Tag Archives: Gerrit Gottschalk

LEGO all-stars bring Edo-era Japan to life in LEGO in epic collab

Each year the RogueBricks community, home to many of Europe’s most accomplished LEGO builders, comes together for a collaborative build. This year’s endeavor is an immersive recreation of the Japanese city of Kumamoto during the Edo Period built atop a whopping 170 base plates (that’s 2.5 x 4.3 meters!). The massive diorama depicts the coastal city in autumn and is packed with details of life during the Tokugawa shogunate, including scenes telling the story of the famous samurai Miyamoto Musashi.

Rogue Ronin – A RogueBricks Collaboration

Attendees were treated to motorized elements and integrated lighting, as well as informative plaques describing the history captured in bricks. As a bonus easter egg for young visitors, 10 Ninjago charaters were hidden in the build. Like 2023’s Rogue Odyssey collaboration, the project took home first prize for collaborations from both jury and audience. We’ve highlighted several contributions in recent weeks, but only now can we share the complete build thanks to Hannes Tscharner. Extended highlights and builder credits follow.

Read on for a full tour of this tour de force!

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Sir Kermilot and his merry band of weirdos

It’s time to get things started. It’s time to start the quest! But will Sir Kermilot and crew even make it through the theme song before getting lost, distracted, or blowing themselves up? Gerrit Gottschalk brilliantly remixes LEGO Muppet minifigures into their fantasy alter egos for the Brickscalibur “Adventuring Party” category. Every choice and accessory is perfect, from troubadour Fozzie to Black Falconer chicken-er Gonzo to barbarian Animal. But my favorite of the bunch is definitely beleaguered dogsbody Beaker.

Sir Kermilot and his Fellows

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Château de Chenonceau shines in LEGO

In between competing in another Iron Builder competition and contributing to New Hashima, builder Gerrit Gottschalk (gGh0st) spent much of 2024 working on his microscale masterpiece — a model of Château de Chenonceau. The 16th-century French castle sits in the Loire Valley with its bridge and gallery crossing the river Cher. Gerrit’s model consists of about 6,600 LEGO elements and is 80 cm long.

Château de Chenonceau (2)

Building in the Architecture style at this scale was a new adventure for Gerrit but you wouldn’t guess it from the end results. It’s a remarkable build filled with innovative parts usage and a high level of detail that remains virtually seamless.

Click for a detailed look at Gerrit’s majestic microscale castle !

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Let the shell games begin!

Iron Builder competitions are one of our favorite sources of delight as we seek out new LEGO creations to highlight and share. These playful competitions highlight some of the most creative builders in the hobby while also showing how much potential is packed into a single eccentric LEGO element. The latest Iron Builder just kicked off between TBB regulars Sandro Quattrini and Gerrit Gottschalk, and the “seed part” is the green Koopa shell with spikes. Sandro fires the first salvo with a majestic green dragon, which uses 34 shells to achieve the snaking, scaly body. The head design is very effective, especially the sculpting around the eyes using minifig arms and frogs for an organic shape.

The Green Dragon

gGh0st strikes back with an elegant Japanese sword display, using koopa shells for the hilt. There are plenty of other nice touches in the still life scene, like the life buoys on the tsuba blade guard and the perfect curvature of the blade and scabbard. But the best touch of all: gGh0st’s sly nod to Sandro’s build, incorporating the unmistakeable green dragon design into the sword stand. That playful back-and-forth is another reason why Iron Builder competitions are so much fun to spectate.

First Strike

Sandro keeps the dance going in his follow-up, riffing on the Japanese theme with a beautiful kimono featuring a whopping 87 koopa shells. Mama mia, that’s a lot of koopas! Who knows where the game will go next?

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This tree stump is very much still in the game

Sometimes a LEGO build doesn’t need to be really big to be impressive. Small creations can be just as wonderful! gGh0st created a beautiful little tree stump that also functions as a home to a little woodland critter. When building really small almost every part of the build is visible and, therefore, noticeable. Seemingly single use parts are a lot harder to ‘hide’ in the build. Because it is so small they will stand out more. This didn’t scare gGh0st from using spiral stairs as a part of the tree stump. It does not only stand out because of the texture, but also because of its colour. And yet it blends in perfectly with this creation.

Tree Stump House

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