Tag Archives: Medieval

Venice and not a trolley case in sight – Barthezz Brick’s 250,000 brick LEGO tribute to Assassin’s Creed

Sometimes you stumble across a LEGO fan creation that you’d just love to see in the brick. This creation by Barthezz Brick is a good example of that. Each and every building in this creation could be featured on TBB. We generally wait until a builder has finished their work in progress before highlighting the finished build, but at some point I couldn’t control myself and wrote an article about a couple of detail shots that Barthezz posted. But finally, it’s done!

Assassin's Creed: Venice 1486 - Chapter 1 - Osservare - Main

See lots more details from this amazing LEGO recreation of Venice

Peaceful snowy campfire

I like how LEGO is a vessel for one’s creativity. You can escape into a world designed by your own imagination. Sometimes, however, it is also nice to just go with the seasons. This creation by Louis of Nutwood matches my current surroundings quite well. Although the Netherlands is not covered in snow, it sure is really cold. Louis created a snowy landscape complete with snow covered pine trees and a minifigure trying to keep warm near a cosy campfire. Although the base of this build consists of mostly dark grey and white pieces, there is a thin line of dark tan between the both of them. This small detail makes the scene look more realistic. You can almost hear the fire crackle and the wind rustle through the trees. After seeing this peaceful scene I am ready for a white winter myself.

Winter Winds

A big city on a peaceful island in microscale

What I love about LEGO microscale builds is how it can shift how we see the smallest of LEGO parts. Joe (jnj_bricks) brings this build to life for this year’s Brickscalibur contest in the Medieval Micro category. The city does feel alive with movement from the waterfalls and the vibrant greenery throughout the cityscape. Taking a look at the staircases, they have nice usage of the grooved brick piece at an angle for the stairs. There’s also some nice usage of the 1×1 horizontal clip piece in the buildings and their details. Stacked, the part offers some cool textures to the walls of the leftmost building. My favorite parts usage, though, comes from the battle droid legs for some fine arcing details. You can spot them on the highest spire and the causeway behind the winged minifig statue. There are many more details, so take your time exploring the build. Can you spot the Woody hat?

Peaceful Shores

A winding alleyway hides some shady characters

LEGO creations can transport the viewer to any manner of time and place, and we are willing to go anywhere as long as Sandro Tagliaferri is our tour guide. Sandro put over 400 hours of build time into this trio of old-world structures, and it shows. Each building is distinct, and yet clearly part of a cohesive style. The textured walls and extensively tiled roofs give the whole scene verisimilitude. Clever parts use abounds, like minifigure legs and owls fitting in as ornate woodwork. But the real achievement is the way the grass gives way to a stone tiled path, leading off into dark alleyway. No doubt a weary traveler might be willing to take their chances down that dark passage, but we’re starting to rethink our commitment to following Sandro anywhere. At least, not without a sword at our side…

Medieval Alleyway - Main

Keeping watch over the colorful terrain

There are so many bright pops of pigment in this goblin outpost LEGO scene by Carter Witz. Terrain of lime and yellowish green is dotted with golden flowers and trees sporting pink leaves, standing in stark contrast to the brilliant blue of the cascading waterfall and rich brown of the gobbos’ watchtower. The palette is incredibly immersive, reminding me heavily of the Elves theme from years ago. And amid the colorful scene, Carter sneaks in some terrific designs with the round concrete foundations of the outpost, the cute cave entrance on the left, and the craggy textures of exposed rocks utilizing studs in all directions. The use of slopes and exposed studs in trans-clear throughout the waterfall is a real triumph, too. I can almost hear the rushing water as it cascades down the goblins’ hill!

Goblin Outpost

Birch tree shepherd meeting

Birch trees continue to be a great source of inspiration for LEGO fans. This creation by gGh0st features a beautiful birch tree surrounded by some well put together LEGO minifigures. The birch tree features large patches of black due to the technic connector attaching all the dinosaur tails to each other. Brooms hide between all the tail parts, adding texture to the tree trunk. The use of the coral, as seen in the LEGO Ideas Winnie the Pooh set, is quite clever as it is a nice way to attach a lot of different LEGO leaves in different directions. This sure looks like a friendly gathering that I wouldn’t mind attending.

Generations of Shepherds

Something old, something new and a floor to die for

I am a huge fan of putting together custom LEGO minifigure. Mixing and matching minifigures can be a true art form, which some builders have taken to a next level. Well-thought-out minifigures can really highlight your creation. Whereas sloppy put-together minifigures can draw away the attention of an otherwise stellar build. In this creation by Ids de Jong we can spot some great minifigure combinations.

The Golden Crown Inn

Combining new parts with old classics can really make the old parts look current again. For instance, the man in the middle features a really old torso combined with dual moulded and printed legs, top that off with a more modern hairpiece and you would hardly notice that the torso is a classic. The build itself is quite stellar too. There are stairs used for the roofing of the Golden Crown Inn. The backside of masonry bricks are used to represent wooden doors and the floor in this creation, which you would look past quite easily, is a true work of art.

Fall scene in the forest with fall colours

Jake Hansen drew inspiration from the fall colours for his latest LEGO creation and we need to say that it paid off. The little scene looks so peaceful. LEGO has been creating more and more bricks in new colours and at times I am struggling to identify which colours are used in fan creations. It appears this little house is created with three shades of nougat which are greatly accented by the dark orange base and the white and bright light orange leaves. The use of horns attached to the leaves of the tree instead of the base of the tree makes the tree itself look marvellous!

The Old Birch Cottage

A lone pop of colour in a lonely village

We love a good LEGO creation that uses about double the amount of LEGO pieces to be built as you’d expect. This creation by Joe is composed of a lot of small little pieces to create patterns and structures. The scene depicts an abandoned village with one sole visitor. The visitor is apparently the only living soul in the town, just as the blue door is the only thing with colour in the town. Your eye gets drawn to the door due to the vibrant colour, and the door itself is exceptionally well built. But if you look past it, you’ll notice that the rest of the creation is as well. All the walls are made by slopes, tiles and plates to resemble woodwork. The use of the paled fence for windows is quite clever. Throughout the entire creation there are a lot of fangs, horns, angled bars, plates with a handles, and small windows used to represent snow and ice. Of those four, the last two are most resourceful.

Cold Omens

The Ryatan Island

Sometimes LEGO fans manage to use a LEGO part in a more creative way than it was originally intended to be used. The part I am talking about is the raised snake and the builder I am talking about is Jakub Drobny. To me the raised snake never looked like an animal but more like a statue of a snake. LEGO fans all over the world have embraced this part and started using it in white to represent smoke clouds leaving a chimney. The raised snake used for smoke is not the only part used in a clever way. We get keys for door hinges, bowler hats for grassy mountains and shields for tables. What other smartly used parts can you spot?

“The Ryatan Island”

The story of the house on the chicken leg and the witch on the big broom

Marcin Otreba drew inspiration from the classic folklore tale of Baba Yaga. And he’s not the first one to use this story as an inspiration for a LEGO creation: we’ve featured numerous chicken-legged cottages throughout the years. Marcin’s is special because it’s so tiny yet so packed with details. It’s so small it almost has you wondering if the witch will actually fit into the cottage. The answer is yes, of course! It is a magic cottage, you silly! The arms with pins introduced in the Super Mario LEGO sets are used to create all sorts of odd angles, and the fact that the cottage is asymmetrical makes it even more aesthetically pleasing. But the most hilarious thing about this creation is the fact that Baba Yaga is riding a Belville broom which is far bigger than her house.

Baba Yaga ????

Check out more Baba Yaga creations here!

The Venice of our dreams

We tend to not show LEGO creations that are still a work in progress. However this display by Barthezz Brick has been drawing our attention for quite a while. We’ve been seeing WIP shots for quite some time now, and each of the buildings for his Venice creation looks unique and interesting. We haven’t seen them all together but that is one thing we are surely looking forward to! We hope these early pics get you just as excited as we are to see this model when it is completed.