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.

The perfect winter scene

I could go through every detail of this digital build by Bigboy99899 and tell you why it is perfect… but just take a closer look for yourself! One can almost feel the weight of the snow on the trees’ branches and the slipperiness of the ice, not to mention the warm-looking cottage. But even with all the details, the best part must be the presentation; the render looks like real LEGO at first glance and the lighting is perfectly wintery. “Emotions: Winter” is appropriately titled – can you say you don’t feel the emotions of winter (whatever they are) when looking at this build?

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Fan builds incredible 35,000 piece LEGO Bioshock diorama celebrating all 3 games [Video]

Imagine Rigney has been combining his love of LEGO and retro-scifi video game Bioshock for years. The Brothers Brick first covered his impressive entrance to the underwater city of Rapture in 2011, and in 2014 Imagine’s breathtaking Bank of the Prophet from Bioshock Infinite amazed us with its stunningly huge songbird perched above the floating city.

Well, we weren’t the only ones who noticed Imagine’s incredible talent — Bioshock developers 2K Games have also been keenly following his brick-built fan art. Recently, 2K contacted Imagine and asked him to build a brick version of the cover art for their remastered edition of the Bioshock games, Bioshock: The Collection. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Imagine set to work, and has turned out this jaw-dropping collage of Bioshock imagery.

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Exclusive LEGO Star Wars Rogue One preview, thanks to a bed sheet and a broken lamp

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story releases later this week, but Ian MacDonald has built a special preview shot in LEGO with help from a bed sheet and some extreme forced perspective in his basement. Rogue One takes place just before 1977’s A New Hope, when the Death Star was being built. Ian’s scene depicts Jyn Erso walking out of the hanger on Yavin IV, where the Rebellion is based. His scene matches a shot seen 44 seconds into the second official trailer, and 2000 bricks went into just making the huge hanger, let alone our view into the distance.

I just had to quote Ian’s description of putting this scene together, as I’m sure many builders will recognise their own experiences in these words: So many things had to go just right to make this image. There’s 3 layers of background, a bed sheet for a sky, and a couple lamps, one of which is broken. All shot in my basement.

As you can see, the end result is fantastic, but I really enjoy seeing ‘behind the scenes’ photographs that show the work and thought that goes into this kind of cinematic LEGO shot. The forced perspective of the layers of background gives the impression of differing size and scale with huge mountains at a distance, a tall pyramid-like structure and then the expansive hanger itself. A lot of effort for one shot but the finished shot is awesome.

26 Dorset Street, a beautiful building on the worst street in London

Between 26 and 27 Dorset Street in Spittalfields, London, was a passageway that led to the home of Mary Jane Kelly at 13 Miller Street. Dorset Street had the reputation of being the worst street in London, which is a fitting description for the location of the brutal murder of Ms Kelly by Jack the Ripper on 9 November 1888. Mark Hodgson has clearly being doing his research for this LEGO build as he has accurately captured some lovely details. The ‘sand green’ creeping mold and the good use of old and new light grey for the discoloured paving really gives that dirty old London feel. Mark’s brick-built windows are perfect when looking at the only contemporary photograph and those window arches – well they are simply awesome.

There are many more detailed photographs of the full build (as well as some research images) on Mark’s Flickr album. The entire Millers Court scene includes a street, additional buildings, and a fully furnished interior that includes the unfortunate Ms Kelly’s bedroom and even a grocery business that was located in the same building.

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Warning! Bridge ices before road

Although there is no snow in this little ravine scene by Lukasz Wiktorowicz, it certainly looks like a chilly day to be on that Asian-inspired covered bridge. The composition and muted color palette of this build are both remarkable. I love that Lukasz ingeniously used the old LEGO rope bridge piece upside down to add a beautiful curve to the bottom of his wooden bridge. But my favorite details are the roots and autumnal leaves on those stunning gray trees.

To invent, you need a good imagination, and a pile of junk

Charis Stella depicts the moment when two proud LEGO inventors introduce their latest steampunk automaton to a pair of potential inventors. The figure posing here is well done, with nice use of custom arms allowing one of the inventors to adopt an appropriate “Goodness Gracious” stance. But it’s the clanky contraption doffing his hat to the visitors which captures the eye — a lovely touch which adds a bunch of character.

Everything is awesome in the LEGO village

Back in my childhood days a rich collection of LEGO road baseplates was the hallmark of wealth and loving grandparents. The more plates you have, the larger your playground becomes. Unfortunately, we don’t find road plates in official LEGO sets any longer, but Krešo Krejča brings them back with a vivid diorama that could easily fit into an official LEGO catalogue.

The builder brilliantly combines some classic City genres: farm, logistic services, construction site and a rural cottage. This diorama is not about advanced creations, but is amazingly full of life and motion. Go ahead and have a look at lots of perfectly executed shots revealing the everyday life of LEGO minifigures.

Living the high life

Heikki Mattila is on a roll. This excellent high-rise bedroom scene comes hot on the heels of a fabulous LEGO sauna. It’s a follow-up model to Heikki’s cool sitting room we featured previously, with a similar city skyline visible through the window. But it’s no less impressive for sticking with a theme. The bed with its cushions and attendant tables is nicely-built, and the abstract wall art looks fabulous. I also like the plant and the way it stands out against the microscale cityscape beyond the glass. However, it’s the imaginative use of a reversed baseplate as the bed’s headboard which makes the scene for me.

An Avalonian home and gardens spills over the border

In the peaceful rural setting of Avalonia, there is a grand old house called Königsfeld Manor. Life in the village of Avalonia is normally peaceful, but this spring a visit from an old friend brings worrisome tidings. This diorama by Patrick Massey is the perfect antidote to the current wintry conditions in the Northern Hemisphere. There is a lot to admire in this scene with its engaging mix of landscaping and architecture. My favourite part is definitely the overspill of landscape beyond the black border, I think this may be the first time I have seen this technique used so effectively.

The main house has some lovely architectural details and surprisingly it appears to be built on stilts; perhaps the monsoon season brings flood water. The decorative roof ridges are not the usual village design so I wonder if there’s a more sinister character living here. There’s another small building under construction with just a wooden frame on show at the moment. Perhaps it’s a storage barn or a granny flat to stop granny hassling those who live in the main house… ‘Have you seen my glasses?’, ‘Can you pass me the scroll?’, ‘These carrots are undercooked!’…

Protected under the branches of the Observer Tree

Ben Andrews describes this large LEGO diorama as a labor of love, and it certainly is lovely. An enormous tree stands atop a hill, full of treehouses, its trunk surrounded by winding staircases. Across a pool into which drains a broad waterfall sits a beautiful red-roofed watermill.

Full of stunning details and interesting little scenes, you don’t want to miss a single picture of Ben’s Observer Tree. At the top of the tree, there’s a small structure with a telescope, which is presumably where the tree gets its name.

See more of this excellent LEGO creation

Are you just going to leave it there to bleed out?

Someone call an ambulance, there’s been a murder! I find Steven Reid‘s latest scene a little disturbing. Why aren’t the yellow bricks helping? Are they really just going to stand there and watch?

I don’t often post digital LEGO creations, but this one caught my eye, and it doesn’t seem to feature any of the “cheating” which digital builders can succumb to — no impossible connections or parts/color combos that don’t exist.

Epitome of the Swedish idyll

We all know what Swedish houses look inside like (thank you, Ikea), but what about the exterior? Emil Lidé hones his microscale building skills with this lovely traditional Swedish cottage. We’ve already seen these brilliant trees in his previous set of sketches, however this house steals the show. Actually, there’s not much to describe besides the particular Scandinavian style, which the diorama is full of. And some huge boulders in the garden complete this land property especially well!