With LEGO clips for back spines, a tail of mismatched 1x2x2/3 slopes, and a video game controller for a head, Ian Summers shows us an awesome Toothless creation from the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. How long until we have the parts in white to make a Light Fury version of this microscale marvel?
I’m continuing to expand my microscale space universe. Last time I checked in with a lunar launch diorama, as my home-brew theme shot into deep space from the moon. Now the Interplanetary Expedition Alliance, or I.E.A., has set up a large mining facility out in the asteroid belt.
The facility consists of a large space station as the hub, and two captured asteroids being mined for their mineral wealth.
Click to read the rest of the article
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is famous for dropping players into a world and letting them walk anywhere the eye can see. To help players navigate, the designers use landmarks that can be seen from far away like Markarth Guard Tower, recreated here in LEGO microscale by Isaac Snyder. Fans of the game will recognize it thanks to the orange dome, but microscale builders might want to cast their gaze lower at the steps where Isaac finds a clever means of adding 5 risers at just over a stud’s width using nested panels. The configuration only allows for the top panel to have a SNOT connection, but by boxing in the stairs, friction gets the job done.
Lately, every social feed has been clogged with AI slop pillaging the surface-level aesthetics of Studio Ghibli films. Here’s a palate cleanser from Joe Lam – a microscale LEGO Catbus and Totoro. Celebrating Totoro, it’s instantly recognizable from just 9 or 10 elements, and the Catbus is packed with personality. The eyes are especially inspired, using Batman logos for the wild pupils.
Joe designed the Catbus back in 2023, but what better time to celebrate the joy that comes from human creativity? And maybe have a look at other Totoro builds that have inspired us over the years.
“Through the fathomless deeps of space swims this LEGO star turtle Great A’Tuin, bearing on its back the four single-mould elephants who carry on their shoulders the mass of a microscale Discworld. A tiny sun and moon spin around them, on a complicated orbit to induce seasons, so probably nowhere else in the multiverse is it sometimes necessary for an elephant to cock a leg to allow the sun to go past. Exactly why this should be may never be known. Possibly the Creator – that being Jan Woźnica – of this build got bored with all the usual business of nice parts use, AFOLs and studs-not-on-top building, and decided to have a bit of fun for once.”
Of course, the above is paraphrased from the late, great Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel Wyrd Sisters. If you like Discworld as much as I do, be sure to take a look at more related builds in our archives!
Whenever a new large LEGO Architecture set comes out, it is only a matter of time until someone builds a microscale version. This miniature version of the Notre Dame cathedral by -Brixe is truly a masterpiece worthy of display, capturing iconic details while at the same time conveying the scale and majesty of this famous landmark. The builder uses many newer bar elements and versatile “espresso handles” (a round plate with a bar sticking out the side) to represent the repetitive structures along the side and curving front of the cathedral.
Completed in 1617, the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, commonly known as the Blue Mosque, is one of Istanbul’s most iconic structures and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Scott Wilhelm gives this masterpiece of Ottoman architecture the LEGO microscale treatment in a sprawling build that includes Sultan Ahmet’s mausoleum, gardens, and a madrasa. For the mosque’s six minarets, Scott uses white Technic axle extenders broken up by bevel gears and bushes topped with a drill bit. The many small domes are represented with knit caps. If you’re wondering why the mosque rooftops are grey when it’s called the Blue Mosque, the nickname comes from the decorative tiles inside.
Continue for additional photos of Scott’s magnificent miniature mosque
I’ve seen some small castles in my time, heck, I’ve even built some, but this island castle by Nikita Filatov has got to be one of the smallest. The minifigure binoculars are great as tiny towers, but my favorite part is the rounded white tile balanced on the back of an ingot. But the great techniques don’t stop there. The water base is made with studs-not-on-top connections which adds a bit of visual weight to this microscale build.
If you are anything like me, you have an entire drawer full of dark gray LEGO ball plates, which were first introduced in the Mixels theme. well, it looks like NikiFilik does too, and they found the perfect use for them as tiny typewriter keys. But the inspiring parts usage doesn’t stop there. Minifigure helmets are used as ribbon spools, and the little vents capture the look perfectly.
With two decks built above and below its iron arch, Portugal’s Dom Luís I Bridge is a beautiful testament to late 19th-century engineering. Inspired by this double-deck marvel, civil engineering student and LEGO architecture fan Sébastien Houyoux took to Studio to painstakingly recreate the bridge and the the buildings of Porto and Gaia built in its shadow.
The model stretches 1.3 meters and is made up of 13,000 elements. The builder designed a 1/650 scale version of the bridge two years ago, but for this updated take, Sébastien doubles the detail with a scale of 1/325.
“Corneria, fourth planet of the Lylat system.” For gamers who grew up with the N64, those words are enough to set your imagination spinning with polygonal starfighters doing barrel rolls. Builder Matteson Pino is far from the only person to name Star Fox 64 their favorite game, but he’s surely the first to pay tribute with a LEGO microscale diorama atop a brick-built N64 cartridge. It’s a briliant concept, depicting the game world spilling out of the physical media that stored it. The Great Fox carrier ship looks great, as do the chibi arwings, but it’s the pixelated terrain of Corneria that most draws me in. Now can Nintendo please bring Fox and co back to consoles? Switch 2 launch title, please.
Building a circular model using LEGO is a challenge in itself, but Plastic Pauper took on that challenge and built a microscale city with not just one ring, but three, creating nested neighborhoods that all have a specific purpose and vibe. The outer ring looks industrial, with smokestacks, factories, and other gray structures. The middle ring is composed of many smaller buildings and greenery, while the central section sports tall, sterile, and modern structures fit for the city’s wealthy elite. And what futuristic city would be complete without flying cars?
