Tag Archives: Iron Builder

LEGO GLaDos congratulates Bousker on their Iron Builder victory and promises cake

If you have played either of the Portal video games, then the birthday-cake-obsessed GLaDos may fill you with some fear and dread, even in LEGO form. And if you have a keen eye for part usage, then you may recognize the Iron Builders seed part, 54097 from the last round of the Iron Builder competition. Bousker uses that aircraft door along with a lot of other beautiful part usage to create the terrifying GLaDos. That ingenuity helped Bousker win over the judges and come out on top as the newest Iron Builder.

Check out Bousker’s other Iron Builder entries as well as our interview with their competitor, Tim Goddard.

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Talking Iron Builder with LEGO space legend Tim Goddard [Feature]

The most recent Iron Builder competition just came to an end, providing the LEGO community with some truly excellent creations fueled by the creativity of two amazing AFOL talents: Tim Goddard and Bousker. For those who are not familiar with Iron Builder, it is a competition that puts two builders directly against each other in a two-week contest of creating models that incorporate a specific LEGO piece. In this instance, the Airplane Door in White. Fresh off an amazing run of 7 stellar creations, we sat down with Tim about his thoughts on competing for the Iron Builder crown.

Read TBB’s interview with Tim below!

Duel of the Fates: Tim Goddard and Bousker face off in latest Iron Builder battle

The Iron Builder competition pits two creators from the LEGO community against each other to make amazing models that must incorporate a surprise “seed part.” Like in the show Iron Chef, creators are judged both on their overall creativity and on how they showcase the signature “ingredient.” For Season 7 round 5, which starts this week, the contenders for the Iron Builder crown are Bousker and Tim Goddard. The seed part is Airplane Door in White, a tricky part indeed.

Tim is a TBB legend whose stellar Star Wars creations have made him one of our most featured builders for well over a decade (not that we’re taking sides!). The first builder to create a model, Tim kicks off the competition with a sporty little spacecraft that wouldn’t seem out of place in the expanded Star Wars universe, with the seed part used four times to house the engines.

Bousker is also a Star Wars builder and has been quite active in LEGO competitions in recent years, continually impressing us with innovative parts usage and incredible use of perspective and immerisve photography. Bousker steps into the game with a perfectly staged shoe store scene that features at least 30 uses of the door by my count. There are so many clever techniques on display, from high heels and sandles where the seed piece makes up the majority of the model, to the ingenious pair of Converse All Stars with the doors sunken into the brown shelf so that only a strip appears for the rubber sole.

We’ll be back to cover the results of this latest battle, but for now be sure to follow the Iron Builders instagram to see the builds as they come in, complete with the playful and pun-filled trash-talking that the event is known for.

“Gila” mobile mining mech is a monster of LEGO engineering

Do your off-world ambitions require taming unforgiving alien terrain? Then Iron Builder Industries has you covered with the Gila Mobile Mining Mech! Designed by chief engineer Duncan Lindbo, the Gila is built for Logistical Excavation & Geoengineering Operations (“LEGO” for short). The excavator buckets are made of virtually indestructible keetorange from the far end of the Unikitty system. Not convinced this mech can get the job done? See the excavator in action!

Tricksy LEGO parts use makes for a terrifying treat

With the whiff of Hallowe’en still in the air, we’re still seeing scary LEGO builds cropping up. This one by Ari Hytti wasn’t even built for All Hallows’ Eve (it’s part of an ongoing round of Iron Builder), but it definitely fits the bill! And being an Iron Builder creation, it’s absolutely chocka with Nice Parts Use (NPU). Obviously that includes the seed part – a bright orange Unikitty tail – which you can spot in those fearsome flaming swords. But also noteworthy are the constraction armour hooves and the, ah, singular item of clothing, which I believe is a re-purposed Duplo carpet. But you need to look to the head for the best bit. Much of this Warden’s threatening demeanour comes from that toothy scowl, which is printed on a Bionicle Piraka head. It’s the perfect piece for the job, as the eyeholes double as flared nostrils!

Corny builds as smooth as butter

Competition is cooking in a new Iron Builder duel between returning champ and prolific builder Duncan Lindbo and a fresh face on the scene, Ari “loafbuilds” Hytti. Per tradition, a challenger takes on one of four reigning Iron Builders to build models based around a surprise “seed part.” This time the seed part is the unikitty tail piece in bright light orange. “Allez Brick!”

Ari is a builder whose public LEGO creations have mostly focused on Bionicle and character builds, like his compelling entries in the 2024 Bio-Cup. You wouldn’t guess that from Ari’s first salvo, a brilliantly life-like pair of corn cobs that use 82 tails to create the truthy kernels, wrapped in complimentary sand green husks. It’s an ingenious use of the part that should serve Ari well in the competition.

It’s an iron builder tradition to respond to your competitor’s build with one that rhymes. Duncan ripostes with a playful scene of produce gone bad. Corn returns in miniature, with palm leaves making great husks at this scale. An appealing friend, perhaps resting his bones for a Fortnite, joins in the kitchen carnage. We can’t wait to see what these two builders cook up next!

Midnight sweet train brings holiday cheer in LEGO

It’s not even Halloween, but some folk are already pining for a winter wonderland. Christmas comes early in LEGO courtesy of Eann McCurdy (Miscellanabuilds) whose delightful midnight train scene is both cozy and clever in design. As his eighth and final entry in the latest Iron Builder competition against Geneva D, Eann incorporates the required red cauldron in the engine’s boiler. The pileup of snow in front of the train is a perfect mix of parts, including ice cream, hoods, and a frog. I especially love the forced perspective created by snow-capped trees at two scales. A tiny red byplane appears in the background, referencing Geneva’s prior Red Baron entry.

As if the brilliant train weren’t a grand enough finale, Eann prints the scene as a postcard for a bonus build that amps up the holiday spirit. Candles, Chrismas lights, and candies show off an abundance of red cauldrons. Dr. Strange capes make a sweet appearance as candy wrappers. Decorated gingerbread is the icing on the ~~cake~~ cookies.

“Mama’s gonna paint the streets with blood!”

Iron Builder is heating up and LEGO builder Miscellanabuilds comes out swinging with a huge mallet. Also a baseball bat. With a penchant for acrobatics, theatrics, and a touch of insanity, Harley Quinn is ready for whatever comes her way. Adorned in stylish red and black, Harley is looking “A-OK, Mr. J.” Speaking of The Joker, he’s leering in the background. See him there? If this fiendish folie à deux is any indicator, we look forward to whatever else Miscellanabuilds has in store for us.

Two hot takes on the dog days of summer

In a tradition old as time, Iron Builder competitions see two top builders in the LEGO community face off with a serious of dueling creations based around a “seed part” that must be featured in each build. As summer 2024 comes to an end, two fresh-faced challengers vie for the title of Iron Builder in “Battle Red Cauldron.” After coming out swinging with a cool Harley Quinn, Eann “Miscellanabuilds” McCurdy turns up the heat with slice of backyard life. Cauldrons are cleverly employed as a propane tank for the grill, while also appearing as chimney and dogfood dish. It’s the brick-built pets who steal the show. Their personality, combined with the slick studs-free setting, evoke a stop-action cartoon more than a LEGO model.

Maven of microscale Geneva D ripostes by doubling down on the dog – hot dog, that is – with a life-size frank made from interlocking cauldrons. Minifig arms make for surprisingly effective mustard, and Wolverine claws in green, used by Eann for grass, return here as relish. A pair of cauldrons make for a convincing ketchup lid, but it’s the recessed cauldron representing a tomato on the label that scores the knockout punch.

The movie Hellraiser is always a model of pain and pleasure

In each Iron Builder competition, two world-class LEGO builders go head-to-head creating models that highlight the assigned “seed part.” The summer 2024 match-up between Maxx Davidson and Jonah Shultz, featuring the baseball bat in metallic silver, has skewed decidedly wholesome, with cute animals, milkshakes, and cozy crafting themes. For his ninth entry, Maxx captures the twisted truth that fuels this venerable contest: pain and pleasure. The agony of being chained to making models at incredible speed without getting repetitive, and the ecstasy of finding the perfect use for that devilish seed part. Pinhead, Clive Barker’s horror icon, proves the perfect canvass for no less than 40 of those metallic bats. The sculpting of Pinhead’s pale-white face is top-notch. Now that Maxx has solved the Cenobite puzzle, he must be feeling pretty good right about now.

I spy a builder making blocks from LEGO bricks

Nostalgia bomb, incoming. This delightful build from Jonah Schultz is three things in one: a tribute to timeless preschool toys, an homage to the ubiquitous I Spy puzzle books from the ’90s and a showcase of an Iron Builder‘s ingenuity with LEGO bricks. There are so many details to love, from the perfectly proportioned BRIO trains in primary colors to the wonderful debossed lettering on the alphabet blocks, to the judicious use of specialized elements like the Bellville teddy bear, Duplo balls, and Race Car Guy accessory to complement the studs-free build. The most impressive feat of all is how the seed part – baseball bat in silver – is incorporated into the build as train axles, domino pips, and a camera button. And it’s a hidden object puzzle! Can you spy all of the secrets hidden in the picture?

Cooking up a storm in the Iron Builder competition

There’s another round of Iron Builder going on at the moment between Jonah Schultz and Maxx Davidson. As you’d expect, they’ve both been knocking it out of the park, and that’s at least partly helped by the seed part: a LEGO minifigure baseball bat! Maxx’s kitchen is what’s caught my eye. There’s some nice retro styling here, and of course you can see the bat used in the fridge handles and as a utensil handle in the pot. Less conspicuous, but no less ingenious, are the uses as an oven tray and what I believe is a pepper mill or grinder. The latter also makes clever use of a Technic clutch part in red!