Ah, the Well of Souls. A location so synonymous with Indiana Jones, it’s one of the few that has been represented more than once in an official LEGO set. OK, it’ only been twice so far, but still, they were both neat. Unfortunately, they’ve both been outdone somewhat by Cube Brick‘s brilliant cross-sectional diorama! They’ve raided their collection of snakes to immortalise one of the most iconic scenes in the franchise.
There is more to see from this diorama – click here to take a closer look!
Despite being on the brink of its 25th birthday, somehow there are still locations and sets that haven’t been made into LEGO Star Wars sets. One that I’ve seen a lot of requests for recently is the Geonosian arena from Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Well, The Minikit Guy has had enough of waiting! He’s taken matters into his own hands and crafted a small section of this enormous arena. The stadium architecture is nice enough on its own, broken up with some nice texturing, and I like the way the balcony has been made with curved slopes. But the monsters are well worth a look too! You’ve got the cat-like Nexus; the rhinoceros-inspired Reek; and my personal favourite, the spidery Acklay. And look closely behind the Acklay – you might spot The Minikit Guy’s namesake hidden away in the walls!
While this Minoan temple may seem simple at first glance, there is quite a lot going on in this scene by BrickiboT. Inspired by the architecture of archaeological sites like the Minoan palace at Knossos on Crete, the angled pattern along the roof is made from carefully arranged sideways plates and brackets. A small noodle bowl acts as the perfect accent. The plates and rounded plates in two colors, along with a variety of textured bricks gives the front of the temple a weathered look.
The rocky landscape, dotted with plants and vines is a good blend of straight and curved slopes, and even the small beach is filled with details, like the group of hermit crabs, and the head of an elephant disguised as a rock. The angled sides of the small boat are attached with handlebars fit into the undersides of rounded plates with holes. Well done!
There are two types of people in this world when it comes to donuts: those who think of round sugary things, and those who picture squealing tires and a very sideways car. And for the latter, chances are the person performing them in your mind’s eye is Ken Block, who sadly left us earlier this year. Clemens Schneider has paid tribute to a true icon of motorsport in the best way possible: with full steering lock, foot to the floor, and a massive plume of tire smoke!
The keen-eyed among you will notice something odd about those tyre tracks. They hide a very different kind of track, but it’s one that gives this diorama an awesome party trick. This isn’t a moment frozen in time – Ken’s LEGO Hoonicorn Mustang actually performs donuts!
I love a bit of meta in a LEGO build. Eli Willsea is taking part in Iron Builder, where the challenge is to use the watering can piece in new and unusual ways. Now a watering can is a tool to help keep your plants alive. So Eli has used it to bring a plant to life in brick form! But why not go further? Why not choose a plant that is famous for not needing a lot of water, like a cactus? Now we’ve got a hint of irony involved too! Pretty much all that’s missing now is a good pun. What to do for that, I wonder…
After a long day’s work, some people might like to reward themselves with a drink of, er, grape juice. But sometimes, making the grape juice is the long day’s work! This is the lesson Martin Gebert‘s LEGO diorama teaches us. Partly, that is down to its content as it depicts how wine was made back in Antiquity. The grapes are picked, then crushed, then the juice is transferred to a storehouse to ferment into wine. But it’s also a lesson in teamwork. There’s a small team of minifigures at work here, and indeed Martin is part of a team himself! This diorama is part of an enormous collaboration that appeared at Bricking Bavaria, in Germany, last week. And although we can’t taste the wine (or grape juice) made here, we can still enjoy the fruits of Martin’s labour!
For some, this time of year is closely associated with falling leaves, scarves and things being suddenly pumpkin-flavoured for a few weeks. But for those of us in the more Northerly latitudes, autumn is already starting to look like Michał Kozłowski‘s wintry scene. In fact, as I type this, there are two inches of snow forecast in a few days, and muggins here still haven’t changed over to winter tyres. How did they manage that in medieval LEGO villages? Do you think they had horsecarts with studded wheels? Or did the horses just have to look for the studs to lock themselves in? You’d have to hope your builder hasn’t exclusively used slopes and tiles to model their snow.
I hear there’s a monster party tonight at 13 Dead End Drive. That’s the address of this massive old Victorian haunt created by Ty Keltner over the course of nine months. It features a large mansion with surrounding grounds populated by hundreds of your favorite Halloween monsters. Sitting on a whopping 24 large gray baseplates, the model’s footprint is 7 ½ feet by 5 feet – that is just shy of 40 square feet of Lego, with somewhere between 50 and 100 thousand bricks, definitely making this the biggest LEGO Halloween party we’re invited to this year!
This charming abode by Daniel Barwegen is full of mystery. It’s titled “Onomatopeya”, a facsimile of a word that refers to words that imitate sounds (think “meow” or “atchoo”). But with the windmill and lack of fauna, this build seems to evoke the lack of noises, not noise words. That begs the question of why there isn’t anyone here? The little flying utility vehicle parked outside suggests we’re in the future, and the blue sky and windmill again make me think it’s a utopian rather than dystopian vision. But then again, it’s so overgrown! If someone does live here they’re no gardener… I dunno. In fact, just about the only thing I do know is that the Duplo window fits this place so well I almost didn’t recognize it.
I’m a simple man: I see a well-made LEGO rally car, I want to extol its virtues online. Today’s instance comes courtesy of alex_bricks, and it’s a doozy. Italian marque Lancia won no fewer than 10 manufacturers’ titles during their time in the World Rally Championship, making them the most successful car builder. (That’s despite not having competed in the sport for 30 years, by the way!) And this is the car that kick-started that trend: the Lancia Stratos. It’s devoid of sponsor stickers, but all the better to enjoy that iconic brick-built Alitalia livery! Much like Alex’s Monaco Grand Prix dioramas, this build is really elevated by putting the car in its natural habitat, although the Stratos was at its most potent on tarmac rallies. Judging by the logs and muddy-looking road, this looks like the RAC Rally (AKA Wales Rally GB) to me. The drivers have done well to keep the car so clean!
Lancia isn’t the only thing here with a winning pedigree. Our Telegram readers voted Alex’s aforementioned Monaco builds ‘Creation of the Week’ not just once, but twice! Be sure to join the channel to cast your vote this week…
Hawaii Toad comes at us with a high-steaks LEGO build. No, that’s not a typo – someone’s brought a really high steak to this barbeque party! The minifigure accessory piece is already as big as a LEGO person’s head, but this really takes the mickey. It raises a lot of questions left unanswered by the build though. Firstly, what animal lends itself to such a big piece of meat? A T-rex?! I’d like to see the size of the butcher who sells that. For that matter, how big does your grill need to be for this? That’s surely going to take an age to cook if you want it done anything more than the rarest of rare!
I’m a sucker for a LEGO Adventurers build, and here Robert4168/Garmadon revisits a classic Adventurers setting in celebration of the theme’s 25th anniversary. The gang’s all here! Whilst Johnny Thunder scales ruins, the rest of the team are busy sailing to an extravagant temple emerging from the jungle. But in true Adventurers style, it’s not quite the abandoned monolith they were hoping for.
It’s worth keeping your eyes peeled, as many LEGO fans are building tributes to this great theme right now.