Tag Archives: Iron Builder

NPU – Nice Paper Use

Sometimes it pays to read the builder’s comments. When I first saw this build by Tom Loftus, I zeroed in on those amazing blinds and spent probably fifteen minutes trying to figure out how they were made. Some new panel I hadn’t come across, yet? Maybe a vent from some Star Wars UCS set? Nope. Turns out the Iron Builder April Fool’s challenge was to create a build using paper cut outs of the letters in “Iron Builder,” and I’d been staring at a bunch of the letter “I” in that window. The letters have been put to great use all around the room. “B” for the chair backs, “O” for the table, “D” for the desk against the wall, and almost a whole game of Wordle in that art piece on the wall. When the result looks this good, I don’t mind being played for a fool.

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Present your oblation at this jungle altar

As I’m sure you’ve read in other posts on here recently, we are smack-dab in the middle of another round of Iron Builder. Here is one more entry featuring the red canopy seed part from LEGO builder Jake Hansen. What really stands out to me in this build, besides its Crash Bandicoot-inspired color scheme, is all Jake’s interesting parts usage. The use of upside-down green baseball caps for leaves is genius, as is sticking those 1×1 curves onto the ends of roller skates at the base of the altar. I’m an absolute sucker for a design that connects parts in atypical ways. I also love the texture change in the base of the model, from the rolling curves of the jungle vegetation to the blocky stone of the path leading up to the altar. And as for that tree in the background, I’m definitely not not stealing the tube-filled trunk design for my own builds. The Iron Builder gods will be pleased!

The Iron Starhopper

Certain parts show up a lot throughout the year thanks to LEGO fans’ tendency to challenge each other’s ingenuity, such as the recurring Iron Builder challenge. For his third model using the red hexagonal windscreen part, builder Jake Hansen went for a space angle. This multifaceted spacecraft might not hold much by way of cargo but it can certainly get you from Planet A to Planet B in good time.

Ships like these are intricate puzzles that show off the nontraditional or unexpected ways that builders find to fit pieces together. Triangular clip plates in the nose snuggly fit in the area between the red windscreens while grey domes of reducing size fill the space behind. The light blue ski poles in the front, along with the other uses of the color by the engines or along each side of the body, perfectly compliments and contrasts the red of the windscreen. Stacks of minifigure skates in grey are built into each arm of the body, providing an industrial texture that works really well in this ship. This swift little starhopper is just another example of Jake’s prodigious skill.

We all live in an iron (builder) submarine

LEGO expert Jake Hansen dives deep into the his Iron Builder duel with this Ponyo inspired submarine! His signature color mastery and clean lines abound in this build. The teal tentacle parts create a sense of motion as seaweed waving in the currents over the brick built sea floor. The seed part for Iron Builder this round is the red cockpit part used here as fins. Keep an eye out for more builds using this seed part in the coming weeks as the Iron Builder round progresses!

Living room of an Iron Builder

It’s always such a joy following the Iron Builder‘s duels as each entry deserves careful attention. One of Joe‘s first builds was this lovely modern living room. His use of the red windscreen seed part is superb! It’s used to create a variety of objects including couch pillows, drapes, a hot air balloon, and a dress. The rest of the build proves why he is competing at this level. I especially like the glass coffee table in the center of the room! And don’t look too closely or you might just discover an odd portrait of Woody on that wall. Wish Joe well in his fight for the Iron Builder crown!

This starship has a snake in its boot! (Probably)

I love Iron Builder! It usually means job security for us here at TBB, loads of awesome LEGO entertainment for you, and stress, horror, and depravity for the poor sods who have to build for it. Take this pointy starship built by Joe (jnj_bricks) for example. It’s pretty neat in its own right, but knowing full well you gotta crank out a bunch of quality builds in short order while your competitor does the same gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it. As per the rules of Iron Builder, you gotta cleverly use a seed part or another. We’re supposed to be impressed by Joe’s use of the required hexagonal blabitty-blah but I’m more smitten with the hidden Woody figure from Toy Story. Can you spot it?

The clouds make for a lonely home.

Daniel Cloward is no stranger to builds with a storybook sensibility. But his latest creation is one of the most impactful pieces of LEGO storytelling we’ve seen. This ramshackle space is the cloud-based home of a pilot who needs to fix his airplane so he can return down to the world he’s left behind. But the pilot can’t bear to face the people below that he has wronged, and so his plane sits broken and incomplete, as does his life.

There are so many details in this space that speak to the lonely pilot’s state of mind – the pictures of old friends on the wall, maps of places once explored. And there’s a ton of great technique at work here: the arching entrance way, the blend of bars and tiles in the floor, the use of forced perspective. The genesis of this build was an Iron Builder round with antenna base and handle pieces as the seed part. They may not be immediately obvious, but there are plenty of them buried in this build. Try and pick them all out.

So it begins...a new year and a new Iron Forge

LEGO builder Francis Wiemelt has aptly named this piece So it begins. This is apt because it is a new year and this is Francis’ first entry into the first Iron Forge competition of 2022. That’s a lot of firsts! He goes on to tell us that the seed part is a lever (base or antennae), used here twenty-three times in the Uruk-hai army, and eight times in the fortress itself. Iron Forge competitions mean frantic building and stress for a chosen few intrepid builders, constant entertainment for you, and job security for us. Kinda like The Hunger Games. Good luck, Francis Wiemelt and may the odds be ever in our favor…or something.

Horsing around under the sea with this LEGO seahorse

I have nothing but respect for any LEGO builder who participates in any Iron Builder challenge, the fan-driven challenge where a single seed piece is used in inspiring ways. The latest example is this build by -LittleJohn, where the seed part is the wind-up key in dark orange. Not only does it work perfectly as the wobbly bits along the seahorse’s back, but it also makes up the long kelp strings, held together by Minifig hands.

Phone home and tell them about this great parts usage

My first thought when looking at this build was that LEGO already makes an E.T. that would scale perfectly. But it turns out that using the official E.T. pieces wasn’t in the cards for builder Dan Ko, as this is his first creation for an Iron Builder competition. The seed element is the toy winder key in dark orange, which explains why it’s subbing in for the titular alien in this box art recreation. It’s an out-of-this-world repurposing of the part. And we have to award bonus points for the video game controller acting as Elliot’s hair.

This LEGO Ikea showroom might require an allen wrench to recreate.

Iron Builder competitor Brickleas has taken the challenge to the land of Norsemen and ready-to-assemble furniture. This time the seed part has been used to create a chair, some decorative lighting fixtures, and a hood over the stove. But Brickleas didn’t stop at creating a cozy home scene. This build goes the extra mile by zooming out a few feet to reveal that we’re in the showroom of an Ikea. The arrow on the floor guiding shoppers and the black rigging hanging above the fake walls is sure to inspire flashbacks in anyone who has tried to navigate the labyrinthine superstore. “Why do I have to follow these arrows through the whole complex? I’m just trying to buy an affordable shelf for my UCS Batmobile!” Sorry, got a little lost in memories there…

A lovely scene at the seashore

When you are feeling stressed out, where do you go to unwind and re-connect with nature? Maybe someplace like this tropical beach by Brickleas, built for an Iron Builder contest using the white radar dish piece, used quite skillfully as steps, a sign, and shades to block the sun on the roof. And in case you missed it, the seagulls as well. One of my favorite features, aside from the shack, is the sand and surf, using slopes and bricks in shades of tan, including dark tan for the sand at the water’s edge.