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.
Romanian builder Letranger Absurde has been working on a series of horror movie vignettes, the latest of which is from 1984’s Nightmare on Elm Street. The ingenious parts usage for creating the famous scene of Freddy Krueger coming through the wall is eerily accurate. The use of minifigure shoulder armour for the hands and an Emperor Palpatine head are both quite clever and perfectly capture Freddy. It all comes together to create a believable scene that is actually somewhat unnerving to look at.
When Saruman sends his orc army to knock on your front door, you have to be prepared. Lucky for LEGO King Théoden and the rest of the Rohirrim, Classical Bricks has constructed an impressively massive and rather sound-looking fortress. This walled stronghold is built right into the mountainside (using some interesting rockwork techniques) and it looks like it came straight out of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel.
The diorama is 6.3 feet long (nearly 2 meters), and includes about 200 minifigures. Despite its size, the scene certainly doesn’t lack detail, with the fortress integrated with rockwork built from angled plates.
You can’t get much more adorable than this little blocky representation of Disney’s most famous elephant. David Liu says that he built this because Dumbo is his wife’s favourite character. And I am glad he did, because that has always been one of my faves as well.
David has done an amazing job portraying Dumbo at a relatively compact scale. But the little display stand really takes the overall build to the next level. With some very efficient parts usage David created an instantly recognizable scene, in particular the use of the black 1×1 clip plates as the three crows is super clever.
KW_Vauban captured the Geonosian Petranaki Arena scene from Attack of the Clones rather well with LEGO bricks. The builder’s use of dark orange bricks on detailed and accurately constructed Geonosian architecture was a smart choice. In particular, I like the construction of the main gate with the CIS overlook above.
Dozens of Geonosians line the arena, while Battle Droids and Jedi fight below.
Click to see more of the Geonosian Arena
Last week we brought you instructions on how to build a terrifically cute GONK droid, and this week we’re excited about the brand new trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so we’re revisiting the Star Wars universe for one of the more unusual ships. Although only seen in a few quick shots in The Empire Strikes Back, the little Storm IV Twin-Pod “Cloud Car” struck a chord with fans, including LEGO builder hachiroku24, who’s built an awesome minifigure-scale version. LEGO produced a single minifigure-scale set of the tiny two-seater craft back in 2002, but not only was it the wrong color, it wasn’t particularly detailed. This version is much improved, adding cool details like the engine intake between the pods and smoother curves.
Best yet, the builder also gives us instructions for it in this handy video walkthrough, so you can build your own Bespin security ship.