Tag Archives: diorama

Eyes right for an interesting Villa build

In this LEGO build,  Ayrlego takes us back in time with this Colonial scene of patrolling troops passing a white-washed villa. I enjoy learning from other people’s builds, and there’s some nice take-aways in the composition of this scene. We’re treated to some lush vegetation framing the building, and the palms are really well-executed, bookending the build. In addition to the palms, the undergrowth to the front and sides are great examples of adding fauna to any scene.

Campaign Planning, Port Woodhouse

There are some really nice touches to be found in the building itself too — some I’m sure to use myself in the future! I’m particularly fond of the aged white bricks used amongst the newer white pieces with other subtle details such as the white profile brick. The Micro Figure nestled into the wall, suggestive of a shrine, and the logs that serve to hold the upper level really elevate this whole scene. I think you’ll agree that Ayrlego has done his homework in constructing this one.

Raiders of the lost nest

As usual, Bart De Dobbelaer brings us a treat of a scene with this detailed LEGO diorama portraying a pair of would-be poachers about to face off with their worst nightmare: a mother. While the monstrous creature is fascinating with its bright plumage and—are those all eyes?—it’s the scenery itself that really draws my attention as a builder, because the thick bushes are splendidly done, especially for how simple they are, combining two types of leaf elements stacked around a flower stem element.

Beginner's Guide to Adventuring - Nest raiders

I’m sorry, did I break your concentration?

The last thing battle droids want to perceive with their photoreceptors is Mace Windu. Once that lavender-hued lightsaber ignites, it’s over for them. Noah (H2brick) built a diorama of an iconic Mace Windu moment from the final season of The Clone Wars, where he swoops in to captures the shipyards of Anaxes.

Charge For Anaxes

While this diorama depicts the interior of a grey warehouse, Noah took care to spice it up with as much colour as he could, as he feels most Star Wars LEGO builds are too grey. One of his goals was to make this scene vibrant with just enough colourful highlights to break up the grey. The bright yellowish-orange highlight draws the eye up from the battleground to the roof and gangway. So do the clone troopers dropping in from above, where we see a bit of Anaxes itself. The blue and purple behind the scaffolding elements make a good depiction of the forever dawn and dusk skies of the planet.

Swinging Into Action / Charge For Anaxes

If you agree or disagree with Noah on Star Wars builds being all grey, check out some builds here and see for yourself. Check out some of Noah’s older builds, where he’s been spicing up grey landscapes with colour.
I personally think he’s taking shots at me for the big grey triangle I recently built…

Just a slice of medieval life

To say that I’m intrigued by this LEGO layout built by td_brix is an understatement. The path comes from a destination unknown. It traverses through this outpost in the middle of the water, then leads out of the composition again to another unknown destination. Why is it here? Where does the path lead? Who lives here? This little slice of medieval life proposes more questions than answers. But still, it is a pretty stellar thing. I’m enamored by the highly textured three-tiered roof. I want to live here, even for just a weekend or so. If this were an Airbnb, I’d book this place in a minute!

Been spendin’ most their lives living’ in a Theives’ Paradise

Renowned LEGO builder Bart De Dobbelear tells us that “The golden city ruins of Kadena were renowned for their loot and riches.” Oooh! It’s ours for the taking, then. Look at all that beautiful gold! Book my flight, I’m calling in sick! But then he goes on to say; “Many thieves tried their luck, but only a handful escaped the clutches of the city’s guardians.” Wait, guardians? I knew there would be a catch! Cancel that flight. I am not sure if the crazy-haired crab-robots or the two thuggish-looking fellows are the thieves or guardians. Perhaps the guardians are unseen and they’re even bigger and hideous-er than what is pictured here. Either way, I want no part of it. My sense of adventure ends right at making cheap and awkward intros but it really goes no further than that. I’ll just be happy with the pay TBB gives us. Wait, they pay us, right? Don’t they? It’s hard to keep track when everything is direct deposit these days.

Thieves' Paradise

While I work that out with TBB’s Human Resources Department, you can check out why Bart De Dobbelear is in a league of his own when it comes to creating fabulous textures and far-out alien worlds. Wait, do we have a Human Resources Department?

A post-apocalyptic meat buffet

Some visions of the apocalypse involve dark, war-torn cities, some take place in barren deserts, while others speak of…some kind of Squid Game, somehow. This LEGO diorama by Insomnia Builds features a society of people who live in cabins on the ocean’s surface. At a quick distant glance, we see a collection of neat little cabins and even floating gardens. Aside from needing urgent roof repair, the denizens here seem quite content to live within their floating society. But with water comes scary tentacle monsters and that is precisely what they’re dealing with here. This piece bears the uncanny title of Meat Buffet and the apparently sleep-deprived builder serves up the caption of “I’m sure someone will eat meat today”. The thing is, we’re not sure if he means the people of this watery town or the tentacle monster. From the looks of things, it’ll probably be both!

Meat Buffet

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This LEGO Halo diorama takes us back to the classics

I recently replayed Halo: Combat Evolved for the first time in years with the updated Master Chief Collection, and I have to say that 20 years on, the game still holds up remarkably well. I do miss those split-screen, multi-TV LAN games with friends, though. This LEGO diorama by DP_Studios_ takes me right back there with that iconic Covenant architecture and the unmistakable and eternally awesome Warthog. The builder has added just the right amount of details throughout to make it feel the way I remember it, though I secretly suspect this diorama actually has more texture than the original game.

LEGO Halo MOC | Halo

This incredible LEGO Star Wars build shows the temple on Yavin 4 after the war

The great temple on Yavin-4 was a Rebel Alliance headquarters early in their fight against the Empire. It even served as the main staging base for the assault on the original Death Star. But, once that massive space station was destroyed, the Rebels were forced to evacuate Yavin-4 and establish bases elsewhere in the galaxy. So, what happens to a rebel base after a hasty retreat? Markus Aspacher spent a year constructing an answer in LEGO for us.

Click here to explore the temple on Yavin-4 after the war.

Let’s move to this sunken temple. What can go wrong?

When I saw Andreas Lenander’s sunken temple of Mu’hit I immediately decided I wanted to live there. Sure, I can’t breathe underwater and frankly, I’m not the best swimmer so that might be a problem. But check out that view though. Look at those stingrays, those dolphins, the fish, and all that beautiful coral. It’s just breathtaking. Literally breathtaking as I’d drown within minutes. Still, that view though. As evidenced by the few LEGO skeletons scattered here and there things didn’t go entirely well for some of the prior tenants. Perhaps I should have thought that through before submitting my housing application.

The sunken temple of Mu'hit

If you’re as enthralled as I am, be sure to check out our archives for more of this builder’s stuff!

The way of the sword

The last time I hung out under a tree shirtless with a sword it led to a record number of cops showing up at the scene. But this LEGO minifigure pulls it off in style and that probably has everything to do with his sweet washboard abs. Unlike my drunken ordeal at the city park, SweStar has portrayed a sense of harmony and serenity here. I’m loving the tree trunk and even the root that extends beyond the orderly border. This is a bit tricky and not entirely recommended for the novice but this builder separated the minifigure legs from its waist in order to have the figure seated in a lotus position. Classy! Check out our archives to see the other times we’ve been totally enchanted by this builder’s stuff.

The Way of the Sword

Morning at the Museum

True story; I had a chance to work after hours at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. I was contracted to paint display backdrops for a Mars exhibit. It was late at night, long after the patrons and staff had gone home and a security guard and I were the only two people there. I can say with confidence that a museum at night is a strange and eerie place. Some lights are on, others are off and incidentally, they leave the animatronic dinosaurs turned on so they were moving and roaring throughout the night. This LEGO creation called Morning at the Museum by Alex Eylar reminds me of that experience. To be clear, the skeleton T-Rex is from this set but the environment Alex has built for it and the lighting makes this a stellar creation indeed. Alex is quite good at setting a mood in LEGO. Check out what I mean in our archives.

Morning at the Museum

The droids you weren’t looking for

Expert builder Tim Goddard is no stranger to grey greebly things. Co-writer of LEGO Space: Building the Future, he excels in spaceships, space stations, space robots, and really anything to do with space. This collection of robots—sorry, droids—must have been child’s play for him, as they are as simple as they are accurate.

While the astromech, the treadwell, and mouse droids are something we’ve seen in Star Wars numerous times, the larger Binary Loadlifter isn’t as common. Essentially a walking forklift, a plethora of greebly parts make up this lanky mechanical beast. Cabinet doors make up the arms, which provide ample space to lift even the large Imperial crates we see. But my favourite parts usage has to be the use of black Bionicle Toa Metru leg armour as the base for one of the smaller droids. Is it a mouse droid? No, those are the tiny ones. Mouse droid XL? My droid knowledge escapes me…

Somewhere to display droids and stuff

Tim even built a diorama of a room storing some of the crates. This could either be on the Death Star or aboard a Star Destroyer, since the white vertical lines are a defining characteristic of the Empire’s space brutalism. Tim’s iconic greenling takes a minimal approach here, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. It enhances the mechanical nature of this cold room somewhere in the coldness of space…

Check out more of Tim’s builds here!