Tag Archives: Dioramas

There’s nothing like a massive LEGO diorama to prove that you’ve arrived as a LEGO builder. The LEGO dioramas we feature here span everything from realistic medieval castles to scenes from World War II, and more than a few post-apocalyptic wastelands.

For many around the world, the New Year is just beginning...

With the Chinese New Year less than a week away, we’re seeing a number of creations inaugurating the Year of the Pig and a new calendar for over 20 percent of the planet. Joseph Zawada provided a detail-filled scene of how the Lunar New Year is likely to be enjoyed next month in San Francisco, California. Held since the 1860s to celebrate Chinese culture in the United States, this parade draws in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and is the largest Lunar New Year event outside of Asia. The builder recreated a lively portion of the parade in front of the Dragon Gate in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The scene features a ton of popular references to the Lunar New Year, such as dancing dragons and children carrying red envelops containing gifts of money (hóngbāo). There’s even a C-pop float to round off the sensory experience.

As a quick note, Joseph states he recently worked with LEGO China’s Integration and Engagement team and fifteen other builders to highlight the Lunar New Year in LEGO form (including the Nian beast we recently featured). We’re hoping to see many more creations in the days ahead. We wish our readers great happiness and prosperity for the year ahead!

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Temple’s crowning glory

What is serenity? One definition — perfection of form, coupled with a strong and simple colour scheme. That’s exactly what we’ve got in this temple building by jaapxaap. The standout feature is the purple and gold roof, adorned with beautifully shaped corners and nicely offset tiling. Don’t miss how the shaping flows perfectly around the golden decorative elements, almost as if they were designed to fit the spaces, rather than the other way around. The stark grey structure is striking and forms a robust backdrop to the ornate roofing. There’s nice landscaping and foliage, along with some minifigures, placed around the model, but the colour choices are perfect — complementing, never distracting, from the model’s central subject.

The future looks bleak, but at least the decorations are still holding strong!

It seems as though building a scene set in the year 2049 is the thing to do these days, no doubt in part because of the new Bladerunner film. However, this scene by Eddy Plu depicting Tokyo in the year 2049 has some great elements that set it apart from the crowd. Usually when building LEGO scenes, builders tend to focus on the background, and rarely is there anything in the foreground. But here, the Eddy has added some leaves and other objects to the foreground, giving the scene a higher degree of depth and making it much more interesting to admire.

Also, don’t overlook the cracked and uneven street, which makes it seem like either an explosion or an earthquake has happened in the future, and the nice curve the sidewalk and buildings situated on it seems to follow suit in looking precarious.

The art of winemaking in one scene

When we think of medieval LEGO creations, we most often see grand castles of all shapes and sizes. And I’m not complaining per se, but I do love it when someone brings us a more uncommon scene. Wine is a classic medieval beverage for kings, queens, and knights alike, and thanks to Guido Martin-Brandis we can see winemaking in the brick. The builder has incorporated almost every stage of winemaking into this single build. The process of planting and growing the grape vines, and the ripening of the grapes themselves is shown in full, with the grapes represented by different colored cherry pieces on the vines. Behind the vineyards you can spot a bare-legged peasent having a grand old time crushing the grapes with his feet, which I certainly hope he washed before he started.

Around the back of the aging house (with its thatched roof made with minifigure hands) we can see the bottles and barrels of aged wine being shipped off to market via horse carriage, the ending to the story depicted by this excellent diorama.

A planet-sized Classic Space layout that’s overflowing with incredible rovers and spaceships

At 96×168 cm, this sprawling space layout is a phenomenal build. Creator Dale Harris notes on his harrisbricks blog that the display is a personal love note to the Classic Space theme’s limited colour palette and retro tech aesthetic.

See more details of the super-sized space display

Explore an astronomer’s tower that’s out of this world!

Sergeant Chipmunk is back with another one of his beautifully textured, fantastically displayed LEGO scenes. Some past creations from Sergeant Chipmunk featured here on the Brothers Brick include Hailstone Point, Securing the Seas and my personal favorite is the western-themed From Sunrise to Sunset!

I have some puzzling thoughts about this picturesque little scene. The titular astronomer has clearly landed already. The boat is tied up, but not unpacked. There are even freshly caught fish and a roaring fire with a pot of fruit boiling away. The telescope is propped up and ready to go. But where’s the astronomer? All of Chipmunk’s other models star minifigures in key roles. Not this time. The easiest answer might be that the astronomer is inside the tower. Or are they underwater spearfishing for more to eat? Did they become the parrot atop the roof? Have they fallen off the bridge with no one to save them? Maybe the intrepid astronomer spotted aliens through the telescope and they arrived to whisk him/her away! Share your theory in the comments!

Atmospheric LEGO Alfheim from God of War

Germany’s Marius Herrmann is a God of bricks with this beautifully crafted river scene practically straight out of the PlayStation 4.

This model was directly inspired by Marius’ playthrough of the most recent game in the God of War series and you can see here in this comparison screenshot just how accurately he recreated the rocky details and moody atmosphere. From the arching, crooked cherry blossom trees to the rocky statue half-submerged in the river every detail evokes the emotional tale of Kratos bonding with his son Atreus on their journey.

Fearsome flora feeds on foolish astronauts

If you will insist on picking flowers on alien worlds, at the very least you should check they’re not the offspring of some larger carnivorous plant. That’s Paddy Bricksplitter‘s advice — as depicted in this great little scene. An unsuspecting pink-clad astronaut skips through an excellent alien landscape, seemingly oblivious to the floral horror her pruning has awakened. The giant flower beastie is a cracker — all spikes and teeth and sinister tongue-stamen thing. I love the use of balloon panels as petals, and the ring of teeth at the top is nicely done. The purple rocks add a wonderful splash of otherworldly colour to the backdrop.

Real paths have curves

In a world where it seems as if a castle builder’s merit is measured in part by their best stone and timber medieval cottage, it is not hard to imagine that the motif has been perfected over the years. Though it is nearly impossible to invent anything new, builders like David Zambito still manage to bring something fresh to the table.

It is no surprise that I will point out the sloping path as ingenious and unique. It is so simple and effective that the real surprise is the fact we haven’t seen such paths everywhere! But I should not ignore the patchy snow on the frozen pond, achieved by combining clear and white slope pieces, or the stone walls on the cottage. What really brings the creation together is the smoothly flowing snow, made out of an assortment of curved slope pieces.

Defend the fortress from the dragons, with full hardness

A thick stone wall is all well and good, but how does that help when what you’re up against has huge fangs, breathes fire, and can fly? Michael K. addresses this dilemma in this large-scale castle siege diorama titled expressively, “With Full Hardness”.

The scene is quite moody, using mainly dark colours, focusing on dark green. Even darker than the colour pallet is the theme, a vicious battle that the builder depicts quite explicitly, sparing no blood in the shape of translucent red parts. The best part of the build has to be the dragons, all posed and placed so they convey as much sense of motion and story as they can.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown

Light is everything in this atmospheric creation by Henjin Quilones. Young Queen Ylspeth has gathered her council to her palace to seek advice. The photograph centres in on the young monarch’s concentrated face, leaving her advisors suggestively out of focus.

Using a glowing orange laptop screen to create a sense of torchlight emanating from the left of the room, and a desk lamp to imitate glaring sunlight to the right, gives the model a genuine sense of place. It also metaphorically frames the difficult choices the Queen must make: the two statues behind her, one holding a sword the other a key, reinforcing the motif.

Awesome 8-foot-long LEGO Indiana Jones diorama recreates Raiders of the Lost Ark intro [Video]

After wowing us with an amazing collaborative diorama of Cloud City, builder Caleb Watson has turned his skills to another classic Harrison Ford franchise, Indiana Jones. In this huge diorama, Indy runs through all the perils from the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark as he escapes the temple with the idol. But this diorama holds a secret: it’s completely motorized, with minifigure Indy actually dodging each of the traps.

Check out this video of the action as Indy makes his way through the temple, and then read about the details of how it works below.

Learn more about this model below