Tag Archives: Redbirch

Villains unite – sinister figs of the LEGO multiverse [Minifig Monday]

What’s a hero without a good villain? Or, better yet, a whole rogue’s gallery of baddies in every flavor. This week on Minifig Monday, we celebrate custom LEGO creations of villains – both familiar faces from comics and original characters.

Llano (femmefromtheblock) gets things started with this hot take on Mr. Freeze. It’s just one of the builder’s growing ensemble of #dcllanoverse Bat characters. The pale blue and pearlescent works so well for Gotham’s coolest villain.

Redbirch Bricks is back with this “midi-fig” spin on Bane, from the infamous Knightfall arc. The villain’s minifig legs as arms perfectly sell his venom-fueled muscles as he breaks the Bat.

Click for more villains from the world of comics, Warhammer, and fantasy

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Bringing back the Ma.K

Every year, it seems like we have more and more monthly themes and building challenges in the LEGO community. Febrovery, SHIPtember, Frogust, and the new NovHENber, to name a few. Sometimes it seems like a trend has always been around and always will be… until it’s not. Ma.Ktober used to be a huge event in the community and one that TBB would cover excitedly each year, but for the last decade, the Ma.K is an endangered species. Gone, but not quite forgotten thanks to builders like Redbirch, who is bringing Ma.K back with the Wanze Box, a recon and espionage walker. It’s an excellent throwback build to a beloved theme that captures the aesthetic perfectly.

If you’re not familiar with Ma.Ks, short for “Maschinen Krieger” and based on model kitbashing and worldbuilding by Kow Yokoyama, Ted Andes provides a great overview of the theme’s LEGO history over here on BrickNerd. you can also see many more builds in the theme in our Machinen Krieger archive.

Making magic with mind-bending custom minfigs [Minifig Monday]

Last week’s grab bag installment of Minifig Monday was a lot of fun, but today we return to themed roundups. Specifically, we’re looking at wizards and warlocks and their sorcerous kindred – but the real magic is in the creative use of parts to push the boundaries of minifig creation!

We start this magical Monday collection with a character who is barely a wizard at all – Rincewind from the Discworld novels. As created by legendary minifig photographer Jez Rider, Rincewind is accompanied by The Luggage and a definitely-not-stolen sheep.

Custom minifigs represent! This incredible Wicked duo from LEGO Masters winner Ian Summers (bricktacular_builds) is currently in the LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery, and might be the smallest build to get that honor. The parts usage is mind-blowing, especially the backwards arms, Glinda’s teapot body, and a beard for Elphaba’s broom. I had the chance to speak with Ian at LEGO House and he’s a fan of Minifig Monday and the creations shared here.

Backwards arms? Redbirch ups the ante with legs for arms! The builder has only shared 11 MOCs so far, but they’ve already made Minifig Monday twice with some of the most innovative parts usage we’ve seen. Look at those extended legs, made by slotting a minifig hand into the leg hole. The handlebar shoulder armor is great too.

Let’s make some more minifig magic after the fold

Greebling from the ground up

If you’re not familiar with the term, greebles are small details that make a simple object appear more complex. In LEGO building, that term is often applied to all those little textural elements you see on LEGO mechs and spaceships. (Don’t forget that you can check out this and many other LEGO-related terms in the TBB glossary.) Redbirch takes the greebling concept one step further with Mechannibal – a mechanical monster that appears to be all greeble.

Redbirch started building with an idea for the feet — minifigure torsos with jet packs. The rest of the monster is built over a core Mixel-joint skeleton, resulting in great articulation. Each move requires a lot of fiddly adjustments, though, as the surface detailing has to be tweaked to close any newly visible gaps. All that effort is worth it, as Mechannibal looks great (and menacing) from every angle.

Now we just need some clever builder to do a similar creation, but with all those Friends accessories that keep piling up…