Unless you’ve been living in a Dolovite mining colony on the Outer Rim for the past five years, you’ll be aware that today – May 4th – is Star Wars Day! To mark this most made-up of holidays, I decided to go for the throat with my latest batch of REJECTZ, the adorably ugly characters that aren’t Brickheads and that you hate to hate but have to hate because no-one messes with Star Wars except George Lucas.
Check out the Flickr album for more photos and a little Star Wars Day themed LEGO humor.
The recent tradition of LEGO releasing special collectible sets for the official Star Wars convention, known as Celebration, never fails to capture anticipation and attention. This year’s event – which also coincided with the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars – happened a few weeks ago and LEGO did not disappoint eager fans. This year’s exclusive LEGO item is a 220 piece set called Detention Block Rescue, and features Luke and Han in detention block AA-23 from Star Wars: A New Hope.
In advance of the release of Alien: Covenant, Grant Masters brings us a fantastically creepy LEGO rendition of a crimson Alien Queen. Clips and minifigure hands do a brilliant job of capturing the unmistakable mechanical/organic Giger styling of this classic beastie. I dread to think how fiddly this was to put together — any time I try to use clips like that something always pops loose. Grant must have the patience of a saint. Nice work on the base too — the dark grey really makes the red figure pop out of the image.
I really hope we get to see something as cool as this creation in the new movie, but I am nervous of suffering the same “anticappointment” I felt with Prometheus.
Excited for The LEGO Ninjago Movie? The movie trailer has been out since February, and we got our first official look at some of the sets last month. But whether or not you’re going to take a pass on the film or are already in line (6 months early), you can surely appreciate this awesome fan design of a brick-built scroll of the movie’s title by ZiO Chao. The lettering is perfect, both for the small text in Latin characters on the top and bottom and the main title with hànzì characters.
When two brothers, Jake and Elwood Blues, reform their band in the movie The Blues Brothers, they have high hopes of saving the orphanage in which they were raised from financial ruin. One slight issue is the requirement for musical instruments, and this leads the brothers to Ray’s Music Exchange where R&B genius Ray Charles has a cameo as the store owner. Nate Flood has built a perfect LEGO version of the infamous store, complete with a fantastic ‘LEGO-ized’ version of the famous mural.
Nathan’s build is not just an exterior though, as inside we can see Jake and Elwood strutting their stuff, with Ray Charles at the piano and the guys shaking some tail feathers with their guitars and saxophones.
I can scarcely believe it but the classic Bond spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was released 20 years ago today! To that end, I present to you my latest shagadelic LEGO creations: The out-of-his-era gentleman spy, and his equally time-shifted nemesis Dr Evil. I think I’ve managed to capture Austin’s mojo, but apologies to our evil readers for the lack of any sharks with frikkin “laser” beams. Oh, behave!
We’re getting our first high-quality look at two LEGO sets from Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok. We don’t yet have information regarding price, part counts, or exact release dates of these sets, but we’ll be sure to bring you that info as soon as it’s available.
76084 The Ultimate Battle for Asgard
76088 Thor vs. Hulk: Arena Clash
It’s perhaps surprising we don’t see more LEGO building inspired by Cubist art. Bricks would appear to lend themselves perfectly to the style. This unique series of character models by Korean builder Amida Na are an unusual take on building which relies on perspective and point-of-view, creating an interesting intersection between confusion and beauty. This isn’t the first time Amida has messed with our heads: The “folded space” of his previous cubist train set was also the inspiration behind these new creations.
The build of Goku left me trying to process whether it was front facing or back facing – when it doesn’t really matter! In fact, the effect is strange. You immediately know what you are looking at, but are bewildered because it looks so odd. Then you are attracted deeper into understanding the model’s construction. The style is likely to evoke a different reaction in each viewer — but it rewards contemplation, seeming to yield up new details.
Amida describes the technique as eliminating the least important dimension, as many objects are distinguishable from their silhouette alone, especially character builds. What remains is a two-dimensional form, folded into itself to give it a sense of depth. The process of folding gives an aesthetic value of extruded facets, and from a practical standpoint it’s a good way of having the builds stand upright. Captain America is immediately recognizable, but also totally different from any other Cap’ model you’ve seen before.
If you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 yet, this adorable LEGO Baby Groot by Markus Rollbühler should help get you hyped up for it. The use of ball joints as the eyes was a smart choice, making this version almost as cute as the original. And don’t miss the spot-on recreation of Rocket’s explosive device — very nicely done.
Your inner time-traveller may get giddy for this wonderful Ultimate Collector Series styled rendition of Doc Brown’s famous DeLorean from Back to the Future. Builder jazlecraz has faithfully recreated the classic time machine’s beautiful lines in LEGO bricks, including the signature gull-wing doors. The model uses a number of clever techniques to achieve the unique shape of the bodywork, including effective use of Mixel ball and sockets to nail some of the more difficult angles.
See close-up images and video showing the folding wheel mechanism
Elliott and E.T.’s flight over the forest has been described as the most magical moment in cinema history — probably why it was featured on the film’s advertising poster and became Spielberg’s company logo. You may recognize the building style here as Chris Adams has been building a series of 80s movie posters in LEGO. We already featured his brilliant Ghostbusters and Jaws 3D posters, now he brings us E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The piece stands 16″ tall by 14″ wide and 5″ deep (40 x 34 x 14 cm), and consists of about 2300 bricks. My favorite features are the perfectly executed silhouette in front of the moon, and how Chris has captured the sparkle between Elliott and E.T.’s fingers — brilliant!
LEGO’s BrickHeadz sets seem to have triggered an avalanche of increasingly clever custom versions of late, and it’s all we can do just to keep up with these adorably super-deformed critters. Meanwhile in a parallel dimension, the significantly uglier REJECTZ line continues to grow… The male superheroes from my first collection desperately needed girlfriends, so I decided to give Disney Princesses the REJECTZ treatment. Sorry.
…so pretttttty.
