Tag Archives: Sci Fi

Out of this world aerospace engineering in LEGO

When I started building spaceships as a kid and teen, I assumed the only possible angles were the ones found on sloped bricks and wing plates. Seeing the smooth curves that builders like MWBricks can coax out of LEGO is nothing short of miraculous. The builder calls this flying beast the Yelets LOng RangeD Exploder, part of the Goznian Psycho Navy. With a raised cockpit and a recon jet docked and ready, the Yelets owns the unfriendly skies.

Yelets

MWBricks works with Studio and physical bricks when designing ships like the Yelets. Some of the tricks the builder has come up with to achieve the perfect angle are equal parts impressive and anxiety-inducing, using friction and rubber bands when stud connections aren’t enough. I can’t help but wonder what this ship would look like in cross-section.

Yelets

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What color do you dream in?

Inspired by the incredible sci-fi art of Pascal Blanché, builder Luka presents a stylized LEGO scene that looks equally at home in a Love Death & Robots segment or an Eiffel 65 video. When it comes to LEGO elements, basic blue is not exactly a difficult color to come by so Luka had plenty to choose from, but achieving this build’s biomechanical look saw the application of elements as diverse as an Aircraft Fuselage Aft Section, a Playground Slide, and 3×3 Elbow Bricks (so far only found in LEGO Dreamzzz sets – appropriate!) Of the build process, Luka describes wanting “to play around with brick built shadows and color contrast,” which I think was executed beautifully, though Luka also mentions feeling a lack of a violet color that would have added to the already impressive gradients and light-play.

Blue Dreams
Luka joined The LEGO Group as an official model designer at the end of 2024. We can’t wait to see what sets he’ll have a hand in. Congratulations, Luka!

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Sand-red is dead! Long live sand-red!

I really like obscure LEGO colours. That includes things like aqua, neon yellow and chrome (and once upon a time, teal, which is the best colour as we all know). But by virtue of their scarcity, they rarely pop up in custom creations. So when TBB Alum Carter Baldwin‘s sand-red mech came across my desk, I was sure it was a digital creation. Not so! This is a bona fide in-the-brick build, using parts that Carter slowly accumulated over the years – apparently, the parts you see here are almost his entire collection. On the one hand, that means we won’t see many more builds in this colour palette; but on the other, it makes this one that little bit more special!

Soviet T-177 Mobile Frame

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Red skull in the morning, EVERYONE take warning!

I know if a giant red skull, like this LEGO one by Tino Poutiainen, was hanging over my city, I’d be sounding the alarm. But to be quite honest, the big guy looks almost as surprised as we are. That skull looks like it might have been built by Sentai Fortress as it shares a lot of stickered parts with the Grand Titan. Below the skull, Tino created an excellent sense of scale by building a neat little blasted cityscape. He weathered it by mixing old and new dark grey bricks, and situated it on a dead sandy hill only available from the Loot Island set from 2009. If they’re looking for names for the skull, I’m going to throw out Yor-brick. What would you call it?

Red Alert

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Beginner’s Guide to Adventuring – Always bring your harpoon

I let LEGO phenom Bart De Dobbelaer title this passage. I merely copy/pasted it from his Flickr page because sometimes the builder’s own idea is by far better than whatever silliness I had in mind. Building bizarre alien worlds is not bizarre for Bart. It’s kinda his thing. But each time I’m enthralled with the level of imagination and storytelling. To further copy/paste from Bart (Is it good journalism or just laziness? You decide!) “Dear diary, today I went treasure hunting at the old temple ruin. Luckily I brought my harpoon with me as the place was swarming with crustaceans. I guess I’m having shrimp cocktail this evening. Pete.” But Bart-or-um-Pete, I have a question. Are they still called shrimp if they’re the size of a city bus?

Beginner's Guide to Adventuring - Always bring your harpoon

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A starfighter that’s hench

Star Wars Outlaws, the latest video big-budget video game in the Star Wars universe, released last August bringing with it great new ship designs for fans to turn into models! Sentinel_Brix built a spot-on LEGO version of the DF-11 Scourge used by pirates and gangs in the game. Brix made sure to add all the tubes and greebles you’d expect to find on a beat-to-hell fighter in the service of a criminal syndicate including a pair of hot rod exhaust pipes (like those on this Diesel Daredevil) venting out the back. It’s got everything you need to arm a bunch of henchmen, mooks, minions, stooges – goons even – and general flunkies to plunder the hyperspace lanes for profit!

DF-11 Scourge Starfighter

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Well, shoot! That’s a big gun

Anyone who grew up on first-person shooters like Doom or Quake should recognize a few things in Steve Marsh AKA Rubblemaker’s LEGO build: the industrialized aesthetic, the glimpse of some otherworldly monster just waiting to be riddled full of bullets, and of course the giant minigun.

That's a lot of tentacles!

Tell the monster to wait a second while you inspect the build a little more.

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Robot dogs are man(agement)’s best friend

They say that the dog is man’s best friend, right? So here’s a question, prompted by Devid VII‘s excellent LEGO hardsuit-and-robot combo. Do robot dogs still count as being your best friend? Surely there’s no reason why not. Even if it’s your colleague? Well, that might depend on its purpose. With a hardsuit such as this it’s fairly obvious: it makes lifting stuff easier, travelling faster, and gives a bit of extra protection. But what is this dog here for? Quality control? Worse still, could it be this guy’s manager? Don’t get me wrong, I have a good relationship with my superiors. But I’m not sure I’d be taking them for walks or playing fetch with them…

YWBS - Yellow Work Bunny Suit and TaKo

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Barging across a cyberpunk river in style

Such is the size and scope of the cyberpunk New Hashima collaborative project, we’re still seeing new LEGO builds from it that pop up several months after it made its debut. Gus (Faëbricks) showed off a little Octan fuel truck back in spring that caught my eye. And now, it comes with a helping hand in the form of this neat hoverbarge! It reminds me of chain ferries that you might find linking two sides of a river or harbour. And that in itself is no mean feat: balancing the recognisable features of contemporary life with sci-fi elements, while its purpose remains clear. The same could be said for the truck, for that matter. Masterful design, Gus!

Hoverbarge - 2

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A slice of life in a cyberpunk city

We see a lot of cyberpunk cityscapes built from LEGO – and they’re all awesome. But Chi Hsin Wei (LEGO 7) has gone big with his vision of the future! There’s a lot going on, so let’s unpack it. You’ve got a rather dapper-looking figure in a suit, who is perhaps on his way to or from work. With those Buzz Lightyear-style wings he’s sure to get to his destination in a flash! And speaking of travelling quickly, there’s a wicked motorbike/dog/horse/speeder, er, thing on the road in the back. It makes use of a series of printed parts from 10330 McLaren MP4/4 & Ayrton Senna, which are perfect in this context. And how about those two adorable little robots on the stairs? One’s in a suit, and the other is… Wearing a traffic cone? Sure, who are we to judge. Perhaps that’s the fashion in the future!

2077 FORESIGHT-1

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Massive LEGO spaceship is over 5 feet long

Canadian LEGO builder Jean-Philippe Leroux has built a massive LEGO spaceship with a suitably impressive name! The Empress took over 24,000 parts to build and weighs over 43 pounds. If you like sci-fi bits and bobs, The Empress has it in spades; so let’s look at the engines back to front. For sports fans its got minifig skis and snowboards. For the handy-folk there’s saws. After the robot arms, there’s stud shooters and the old 1×8 bar. Finally, towards the front, there are robot binoculars and zipline handles. And that’s just the engines!

The Empress

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Need a hand with your LEGO creation?

J6Crash has created this entry for this year’s Bio-cup LEGO building competition that looks straight out of a sci-fi movie or video game. The variety of LEGO elements used is fantastic – the use of the Toa Phantoka ball-shooters at the base being of particular note. But it’s the questions that this build asks which elevate it beyond an ordinary Contraction contest entry. Clearly this is some sort of synthetic hand, but why does it need to be supercharged with electricity like this? Is it completely synthetic? Is it – or was it – a human hand? And, er, where’s the rest of it? Surely there’s an equally cool-looking arm and body lying just out of shot. But its purpose is anyone’s guess….

TXN-4 "Texan" Developmental Testing and Evaluation

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