Tag Archives: duel

There ain’t room in this build for the both of us

Don’t get distracted by gGh0st‘s exquisite hat choices in this imminent LEGO duel. The real battle is one of technique between the two buildings in the background. Will the bank take the win, with its multitude of wooden slat techniques (stacked plates, stacked jumpers, and stacked candles)? It’s also got that darling lettering and an interesting black awning. But the brown building is no slouch, either. Smooth curves and sand green highlights at its crown lead down to more slats, this time with gray cheese slopes. The golden yellow curtains in the window are a great touch, as are the anti-studs (undersides) of a couple of 1×3 jumper plates at the base of the building. And each structure sports its own type of brick-built door. I can’t tell which one I like better!

The Shootout

A “little dueling club” with a lot of action

Return to the second book of the Harry Potter series in this outstanding LEGO Dueling Club by Alex Lam. The tan background is outstanding, employing a variety of structural techniques to recreate the Hogwarts hall. I particularly like the design of the lion’s head braziers, with school banners hung beneath. But amongst the throng of minifigures is the real highlight of the build: the dueling platform. This diorama of moon phases in purple and pearl gold is excellent, a perfect recreation from the movies. There’s quite a bit of skill in the use of those gold plates and tiles in the designs going from waxing to waning crescent, as the part availability is limited in that color.

dueling_club 1

I know the first image is a bit stationary, and my title did promise some action, so how about about a second shot with a bit more punch? Nothing beats watching the overly-pompous Lockhart get his butt kicked. Check out even more shots of the build on Alex’s Flickr page.

dueling_club 6

From Star Wars: Visions comes a duel in motion

Star Wars: Visions is a testament to what imaginative and unbridled creativity can do with Star Wars storytelling. This LEGO build by ABrickDreamer continues in this same spirit of creativity. The scene, from the short film The Duel, focuses on the two duelists–Ronin and the Sith Bandit Leader. Both wield their crimson blades with skill while perched upon a log headed for a waterfall. The Sith Bandit Leader deflects a rocket meant to destroy her while one of her bandits watches from the riverbank. This build is all about motion! There’s a flow from the tree in the back to the waterfall in the front, near the Ronin’s side of the log. The water’s movement is achieved through alternating how the transparent clear and blue pieces are positioned. The flower petals in the water also help show the river’s flow.

Star Wars Visions The Duel 2.0

The log’s shape comes from a pretty cool method–there are flex tubes linked together at the log’s core. The sides and top are clipped on the core, creating the stage for the epic duel. The riverbanks have some nice variations of green in with the greys to capture mossy river stones. A cool little Easter egg is the little brown piece floating in the water behind the log. It’s actually from a broken reddish-brown plate! Above it is some fire dripping from where the log was cut by a lightsaber. The wonderful piece used is from the minfigure blast effects pack, same for the explosion splash by the Sith Bandit Leader. If you want to take a closer look at this LEGO creation, check out this video where ABrickDreamer talks about the build and how it’s constructed:

Using the force to fight to the Teth

With the recent launch of Disney+, there’s been a lot of buzz about The Mandalorian, the latest Star Wars series to hit the TV screen. Builder Jaap Bijl reaches back into Star Wars’ televised past with a Star Wars: The Clone Wars duel between Obi Wan and the bounty hunter Cad Bane. The purple planet of Teth is well-represented here, with nicely sculpted rockwork and enough tonal variety to keep things interesting.

Clone Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Cad Bane

Both characters are locked in a fierce battle, complete with sabers waving and guns-a-blazing. While they may be the stars of the show, my favorite element in this scene is the black and gray tree. The leaves are cleverly sculpted from curved slopes, along with a few ball and socket joint connections.

Harry and Draco duel it out as stars of the show

When it comes to creations shared on The Brothers Brick, it may seem like the brick-built models are the stars of the show while minifigures stand in as accessories. This is not always the case, though. For example, in Hugo’s model of Draco Malfoy casting Serpensortia, the architecture acts as a frame or backdrop while the minifigures take center stage.

Serpensortia-1

Don’t get me wrong, this backdrop is built amazingly well – from the stained glass window, to the arch over the window, and the mixed brickwork – but I’m a sucker for well-integrated minifigures. While there are some stock characters mixed in, such as Filch, Snape, Draco and Harry, my favourites are the other characters that fill out the scene. There’s a subtle art to choosing the right facial expressions and hair pieces to bring a character to life, and then you need to position them in a dynamic way to ensure they’re reacting appropriately and not all standing parallel or perpendicular to each other. Hugo has nailed all of that in this scene. The full range of expected emotions is visible, with characters upset, scared, or angry depending on their house. Yet this ignores the most cleverly placed minifigure of them all…the one that’s included in the building itself as a moving painting.