Tag Archives: Microscale

Some say “Go big or go home!” but it takes real talent to compress something down to just a few studs and still keep it recognizable. Of course, many of the micro models we feature here aren’t so small after all, whether it’s a vast cityscape or starship.

A cute castle by the cute sea

Microscale castles are ever-present and always pleasant to look at, but often the width of LEGO bricks works best for minifig-scaled castle walls, making ones built at smaller scales too blocky. Aaron Newman has gone around this problem by using panels and the bottom sides of bricks as walls proportionate to the scale.

The build has a good sense of clutter naturally present in medieval castles, but my favourite part is the fortifications on the towers; the creation is made for a competition that stipulates using silver goblet pieces in unique ways, but all I can see is the brilliant use of upturned 2×2 round bricks!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

An even smaller LEGO Caterham

The microscale style has reached one of my personal favourite LEGO Ideas sets, 21307 Caterham Seven 620R. Builder Victor has managed to cram the important features of that build into a handful of pieces, complete with a simple base that uses one of the printed pieces from the official set. The rear section is where most of the interesting stuff is happening: the use of two fender pieces to make the back fenders is smart, but the minifig headphones as the roll cage is even smarter, while the batarang as the windscreen detail makes me want to invert these colours to make a proper open top batmobile.

Future LA has never looked cuter

“Cute” isn’t a word you’d normally associate with the dystopian cyberpunk future envisioned in Blade Runner. However, that’s what comes to mind with automaton120‘s futuristic microscale LEGO street scene. The backdrop nicely evokes the neon-soaked architecture of cyberpunk-LA, but the stars of the show here are the vehicles. That police spinner is a cracking little model, and the others really capture the feel of the cars and trucks in the movie. The presentation of the model could have been better, maybe clipping the ugly sheet backdrop out of the image, and some image processing could have added lens flare to the signage and vehicle lights etc. But not every builder likes to add post-production effects, so that’s nit-picking at an otherwise cool LEGO creation.

Regular readers will know we like us a LEGO Police Spinner here on TBB. Syd Mead’s classic design is a rite-of-passage build for any self-respecting sci-fi builder. We’ve featured a few brilliant examples in our time — including this stunning rain-soaked Blade Runner scene from Tyler — but we don’t see a lot of microscale versions, so this creation was too cute to pass up.

Someone cast Reducio on Diagon Alley

This microscale scene by Nicolas Kolbeck is instantly recognizable to any Harry Potter fan as the eclectic wizard village found on the other side of a brick wall behind the Leaky Cauldron in London. Even more impressive than the many details that stand out, like the angled windows of Olivander’s shop and the leaning pillars of Gringot’s Bank, is how recognizable the various miniature characters are. Notice the fez part used as a skirt for Hermione, and see if you can name the rest.

Microscale multi-purpose cargo shuttle

LEGO dropships are a favorite subject for many sci-fi fans of both movies and video games. While this particular model by Oscar Cederwall is original, it does seem to take some inspiration from the dropship featured in Aliens, which also includes a deployable vehicle.

The craft features some heavy-duty thrusters, along with great color accents like the orange stripes. A mini-drone, cargo, and a vehicle with some nice details like steering, round out the scene. Some Modulex pieces make great stand-ins for cargo pods.

This is an illegal exit, you must return to the grid!

While we so anxiously wait for the official Ideas release of the Tron Legacy Light Cycle later this year, this might be the next best thing to hold us over. Even though Grantmasters makes this tiny creation with only about 10 elements (not counting the base), the transparent orange and blue ‘jetwall’ makes this classic instantly recognisable. While it may look simple, Grantmasters says that it took over 100 photo shots to get the right lighting and effect he wanted. Talk about dedication to the art!

Microscale LEGO Hogwarts paints the scene for Harry Potter movies

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is probably one of the most famous schools thanks to J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series of novels and subsequent movies. Joshua Wray has captured the school and it’s surroundings in LEGO and there’s a lot of detail in this fantastic microscale creation. While not everyone will sanction such a thing, I did notice that Joshua has been busy painting some of his LEGO pieces! Look carefully and you will notice a few coloured parts that do not exist in LEGO’s current parts list.

See more of this lovely miniature LEGO Hogwarts

Microscale Sentai Headquarters is a blast from the past

In 2006, LEGO released the Exo-Force theme, and 7709 Sentai Fortress was the largest set in the line. Marius Herrmann created a microscale version complete with the surrounding elements seen on the box art. The iconic round orange gate and the microscale mechas makes the creation instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the original set.

The Old Fishing Store... on a tiny budget

If you’re not inclined to fork over money for 21310 Old Fishing Store, Simon NH has you covered. This microscale recreation is do good that I actually thought it was the real set, albeit zoomed out, when I scrolled past it in my feed. A lot of different colours and shapes had to be crammed into this small build to give it that hobbled together look. A favourite technique here is the textured bricks which are upside down on the tower. Their anti-studs give the illusion of a platform with railings.

Paris cafe makes a stunning microscale debut

Rebuilding Creator modular buildings in microscale presents LEGO builders with many challenges, from recreating key architectural details using completely different parts to matching colors that may not exist for the needed elements. Simon NH has created a stunning replica of one of my personal favorite modular building sets, 10243 Parisian Restaurant making good use of some new parts, including the 4×4 quarter circle tiles.

Magic micro Mario & Luigi

The best microscale building takes regular LEGO parts and looks at them in a totally new way, allowing their shapes and details to represent something very different when the scale is changed. P.B. provides the perfect example in this teeny-tiny rendition of everyone’s favourite fraternal plumbers. Turn minifigure neckerchiefs upside-down and what do you have? Blue dungarees of course! The hats and moustaches round off a pair of immediately recognisable characters. Fantastic stuff.

Going loco all the way to Micropolis

Sometimes it’s a single LEGO piece which sparks the inspiration for an entire model. That’s what seems to have happened here, with David Zambito deciding the Nexo Knights helmet visor might make a good cowcatcher for a locomotive. He wasn’t wrong – it looks excellent – as does the rest of this microscale creation. The details on the train are good, although I wish the loco itself was a different colour to offer better contrast with the grey rockwork around the tunnel. The mix of skeleton arms used for steam is an obvious highlight, but don’t miss that little tent and campfire – a lovely touch which breaks up the surrounding landscaping.