Tag Archives: Cyberpunk

Surfer bike pays homage to a pioneer in LEGO racing

As a 90’s kid, I have an unironic love for early 2000’s LEGO products. The classic trendsetters, Star Wars and Harry Potter are well-liked. Others, like Bionicle, may be questionable by some but have their niche following. And then there are Galidor and Jack Stone, which most of the LEGO community looks down on. I love it all since it shaped my childhood and adulthood, and I’m thankful that builders like Djokson feel the same way. His latest creation, Smog Ocean Surfer, looks like just an ordinary, colourful sci-fi bike and rider. It doesn’t have anything to do with the themes I mentioned, right? Maybe a reimagining of Roboriders? Or maybe it’s more obscure…

Smog Ocean Surfer

I hope I wasn’t the only one who recognised the blue and yellow colour scheme with the grey, monster-like, and cute rider. I’m surprised I remembered the long-forgotten Xalax racers… This build is a reimagining of 4567 Surfer, a set from the first wave of LEGO Racers back in 2001. These small Xalax racers were LEGO’s answer to Hotwheels and similar McDonald’s Happy Meal toys with their outlandish nature. With their element and weapon-themed colour schemes, They felt like a non-Technic successor to Roboriders. The pilots were small, goofy chibi monsters were head and shoulders, and the cars had a slammer system to launch them.

I am the robot walrus

When I first heard about Mitsuru Nikaido‘s LEGO mecha walrus, I pictured a cyberpunk Beatles nightmare. But when I looked at how well-built and detailed it was, I was only impressed.

LEGO Mecha Walrus_09

What really sells this as a mecha walrus are the green eyes. They give off a ghostly computer-like glow that is creepy and makes the rest of the build look metallic. The tubing also helps, but without the eyes, I would have thought it was just a LEGO Technic-style sea mammal.
LEGO Mecha Walrus_11

The skin even looks like armor plating! Well done, Mitsuru!

Lighting up the bad guy, in the future

While the future sure looks bleak in cyberpunk LEGO builds, and the entire genre of cyberpunk in general, it still looks awesome. There are all the greebles a space-lover could imagine, atmospheric lighting, folks with strange hair; what more could you want? Sebastian Bachórzewski delivers a great example of this, using some third-party lighting elements in a brilliant way (yes, that pun was deliberate) to set the mood. And the posing of the minifigures is excellent, with the two of them in mid-leap, blasting away with their guns. It reminds me of a still from The Matrix, which makes sense, since that was also cyberpunk.

The Duel

It looks even cooler cropped closer, filling the screen with all the LEGO awesomeness and revealing the cinematography behind the build. And while you’re here, you should look at our collection of LEGO Cyberpunk builds.

The Duel

There’s more than a trace of creativity here.

The creator of this nightmarish image, Bart De Dobbelaer, has combined cinematic inspiration from Hackers and Tron Legacy with 22 meters of EL wire in Trace initiated – a chilling image of cyberspace done right. I’m not sure exactly what’s happening here, but it doesn’t seem to be good news. Is the creepy central figure reaching out with a red data probe to track a hacker? Or is the trace running the other direction? Could this be a friendly cyber guardian about to be compromised by the outside world? We may never be sure.  Where’s Flynn when you need him?? Either way, though, it sure is a spectacular scene.

Trace initiated

At that glorious greebling makes me want to break out my collection of tiny parts and get to building myself. And I’m pretty sure I still have some light kits around here somewhere…

Taking cyber-speed to the next level

There are fast bikes. Then there are superbikes. This cyberpunk styled “Warpwheeled Cryptobike” by Eero Okkonen sits atop the list. The brightly-colored, space-age racing bike is poised for domination, and those wheels – the back being circles of banana gears and the front being tiles fixed tightly to some medium tread – are slick. The newer version of the 90° elbow (macaroni) element, which is used on both the bike and biker more than once, has to be one of LEGO’s best in recent history.

Dedofiktion Racing Unlimited Warpwheel Cryptobike

When she’s not on her bike, the rider is flying high in her rocket suit. That’s right; those boots aren’t made for walkin’. She’s killing it with the color combo! The old-school elements used in the futuristic jetpack and shoes are my favorite part. Shoutout to the Avatar/ExoForce projectile on the hips.

Dedofiktion Racing Unlimited Warpplasm Turbothrust Rocketsuit

As always, we have loads of exceptional builds from Eero you can check out. This addition sits among so many awesome bikes and characters, it’s hard to choose a favorite!

Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, cyberpunk?

Some people like horror movies, because they like being terrified by monsters and gore. I don’t. I hate horror movies, in fact. Instead, I go in for cyberpunk, because I like being scared by a desolate tech-heavy future. Bleak metal buildings, an utter dearth of plant life, and gritty scrappers with doctorates in electrical, aerospace, and mechanical engineering (how else could you keep such sophisticated tech running, kitbashing decrepit robots and speeders on the fly, right?), are all the things that give me nightmares. And I love it. This LEGO scene by CRCT Productions hits that perfect cyberpunk sweet spot, with the immersive scene, the optimal balance between greebled and smooth surfaces, and the dim light with brightly glowing signs.

LEGO Cyberpunk Industrial Zone

I love the pipes on the left and the roller coaster track on the right, and that little orange-lit shop down the street gives the scene so much added depth and realism. The builder resisted the temptation to overpopulate the street, and instead carefully chose a few well-placed soldiers to give a dreary, not-quite-but-almost deserted life to the scene. Ok. Now that I’ve looked at this for a bit, I need to get outside for a walk in the park or read one of my many leather-bound books to get that future of technological horrors out of my mind.

Do you like this kind of stuff too? Then check out the cyberpunk archives of TBB!

Robots with heads of rubber

Just when you think you’ve seen nearly every incarnation of LEGO robot to pass your computer screen, another master builder like Andreas Lenander shows up.

Ma.KMECHtoberFest2020 - family photo

While we’ve seen mechs before here on The Brothers Brick, we’ve never seen tires turned inside out to create a robot head. It took a few minutes staring at this build to realize that the head wasn’t a plastic brick, but was actually rubber. Everything about this scene here is fantastic, but I’m still in awe of the idea of using inside-out tires. Mind-boggling, you might say!

Cruisin’ cyberpunk style

Ever wonder what the Batmobile crossed with a DeLorean would look like? I think Jerry gives us a good idea of what that thought experiment would physically yield with his LEGO cyberpunk vehicle build.

The back of this car is what really gives me the DeLorean vibes with its boxy, beefed up rear. I enjoy Jerry’s use of the red 1×2 grille pieces for backlights — this color choice really pops against the black and grey color scheme, yet also compliments the yellow that’s accented briefly throughout the work.

Jerry also utilizes different rims for the front wheels versus the back wheels which is a bit of a visual trip from the norm. Overall the work can be construed as a fusion of multiple fantasies as well as a good mix of parts from different vehicles in the LEGO Speed Champions line and perhaps some other themes, who doesn’t like a good mashup?

Tealpunk dance revolution

Anyone who has met me knows that I am a sucker for the colour teal. Some even joke that I disregard anything LEGO which does not include teal. In which case, the talented Simon Liu has earned my respect with his small cyberpunk robot. Not only do I approve of the gorgeous colour scheme, but also the ingenious usage of my favourite elements throughout. For example, the “espresso handle” in the knee and elbow joints and the Overwatch gun in the lower legs. The robot clips make for strong shoulder and hip joints, and the round 1×1 plate with hollow stud is very useful when attaching these to a proper LEGO stud connection. Last but not least, let’s not forget about a fairly new part: Monkie Kid’s headphones as shoulder armour.

The Future is ... Punk

By adding a neon gridded base and dynamic pose, this small build became Simon’s homage to another similar pink-haired cyberpunk robot that we have previously featured.

Wake up samurai, we have some hot dogs to burn!

Up-and-coming builder Aubrey Beelen presents a detailed cyberpunk street scene with a food vendor. While the scenery appears desolate, it is colourful and packed with stickers that enhance its futuristic nature. The fun, rugged minifigures also reflect the genre of the build alongside the vibrant speeder. In addition to a detailed exterior, the food stall includes cooking appliances and Power Functions LED lights that brighten up the kitchen.

Cyberpunk Food Stall

Read about the details of this cyberpunk street scene!

She carries a spare tire with her

A LEGO builder who goes by the name of -Disty- has built a totally rad lady on a futuristic bike. Her hair and outfit give her a cyberpunk feel that is so popular in post-apocalyptic movies. Both the bike and rider are fantastic builds on their own but together it’s a dose of perfection. But what happens if she were to blow a tire? Well, the builder cleverly used an inside-out rubber LEGO tire as her halter top, which presumably she could use in case of a blowout. According to my limited research just now she would thus completely break the law in Utah, Tennessee, Indiana, and parts of Mexico. Some states have ambiguous rules on the matter, some select US cities are OK but in free-thinking Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia she can totally rock out with the girls out! Way to go, Canada!

Untitled

Electric Boogaloo is Cyberpunk, right?

We’ve featured several of Joss Woodyard (Jayfa)‘s amazing LEGO characters and creatures in the past, but this one is probably my favorite. Cyber-Punk is a super-expressive build that feels like it stepped right out of a comic book. A Toa Okoto head is enhanced with magenta dragon horns and quarter circle tiles for a stylish hairdo. The highly poseable legs are Bionicle beams surrounded by rubber LEGO tires. And there’s a nice bit of detailing on the shoes with an ice skate for laces.

Cyber-Punk

This was built for the preliminary round of Bio-Cup 2020. I can’t wait to see what else comes out of that competition!