Built from constraction elements–better known as Bionicle and Hero Factory–these detailed figures make excellent use of the system’s posable joints to picture this duel with a true sense of movement. Mid-swing, the Predator appears to have the upper hand for the moment, but never discount the Alien with its menacing tail. The green background builder cid hsiao has posed them on lends an eerie sense of unease to the scene, making this truly seem like a battle between otherworldly creatures.
It’s one of the most famous action scenes in cinema — Indiana Jones taking on a fearsome tank, armed with little more than a rock. This unforgettable moment in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade is recreated brilliantly in LEGO by Joshua Brooks. The tank is wonderfully detailed, bedecked with equipment and cargo, and features nicely-sculpted gun sponsons. Also, don’t miss the added touch of brick-built clouds of dust kicked up at the rear of the tracks…
As Joshua puts it: “SPOILER ALERT — rock beats cannon”…
Builder Jason Allemann, (aka JK Brickworks) has made a name for himself building kinetic LEGO sculptures, from Sisyphus eternally pushing a boulder to a ball maze that was turned into a real LEGO set, or even a tense Death Star trench run. But now he’s turned his hand to the new 21314 Tron: Legacy set to give it a bit of dynamism, making the lightcycles bob and weave as they cut their way across the grid.
What we love about Jason, though, is that he’s never content to simply show off something cool and leave us wondering how he did it. Instead, with every build he walks us through the steps of how his mechanisms work. Check out the video below.
Click to see the video and discover how they’re built
Earlier we brought you a first look at four new LEGO Star Wars sets, including the super cool Snoke’s Throne Room. But today LEGO is revealing their whole lineup for this fall, so we’ll be going through each theme and bringing you all the latest news, including hands-on photos of many of these sets from LEGO’s special Fall 2018 Preview event. Let’s start off with 3 more LEGO Star Wars sets.
Available in August
Click to see the rest of the new Star Wars sets
LEGO has just revealed four new Star Wars sets, available starting August 1. They include a new Sandcrawler, X-Wing, and Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter, along with a playset of Snoke’s Throne Room from The Last Jedi. Check out the images below, and check back later today as we’ll be bringing you a hands-on look at these sets (and much more!) from LEGO’s Fall 2018 Preview event this afternoon.
[Update: Don’t miss our in-person coverage of these sets]
And don’t miss the rest of the new Star Wars sets, including the Hoth Medical Chamber.
Click to check out the rest of the new Star Wars sets
Every now and again, a LEGO model appears which could herald the beginning of a new building fad. jp_velociraptor‘s Brickheadz-styled Back To The Future De Lorean is one of those. Built to accommodate the chunky proportions of the official Brickheadz versions of Doc Brown and Marty McFly, it’s a chibi delight — immediately recognisable to fans, but skewed to fit perfectly with the blocky aesthetic. So come on Brickheadz fans — now we want to see a Batmobile or some Star Wars vehicles rendered in this style.
And don’t miss this rear view which shows those gull-wing doors in action, along with a good look at all the wonderful greebly detailing around the back-end — including a perfect little Mr. Fusion!
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie received mixed reviews — a shame if you were a fan of the comic series on which it was (loosely) based. However, the production design was a definite highlight, with some amazing steampunk-styled creations popping off the screen. Martin Redfern has taken inspiration from the film’s rendition of Captain Nemo’s automobile to create this stunning car. Sleek retro lines are complemented with neat golden trim and some impressive grunt up front — all coming together in stylish steampunk fabulousness…
Click to see more of this great model, including the detailed interior and engine
Massive new Marvel movie coming out? What better way to celebrate than with a set of teeny-tiny LEGO Avengers? I couldn’t resist giving these guys a go in micro/nanoscale. There’s not that many characters you can reduce to this scale and still keep them immediately recognisable, but the distinctive colour schemes of comic book superheroes make it possible. The model is not quite purist — there was a little bit of cutting involved (HERESY!), and two sections are balanced on each other rather than stuck together. But I think it looks cool so I’m begging forgiveness. (Bonus points for any eagle-eyed commenters out there who can spot which piece I cut…)
Studio Ghibli’s animated movies are a constant source of inspiration to LEGO builders, and Kiki’s Delivery Service is no exception. Here’s the film’s feline duo, Jiji and Lily, re-created in the brick by car_mp. The curves of the cats’ bodies are nicely done, particularly the studs-out section depicting Lily’s neck fur. But as with other cartoon-themed creations, it’s the addition of the large Mixel eye tiles which injects a bunch of character and fun.
Despite what your 12-year-old neighbor thinks, movies about theme parks set in artificial dinosaur habitats didn’t start in 2015 with Jurassic World starring Chris Pratt. They started back in 1993 with the Steven Spielberg classic Jurassic Park, based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name. And as part of this year’s wave of LEGO sets tying into the latest sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, LEGO isn’t missing the opportunity to celebrate Jurassic Park’s 25th anniversary by taking us back to Isla Nublar. 75932 Jurassic Park Velociraptor Chase includes 360 pieces, and is available beginning April 16 for $39.99 USD from the LEGO Shop Online.
Read our full review of 75932 Jurassic Park Velociraptor Chase
This LEGO re-creation of the library from Disney’s Beauty & The Beast by Sarah von Innerebner isn’t just huge, it’s also stunning. From the soaring spiral stairs, the ornate fireplace, the tall windows and their curtains, through to shelf after shelf of books — the entire model is beautifully crafted, and (from what I remember of the short scene in the movie) wonderfully accurate.
At the heart of the scene, Belle and the Beast stand before the fireplace. The predominantly white and gold colour scheme provides a glittering backdrop yet doesn’t overwhelm the details on display. I love the red and green furniture, and the little touches like the writing desk and globe. The tiled floor offers a nice contrast to all the white.
Click here to see more photos of this amazing creation
Today we’re pleased to welcome Anu Pehrson as a guest contributor to give a special introduction to her latest creation. We spoke with Anu last year about her amazing models, which range from a monastery in Bhutan to the Iron Islands from A Game of Thrones. Her newest model, Master Wu’s Rice Plantation, is just as amazing. She worked on the 20,000-piece model over 3 months, and she’s documented for us the process of how a creation like this goes from idea to completion.
The diorama is enormous, at nearly four feet on each side, and includes multiple buildings, a river, beautiful trees, and lots of incredible landscaping up the staggered terraces of rice paddies.
The Building of Master Wu’s Rice PlantationBy Anu Pehrson
I wanted to build something in the Japanese architectural style, perhaps some smaller cottages where I could try different building techniques for the windows, wall patterns, roofs, and porch railings. I thought a village-like setting for these cottages would be the ideal layout. The second thing I was interested in trying was terraced agricultural fields, and rounded terraces that are used for rice farming in East Asia seemed like an interesting challenge. So bringing these two ideas together formed the basis of this MOC (My Own Creation). I also wanted to build a working gondola from a lower level to a higher level (but that hasn’t happened yet).
The LEGO Ninjago Movie was just being released as I was building this MOC, therefore, it seemed like perfect timing for to create a place for Master Wu to teach and practice with his disciples.
The starting point was a body of water. For any MOC with landscaping, I think a water body adds color and texture. The important part is to make the water interesting. There are a great many methods of doing this, but I began with using blue in the center and different shades of blue on the edges. At this point, I didn’t know how I was going to add to it, but I later added transparent 1×1 plates in a few shades over top of the blue plates.
The next step was to build stone curved walls for the terraced rice fields. However, it turned out that curved walls were very difficult to build upon as terraces.
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