Tag Archives: Ruins

A ruin in four LEGO colors

LEGO builder Pan Noda has a stellar record when it comes to color use. Not too long ago, I raved about this monotonal marvel that spilled forth from their mind. And while this creation goes a bit more subterranean than their previous work, it’s still a powerful bit of art composed of cobbled walls, hanging vines, and still water. Even though the palette here only uses four colors of brick (light gray, green, tan, and transparent light blue), their brilliant use of light transforms the scene into a symphony of shades. The uneven textures on the walls create pockets of shadow and reflective surfaces that bring the whole thing to life! Plus, it’s giving me the sudden urge to hunt for jungle temples in Minecraft….

Flooded temple

LEGO Creation of the Week (#21): The Lost Temple by Jake Hansen and Eli Willsea

Every week readers of the The Brothers Brick Telegram channel choose the Creation of the Week: one project that impressed all of us the most. Neither a Pokemon, nor a fancy Fabuland starfither could crush a charming lost temple by Jake Hansen and Eli Willsea during our last week’s vote! Congratulations!

Meanwhile, the new vote is already on! Join our Telegram channel to follow all the best LEGO creations, latest news, and, of course, vote for your favorites. See you there!

A ruin of cubes amid the jungle

The dynamic duo of Jake Hansen and Eli Willsea have combined their LEGO talents to construct a glorious jungle scene based around a very boxy temple. The contrasts here are brilliant! The natural chaos of the jungle, replete with bladed vegetation, juxtaposes the right angles and clean lines of the temple. I love the choice of non-transparent blue for the water, adding to the feel of consistent color patches throughout the scene. But the real star here is the consistent architectural style throughout the temple’s ruin. Re-use of common patterns makes the build feel whole, while subtle variations on those modules gives the viewer an idea of the site’s state of decay. The consistency is so impressive that I was shocked it was made by two builders.

The Lost Temple

This tower is held together by the power of hopes and dreams

Most of the time I can figure out how a LEGO creation has been put together. Sometimes it is just a big riddle. This lovely build by Kit Nugent is one of those builds that I just can’t wrap my head around. What makes this creation really fun is the number of weird pieces hidden in it to add texture to the build. If you look closely, and I truly recommend that you do, you can spot all sorts of unique bricks. There is a pump bottle, a couple of hairbrushes and a rubber duckling hidden in the build to add texture to the landscaping. Last but definitely not least is the use of the Minecreaft pickaxe and the wand box blend in perfectly with the Tudor style of the home.

A Dear Visitor

Bones and desert ruins forgotten by all but Time

Sun-bleached bones and an abandoned structure standout in the LEGO desert landscape by Eli Willsea. A feeling of loneliness and sorrow pervade the scene. Was this a sacred site with a sacred creature left alone due to unforeseen turmoil? Or was this creature the victim of sacrifice or punishment? None can say what happened here, only that the creature is long gone, its bones still bearing the weight of being tethered to the place. The structure around it towers overhead, an impressive mark on the landscape. Minifig roller-skates give detail to the capitals of the pillars. The banners on either side of the entrance stairs are seamless in their fitting, giving form to the staircase. High overhead, quarter tiles are wonderful vertical detailing for the entrance roof. The blending of soft and hard edges gives the scene a gentle, yet harsh, quality, not unlike the sand surrounding it.

Forgotten Bones

Nature takes root in an abandoned castle

I really enjoy seeing examples of nature reclaiming abandoned spaces. Brick2 “Art”
has recreated this effortlessly in LEGO form with this scene of a tree taking root in an old castle.
There’s a lot of wonderful detail to be found in this build. The use of bars and whips in the construction of the tree adds a natural look to the trunk. Surrounding the tree, you’ll see other signs of nature looking to find purchase with some well placed mushrooms and tree roots.
Beyond this, we’re afforded suggestions of past castle life with a mix of scrolls, jars, and bottles discarded alongside weapons and the skeletons of the castle’s last inhabitants.

Growth

Let’s not forget the castle itself. Brick2 “Art” has composed this build with lots of subtle details suggesting the age of the citadel. And the arches along the sides offer the promise of more castle to explore. A final touch to this is how the light in this scene really adds to the composition, pooling the color centrally and making for quite the haunted scene!

Remnants of a lost world

I am quite confident when it comes to my LEGO part identifying. Quite confident until I stumble across another wonderful creation by Bart de Dobbelaer. Lego produced quite a few themes that are compatible with the system but are not minifigure scale or use standard bricks. No LEGO theme is off limit for Bart. We are looking at the ruins of a once magnificent civilization that is now reclaimed by nature.

Remnants of a lost world

The aerial roots of the trees look like they are gathering water and storing it in transparent sacks but that’s just my interpretation. These parts come from the LEGO clikits line.The boat in this creation uses a Ben 10 torso which works perfectly for a futuristic floating vessel. Or is it just a piece of floating scrap metal? Whatever it is, it works perfectly. I like how you can identify the piece because of its reflection. And reflection is what makes this creation go from big to massive. The use of dark orange bricks to represent rust and decay works perfectly as a complementary colour with the blue lighting. The cute blue critters with their yellow eyes also match the surroundings perfectly.

Nature reclaims elven architecture... As it should!

Elves seem to have a knack of building their dwellings harmonious with nature in most fantasy stories. Whether it is an ethereal treetop palace or a hidden valley lodging (very specific, I know), elven architecture is one with its surroundings. Books and films such as The Lord of the Rings made this trope popular – which isn’t a bad thing. However, builder Daniel Cloward shows us that sometimes this is not the case.

Reclaimed

An elven city sits on coastal cliffs, built from the same stones, as shown by light grey LEGO elements. However, it is abandoned and has been overgrown with trees, shrubs, and other vegetation depicted by various green pieces. Only the white tree with lavender foliage remains of the original elf-nature harmony, as it seems to be part of the original city. The bright colours of that tree stand out from the grey and greens of the rest of the build. This small diorama really shows off the story of nature vs man-made (or elf-made) structures falling to ruin.

Interested in more elves and their architecture? We have some more elven creations for you.

It’s a cat-love-dog world?

In our current apocalyptical-like times, I’m sure most of us could use some feel-good imagery or stories in our lives. Here’s a sweet little LEGO vignette by Sebastian Arts, involving an amicable relationship between natural enemies – a cat and dog.

Romeow and Growliet

The main portion of the build is a fractured architectural setting with a post-apocalyptical feel to it. The drab grey color-scheme is made interesting by the sharp forms Sebastian shapes using mostly plates, slopes, tiles, and even blades. Some rounder elements are also incorporated, including 1×1 cylinders, 2×2 ridged cylinders, 1×1 cones, rounded sticks, and my favorite piece here – the technic bearing plate which is utilized in multiples to create a small roof. The focal point of the model is definitely the red 3×3 heart plate with a red 2×2 circular tile suspended over the orange striped cat and grey and white husky dog, all of which add a splash of color within the monochrome built environment. What can I say? This model just warms the heart but is also aesthetically quite pleasing.

Quite some minifigures were harmed in the making of this creation...

Elias tore apart quite a few figures to build this creation and his the use of torso’s in this creation is amazing. They are everywhere! From the columns to the altar, from the platform to the staff. Thirty torsos have been used in this LEGO creation. The thing I love the most is the way the printing on the torsos was incorporated in the build. There are a lot of city hoodies and licenses fantasy torsos used to represent cracks and crumbling down of this ruined temple. What torsos do you recognize? Also a special mention goes out to Elias for using the sprue from the flower stem with 3 large leaves for foliage.

Ruined Temple

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the ruins?

Kayaking, canoeing, and boating of other types are pretty popular where I live. While Jesse van den Oetelaar’s LEGO model seems to portray a more medieval type scene, this build reminds me of a real life historic park not too far from me, where you can kayak on a creek amidst the ruins of an aqueduct.

Fractured Kingdoms

Jesse’s minifigure character William Renou paddles a brick-built sail boat which utilizes many small brown elements, notably many tiles of various sizes for the body of the boat while the sail mast utilizes multiple brown 1×1 round bricks. The water in this model is rendered with white trans-clear tiles, which is a bit different from most builds I have seen which tend to make use of trans-clear elements in various shades of blue. The white trans-clear elements are a good choice and they work well with the mostly grey color-scheme of the architecture.

The aqueduct ruins mostly make use of 1×2 brick elements, slopes, tiles, light green tree limb elements, and various other light grey pieces. I especially appreciate the cattails that are fashioned out of tan technic pins attached to brown sticks which were then stuck into the holes of tree limb elements. While the fantasy vibe is evident throughout this work, the vignette is still quite relatable in real and present moments as well.

RuinScape

The ruinous landscape – a popular pictorial theme is recreated in the LEGO medium here in this beautiful vignette by Jaap Bijl. Of course, LEGO is great for construction, but even more so LEGO can provide builders with an opportunity to be forces of deconstruction and deterioration – creators of ruin. This sublime energy is perfectly captured in Bijl’s build.

Forgotten glory

The main part of this built scene is arguably the decaying classical temple. The triangular roof at the top – the pediment is depicted as half existent and utilizes the 4×4 petaled flower piece and some white wing pieces as ornament. The broken columns are built using 2×2 round profile bricks. Perhaps my favorite mini-build here is the broken statue which is made out of a pair of white minifigure legs with some random elements piled on top. The statue on the left looks rather intact but creatively uses the 4×4 petaled flower once again, this time as a shield. Bijl generously applies a variety of LEGO plant elements to give viewers a sense of natural reclamation. I really appreciate how Bijl builds the ruins in such a way that they appear to be sinking into a swamp of green tiles. No ruinous destination is complete without some tourists taking in the sights, and we can see here some minifigures making their way across the swamp in a brick-built boat ready for adventure.