LEGO Star Wars builder Anthony Ducre recently shared a massive diorama featuring scenes from both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. Built from over 50,000 LEGO bricks, the diorama includes Darth Vader chasing Luke Skywalker down the trench of the first Death Star, animated by placing the starfighters on classic LEGO 9-volt train tracks.
Watch videos of this huge LEGO Star Wars diorama after the jump
Everyone likes to watch a racecar speed around a corner at a break-neck pace, caroming nearly out of control, tires barely maintaining friction with the pavement. Add in a bit of ice and snow to reduce that friction to almost nothing, and the excitement increases. Builder Simon Pickard brings us a rally car in just that situation, seemingly mere seconds from sliding into a drift. I love the composition of the shot, with the beautiful movement implied by the curved road.
While the car is the MINI Cooper from Speed Champions set 75894 (be sure to check out our review), the setting for the vehicle is what sets this apart from the pack. The curvature of the road is the detail that catches the eye above all else, with the excellent tire tracks. Formed from tiles and plates arranged carefully, the path and the posing of the car give it all a profound sense of movement, especially with the 1×1 round plates kicked up by the skidding tires. My only quibble is that the front tires are still straight, when all of my highly technical race knowledge gleaned from watching Cars with my kids tells me that he should be turning left to go right…
While kids don’t have deadlines to worry about or bills to pay, childhood can still be stressful at times. Watching “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” for me and other kids, was a nice way to leave our troubles behind and visit a sweet, gentle, understanding soul, even for just a little while. Matt De Lanoy has rekindled some of my fondest childhood memories with this Neighborhood of Make-Believe layout. Far left we see Grander Tiger and his granddaughter Collette at the Eiffel Tower while Mr. McFeely makes a speedy delivery to King Friday the XIIIth and Queen Sara Saturday. About middle and to the right we see Lady Elaine Fairchild tending to her Museum Go-Round while to the right of her in the background is none other than Mr. Fred Rogers himself waving to his friends in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
See more of this LEGO Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood scene
A castle built in the north must be strong enough to survive the icy winters and keep the enemy hordes at bay. Looking at this one by Marco den Besten, we can safely say that the inhabitants will be well-protected from both. Built near the southern border of the icy guild of Mitgardia, where it borders the rival guild of Avalonia, the fortifications are thick and the walls high. Ample crenelations protect those on the walls from any enemies who might aspire to shoot arrows at them from below. Plenty of action fills the scene, with troops marching over a bridge, a farmer bringing produce to market, folks fishing, and even a ship approaching the dock. Are the intentions of the sailors friendly? I don’t know, but axes are drawn.
Marco is famous among LEGO castle builders for his large displays, and perhaps even more famous for his large evergreens made of uncountable spines/vines. The way the towers are set at angles to the walls makes for a visually striking shape, a far cry from the square castles I used to make as a kid. Like this creation? Check out more huge castle dioramas built by Marco den Besten such as a fortified city and a city in the snow.
Certain core LEGO themes like castle and space seem to have very specific directions of experimentation and technical progress. We generally associate castle builds with unique textures, but having a colour palette usually limited to various earth tones. Colour experimentation is not unheard of in the theme though, but remains the rare exception that reminds us of specific builders like Luke Watkins or jaapxaap, among others. This time, Anthony Wilson goes to the extreme with what almost looks like a negative image of what would otherwise be a cute but quite ordinary castle scene.
There are so many tones of blue, yellow and orange in this build that even if I try to count them all, I would probably still miss one or two. The transitions between the different colours in the grass are especially smooth and really add up to a realistic effect (as realistic as yellow grass can be). The 1×2 tile-based wall is not a new technique, but the two rows look great overgrown by all sorts of dark brown plants. The yellow ninja minifig and its animal companion add that vitally important bit of life that complete the scene.
Do you remember that guy from your Math textbook who happened to own a dozen pineapples or 30 bananas? Well, Peter Ilmrud seems to be that guy. Keeping several hundred carrots in your house might not be a good idea unless they’re LEGO carrot pieces. It’s been 20 years since the piece first appeared in LEGO sets, but it looks like Peter is one of the first to use it as roof tiling. The result looks fantastic, and bright orange carrots go nicely with white and brown walls of the house. A simple garden fence made of sticks is another nice touch in the diorama, which I would love to try to recreate in my next medieval creation.
LEGO has produced a few brilliant sets representing London Architecture in its Creator Expert line, such as Big Ben and the Tower Bridge. Hyungmin Park has added to this, with renditions of Nelson’s Column and King’s Cross Station. Laid out smartly with the predesigned sets in the background and fan creation in the front, the spaces between are filled in with details of typical London scenes.
The Hogwarts Express popping out of the train station is an easy one to see, and in my mind is the first thing I think of when I hear “King’s Cross”.
My favourite Easter Eggs though, are the more subtle ones such as the Star Wars Royal Guard mixed in with the British Royal Guards, and the cat with the Mohawk, which has always reminded me of a feline British punk rocker.
Everything old is new again and Robert4168 takes us on a nostalgic trip back to 2017 with this colorful and detailed homage to set 70627 Dragon’s Forge. Recently, LEGO has started giving some of their classic Ninjago sets a makeover and re-issuing them under the Legacy moniker. For fans, it’s a great opportunity to get your hands on some updated versions of older locations that you may have missed the first time around. Taking a cue from LEGO, Eurobricks launched a contest asking their members to create their own Legacy scenes based on any past Ninjago set. Clearly, Robert4168 was up to the challenge!
The color palette of the landscaping is a beautiful combination of lime green and dark green accented with translucent blue tiles and bricks for a pleasing water effect. I like the use of angled plates and some sideways building to create its organic shapes. The rickety brown wooden bridge is not only nicely constructed, but provides good color contrast.
The detailed revamping of the forge’s interior is a marked improvement on the original set with its tan and dark tan color scheme, brown window frames and tiled floor. The addition of warm lights inside the forge is a perfect finishing touch that really puts this model over the top.
Necromancers, that is. The story is that druids once lived here in Ard-darragh with their magical tree, but when they left, eventually Christian monks settled the cliffs and build a monastery; but they too left, and necromancers took over the site. At least, that is how builder Michal Herbolt describes the evolution of the place. And what a place it is, too! Large castle dioramas are always impressive, if for no other reason than the sheer volume of parts needed to bring them to life. But this one is exceptionally well done, with the brilliant textures on the walls, the large cliffs, the glittering water, and the nicely contrasting roofs.
While there might not be many particular elements here to make you say, “Ooh, I never thought of using that piece for that purpose,” it is nonetheless a masterwork of architectural design and landscape integration. No part of the structure is aligned to the stud-grid of the base, and most of the towers join with the adjacent buildings at non-right angles, too. The way the buildings fade into the rear cliff is perfect, too. My absolute favorite detail, though, is the way the smooth white and rough light bluish grey parts of the walls blend organically together, creating a level of texture that is just right without being either too little or too much. This is a build that is definitely worth a closer look, so check out Michal’s full album on Flickr for all of the detail shots.
Many of the best LEGO creations are carefully composed scenes which tell a story. MorlornEmpire takes this thought one step further — building a delightful LEGO Castle scene which depicts a medieval theatre with a play in progress. The theatre walls are nicely chunky and use the classic technique of scattered dark grey tiles to simulate stonework, with an added splash of colour from the well-positioned climbing foliage.
However, appropriately enough, it’s the on-stage action which commands the attention — don’t miss the scenery flats of rolling countryside and hilltop castle, and the smart use of curved tiles to create an impression of a curtain backdrop for the sky. All this creation is missing is a rowdy audience of peasants chucking vegetables at the actors during boring sections of the play–a regular feature of theatrical performance until relatively recent times!
One of the most popular LEGO themes of all time is Castle, a staple of any LEGO fan from the late 1970s to the present. Builder Ciamosław Ciamek treats us to his own version of the Black Falcon Stronghold, showcasing modern building methods and a level of detail not seen on these sets back in the day. In particular, the smokestacks add an even deeper sense of realism (gotta stay warm in the winter, right?) to the castle. I really like the tried-and-true use of ice cream scoops as the smoke coming out of the chimneys.
Even the interior is incredibly detailed. And as you can see, these guards need a little more target practice.
The Phantom Menace, released 20 years ago this month, is a polarising movie. Many Star Wars fans (particularly older fans raised on the Original Trilogy) would say it’s their least favourite in the series of films. However, despite its flaws, Episode 1 brought some amazing new things to the Star Wars universe — kick-ass lightsaber battles, Pod Racing, and the planet of Coruscant amongst them. The capital world of both Galactic Republic then Empire is another classic “single environment planet” in the grand Star Wars tradition, but rather than a desert, forest, or ice world, Coruscant is home to a massive planet-spanning city. The movie gave us plenty of the city’s towering buildings and penthouse suites, but here we get a closer look at the seedier underbelly of the metropolis in Dayton‘s impressive LEGO diorama.
This trip into the lower levels of Coruscant is impressively detailed, and carries a Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk vibe along with its Star Wars inspiration. The Imperial Patrol works its way through the alleys, through crowds of shady-looking characters enjoying street food and drinks. The presentation is excellent, nicely-lit, with the custom advertising billboards and smatterings of Aurebesh text a smart touch. And don’t miss the use of laser shooter pieces to provide the pattern on the circular sliding door — it’s a little detail, but it’s this sort of thing that helps create layers of texture to pull the viewer’s eye into the image.