Tag Archives: Movies

Films and the cinema provide a lot of great inspiration for LEGO builders all over the world. You’ll find LEGO models inspired by everything from Mad Max to Toy Story here.

Look who’s laughing now

Look who’s laughing now… It’s Shenzi, Banzai, and the cackling Ed — the trio of villainous hyenas from Disney’s 1994 animated classic The Lion King, created in LEGO bricks by Timofey Tkachev. The sculpting here is excellent — each beast well-posed, and their different faces captured perfectly through a variety of building techniques and parts. The key to success lies in the choice of scale — these shady characters are surprisingly large, giving Timofey space to nail all the details. And while simple, the surrounding landscaping enhances the presentation of the central figures, suggesting the bleak elephant’s graveyard, which surely stretches to the horizons around them.

The Lion King‘s characterization of these hyenas received a mixed reception back in 1994, with some critics accusing Disney of racist caricature in the voice acting and dialogue. Disney never acknowledged any of this criticism, but Scar’s hyena lieutenants were quietly rewritten, and mostly renamed, in the 2019 live-action remake. Whatever you might think of the original movie’s depiction of this trio, it doesn’t affect the quality of the LEGO building on display here.

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LEGO announces new Fast & Furious license coming to Technic [News]

Today, LEGO announced a new licensing partnership with Universal Studios to create sets based on the mega-hit Fast & Furious franchise. With more than $6-billion in box-office revenue from the franchise already, Fast & Furious 9 is slated to hit theaters May 22. LEGO plans to release a tie-in set a month earlier on April 27, which will be a Technic kit with an age rating of 10+. LEGO has yet to confirm any further details about the set.

Jill Wilfert, Vice President of Inbound & Entertainment Licensing at the LEGO Group, had this to say about the partnership: “The LEGO Technic brand with its authenticity and attention to detail and the action packed Fast & Furious franchise are a great match. Both franchises are known for creativity and cool cars so we are really excited to work with Universal on this awesome product that both LEGO Technic and Fast & Furious fans are going to love to build!”

First LEGO set from Marvel’s Black Widow movie revealed with 76162 Black Widow’s Helicopter Chase [News]

This morning Yahoo revealed the first LEGO set from Marvel’s upcoming Black Widow movie, 76162 Black Widow’s Helicopter Chase. The set features a Chinook-style helicopter, motorcycle and three minifigures of Black Widow, Yelena Belova, and Taskmaster. LEGO appears to be doing a staggered rollout of the 271-piece set, with Yahoo reporting it will be available at Target starting March 1 and Disney parks in April, ahead of the film’s May 1 release date. The set will retail for $29.99 USD.

Lord of the Bricks: Masterpiece Edition

Microscales are fun and always leave me in awe with great parts usage and clever techniques, but this masterpiece by Simon Hundsbichler is jaw-dropping in every way. His build consists of six locations from the Fellowship of the Ring, recreated in awe-inspiring microscale — You don’t have to build big to make a big impact. What makes this literally pop out is the open brick-built book acting as an elegant base, complete with subtle detailing to form the curvature of the spine. I could stare at this for hours and find new things to wonder about. I did manage to spot a hidden Easter egg, with the one ring built into the hobbit-hole. Can you spot Gandalf? (Yes, he’s there alright)

Starhawk Battleship, ready for duty

Builder Andrew of CRCT Productions gives us one of the lesser-known hero ships of the Star Wars galaxy, the Starhawk-class Battleship. A creation of the New Republic in the final days of the Empire after the events of The Return of the Jedi, the Starhawk was a smorgasbord of cannibalized Star Destroyers and other warships. Three of them fought valiantly in the Battle of Jakku, taking down a Super Star Destroyer with its powerful tractor beam cannons on the nose.

This build is incredible. For having little source material, Andrew did a fantastic job at getting all the known details into his Starhawk. The yellow and blue markings are a nice touch, breaking away from the Imperial grey seen on nearly all the large warships in the Star Wars films. Other features include the smooth surfaces, neat angles and attention to the smallest of details, which give this LEGO creation the illusion that it might not be LEGO at all: it might be the real deal, an actual Starhawk.

How good is the LEGO Batman 40433 1989 Batmobile set that comes free with the giant Batmobile? [Review]

A few weeks ago, LEGO revealed the latest Ultimate Collector Series-style Batmobile, 76139 1989 Batmobile, which will be available for the first time on Nov. 29, Black Friday (US $249.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £219.99). Shoppers who brave the crowds between Nov. 29 and Dec. 5 to purchase the giant 3,306-piece version of Tim Burton’s Batmobile will also get a free Gift With Purchase (GWP) set in the form of a smaller, minifigure-scale model of the same iconic car. 40433 1989 Batmobile has 366 pieces and features a similar rotating stand and info placard.

While any free LEGO is good LEGO, gift with purchase sets range from uninspired afterthoughts to enticingly fantastic. So how does the mini 1989 Batmobile stack up? Spoiler alert: it’s very, very good. In fact, the most disappointing thing about it is that it is a gift with purchase, which means you can’t easily get multiples without laying out some serious cash to get multiple copies of the big set.

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LEGO Trolls: World Tour full set lineup revealed [News]

Today, LEGO took the wraps off the upcoming sets for the Trolls: World Tour movie, revealing seven tie-in sets. The film, starring Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, is slated to arrive April 17, 2020, but the LEGO sets will come much sooner with a release date of January (which likely means they will actually drop Dec. 26, like most of the other January-wave sets). The sets feature a solid dose of new elements to create all the zany Trolls, along with other new introductions like musical notes and new hot air balloon panels. We got a brief look at the LEGO Trolls minifigures last month, but now we can see the full sets. The line appears to include one 4+ (formerly known as Juniors) set, with the rest being traditional sets. LEGO provided some set images to Yahoo Entertainment (because apparently this is still 2005), while also revealing lifestyle images of each set on Instagram.

Don’t miss the rest of the LEGO lineup for 2020:

Click to check out all the Trolls: World Tour sets

Build James Bond’s Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me [Instructions]

Looking back at the action scenes from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me make them seem downright cheesy today. Having said that, the reason why the Lotus Esprit is still remembered and loved is just how realistic the way the car submerged and reappeared on the sandy beach. Simple designs are sometimes the key to making things rememberable. Hachiroku24’s take on this vehicle not only looks great from the sides, but also has great detailing on the rear using simple 1×1 plates for its rear tail lights.

Click for full instructions to build your own

Ollivander’s shop looks wand-erful in LEGO

My preferred style of LEGO build is the kind geared towards a fully immersive photograph. The lack of edges, the painstaking arrangement of light, and precise positioning of the minifigures contribute to a realism that is gratifying with tiny bits of plastic. It is about the photograph. The work of up-and-coming builder Lego_nuts is in a similar vein, with splendid use of light. The subject matter will be apparent to anyone who has seen the first Harry Potter movie, as Harry tries just about every wand in Mr. Ollivander’s shop before finding the right one, making a huge mess in the process (though why anyone cares about messes in the wizarding world is beyond me, as it cleans itself up with a flick of a wand). But what excites me about the build is the light streaming in the window in the back, giving it a feeling of harsh daylight outside on Diagon Alley.

The stacked wand boxes are also beautifully arranged, utilizing a number of different elements to create the effect, from ingots and grille tiles to masonry bricks and grille bricks. I love how many of them are at an angle, just stuffed in there wherever they can fit. The desk has some wands for display, of course, highlighting the different colors that one could have (perhaps the different woods?), along with a ledger and quill. Some 1x4x1 fence pieces make for great wrought-iron risers on the stairs, too. What sells the build, though, is the tiled ceiling and the light fixture hanging down, finishing the space. It’s the details like those that are the difference between a lackluster immersive build and a lustrous one.

I’ll build about that tomorrow, after all tomorrow is another day

We see plenty of LEGO creations depicting scenes from movies. However, it’s less often we get a behind the scenes look at film production. That’s exactly what Marcel V. provides with this neat little diorama going backstage during the making of the 1939 classic Gone With The Wind. The scene shows Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler face-to-face inside a set which captures the feel of Tara, the plantation mansion in the movie. You can almost imagine the snide remarks and love-to-hate-you banter passing back and forth between the leads for the cameras’ benefit. The surrounding equipment is nicely put-together, with the lighting rig an obvious highlight. This is a fun little build and makes me want to see more “behind the scenes on the movies” LEGO creations.

Fun fact: for the famous sequence in the movie where Atlanta is set ablaze, the film-makers actually torched the abandoned sets from 1933’s King Kong.

Laughing all the way to the bank

There’s no stopping the insanity of the Joker at the box office, with it now surpassing the Deadpool movies to be the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. Though more fan builds will inevitably come, for now this build by Vincent’s LEGO Creation is likely as close as we’re going to get to a minifigure representation of the groundbreaking performance by Joaquin Phoenix, since we all know how LEGO feels about representing movies with that level of violence. However, you never can tell as we’ve seen how LEGO tackles more unconventional topics with convention releases.

A Shining example of LEGO ingenuity

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Maybe what Jack needs is to take a break and play with some LEGO. Then again…maybe not. Timofey Tkachev brings us a twist on an iconic image from The Shining with “Here’s Johnny!” An instantly recognizable Jack Nicholson breaks through a door…but since the door is made of LEGO, he’s using a brick separator. Because of course he is.

There’s a lot to love about the build here. Elephant trunks have just the right shaping for Jack’s eyebrows, and an energy effect wave makes for a great bit of unkempt hair. Tiles are used to great effect, with quarter circle round tiles shaping the nose, and white half circles forming his insane grin. The really scary part of this build, though, is that somehow it just took a single evening to put together. That’s spooky fast!