Tag Archives: NPU

Metroid figs trade mini for mighty

The minifig’s chunky and chibi format has made it a beloved icon recognized around the world, but have you ever wondered how your favorite minifig head or accessory might look at more human proportions? Japanese builder Qin has carved out a niche upgrading minifig and minidoll heads onto fully articulated action figure bodies, and the results are outstanding. To commemorate new footage of Metroid Prime 4 coming out of the latest Nintendo Direct, Qin assembled Samus Aran, in both power suit and unmasked versions, and the results are among Qin’s best figures to date.

When building at this scale (just 4″ tall), truly every piece needs to pull its weight, adding articulation or character-specific accuracy. For Samus’ suit, the standout section has to be those shoulders, built from orange Stuntz helmets and rare Samurai X visors.

Unmasked Samus trades minifig helmet for a minidoll head, but the clever parts usage continues. For the shoulders and elbow joints, we can see one of Qin’s best tricks for pint-sized articulation – mini-antennae – a technique you can see in some of their other recent character builds. Every one of Qin’s little action figures brings a smile to my face – proof that big talent can come in small packages.

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LEGO Swamp Hut is anything but bog-standard

Medieval architecture might be a thing of the past, but it’s a wellspring of innovation for adult fans of LEGO. I’m constantly amazed at how members of the community find clever new ways to recreate decidedly old-fashioned aesthetics with the latest in plastic bricks. Builder david zambito, a long-time innovator in medieval techniques, returns from a lengthy hiatus with a singular Swamp Hut scene that shows he’s been honing those skills since we last saw his work.

The unusual choice of colors first catches the eye, with the wonderfully-mottled green walls of the hut echoing the mire of the swamp. By keeping to a narrow and muted palette, the few accent colors in the flowers and berries really pop. The stonework is perhaps the most impressive aspect of the build, both with the flagstone path nestled between brown stems (someone had fun at the Pick-a-Brick bins!) and especially the hut’s stony ground floor built from a truly eclectic mix of round parts in dark grey, from slide shoes to helmets, and even a frog. Nice parts usage (NPU) are sprinkled throughout the build; the Islander hairpiece topping the lantern and the arachnid arches over the windows are standouts and add to the witchy vibes.

Finally a fantastic LEGO Cait Sith

Feline hero Cait Sith epitomizes why Final Fantasy 7 captured the imagination of generations of gamers. Whereas other RPGS might let you choose between elf or dwarf, cleric or druid, FF7 gives your party a robotic fortune-telling cat with a Scottish brogue who rides into battle with atop a giant living plush toy using a megaphone and gambling powers to shift the odds. Nathan Don (Woomy World) pays tribute to the beloved gaming icon with a faithful LEGO model that is bursting with personality and perfect parts usage. From the soles of his chunky boots to the tip of his crown (borrowed from constraction scale King Mathias), the shaping is impeccable, especially the face.

Time and again Woomy World demonstrates incredible skill in connecting just the right pieces using innovative connections to create organic and cartoon-like models. Using grey hot dogs for Cait Sith’s perpetually squinting eyes works perfectly, and a pair of white ninja cowls for the upper lips frame the adorable pink tongue. For the knotted bow on the cape, Woomy World uses the ribbon hanger of a holiday ornament. If you’re feeling lucky, take a limited break and explore our Woomy World archives.

LEGO fan blows us away with LEGO fan

We’re constantly inspired by the strange creatures, swooshable ships, and epic dioramas shared by LEGO builders each day that instantly grab your attention. Ironically, we nearly missed one of the most impressive builds of the week because it’s so lifelike and mundane that it doesn’t even register as LEGO at all! This retro electrical fan at 1:1 scale is a nearly studless masterpiece from builder ruby_lego that begs the question: “Is it LEGO?”

The seed parts are the rare trans blue doors from the Aquanauts Neptune Discovery Lab. Ruby built the cage out of flex tubes from the T-Rex Breakout. To minimize seams, the base is made from an IKEA Byylek lid. The dial utilizes a clock face from Big Ben. Even though the plug and pneumatic tubing power cord is purely cosmetic, the stand hides official LEGO Power Functions so the lifelike fan really works! It’s a powerful piece of nostalgia and NPU (nice parts usage) that made us instant fans of ruby_lego.

Building with character: a conversation with NPU wizard Djokson [Interview]

LEGO elements are a fascinating creative medium where the palette of possibility is constantly evolving, but the pieces of yesteryear never go away. Duplo bricks from 45 years ago can still connect with forgotten Znaps or the latest Dreamzzz. Serbian builder Djokson is an undisputed master of bridging obscure LEGO B-Sides with new shapes and colors. Over 10 years, he has created and shared nearly 400 LEGO models, each remarkable in form, personality, and originality. Djokson has been on a hot streak this year with multiple new models a week that showcases his growth as an artist. This seems like the perfect time to sit down with Djokson and learn a bit more about the mind behind this incredible run of LEGO marvels.

Read on for the rest of our interview with Djokson and a retrospective of his amazing builds! !

One of the classic space blunders

Feeding wildlife is generally frowned upon, even at your local park, but more so on alien worlds where lifeforms have too many legs, teeth, or tentacles and where the only thing protecting your body from asphyxiation or worse is a brightly colored space suit. I’m not sure if the happy-go-lucky LEGO spacefarers in Dicken Liu‘s playful scene are taunting the local fauna for science or just for kicks, but I sure hope they brought enough gems to share with all the locals. Last year we named Dicken Liu Builder of the Year for his clever parts usage and joyful models and this vignette lives up to that reputation. For the surface of the alien world, he uses hexagonal rotors from the Nexo Knights line, which tessellate nicely with 2×4 wedge plates. Red crowbars make for convincing legs for the insectoid aliens, while Nexo Knights make a return for the larger alien’s half-dome head. Liu titled this build Scavengers Reign, perhaps in reference to the creepy cool animated series which offers many clear reminders of what can happen when you get up close and personal with strange lifeforms.

An interstellar waystation fueled by imagination

Space is big. Vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big. For LEGO explorers running on empty while traversing the deep cosmos, Bart De Dobbelear has you covered with the Liquid-Core refueling station. When filtered through the mind of this Belgian builder, even a gas station in the stars becomes a scene of wonder, where brilliant technique blends with evocative lore. Space is a popular theme for builders, whether inspired by the LEGO sub-themes, sci-fi films, or swooshable ships and chonky rovers. Bart is an artist who pushes the theme further, whose work feels truly cosmic, offering glimpses of a vast and ancient universe that we can only understand in glimpses. His builds often remind me of the sci-fi work from Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) in the way he blends organic and mechanical, where technology is so removed from our understanding as to border on the magical. You can see that here with the eerily reptilian solar fins, sourced appropriately enough from a Ninjago NRG Dragon, and the fuel chambers made from the milky green domes of Yavin 4. This Liquid-Core station is fairly unique among Bart’s builds in that it features inviting human typography, suggesting maybe we aren’t so alone in the great unknown of space.

Once you’ve had your fill of this station, set a course for the Bart De Dobbelear archives to see why he is considered cosmic royalty around these parts.

A tiny kingdom of towering LEGO trees

A vertical kingdom of stone surrouned by towering pines overlooks a pale blue lake in Eli Willsea‘s stunning LEGO diorama titled Heart of the Kingdom. The whimsical architecture, lovely colors, and striking verticality are reminiscent of the Monument Valley games, but the details are utterly original and evocative. This build marks Eli’s return after a busy 2023 when he competed in three heats of the Iron Builder competition and is a clear reminder of why he’s a NPU (Nice Parts Usage) star. How to pick a favorite detail? The elegantly angled tooth bars serving as micro stairs? The grey roller skates adding a decorative touch to the 1×1 towers? The wands still on their sprue for the portcullis? I have to go with the grey popsicles flanking the cave beneath the castle. Even though there is nary a stud to be seen, with its right angles and clean lines, Eli’s model celebrates the aesthetic of the brick.

Powerful princess of the Saphire Sword

Fantasy-flavored minifigs might be all the buzz right now thanks to LEGO’s new D&D partnership, but prolific Finnish builder (and TBB regular) Eero Okkonen is here to take the crown with his latest swords and sorcery inspired brick-built character. Eero makes clever use of the latest plant elements, like the lavender breastplates sourced from a new mold in LEGO Friends 42620 Olly and Paisley’s Family Houses. One of my favorite elements of the creation is how perfectly the opalescent sword pieces work as both hair and skirt. There are so many details to admire, like the Prince of Persia dagger of time as a brooch, Gungan shields on the belt, and alien cocoon thighs. Like most of his characters, this one is highly-poseable, so be sure to dive into Eero’s Flickr page for a full gallery and build insights.

Looking for more of his great character creations? We’ve got plenty of Eero Okkonen’s LEGO builds in our archives.

From City of Lanterns to Shibuya Scramble

Inspired by his time in Shibuya, the latest modular from LEGO Masters Sweden finalist Olle Moquist captures the shuffle of old and new that one feels walking the busy backstreets of modern Tokyo. Olle picked an unusual seed part for the Lotus Hotel, beige DUPLO cushions, which give the building a distinctive stud-free texture. I’m also really struck by how perfectly the vintage Homemaker theme‘s maxifigure works as a Buddha with his compassionate long earlobes. While this city center is grounded in a more realistic setting, the modular wouldn’t look out of place next to Ninjago City, and after a busy day of shopping or a stay at the Lotus Hotel, visitors to this LEGO neighborhood can presumably take the tram to Monkie Kid’s City of Lanterns.

An awkward LEGO robot with soccer roots

Here at The Brothers Brick, we talk a lot about exceptional LEGO part usage. But this usually exists at a fairly small scale, about a specific detail in a larger build. On the rare occasion, though, a builder will take the most awkward piece and manage to fit it expertly into their creation. And Djokson has done just that with several large turf pieces from the soccer subtheme of LEGO Town that existed back in the early aughts. They make up the torso and arms of this mono-green mech, even leveraging the sliding mechanism built into the goalie’s 8×16 chunk of pitch for a front-facing weapon. This robot isn’t all over the field, so much as the field is all over it!

Ace Parts Usage: TBB’s favorite LEGO build techniques of the second half of 2023 [Feature]

It’s been nearly six months since our first “Ace Parts Usage” article. In it, we sifted through hundreds of LEGO creations to determine our top 10 favorite build techniques from January through June of this year. If you’re unfamiliar, builds that feature particularly cool techniques are said to have NPU (Nice Parts Usage). We’ve seen everything, but occasionally we’re extra impressed by something new and unique – an “ace” parts usage. Although we’re about to announce our overall favorite builds (using several criteria) in the running for the TBB Creation of the Year , we want to honor some ace parts usage right here, right now. There were too many awesome considerations over the past 6 months, so we decided to give you our favorite 15 instead of our favorite 10. Join us as we count down the best of the second half of 2023!

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