It seems like a crime how underrated Dutch builder Barthezz Brick is, and he’s lucky to have Spider-Man stop this crime! Barthezz Brick has been featured on the Brothers Brick before with a smaller downtown city scene, but he has outdone himself with this large and extremely detailed diorama of Spider-Man, surrounded by busy and realistic city life.
Click to explore the diorama in detail
Built by the members of SwissLUG as a collaborative build, this amazing Victorian-age city has details everywhere you look. Unlike many LEGO cities, the properly scaled tall ship at the docks doesn’t dwarf the rest of the layout, fitting right in while also serving as a beautiful anchor in the center of the scene.
Click to see more pictures of this amazing LEGO port
Immediately recognisable to anyone who’s played Fallout 4 — or saw any of its promotional material — here’s a LEGO build of the iconic Red Rocket truck stop by Allan Corbeil. The 50s retro diner aesthetic is captured perfectly, but so is the game’s signature air of neglect and decay — no mean feat to render effectively in pristine plastic bricks. The rocket itself is an obvious highlight, but don’t miss the brilliant shaping of the girder supports beneath…
Click to see more of the LEGO Red Rocket truck stop
This inventor’s workshop building by Pieter Dennison has a wonderful “realistic steampunk” feel. There are enough quirky and clanky touches on display to inject a touch of the fantastic, but it’s all grounded in a grubby Victorian-era earthiness — the dark tones of the base, the subtle patches of faded colour set into the walls, the haphazard tiling on the roof. There’s a nice sense of activity and everyday life amongst the surrounding figures, but the winning detail for me is the wonky telescope poking out from the attic.
While this creation by MemeLUG member Micah Beideman definitely looks amazing, I still have to ponder the practical benefit of a fence underwater. All joking aside, this is indeed a pretty sweet re-imagining of a LEGO Atlantis set, Gateway of the Squid.
The base looks somewhat rushed or simple until you take a closer look at it, with some nice textured stone walls in the back and very well placed vegetation. The little temple and titular gateway are not bad either. The main focus of the build is the squid though. It is not the first time we have seen inverted tyres used as organic texture, and it is not the first time the builder used this technique either, but he still managed to sneak in a bit of a unique twist with the printed 4×4 domes as eyes. I am personally always wary of using inverted tyres, because their shape and texture is hard to match with other bricks. Micah did not seem to have such problems, as the tentacle elements and a wedge slope used as the tip of the squid’s conical body flow very well with the tyres.
If you’re traveling through Northern Italy, you might encounter the picturesque city of Lecco. In his latest masterpiece, “Memories of Lecco”, Dario Minisini chose to model a representation of the city’s renowned waterfront architecture. I really enjoy the overall composition of this model, which has made an excellent use of color. The brown and lavender buildings make for an excellent contrast to one another, and the mixing of old light yellowish-gray and light blueish-gray bricks creates a vintage-looking patina that feels authentic.
There is certainly no shortage of charm here. What makes Dario’s model so memorable is the amount of thought and effort that went into incorporating so much detail. A look at the tree with half its leaves missing suggests Fall must be right around the corner. Weathered-looking roof shingles are made possible with parts such as the boat oar, and the benches utilize classic Fabuland fences to great effect.
This rustic gas station was built by Markus Rollbühler. He started things off with the Ford tow truck, which then served as the inspiration behind the surrounding architecture and landscaping. According to Markus, he’s “not much of a car builder,” but I can’t help but be impressed by the intricate-looking towing mechanism on the back of his vibrant, bright-light-orange truck. Thanks to the excellent use of darker colors, Markus’ gas station really looks like something you might find while cruising down Route 66.
There are plenty of little details to enjoy, including the building’s tilted siding, the custom-built outdoor furniture, and the little red bird in the tree. In particular, I’m loving the design of those trees, which uses several green feather parts as leaves. This same technique was used in one of Markus’ models we featured back in October. In fact, that particular tree looks like it might have been transplanted next to this gas station.
I don’t think there is anything more fitting to celebrate “Revenge of the Fifth” (the day after May the Fourth) than this diorama by Sergio Jaensson, which depicts the arrival of Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Although the shuttle and some of the tie fighters are official LEGO sets, their use doesn’t hurt the overall build — the diorama is so big you probably didn’t even notice them. The signature imperial white glowy lines on the walls of the hangar are a particularly excellent detail, as they prevent the walls from looking too simple and barren.
I like the use of the yellow Emperor Palpatine minifigure as it gives the scene a bit of a classic flavor. The build also contains a few Easter eggs: If you look closely in the background near the TIE fighter, you can spot some bumbling Stormtroopers — one has almost fallen from the walkway!
A three-week collaborative effort between Eli Willsea and Grant Davis resulted in a beautifully atmospheric LEGO diorama depicting Rey scavenging a derelict Star Destroyer from Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens. The build itself is incredible, showcasing both builders’ talents in creating battle damage, believable layers of sand coverage, greebling, partially buried TIE fighters and Lambda shuttles, and behind it all the stark Imperial architecture. The lighting in the scene is practical, making use of bright lamps and a smoke machine to complete the aesthetic.
Update: This model is the winner of The Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year award for 2018.
Grant has also shared a behind-the-scenes video showing a time-lapse of the diorama’s construction. The video shows just how much structure is necessary to support the large interior scene that makes Rey look so small. The builder walking back and forth adding bricks also proves just how huge the diorama is!
If you enjoyed Eli and Grant’s scene, you might also like the crashed Star Destroyer scene by KevFett2011.
Earlier this year we wrote an article about two builders from Australia who came together to create an epic mythical scene. Their inspiration came from a Nordic legend about a pair of warriors who slay a fiery dragon. One of the builders, Ben Cossy, continues the tale with the dragon he calls “Yddreig the Red”. Now we have a snapshot diorama of the confrontation about to take place. It must have taken countless hours to create the incredibly detailed landscape, which features amazing rock work. Everything is positioned in a way that really brings it to life and sucks us straight into this fantasy world.
One thing is for sure: our heroes look like they have quite the battle ahead of them to survive.
The battle scene from Crait from Star Wars The Last Jedi was most memorable for its distinctive blood-red dust plumes that billow from the wake of the Resistance Ski Speeders in their feeble attempt to bring down the First Order. Their target was the modified canon protected by the First Order Heavy Assault Walkers (AT-M6) that towered over the battlefield. Builder Irwan Prabowo miniaturised the scene with a diorama that perfectly captures the tense moment.
We love the cracked planet surface texturing approach Irwan used. If you take a closer look, the tiny Ski Speeders use minifigure skates to complete the look (albeit on the outrigger, not the ski). How appropriate!
What better place to stand guard during the winter than by a hot spring? The scenery in this diorama by Jaap Bijl truly is something to look at — in fact, perhaps it’s “scenery” that the dwarves are protecting!
The builder has used his signature sagging roof style lined with a bit of snow, along with some nice wood construction on the building. While the building uses some new ideas, the star of the show is the hot spring. It uses window pane pieces as the water to make the surface extremely smooth, giving it a great reflection and allowing the deep colours underneath to be seen. These colours continue outwards on the shore in a gentle gradient to the sulfuric yellow that ends under the snow.