The X-Wing has been the subject of several great LEGO builds and official sets over the years. Add to the line-up this minifigure-scaled version built by Inthert, which is not just highly detailed on the exterior paneling. Hiding underneath this paneling are various wires, hoses, and other detail bits throughout the fuselage, cockpit, and one engine and laser in a sectioned view.
Built in black and very, very dark grey, Haeundaddy, whose Kaneda’s bike from Akira we featured a couple days ago, has created a version of the UCS Batpod that will definitely please the Dark Knight. The Batpod is Batman’s escape vehicle integrated into the Tumbler — highly manoeuvrable, but leaves Batman somewhat exposed without the Tumbler’s armour.
Haeundaddy has included the important weaponry with dual front-mounted cannons, machine guns and grappling hooks. The Batpod is all about manoeuvrability so check out that steering mechanism, apparently all under the control of Batman’s broad shoulders. That’s real power steering!
It looks like Paul Reiser (aka Carter Burke from Aliens) has been releasing facehuggers into the homes of innocent people again! No, this grainy photo isn’t a still from the next film in the Alien franchise, but it could be! Seriously, mordatre‘s LEGO facehugger is terrifyingly good. The sleek Bionicle pieces combine perfectly to create a realistic and dynamic alien exoskeleton. I love the posable tail and legs. But if this thing could move on its own, I don’t think I’d ever be able to sleep again.
Here’s a better (?) look at the nasty creature.
It’s tough to build a good-looking ship using only one color. It’s tougher still to build one that stands up against the original source material. Swan Dutchman‘s Harrower-class Dreadnought from the Star Wars universe does both. At nearly two and a half feet long, this LEGO battleship took over 5700 bricks and 5 months to build. It’s got the perfect amount of greebly-goodness, tons of miniature firepower, and a sleek style worthy of the Old Republic Empire.
As a person who has spent more than enough time on a ship, I’ve seen seas in every color of the rainbow. That is, every color except white. White is something new. I guess that’s just one more reason why W. Navarre’s LEGO version of The Flying Dutchman from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series is so captivating. The ship’s ragged remnants of canvas are beautifully done in white, and the chains standing in for mast lines give the craft a vulgar and churlish appeal. If you’re wondering what the clear bits hanging off the sides are, those represent scuppers, holes in the side that drain water from the deck. In the films, they always seem to be dripping something, as the boat spends a lot of time underwater. The best details, though, have to be the teeth of the beast carving that makes up the ship’s intimidating snout. Where’s my jar of dirt?
Meet Alex. Alex is the main character in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange (later immortalized in film by Stanley Kubrick). Alex is depicted as a sociopath who robs, rapes, and assaults innocent people for his own amusement. David Hughes‘ LEGO sculpture of Alex is inspired by the 1972 book cover and I think his decision to stick with simple monotone shades and skin tone works very well.
The sculpture itself uses over 2,700 bricks and is 15″ wide x 12″ deep x 17″ high. And while the eye and eye-liner are certainly eye-catching, I particularly like the shaping of the Bowler hat.
Grantmasters is back with another scene from that 1980s classic movie, Robocop. This time the action takes place in the boardroom with the infamous line spoken by ED-209: “You have 5 seconds to comply.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. I am now authorized to use physical force“. Although the ED-209 robot is a fantastic little build, the micro Delta City is my favourite part of this scene. Great parts in microscale, and a welcome change from seeing the white life preserver part used as a toilet seat!
If you fancy trying your hand at re-creating a scene using ED-209, Grantmasters kindly shared the parts required for the build and a partial breakdown. Just watch out for any glitches…
Younger readers might be forgiven for mistaking this character as some kind of flesh-covered version of WALL-E (and there are some similiarities between them). But this is in fact ET from the 80’s blockbuster movie ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, recreated in LEGO form by Swedish builder LegoJalex.
This adorable ET model comes complete with a LEGO version of the communicator that he jury-rigs from household items (including a Speak-N-Spell), all beautifully presented in a fully brick-built forest scene. Here is another scene in which ET gets the idea for building a device to “phone home”:
As well as the attention to detail in these completely LEGO-filled backgrounds, what’s also impressive about this creation are the play features. As demonstrated in this video, he has an extending neck, posable limbs and even a light-up heart:
This LEGO Jurassic Park tour car by Seattle area builders Taylor Walker and Brandon Walker is instantly recognizable, thanks in part to its brick-built paint job (minus the Jurassic Park graphics). Their detailed model of the modified ’92 Ford Explorer XLT was first constructed digitally, and it’s great to see their digital model finally come to life with real bricks.
LEGO builder Andrew JN, whose excellent death of Obi-Wan Kenobi we featured a year ago, brings us this great rendition of one of the most tense scenes in all of Star Wars: the chilling first meeting of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Andrew says he worked hard to balance the lighting, so that the model captures the dark, foreboding aura of the scene, while still highlighting his fantastic work with the bricks. The great design of the carbon-freezing chamber is worth noting, built with unevenly stacked plates to form a semicircle.
New York Comicon starts in a couple days, and LEGO has started teasing some of the great things to be revealed during the event. In anticipation of the LEGO Batman Movie (hitting theaters February 2017), LEGO has revealed three additional new sets on Facebook and Twitter for the movie: The Batcave, Batman vs Mr. Freeze, and Arkham Asylum below.
More than ten years ago, we featured a LEGO model inspired by the Pejite gunship from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Well, here’s another one. Proving once again that inspiration is a close cousin of creative innovation, Nate Rehm-Daly takes us even further from the original source material. Now, instead of being dark red, it’s a combination of blue and neutral tones. And the sleek anime space style has been replaced by something more akin to dieselpulp. But the result stands on its own. That canopy combination is outstanding, and the poseable blue parts are sweet play features. I’d love to see a swarm of these dive down from the clouds.
