Tag Archives: Mikael Montelius

A picture-perfect LEGO chocolate dessert

Full disclosure: When I started to write this article, I reached for a chocolate stocking-stuffer holiday treat. That’s how good these LEGO desserts by Mikael Montelius looked to me. The execution is simple, yet elegant. Minifig hairpieces make for excellent truffles and the use of brown and tan makes it all seem like delicious chocolate and nougat. The brown ingots giving the appearance of a breakable, sharable chocolate bar is just; chef’s kiss! It’s almost too tempting to break off a piece for real. As it turns out, brown LEGO — especially older brown pieces — are known to be quite brittle. As mouth-watering as this appears to be, I wouldn’t recommend eating LEGO, though — it’s not as satisfying as you’d think. However, what is satisfying is a delicious romp through our LEGO food archives but I recommend grabbing a snack first.

Bobbo the Babbler built from bricks

One of the challenges of moving to Finland for me has been picking up the language – I am finding it rather difficult to get my head around it. One of the suggestions that has been put to me is to watch children’s TV shows, and after seeing this build by Mikael Montelius (Gonkius), I may have found one to do just that! This adorable character is called Bobbo, and is one of six characters in the educational show Babblarna (‘the Babblers’). It’s originally a Swedish show, but does apparently have versions in Finnish, as well as English, German and Norwegian. Bobbo here is a high-energy character with an occasionally fiery temper. He also likes to dance, and Mikael has captured him mid-boogie! The red windscreen pieces are the perfect choice to capture his circular shape, and the half-circle tile used for his tooth, along with the eye tiles, gives him oodles of character.

Star Trek: The Next Generation engage!

This new LEGO creation by Mikael Montelius features all your favorites from Star Trek: The Next Generation. From left to right we have Wesley and Beverly Crusher, Captain Picard, Data, LaForge, Riker, Troi and Worf. There aren’t many parts here but the likeness to each character is uncanny. I like that each shoulder is touching the next but is slightly askew. The base and the whole presentation makes for a handsome display that could adorn any desk or office. The formula is simple, yet brilliant. We’ve been smitten by Mikael’s work before but I can see this setting a trend for other builders to follow. Think about how this formula of characters on a neat linear display could work for other fun franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, DC Comics, Harry Potter or…The Human Centipede. Sorry. I’ll just let myself out.

Keep out Inky and Blinky

One of the things I love about writing for The Brothers Brick is that I learn something new with every article. For instance, I never knew the ghosts from the arcade game Pac-Man had names. Apparently, they do. In this creation by Mikael Montelius Inky and Blinky are featured. Inky is the blue one, Blinky the red one. Somehow LEGO is a great medium to make 2D Arcade Games come to life. One of the things that always amazes me is how perfectly the 2×2 curved slopes fit together to make a (half) circle. These pieces are used to create not only Inky and Blinky, but also our beloved hero Pac-Man. I’m also a fan of the use of dark blue and black tiles to create the maze on the floor of this creation.