Tag Archives: NPU

The Charrus is SHIP full of delightful parts

During SHIPtember, when LEGO Space builders race to complete a ship at least 100 studs long within a month, the biggest challenge is finding the time and parts to get it done. But almost as hard is finding a unique hook to make your SHIP stand out. Andre Odyssey‘s OSV Charrus is a slick cargo ship with very few studs that draws on an eclectic range of parts. The ship’s deck is made from road plates, alongside race car spoilers and City ship parts. For cargo, Andre uses Mario mushrooms, lavender barrels from the Friends line, a brilliantly employed Vidyo box full, and a brick-built sand green container. The new “jumbo macaroni” tubes make excellent manipulator arms at this scale. The result is a ship that is both an impressive resupply vessel and a fun celebration of the mix-and-match potential of LEGO themes.

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Fallout boys create Panic! at the vault door

Fallout wrapped its first season on TV, and a Fallout 5 game is still years off, but the post-apocalyptic world of Vault Dwellers and Nuka Cola lives on thanks to fans like Cube Brick who spent 8 months bringing the beloved universe to life in LEGO. The scene depicts a Raider camp built on the doorstep of Vault 27 in the Mojave Wasteland from wood scraps and rusty refuse. Cube Brick’s diorama is packed to the ghouls with incredible details lifted from recent games, while also sporting some innovative techniques to bring the wasteland to life.

Suit up and venture into the Wasteland for a close-up look and more surprises!

See this LEGO serpent breach sea at the beach

BigBrickStan is a new face in the online LEGO community, but already the builder is making waves with splashy builds like this LEGO sea serpent. The Chinese-style dragon uses a lush mix of plant elements as scales. I love the variety of orange wings and claws along the creature’s back, splayed irregularly for a more organic look. An array of points and curls in white make for effective roiling water at the dragon’s base. Most impressive is the head shaping, especially the toothy jaws made of Ninjago bone swords and unicorn horns.

Magnificent painted owl springs to life

It’s the rare creation that can make you forget you’re looking at LEGO bricks while also making you love the LEGO medium even more. I know that the stunning “One Fell Swoop” from TBB alum Nannan Zhang is a LEGO model, but all I can see is a vibrant painting of an owl coming alive, so perfectly is the concept realized. The explosive creativity can literally not be contained!

Looking closer at the technique on display, the owl’s feathers are the flashiest. Chima wings in earth blue, mech swords in gold, surfboards in minifig and mindoll scale in vibrant coral make for a striking mix of plumage, and the dark red ruff of chima armor plates is magic. I love the shape of the eyebrows and especially the addition of boomerangs for extra dimension. The pale yellow eyes are a fun connection to the painting theme, sourced as they are from the Van Gogh Starry Night set.

Perhaps my favorite technique is the subtle gradient peeking through grille plates. That, as well as the tube of yellow paint and the unpainted moon, sell the illusion of a painting in progress. Hot dogs and cables used for motion lines further play with the mix of flat images and dynamic sculpture. It all adds up to a masterpiece that makes the most of LEGO form, colors, and connections.

Love is in the air and on the stairs in this medieval LEGO village

She was a high-town girl, raised in comfort. He lived in low-town, busking for coin. She hears a hum on the whispering wind. Could it be love? All that keeps these two apart is a short flight of stairs. Tomasz Bartoszek captures this romantic moment in LEGO with a scene that is packed with medieval detail and incredible parts usage. The brickwork throughout features some lovely SNOT (studs not on top) techniques, especially on that heavy wall through which the staircase rises. My favorite details are the large door that uses gaps between bricks to look like wooden planks, and the slate roof that integrates capes for a truly ramshackle look. The distinct colors and building techniques for the high and low towns make this scene of star-crossed lovers really shine.

Tomasz’ build won the runner up spot in the 2024 Summer Joust Competition “Stairway Tales” category.

Medieval bathhouse is a clean build indeed

LEGO models from Eli Willsea feature clean lines and smooth surfaces where studs have been all but scrubbed away, which makes a medieval hammam (public bathhouse) the ideal subject for his immaculate building style. I love the variety of arches stacked and nested the give the build an airiness, complemented by the bits of greenery around the scene. Of course this wouldn’t be a ForlornEmpire build without some mind-blowing parts usage. DUPLO brooms are a truly unexpected part that fit so naturally into the scene. Droid arms and binoculars link so neatly into the arches, it’s hard to believe LEGO didn’t design them for just that purpose. The greatest trick in the scene has to be the water effect, made from upside down transparent baseplates, creating the perfect bubbly surface.

Fairy and toad are friends

Prolific builder Eero Okkonen is the Geppetto of the LEGO community, crafting detailed characters with such personality that they seem ready to come alive. His latest model of a blue fairy isn’t inspired by Pinocchio, however, but by a fairy tale from Eero’s native Finland, Pessi and Illusia. Eero employs his usual panache for NPU (nice parts usage), with the highlight perhaps the Queen’s Dragon heads used as Illusia’s skirt. As lovely as the fairy is, it’s Pessi the adorable toad who steals the show here, with those perfect saucer eyes and sporting a wonderful wicker basket of interwoven flex tubes. The scene is rounded out by delectable cloudberries on stems that incorporate foam leaves, appropriately enough, from the Belville Flower Fairy Party.

Magical LEGO owl says give a hoot, don’t transmute

The Wizard’s Emissary from Nathan Don (Woomy World) is a truly magical build that pushes LEGO to its limits. Woomy’s owl showcases the builder’s usual panache for NPU (short for Nice Parts Usage, but “nice” doesn’t seem sufficient!), cherry picking parts from across LEGO themes and eras to create organic shapes with a highly tactile mix of textures. The sand blue feathers from the LEGO Kingfisher set are the starring plumage, supplemented by a mix of wing elements and other eclectic parts to create a perfectly-proportioned owl. I love that Woomy has given the bird its own fur-trimmed cape. The staff is equally exceptional, showcasing an octagonal canopy as a gem. As a final fun detail, Woomy hides a Kanohi mask amongst the crystals.

The Wizard’s Emissary was created for the second round of Bio-Cup tournament and was the winning entry under the Wizard category. Keep up with competition in our Bio-Cup archives.

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.

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.