Tag Archives: family

Atomic age traditions of the nuclear family

Kids. They grow up so fast. One day they’re playing with LEGO and coloring books, the next they’re asking hard questions like, “Dad, why is our family different? Why do we wear these cardboard robot suits?” Builder duo Les Foutch‘s charming scene captures a moment between father and son that is both silly and heartwarming. Les Foutch were inspired by the cardboard robot from Collectible Minifigures Series 23, seen here bound inside the family album. The builders do an admirable job enlarging the retro robot costume for father and son, recreating details at two different scales. The child’s bedroom is wonderfully detailed with matching furniture and storage solutions that look like they could have come from Ikea, and shelves packed with everything a child could need, like Star Wars microbuild vehicles.

Father-Son Moment

This scene was displayed by Les Foutch, members of Canadian QuéLUG, at last month’s Exposition Deux tonnes de briques. Looks like a magnifique show for all involved.

A dysfunctional family portrait

Here’s something some of us can relate to: You gather the family for one of those formal portraits and dad has some unsavory opinions, mom worries about your eating habits, brother would rather dress as Batman and the less said about little sis the better. The end product is a study in angst and dysfunction forever immortalized over your parent’s dining table. LEGO builder Joseph Zawada has a similar vibe going here except this family is a bunch of mechs. They most certainly share a family resemblance. There are four mechs in all but, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to show you just two of my favorites.

Mechtober 2022 - Family Portrait

Click to delve deeper into family dysfunction

This is one dad bod we can all strive for

As Dom Toretto will tell you, family is important. Vincent Kiew has heeded these words and paid tribute to the simple joy of hanging out with your family in this lovely LEGO build. Each character is full of personality and smiles! The dog is adorable with an impressively spherical ball to play with. Both mother and daughter are great examples of how Mixel ball joints are a boon for those making characters with character – the posing, and head tilts in particular, are great. The most parts-intensive family member here, though, is the father figure, who looks ready to take his surfboard to the sea. He’s also in terrific shape, if I may say so! Having his shirt off shows off just how well his body is sculpted. And I mean that both with the bricks and those muscles. So much for the infamous ‘dad bod’…

F A M I L Y

This one will get you right in the feels

There’s something special about a family building LEGO together. Dave Kaleta and son, Elliot, collaborated on this slice-of-life diorama. It was a gift to Elliot’s grandmother, celebrating one of their favorite shared activities: watering the plants in her back yard together. The quality of the build is stunning, but the sentiment behind this is even more touching. But…since this is a LEGO-focused site, let’s take a moment to appreciate the offset between the tiles in the patio, the use of fences in the chairs, and the expressive characters. Even the watering can is a tiny bit of joy.

Oma's Backyard (2021)

If you like this collaboration between Dave and Elliot, you’ll be amazed at the work they did together on their Alphabet fleet.

Not your average grandma

Grandma is here, but unfortunately you won’t get any cookies, juice, and stories from this one because well, she is made out of bricks! I wonder if builder Brandon Jones was inspired by his own gram in the creation of this build.

Grandma Head (3)

Jones does an excellent job shaping a round face out of bricks and some curved pieces. The lady’s ears use yellow dish pieces, she’s even got some earrings which utilize the white lifebuoy element for the loop earring effect. The bust’s hair is mostly rendered by slopes in light and dark greys. In my mind, the inspiration behind this build may be the grandma from one of the old LEGO Family sets dating back from the seventies before minifigures existed and instead larger figures were produced. Either way it certainly is a unique bust build.