Tag Archives: Clouds

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.

Castle of building blocks

Friendship takes flight

A mother and daughter are transported to the sky on an elven airship bursting with the colors of the seasons in this fantastic LEGO model from builder Josh Parkinson. He blends inspiration from the colors and parts Friends, Elves, and Dreamzzz lines with a dragon figurehead from the Ninjago Water Dragon, and a mysterious power source built from an illuminated Trolls pod. I love the forest foliage spilling over the deck, the cozy captain’s cabin, and especially that azure figurehead! Josh’s ship captures the whimsy and imagination of LEGO’s modern era. Now, what was the Elvish word for “Friend,” again? I feel like that might come in handy on a quest…

The Dragon Airship Adventure

A LEGO golden dragon “painting” that soars off the canvas

Builder Dad’s Bricks has a reputation for excellent Asian ink paintings made of LEGO. This latest addition to the gallery is a gorgeous golden dragon. But unlike a 2-D ink painting, the model springs to life, popping right off the canvas of plastic along with some surrounding clouds and crags. The colors here are so vivid – angular gold and tan scales standing in stark contrast to the wispy white feather parts coming off the beast. This is most pronounced around the dragon’s face, as its mane of whiskers accentuates the pair of 2×2 round tiles in pearl gold staring directly at you. It’s clear there’s ancient wisdom held within, but only shared with those worthy of such secrets.

[LEGO] Ink Painting - Dance of Dragon 《潛龍登峰》

And the forecast for today is “ominous cloud monster”

Batten down the hatches! Sullivan R has constructed this unusual build of a floating cloud creature. The lopsided design is an interesting style providing the model with a unique appearance. A zamor sphere is used to represent the eye and is held in place by an inverted tire. Round dishes are clumped together forming cloud-like features over armour plates and long claw pieces. Jagged lightning bolts are used to great effect, adding an electrical flair to the model. Below the monster, a ship is having a rough time on the open sea which is made out of translucent claw pieces.

Soft Fuzzy Man

The clouds make for a lonely home.

Daniel Cloward is no stranger to builds with a storybook sensibility. But his latest creation is one of the most impactful pieces of LEGO storytelling we’ve seen. This ramshackle space is the cloud-based home of a pilot who needs to fix his airplane so he can return down to the world he’s left behind. But the pilot can’t bear to face the people below that he has wronged, and so his plane sits broken and incomplete, as does his life.

The Lonely Pilot

There are so many details in this space that speak to the lonely pilot’s state of mind – the pictures of old friends on the wall, maps of places once explored. And there’s a ton of great technique at work here: the arching entrance way, the blend of bars and tiles in the floor, the use of forced perspective. The genesis of this build was an Iron Builder round with antenna base and handle pieces as the seed part. They may not be immediately obvious, but there are plenty of them buried in this build. Try and pick them all out.

Life among the clouds...

This sweet fantasy castle by Lukasz Wiktorowicz (AKA LL) is full of all sorts of goodness. The detailing on the two towers is very well done, the landscaping and waterfall is well-thought out and the clouds add a nice sense of height. Always a cool touch when a builder gives his creations some atmosphere.

Twin Towers