Tag Archives: Letranger Absurde

Recreating the classic era of pirates

Fancy rebuilding some of your favourite LEGO sets from your youth, but daunted by the prices of the collectors’ market? Letranger Absurde (aka Vitroleum, aka Pacurar Andrei) shows the way. Why not build a teeny-tiny version of them instead? 6279 Skull Island is a classic set from the mid-90s heyday of LEGO Pirates. Pacurar’s version perfectly captures the overall feel with the big skull, the jetty, and the palm tree — but the important details still make an appearance despite the scale. Don’t miss the little cannon on the end of the jetty, the hoist, and the fabulous little rowing boat — all employing a bunch of tenuous part connections, but lovely anyway. And a printed X tile as a Jolly Roger? Love it.

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If you blink, you might miss this tiny LEGO Hogwarts Express

If you thought the famous train from Harry Potter, the Hogwarts Express, couldn’t be built any smaller than the delightful model by David Zambito that we featured a few weeks ago, you’d be wrong. As proven by this even smaller model by Letranger Absurde, the build uses skeleton arms and a curvy horn as the smoke, and roller skates for wheels. One of the best parts usage, though, would have to be the white and dark gray rocky sloped parts used to form snow-covered peaks. Now I have to wonder if we’ll see an even smaller version any time soon.

This LEGO model was built as an entry for TBB’s Microscale Magic contest. Coverage on TBB of an entry will not be taken into consideration during judging, and will have no effect on its ability to win, either positively or negatively.

Bricks for Glory I: so you want to build a hero

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Sierra was one of the biggest names in PC gaming, and high-quality adventure games were one of their specialties. One of their most beloved franchises was the Quest for Glory series, developed by Lori Ann and Corey Cole. Of the five games in the series, Letranger Absurde chose to recreate the opening scene of Quest for Glory I: So You Want to be a Hero. As the hero enters the picturesque town of Spielberg for the first time, he is greeted by Sheriff Schultz Meistersson and his massive right-hand-man, Otto Von Goon. Going by the colors used, Letranger appears to have based his representation on the VGA remake. He makes a great use of various angles to form the buildings in front of the town square, and forced perspective is cleverly used to suggest there is another area to explore. The characters are instantly recognizable, including a brick-built version of Otto pulling off a yo-yo trick like he often does in the game.

Through the Siq to the hidden Nabatean city of Petra

As I wrote in introducing ArzLan’s LEGO Petra, I spent the summer of 1994 on an archaeological dig in Jordan, and visited Petra for one memorable weekend. Both Petra and Jordan as a whole remain one of the highlights of my life. Letranger Absurde has built a lovely microscale version of Al-Khazneh, the “Treasury” (actually an empty tomb), that greets each visitor to Petra as they emerge from the winding gorge called the Siq.

My one critique of this excellent LEGO model is that the sandstone geology of Petra is nearly as spectacular as the many structures carved into the rock face. Although building a detailed tomb using varying shades of tan and red might not have been achievable, plain brown LEGO for the surrounding rocks seems like a lost opportunity.

Al-Khazneh is, of course best known as the entrance to the fictional, trap-filled obstacle course leading to the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The facade is the most spectacular thing about the tomb — the interior is just an empty square chamber, though the acoustics are great for singing.

Be the leaf

It’s a “Summer of Korra” for Avatar fans, with the 3rd season of The Legend of Korra now in full swing on Nickelodeon. We’ve seen Korra go through some big changes in the first two seasons, and the title of the new season is ‘Change’ …go figure.

Letranger Absurde hasn’t wasted any time getting in on the action with this exquisite vignette featuring a minifig Korra demonstrating multiple bending techiques, while her trusty steed Naga looks on. The construction of the water spout (or could it be a Sharknado, I wonder??) is particularly nice.

The Naga model appears to be fully posable (…thankyou Mixels!) and ready for Korra to ride. The Avatar has also been given the perfect sassy expression: “I’m the Avatar, and you gotta deal with it!”

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