If you’re not gone already, make your escape from the salt-mine and blow off some steam tonight. If you can’t afford to live the high-life, then your friends on the other side of the tracks are always ready to set things off. If you are headed in that direction, why not stop at Filip Gabryel’s Gabry$ billiard hall for an adult beverage and a rack or two. As the builder says “Focus man, focus on the spheres“…
I’ve only recently grown to appreciate the silent-screen and 1940’s The Great Dictator was the film that hooked me. TBB fixture Stefan Schindler (Brainbikerider) shares a similar affection for the movie and has brought his considerable building skill to the task of recreating its most often cited sequence. According to Stefan “Ever since I saw the first pictures of the little Lego globe, I dreamed of building the iconic scene of Charlie Chaplin’s ballet with the globe in “The Great Dictator”, which is one of my most favourite movies.” This isn’t the first time TBB has featured a diorama from The Great Dictator, back in 2008 we introduced readers to a model by Piglet that effectively tackled another scene entirely.
Friday Night Fights is on hiatus this weekend, but that doesn’t mean we’re leaving fight-fans without some bread and circuses in the meantime. Imagine Rigney (Imagine™) would like to invite you to his Ninjago Dragon Arena to prove your mad Spinjitzu skills that you’re always bragging about. The mosaic face on the arena floor is an eye-catcher and so is the gray samurai statue. I’ve never been more tempted to play the game than when I saw this arena, or more tempted to build my own. I can only imagine the delight this would produce in young fans of the Ninjago theme; it must be something akin to Spinjitzu nirvana.
I’m not quite sure what the 0.5 is supposed to symbolize, and Piotr (MeGustaKapusta) isn’t telling.
Though given the look of that mech, I’m not positive I want to know. There’s a certain bliss in not knowing.
Gilcélio Chagas has made this lovely little marine diorama starring one of the coolest critters in the ocean, the seahorse.
By harnessing the power of ever awesome lime (an even more potent power source than screams or laughter), Dave Shaddix has rendered both Mike Wazowski and the famous doorway from Monsters Inc. in 100% pure LEGO brick. As well as the excellent sculpting work on Mike, the various details like the clipboard really make this diorama stand out.
Although it’s a little low on color, that’s exactly what works in this diorama by K.Kreations. Both the roofs on the crumbling huts and the complex rock-work of the ravine are masterfully executed.
K. apparently built this for the Legends of Brickdom Global Adventure Challenge.
Here’s a lovely use for a mosaic: use it to build a backdrop to your creation. Bluesecrets did exactly this with her latest build for her local LEGO store community window. (The community window is a small dedicated space in LEGO stores for adult fan clubs to exhibit.) This is a great example of using a mosaic for forced perspective to add depth to a diorama.
What was I talking about…oh yeah, dioramas done correctly. Although the frame of reference changes from the future to the past, the results are largely the same in this colorful model entitled “Welcoming the King“. The builder is Teabox (henrik_zwomp), who makes his sophomore appearance on this venerable blog with a diorama that pulls you in with a bear-hug and doesn’t let go. Although there is a mob of minifigs in a pretty tight space, the scene manages to never lose clarity. This wide-screen shot is my favorite of the bunch. You just know the black-hatted wizard on the second floor is up to no good…never trust a wizard.
My big knock on many sci-fi builders is that they rarely build a setting for their awesomesauce pointy-nose spaceships, opting instead for the typical TBB friendly eye-burning white background. Raoul Baldwin (Raoulosos) clearly knows the power of a well constructed diorama to not only complement but elevate a futuristic personal conveyance. This immersive scene has all the sci-fi boilerplate a viewer could ask for: elevated walkways, floating ship, textured walls and wacky minifigs. Raoul also shows that he understands how to use color, using tan and olive for the ship and its container and nowhere else. My only nitpick is that if the builder had zoomed in just a little more, he could have eliminated the white border entirely. Many builders won’t go this extra step because it means that part of the build will inevitably be cut off. Enjoy your Saturday serving of sci-fi action.
Brian Williams (BMW_Indy) is back making awesome dioramas. This time he’s cooked up this excellent cube of goodness from Hogan’s Heroes, one of my all time favorite TV shows. There’s everything from Carter’s underground chemistry lab to the hidden antenna in the flagpole. You’ll have to inspect the barracks more thoroughly than Schultz, but you might just recognize some great nods to specific episodes. Plus Brian has outfitted the whole thing with lights, so it looks great in photographs. Note the cool textures on the walls using the antistuds on the backs of plates, and the edges of wedge plates for the rough-hewn walls of the tunnel network.
If you don’t want to click through the photos individually, check out this slideshow Brian made:
You can’t stop Ryan McNaught (TheBrickMan), you can only hope to contain him. Feast your eyes on Ryan’s LEGO Acropolis, currently on display in the Nicholson Museum in Sydney as part of their “Etruscans: a classical fantasy” exhibition. According to the museum’s website:
Following on from the extraordinary success of the LEGO Colosseum in 2012, the Brickman, Ryan McNaught, has turned his hand to one of the most iconic architectural monuments of Ancient Greece – The Acropolis!
The LEGO model displays the Acropolis both as it was in the fifth century BC and as it is today as one of Greece’s most popular tourist attractions. Captured in LEGO are some of the Acropolis’ more famous visitors including Pericles, Lord Elgin, Dame Agatha Christie, and even Elton John.
Also on display is the museum’s 19th century model of the acropolis, which captured the acropolis as it stood in 1895 in plaster.
Ryan’s awesome work will be on display through June of 2014, but if you can’t make it in person, be sure to check out the full set of photos over on Flickr.
