Tag Archives: Jaskierthebard

Poland’s haunted history in LEGO

Over the past three years, Polish AFOL Mihał Ch has been documenting his nation’s history in a series of LEGO vignettes. The minifig-scale scenes celebrate the heroes of art and culture, as well as recognizing atrocities, uprisings, and statecraft, with builds paired with a history lesson. Just in time for Halloween, as part of the third series of vignettes, Mihał remembers some of the darker chapters in Polish history. For example, dissidents being exiled to Siberia during the Russian occupation.

Here, Mihał pays tribute to the January Uprising of 1963-1964, when the escalation of “russification” and repression sparked a guerrilla war for independence that, despite early successes, was ultimately quashed.

Here we see Mihał’s depiction of the Galician slaughter when, in order to avert a Polish uprising for independence, the Austrian military incited the local serfdom against the Polish aristocracy in bloody revolt with promises of a better life, only to sweep in after the fact punish the peasants with more oppression.

Not all of Mihał’s scenes are quite so grim. Here he pays tribute to the composer Chopin and here to the writing of the Polish Constitution.

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Geralt of Rivia takes to the sewers to hunt Zeugl in this Witcher LEGO tribute

Before The Witcher became a global phenonmenon thanks to the GOTY winning third game and a hit Netflix series, the adventures of Geralt of Rivia were the pride of Polish fantasy fans with elaborate worldbuilding infused by the folktales of Eastern Europe. Polish builder Mihał Ch brings the famous monster hunter to LEGO for an immersive battle scene in which the Witcher takes on a Zeugl in the sewers beneath Vizima. Mihał’s creature design is wonderfully loathsome with its wide maw of teeth and crasping arms. My favorite technique is the copious ichor splattered throughout the scene as both discolored brickwork and goopy pools.

Mihał created this fantastic diorama for the “Where No One Dares to Go” category of the Summer Joust competition and to honor the 10th anniversary of The Witcher 3 from Polish game studio CD Projekt RED. It’s not his first time exploring Geralt’s world in LEGO. Here is Mihał’s take on the game’s core characters:

Dieselpunk Mechs and Military Hard Suits – [Minifig Monday]

Mechs and minifigs have been near and dear to the Brothers Brick for as long as we’ve been covering LEGO fandom. It’s always a thrill when builders bring a specific and fresh aesthetic to a favorite genre, and that’s definitely been the case with Brickbot Studios, Red Impala, and Zakar.ion – three builders who are absolutely crushing it with military mechs at an intimate perspective. The trio collaborated last week on trench warfare dieselpunk mechs inspired by the 1920 setting of mr_werewolf, with each builder bringing a personal spin to the theme. This week on Minifig Monday, we’re spotlighting this collab, but also some mortar blasts from the dieselpunk past from some top builders of yesteryear playing in a similar sandbox.

Leading this week’s charge is the PZM-7 Śmiały from Red Impala. Swift, merciless, and armed with an anti-mech rifle, this unit looks ready to leap over trenches like a Winged Hussar. (The lore that these builders share alongside their brilliant builds is half the fun!).

Brickbot Studios responds with theStahlschreiter 44 “Trench Reaper.” My favorite flourish is the moustache on the mech. The builder brings a touch of Warhammer sensibilities to this Death Korp diesel demon.

The minifigs and mecha continue after the break!

“The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow!”

The Lord of the Rings is full of scenes perfect for adapting into LEGO for the LEGO Ideas challenge “Explore the Middle-earth”. Builder BardJaskier chose one of the most iconic scenes to adapt — the Bridge of Kazad-Dûm. This scene features Gandalf the Grey standing in the way of a mighty Balrog to buy the Fellowship time to escape from the Mines of Moria. To say the Balrog towers over Gandalf is to do a disservice to the presence of the foul being. BardJaskier does a great job of capturing the dreadful power of the Balrog as it wields its fiery sword and whip. And those wings! They’re majestic and terrifying at the same time. They feature fantastic parts reuse from the Ninjago set 71753 Fire Dragon Attack. And let’s not forget the rest of the scene! I do love the techniques and design of the bridge and the surrounding mines. They do a good job of conveying the wear of time.

Frogs with sausage toes on their feet

Have you ever seen a march of different races of cold-blooded LEGO creatures from the jungles of the land of Lustria? Well, thanks to Michal, now you have. The highlight of this creation has to be the priest sitting on its throne. Have you seen those cute chubby cheeks and that extruding belly button! That isn’t the only creatively used LEGO piece in this creation. It is nice to see the old fashioned dragon arms used even though it is quite old. For the feet hot dogs were used to represent the long frog toes. The foot folk uses a nice combination of Ninjago and Chima figures with grass for used as the tail. If you look closely enough at the chopped-down tree you’ll notice that Jaskier went through the trouble to give the centre of the stomp a different colour than the bark of the tree.