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.

And the forecast for Jedha city this week is...gray...light bluish gray to be exact.

The scene from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in which an Imperial Star Destroyer menacingly hovers over Jedha City certainly makes for a striking LEGO diorama, and it seems to entice some of the best Star Wars builders. Although we’ve seen Jedha City with a Star Destroyer expertly recreated once before by Hannes Tscharner, this time 0necase has made a much larger version of the scene, and the result is breathtaking.

The Star Destroyer is superb, and the shaping on the front and back of the bridge is particularly well done. However, the real star of the show is the mountainous base and city itself. I love the amount of colors and different greebles the builder has incorporated into the city, which serve to make it pop against the beautiful layering accomplished with various brown and earth orange wedge plates. Even the Imperial cargo shuttles transporting kyber crystals to the Star Destroyer are present, represented by minifigure roller skates — a particularly inventive parts usage.

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In the City of the Dead, you will find the Claw Viper Temple

Diablo 2 is a game that is almost two decades old now, yet still holds a sizable following, including myself and, judging by some of his creations, Tammo S. Taking the game’s age into consideration, the photography angle of the creation makes much more sense, as it reflects the top-down view of the game. If you’re familiar with the game, you’ll love this creation for all its accurate details like the Paladin character in the middle sporting a Holy Fire aura and a Bone Shield. But even if this is the first time you’ve heard of this game, there is a lot to see.

Combinations of different tan colours to create an impression of stone bricks and all the textures and architectural elements really facilitate the Egyptian style of this part of the game. The creation was undoubtedly built for the top-down view characteristic for the Diablo videogame series, but this alternate angle still shows a some details that would otherwise remain hidden.

A pirate’s life is a wonderful life – filled with adventure and sport

“But live every minute for all that is in it, for the life of a pirate is short…” In celebration of pirate living, here comes Lego Fjotten‘s pirate-themed carnival float — featuring a rascally-looking crew attempting to evade the guns of an Imperial fort. The ship is simply done but perfectly shaped for this scale, whilst the fort is absolutely packed with detail and texture. Don’t miss the rockwork at its base, the construction of the palm tree, and the clever assortment of bricks used in the walls. Great use of the new Harry Potter wands as hinges on that front door too. Despite its tight footprint this model perfectly captures the fun and adventure that belong in a LEGO Pirates creation. All together now… “Aaaarrrr!”

Rewind the scene and play it again, and again, and again...

The wonderful thing about LEGO building is that we get to see the same thing built again and again yet they come out very different each time. This build by GolPlaysWithLego does it yet again and that never cease to amaze me. It reminds me when I was younger and had to keep rewinding my favourite scenes from Star Wars on the VHS countless times just to enjoy the coolness of it all. This scene from the planet Hoth is filled with the tiny goodness of a couple of Snowspeeders, an AT-ST and the big baddie AT-AT. I love how the red elements on the Snowspeeder break the monotony of the muted colors and both partially in motion seconds before the mighty AT-AT takes a fall.

When did you last let your heart take flight?

“Welcome to Agrabah. City of Mystery, of Enchantment, and the finest merchandise this side of the River Jordan…” This cool little LEGO Disney diorama by Peter Ilmrud captures both the exotic atmosphere of Aladdin’s hometown, and a real sense of action and excitement with characters leaping around the rooftops and the magic carpet soaring above. With multiple minifigures crammed into its tight circular footprint, the model has some nice detail in the framing walls. I particularly like the use of panel pieces to provide architectural texture to the top of the buildings. The only slightly jarring note for me is the mixing of regular minifigs with Friends-style mini-dolls — a form of LEGO heresy in some parts — but the overall scene is so nice we’ll let it slide.

Relive the battle of Sokovia from The Avengers: Age of Ultron in this huge collaborative display

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has given us some epic spectacles in recent years, with the battle of Sokovia from The Avengers: Age of Ultron being one of the biggest. Inevitably it would take a team of super-talented builders to replicate the movie’s centre piece in LEGO form; step forward SaltyLUG who amazingly have achieved just this.

Displayed at Brickfair Virginia, this sprawling scene captures the key scenes from the battle in a single diorama. Amongst the exquisitely built streets mayhem’s breaking out everywhere. Look closely at the front of the church and you’ll find Thor, Vision and Iron Man confronting Ultron. Elsewhere Utron’s army causes havoc amongst the general populace. Inside the Novi Grad church the rest of the Avengers prevent further sentries from reaching and deactivating the repulsors keeping the chunk of Sokovia afloat.

There are many more details and several Easter eggs to find if you look close enough. The group have also recorded the development of the project on NS Brick Designs’ blog.

A market where you can buy cartoony and sell realistic

LEGO castle is one of the most perfected themes hobbyists build in, with nearly standardized textures and all sorts of solutions to build your perfect castle or medieval village. There is a price that comes with this, because just trying to build the best medieval creation you can some times is not enough. Originality has split the theme in question into two wider categories: cartoony style with crazy colours and rugged pseudo-realistic builds containing almost exclusively earth tones. Mountain Hobbit has a bit of both, especially noticeable in his latest creation, the Wefyrf Valley Wheat – Market

The landscaping is very neat with flowing curved shapes giving the village a realistic setting, and the dense treetops add to that too. But we should focus on the main part of the build, the village in the centre. The builder uses some wacky shapes for the walls of the houses that are set at a slight angle that still seems believable and coupled by natural colours they almost look realistic, but still somewhat joyfully cartoony – something LEGO bricks do not naturally lend to physically, but definitely do conceptually as a child’s toy in its basic purpose.

Blacktron attack on Redstone Five

Last year LEGO model builder Moto debuted his dazzling Chrysalis spaceship, and recently at Denver Comic-Con he enhanced his original creation with a space dragon attack on a remote space base with space heroes on the defensive. In the builder’s own words- “While performing standard maintenance, the Redstone 5 launchpad has come under attack from the Blacktron Dragon Obscurtronum!” and you can see the brave efforts the base occupants are making to guard against the assault.

The star of the show here is still undoubtedly the Chrysalis ship, which shines on the screen even better now with a contrasting background element and the bustle of the battle scene.

The only place where you can trade chocolate for dragon eggs

The LEGO Elves theme keeps surprising me personally with how popular it is amongst fans. While the related LEGO Friends remains successful, it is the Elves with their characteristic motives and colours that keeps inspiring builders to expand the story on their own. The rich world surpasses its target audience and as Martin Harris proves, there is something for everyone in it.

The Elvan sea port of Elvadion is an epic diorama showing us a less adventurous slice of life in Elvendale. There is everything one could expect of an Elves creation here, from bright colours and ornate architecture to cute animals, including dragons.

Click to explore the port town more closely!

Cube art, but without the Cubism

Creativity and art are closely related concepts, and there are few things that promote creativity as much as LEGO bricks. As a result, LEGO fan creations often turn out to be the subtlest works of art, as builders express themselves without the pressure of being serious or conveying some deeper meaning or emotion. But in other examples, like this one by Anthony Wilsonn, the main purpose of the creation is indeed to carry an artistic meaning.

The creation seems to be a composition of different, seemingly unrelated pillars and statues set in a natural environment that connects them to a coherent whole. The most impressive parts are set in the centre of the image — the square “arch” and the blossoming tree growing around it. Anthony provides a bit of story to the build, but he still leaves it vague enough that the creation remains open to our interpretations.

The grace of disgrace: an incredible resurrected dragon

It appears Aaron Newman has developed an affinity for flying elements in his LEGO creations, as they appear in several of his latest builds. Floating and flying parts are nothing new, but few builders take the effort of going the extra step to make them look this good (presumably by digitally editing out the supports–or maybe learning black magic and making parts float for real!).

Aaron has used his editing and presentation magic on more than just the flying draconic skeleton. The purple light emanating from the circle on the ground was achieved with a glass table and a lot of effort, while Aaron says the backlit stained glass windows were just as difficult to get right. We should not ignore the actual LEGO build though. It is all about atmosphere here and every part helps create it. The architecture with the circular design of the hall gives a nice focal point to the scene, and the impression is finished off by the ground texture, passing from a cobblestone floor through a circular section of the tiling into a clean glowing purple area. And if you are, like me, wondering what makes the little purple gaps between the “stones” of the circle, Aaron has revealed the secret: purple quarter-circle roller coaster tracks!

Dare you face the giant lord in his Profaned Capital?

One of the more interesting video games in terms of story recently has been the Dark Souls series with its subtle lore. Revan New has created this visually impressive diorama of the Profaned Capital from Dark Souls 3 with hardly any description, save for it being inspired by said videogame. With imposing pillars and arches set in a rocky environment, this is definetely one of the most memorable areas of the game.

See Yhorm the Giant upon his dark throne