang’s Joy City Shopping Mall.
Click to see more of Dazheng Hall
LEGO has unveiled the next two additions to the Architecture line as the towering 21042 Statue of Liberty and 21041 Great Wall of China. Lady Liberty has 1,685 pieces and will sell for $119.99 USD. The Great Wall has 551 pieces and will sell for $49.99 USD. Both sets will be available June 1.
Get a closer look at the new LEGO Architecture sets
The first Flagship store opened in Disney Resort in Shanghai back in May 2016 and was the largest LEGO Brand store in the world back in its opening. 2 years later, The LEGO Group has announced its second store scheduled to open in Autumn (end of the year) at Shanghai ShiMao Festival City in People’s Square located in the heart of the city. The new store is expected to be slightly more than half the size of the Disney Resort Store at 6297 sq feet (585 square meters) over two floors. In comparison, the first store was around 10,764 sq feet spread (1,000 square metres) over two floors.
Last year, the Shanghai Skyline LEGO Architecture skyline was revealed and with this new store in place, it is another stepping stone for LEGO’s growth in China. Read our review of the Shanghai skyline here.
Click here to read the full press release
The Tianfeng Pagoda is situated in the centre of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. With a height of about 167 feet, this hexagonal building is an ancient landmark within the city. It was named after the time period it was built, between Tiancewansui (reign title of Empress Wu Zetian AD 695) and Wansuidengfeng (reign title of Empress Wu Zetian AD 696) in Tang Dynasty. Tianfeng Pagoda’s hexagonal shape has been beautifully captured in LEGO by qian yj and the 7 levels of pagoda are almost as impressive in LEGO.
This LEGO version sits peacefully in a park with trees, gardens and even a small pond. While Tianfeng Pagoda does sit in Tianfeng park, it represents the fusion of history and present day as the actual tower is located next to a shopping mall and bustling streets cross just beyond the park.
Chinese city walls were built for defense, to protect towns and cities in China. Part of those walls included towers and gates which typically served as entry points. This particular Gate Tower built by Prince Jiang is astounding in size and amazing in architecture. I’m always in awe of how a structure meant to be a defence mechanism can also be made to look so appealing even in real life structures you see around historic China.
The latest Chinese architectural wonder by qian yj depicts an old residential building in the city of Huizhou. The tall white walls enclose an intimate courtyard surrounded by ornate two-storey wooden houses. The scene is set amidst narrow canals interlaced with quaint sidewalks. Who wouldn’t want to take a vacation in such a poetic destination?
ArzLan shows us there is beauty in simplicity with this stunning build. Included are various representations of Chinese culture, with a seated figure playing the Ehru (a two-stringed fiddle). Also pictured is a Go board, and supplies for calligraphy and painting.
There are a number of eye catching things here; the seated figure stands out in bright red, and the scroll background has brick-built calligraphy.
I particularly love the dragon brush holder. It’s so fragile and perfectly executed.
Finnish builder Eero Okkonen admits that he’s not sure why he built this Chinese dragon dance scene (several months after the Lunar New Year), but I for one am very glad he did. With stellar use of transparent Bionicle flame pieces and a Ninjago “Dragon God” banner tile, I can almost hear the firecrackers and smell the smoke.
You can read more from the builder himself on his blog, Cyclopic Bricks.
Today is Chinese New Year, celebrated around the world by people from many different countries. According to the Chinese Zodiac, this is now the Year of the Monkey, so LEGO builders have been posting a plethora of simian creations in honor of our cousins.
Many of the LEGO models feature Sun Wukong, the Monkey King hero of the Chinese epic Journey to the West (and its many adaptations for film and TV). Donna Liem puts the iconic hero astride a cloud in the sky.
Click through for more monkey madness!
Indonesian builder Dennis Qiu brings us another stellar example of the amount of character that can be captured in LEGO. This Chinese lion would fit perfectly into mythology or, because I love robots, an episode of Zoids. LEGO has been going gold-crazy lately, but the use of it here is superb.
This week Hong Kong hosted its gigantic annual fan convention Ani-Com, an event that makes San Diego Comic Con look like a book club meeting at a Starbucks. Local builder Alanboar Cheung was a finalist in the show’s LEGO building contest, with this delightful and very stylish “Dream House”:
This thing is packed to overflowing with awesome details – the closeups are definitely worth a look.
This event always produces some stellar MOCs, but information is a bit hard to come by. We’ll show you more of them as they come across our radars.
As a small child back in Japan, I used Go pieces to create serpentine roads across tatami floors for my little Tomica cars, but my family left Japan before I ever played a proper game. I still get nostalgic whenever I see Go games. Joe Miller built this fully functional 9×9 Go set completely from LEGO, using some rather complicated techniques to place the black lines on the board.
The lines themselves are the tops of 1×2 half-panels wedged into full (3-brick high) panels, combined with some serious sideways and upside-down (SNOT) construction.
