Tag Archives: Filbrick

The vulture will clean up after you’re gone [Building Techniques]

You can tell someone has fired up the Iron Forge because of so many clever uses for their seed part. This time, we’ve got LEGO flower stems and filbrick pulls it off with style. The large cactus (or succulent) is adorned in your usual green flower stems to create its spines while its smaller prickly friend sports the same part in olive green. There’s even one flower stem in lavender. Finally, a few brown stems creates the unmistakable ruffle around the vulture’s neck. The eye looks as if you can screw that in with a flathead screwdriver but it is a clever use of the wheel bearing part. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a fan of the pouring un-bricked parts as demonstrated here with the desert ground.

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“Arch” rival builds vie in Iron Forge [Feature]

The Iron Builder competition pits a veteran building champion against a challenger in a LEGO twist on the Iron Chef cooking show. But how does one become a challenger? One path is the Iron Forge competition, where everyone is invited to build and share models using the “seed part,” with the pool becoming a bracketed competition until one is chosen. The free-for-all phase just wrapped up, featuring the seed part of “any mudguard with only one wheel arch.” Here are a few that caught our eye.

“Fun at the Fair” by Dominique Boeynaems – 21 mudguards

“Mud-Guarded” by Bousker – 33 mudguards (each of those traps on the wall uses 4!)

Keep on rolling to more creative mudguard builds

There’s something fishy about this vehicle

Anyone fancy some fish and ships? This flying craft darts through the air without the aid of feathers or wings thanks to the imagination of filbrick. A striking color palette (love that red webbing between the gold spines for the fins) combines with a streamlined design to create a truly memorable vehicle. I can imagine that golden propeller spinning as the segmented body weaves its way through the clouds. The question is: would this fish out of water handle just as well under the sea?

Give that lizard a banana

Over at New Elementary, the results are in from the “Mind that Banana” contest that challenged builders to make creations featuring any of LEGO’s banana elements. Filbrick crawled into the bunch of first-place builds with this mellow yellow iguana. As the builder mentions, yellow iguanas do exist as the typically green lizards appear yellow if born with albinism. Bananas are featured as spines, toes, eyelids, and the tip of the tail. Speaking as a former Iguana owner, the anatomy here is spot-on.

Creating a lifelike lizard with limited colors is no easy feat. Here’s a behind-the-scenes pic of how Filbrick found this scaly friend in a sea of yellow.

The Crash Bandicoot tribute that we spotlighted last week also made it into the beautiful bunch of banana winners. Congratulations to everyone who participated, and thanks to New Elementary for such an a-peeling competition!

Touring the contryside on the back of a LEGO golem has its ups and downs

While there are certainly smoother ways to travel from point A to point B, they won’t be nearly as memorable as riding on the back of this stone golem by filbrick. Bonus points for being able to stay in your hotel room as you travel. The simple eyes and slightly open mouth give this golem a very friendly look, although I expect a bit of collateral damage may be unavoidable given the size of those feet. A fun part at the center of the chest is the leg from the infamous Astromech Chopper from Star Wars Rebels.

Adorable LEGO kid in a Triceratops costume

Minifigures wearing costumes have becom quite common with many of the Collectible Minifigure Series includiong them, but this LEGO model by filbrick takes the costumed character to a whole new level! This brick-built kid wearing a Triceratops costume is full of great details. from the tussled hair to the little nose to the oversized feet. I especially like the eyes, which inlude a 1×1 transaprent blue tile for the pupils. The expresion is pure joy!

Oodles and oodles of LEGO doodles

One look at filbrick‘s colourful collection of LEGO critters, and suddenly I’m transported back to my school days. I had a nasty habit back then of not really paying attention to whatever the teacher was saying, and instead doodling in my school diary. Da Vinci it was not – mostly stick figures, actually. (I never did make it as an artist.) But occasionally, in really boring lessons, I’d start drawing characters in much the same way as filbrick has here. Mind you, I think I prefer this version, aptly titled “Doodle Art Burst”. I only had a four-way Biro to hand, but the wide range of colours on display here does make the whole thing pop. And there’s a good variety of pieces too. These guys use everything from coral and beehives to leaves and engine blocks to give them heaps of character!

Nevermind the dishes, we have castles to build!

At first glance, I was thinking these dishes are piling up and someone ought to do something about that. But then upon closer inspection of this LEGO creation by Filbrick, I realized someone has brought that beautiful outdoor view into the kitchen sink. The stack of plates makes pretty good towers, and the inverted red cups replicate the tower toppers nicely. The cutting board even makes an excellent drawbridge and the sink itself acts as the moat. I’m also fond of the stove burners to the right and the use of forced perspective is pretty ingenious. If my kitchen window above the sink had a better view than a little ramshackle house of a guy who died last February, I might consider stacking my dishes in such a way. But for now, check out the filbrick archives to see other clever and imaginative LEGO creations.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of Classic Space

No, this isn’t Twitter’s new logo. Not that we know of anyway. Actually, we’re not really sure what’s going on with that. What we are sure of is this is a neat LEGO robot bird built by Filbrick. First glance may say blue jay, further inspection may say robotic blue jay but one detail, the black and yellow stripe along the wings, plucks the old nostalgia strings and harkens back to the Classic Space sets of yore. If you missed out on the Classic Space heyday of the 70s and 80s then check out our Galaxy Explorer set review from a few months back.

A whale of an idea

As an artist and a LEGO builder, I really enjoy refreshing approaches to building. This bold piece by filbrick looks as if it was made with cut paper. There are eight visible colored layers of brick here, including the stylish white frame. Each is spaced out a bit to create shadows between each distinct layer. I love how some layers showcase various coral and sea plants. And that bold white humpback whale, diver and fish against the dark background is a superb and striking effect. I imagine this could look lovely standing on a table or as a wall hanging. If you like this as much as I do, the builder leaves a not-so-subtle reminder that this can be voted as a LEGO Ideas set. You can use that information as you see fit. This is not the first time we’ve been in awe of filbrick’s work. Click the little blue link to see what I mean.

A happy little brick-blending robot

This smiling mixer by Filbrick blends big LEGO bricks down into little ones with delight! The robot just wants to help you build by offering a variety of brick sizes. The happy little appliance possesses wonderful rounded edges and arm joints, which make the red bricks stand out with their hard edges. The curvature in the top of the processor lid is made possible by hinge plates. The bricks inside the blending swirl are suspended using transparent pieces for that added kinetic feel. Of course, the LEGO fun doesn’t end there! The backsplash, plug and outlet, and the kitchen utensils are all brick-built, giving the whole scene a fun, playful atmosphere. The inclusion of a DUPLO brick is a nice touch–always good to see other LEGO products make appearances with the more widely known lines.

A new way to do layered shadowboxes

I have to be honest, I’m pretty jealous I hadn’t thought of this myself. Whenever I go to a comic-con, I always spend a bit of time ogling over the booths with lighted, layered-paper shadowboxes. How did I never think to make one with LEGO?! Well, it looks like filbrick beat me to it! First up is a shadowbox classic: a stag in the woods. I love that the builder chose to go with this color gradient. It does appear that he may have been inspired by the work of talented LEGO artist Grantmasters to complete the top portion of the stag itself.

Next up is an astronaut floating in space. The colors and shapes are both awesome and trippy at the same time! The extra window on the side is a cool touch too. While both builds are renders, and I’m not sure if real-life replicas in these specific colors would be possible, they sure are fascinating!

I’m going to have to test this concept out with some of my own designs! How about you? What images would you create?

Not your thing? That’s okay – we have tons of other art builds for you to check out! We also have all sorts of cool builds by Grantmasters that you won’t want to miss!

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