Anyone who grew up on first-person shooters like Doom or Quake should recognize a few things in Steve Marsh AKA Rubblemaker’s LEGO build: the industrialized aesthetic, the glimpse of some otherworldly monster just waiting to be riddled full of bullets, and of course the giant minigun.
Tell the monster to wait a second while you inspect the build a little more.
At the Battle of Yavin, it was the brave pilots of Gold Squadron in their Y-Wing starfighters who made the first trench run in an attempt to blow up the Death Star. Even if those ships failed in their mission (thanks, Darth Vader), they live on in our hearts and, courtesy of builders like talego, in our LEGO bricks. talego’s take on the iconic Star Wars vehicle is one of the best we’ve seen, preserving the detail reserved for a UCS ship but at minifig scale. The greebling is out of this world, but the color blocking on the cockpit is just as impressive. For the support pylons, talego employs vintage rails, all the better to stay on target. With the care that went into this model’s creation, it’s no surprise that the Y-Wing is talego’s favorite ship.
Employing some delightful designs within the overall model, Builder Alexandre Bigeard has crafted a sleek spacecraft full of detail. Fans of ships such as this know well the similarities and slight differences that pop up as designer after designer tries their hand in this style. Panels made of stacked brick and laden with details attach at varying angles to a greebly central frame. Technically intricate pieces line every visible surface to really sell the spacey them. Industrial colors of gray, black, and tan are augmented with lines of red and yellow, lining this up to be quite the lurker within the dark void of space.
More details and an exploded view on this build below
After an almost five-year hiatus on his Flickr, builder Rob Dasnewten is back with another ship that almost blows the rest out of the sky. He must’ve been traveling the cosmos during that time, because the level of detail he’s returned with seems almost hands-on. Rob, are you actually from the future, or are you just a sentient being from a space-faring species? Yet again resurrecting the green cockpit design from several of his previous builds, he developed a ship that seems like a perfect upgrade to the VO-Eighty we covered back in 2009. Thirteen years is a long time in the LEGO world when you consider the number of new pieces and colors that have entered and forever changed the System. Even though it’s been five years since his last post, it’s clear that Rob hasn’t forgotten a thing and maybe even learned some more. Let’s see what this legend has to teach us.
LEGO’s foray into the art world, with its various mosaic sets, has inspired fans to create their own fantastic art. There’s even a Mosaic Maker which allows you to upload your own image and create a custom set. I’ve had friends order a few and they always turn out great. But I think builder Brent Waller invested a lot more thought into this textured mosaic of the Child from the Mandalorian. This absolute work of art was created as a gift for his son’s birthday and I have to say that this guy definitely deserves a Great Dad award. Measuring 1 meter wide by 60 centimeters high, this massive mosaic features tons of different pieces and colors masterfully placed and blended to render a close-up image of Grogu in his floating bassinet. But this portrait also has a secret: the Child and the Mandalorian are hidden within all that greebly goodness. Can you spot them? I’m not giving any hints so good luck!
The mosaics in the LEGO Art sets make use of a pixel approach to create images of Darth Vader, the Hogwarts crest, or even Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe. While this technique is quite effective at rendering plenty of different images, the grid pattern is difficult to break and some sharp diagonal lines aren’t captured well. That’s my opinion as an artist, at least. But Brent Waller’s use of a plethora of pieces allowed him to create sharper lines and textured surfaces. These draw the eye in new ways, almost tricking it into seeing aspects of the cloth, or the shadows in the bassinet, that aren’t really there. A vast array of pieces and colors on such a large canvas also allowed for better resolution in the image. From a distance, this barely even looks like a LEGO creation.
I’m sure Waller, Jr. was excited to see this once it was complete. It would be an amazing addition to any room but if I were him, I would put it right above my desk. I can’t imagine this will end up in the scrap pile any time soon though. This is nerd-family heirloom material so it will surely make its rounds in their home for years to come.
This hulking beast of a starship is the T-37 Spayspigg by builder InterBrick. Inspired by the intense models created by Noblebun, Interbrick set out on an ambitious journey to create this greebly digital monster. Creative parts usage stands out at this scale with repetition being the name of the game. The nacelles to the side and bottom all share the same design with tubes, dishes, hoses, and minifigure legs creating the mechanical details of exposed engines sections. My eyes are drawn all over this model, noticing the various different techniques InterBrick used, but my favorite little detail of the nacelles has to be the white cowboy hats.
Riddled with super detailed engines, this ship could be a formidable racer or a frightening bomber. Either way, you’re sure to be left in the dust. The power of having hundreds of minifigure accessories is exemplified in these engines. Three styles of nozzles adorn the nacelles and main body of the ship. They share some interesting parts such as flippers, telephones, and snowshoes while more tubes, bars, and scuba tanks are used as part of the propulsion systems. The large central engines are a bit bulkier with ice skates lining the interior of the nozzles.
A truly monumental feat from InterBrick, the T-37 Spayspigg is an amazing build worthy of praise. It was great seeing that Noblebun even helped with the renders for this digital model. I love seeing the community work together!
Oh, the depths of space have so much to offer. As vast as the human imagination itself, nothing tickles my soul more than a great spaceship, especially one built from LEGO. Seeing how builders mold their abstract forms, creating engaging structures and silhouettes under the constrictions and limits of the LEGO system, builds a sense of absolute awe. Gaming fans of the modern era can escape into any number of epic worlds from Mass Effect to No Man Sky or the vast realms of Homeworld, EVE, or Star Citizen. As such, there is a wealth of designs that inspire wonderful builders around the world. This model was built by Carter Baldwin as a homage to a Hiigaran ship from Homeworld 2, but he diverged a bit from the original design. Take a look at the Imperial Interceptor, a marvelous Vic Viper for the Royal House of Sol. The stand-out color blocking achieved in this model depends greatly on the triangular tiles that hug the sharp edges of the ship’s body and wings. Contrasting the dark blue slopes and tiles, the gold gives the ship an eye-catching allure worthy of royalty.
My friends and I buy each other small LEGO sets that do not compute with the space-y things we build. We buy LEGO Friends, Trolls World Tour, DOTS, and the like. It’s all a joke of course, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to build from them. I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) received LEGO Friends: Andrea’s Bunny Cube from fellow builder Gubi, and I knew I had to use the big cube pods in a build. Previously I used a Ninjago arcade pod in a Classic Space build, and the medium blue of this bunny cube wasn’t going to be that off-putting. I just had to hide the bunny face…
The Friends cube offers plenty of connection points both inside and out. Having one facing up and one facing down provided a good start, as one of them would be the cockpit. Hiding the hinges at the side is always a challenge, but it was nothing that greebling couldn’t fix. The addition of side engines also hid the irregularities of the cubes. One thing that seemed cooler in my head was the inclusion of the cloth pieces representing the “bunny’s ears”. They add more colour despite their texture and shape clashing with the mechanical nature of the landspeeder. After the struggle of attaching the engines from the top section which hides the printed bunny face, I could finally relax and go all out with the underside greebling…
TL:DR; Even the strangest of LEGO pieces can serve as the foundation for a good build. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Fans of the Classic Space LEGO theme may be quite familiar with the prolific builder, Tim Goddard. Known for challenging the limits of the LEGO system and showing us the possibilities, he’s given us another great build to appreciate. This new ship, Dragons Progress, utilizes unique pieces combined in a pleasing and simple color palette for tons of detail and greeble. From the nose to the pointy bits protecting us all from the hypermatter static build-up of the experimental engines, this ship has a wonderful form that breaks the mold of the Classic Space theme.
The word greeble is well-known to any tenured builder. A technique used to add texture and detail to a model, greebling employs parts in interesting and fun ways. Depending on its purpose, adding greeble to a model can help randomize a texture, similar to The LEGO Movie logo, or to add specific detail like the engine pylons and power supplies in the iconic Y-wing. This month, some builders revived a theme from 6 years ago, “Greeble de Mayo.” A challenge for builders to greeble an 8x8x8 area during the month of May has resulted in quite a few great builds. Dan Ko finished the month with this alluring and mystic tome, magical pen, and ink well.
The fountain pen and ink well are both concise models. The pink jewel and harpoon hand give detail to the pen while the inkwell, a round tile inside of a golden dish, is a subtle but crucial partner. A great additional set to the main model!
The Book of Greebles itself is quite detailed. A dragon-headed sword hilt adorns the spine while pearl gold clips and hinges are used to detail the brown binding. Roller skates provide focal points on the top and bottom at the tips of brown, curvy cattle horns. These details frame a magenta dome, accented by matching corner studs on the cover of the book. Textured bricks provide the illusion of pages but the bit of fabric sticking out is the clincher. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what set that particular cloth comes with or which minifigure it completes. All I know is it makes me think of vellum or some old type of paper, torn and worn, scribbled on by some ancient builder wanting to share their greebly secrets. Ultimately, that level of immersion is what really matters and I have to applaud Dan Ko on his work.
I imagine this model will be enjoyed by fans of Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, or Dungeons & Dragons. It would make a great prop or token for in-game play, especially with role-playing, so Dungeon Masters with a love for building, keep this in mind! Your players will love them too!
Spaceships are definitely my bag, man. Massive dreadnoughts to humble escape pods, I love every model from the unwieldy to the swooshable. Classic Space sets are near and dear to many adult Lego fans, being the formative theme that roped them into playing with little plastic bricks for the rest of their lives. In recent years, the theme has been revived by fans with redesigns of their favorite classic sets or new creations of their own thanks to the LEGO Movie franchise and their lovable, spaceship-obsessed character, Benny the Spaceman. Here, builder LegoSpaceGuy gives us a ship of his own design, the Explorer Cruiser.
Click to see more classic Space goodness
Let’s go on an undersea adventure with this great octopus by Didier Burtin. You don’t normally associate great greebling with aquatic creatures, but if you look close there are lots of fun details here. Sure, the LEGO tires are easy to locate, but what about the hot dog? There’s also a generous helping of hinged articulation, making this one poseable critter. It looks like the octopus has claimed a treasure chest as a perch, and the brown of the chest (and the bright orange leaves festooning it) really make the red and black colors of the octopus stand out.
It’s great to see a creation that’s based so firmly on an accurate depiction of a real-life animal. That’s not to say there isn’t also benefit from a more mechanized approach. What sort of octopus do you want to build?
