As an entry in the current MOC Olympics building contest, Boba-1980 recreated this memorable moment from Star wars: A New Hope, in which audiences were first introduced to the “force choke”. And while Admiral Motti’s lack of faith certainly was disturbing, I think Darth Vader’s attempt to kill a coworker during a business meeting could be considered marginally more disturbing (but totally relatable).
Thomas Flament created this detail-packed 32×32 stud slice of life aboard the Millenium Falcon that perfectly captures the look, feel and clutter of the ship’s interior, as well as including a suitably greebly section of outer hull and even a mini-Falcon on top!
There’s a nice sense of depth here with both the circular corridor receding into the background and the below-deck maintenance area (with Chewy hard at work). The clever part usage to create the curved sofa is also a nice touch.
The ever-popular LEGO Star Wars line continues to pump out models of everyone’s favorite Star Wars spaceships, and after 17 years most ships have seen multiple iterations. The iconic X-Wing has seen over a half-dozen iterations, including the two versions from Episode VII. And fans have always sought to one-up the official models — sometimes to spectacular success, such as Mike Psiaki’s beautiful version in 2011. However, there’s always room for new builders to try their hand at this venerable starfighter. Enter Maciej Szymański with this stunningly accurate model that even includes working lights. I think my favorite details on this model are the hockey masks used as a the flashback suppressors on the wing-mounted lasers, and the carefully curled hose for the pilot’s life support.
Click to see more of Maciej’s X-Wing
There have been a ton of incredible Star Wars-themed LEGO creations coming out of the IDS Moc Olympics and Paul Trach‘s Yavin IV Rebel Workshop is one of them! This little scene looks good enough to be a potential movie set from the upcoming Rouge One film. I’m not sure what these rebels are up to, but they certainly look busy. The overall muted color palette works quite nicely and the stone walls have a perfect combination of texture, clean lines, and angles.
Proving that we can only go so long without giving away something Star Wars-related (with a break in August to give away the new Ghostbusters Ecto-1), this month we’re delighted to be giving away four copies of the new LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure. This is a particularly special giveaway, since TBB’s own Rod Gillies created all the models in the book, and will be signing each of the books you can win! To enter, click here.
We’ll also send each winner a snazzy TBB T-shirt and other cool swag, but thanks in particular to Rod and our friends at DK for the books!
The book will be available on August 2nd, and we’ll do our best to set aside our love of Rod to bring you a balanced review soon.
Usually a clutter of detail in a LEGO creation can be a bad thing, dragging the eye around the image and distracting attention from what should be the scene’s focus. However, Patrick B.‘s excellent recreation of Watto’s Workshop from The Phantom Menace takes surrounding clutter and turns it into the main event.
As well as some smart brick-built greebly things lying around, Patrick has also made use of individual LEGO elements with interesting textures. Okay, this might not be actual building as such, but the carefully-haphazard arrangement of these bricks adds nicely to the overall sense of detail and depth. And don’t miss the lovely touches like the use of textured grille bricks for a cross-hatched floor effect, and the conical equipment built of “cheesegrater wedges” standing towards the rear.
Gamabomb‘s latest model is a fantastic recreation of the original 1977 Star Wars movie poster. While the large figures of Luke and Leia have been effectively crafted using bricks (check out the abs on Luke!), the builder has also cleverly used minifigs of C3PO and R2D2 to represent the famous droids as they appeared in the original print, while the sinister Vader looms out of the background shadows. All in all, this is an excellent version of an iconic image, immediately recognisable even as a thumbnail, yet rewarding of a zoom-in to catch all the details. The Force is strong with this one.
Say what you will about Episodes I through III, but I can appreciate a climactic turning point in a character’s story arc. I can appreciate it, even more, when such a scene is translated into LEGO! Cecilie Fritzvold beautifully captured the final scene of the opening sequence from Revenge of the Sith where Anakin begins his journey to the dark side by killing Count Dooku. The amount of detail jammed into this LEGO scene is fantastic! I love the microscale ships in the background, Palpatine’s clikits handcuffs, and of course, the prone, unconscious body of Obi-Wan in the foreground.
In case you missed it earlier this month, Cecilie also built a micro-podracer from The Phantom Menace. As always, be sure to check out all of Cecilie’s builds on Flickr and may the force be with you.
Larger than minifig scale, Miniland scale is a scale used in Legoland theme parks around the world, and it places a character about 5 inches tall. It’s become a popular scale for fan builders wanting to create brick-build characters. TBB Contributor Ralph often uses this scale to create iconic vehicles and their drivers, such as his recent Ghostbusters Ecto 1. Builder Casey McCoy used this great scale to build the cast of The Force Awakens, and he’s done a lovely job. I particularly love the details on Poe’s flight suit. Check out the flickr album for individual shots of the cast.
Cecilie Fritzvold has built a fabulous little version of Sebulba’s podracer. The shrunken chibi styling manages to perfectly capture the look and feel of this classic vehicle — you can almost hear the distinctive roar of the engines as this passes by. The whole model is elevated by the classy presentation — it’s amazing what a simple bit of tan landscaping can do.
Don’t miss the close-up details available in these zoomed-in shots. There’s some nice brickwork on display, although I’m not convinced some of the connections in here are particularly robust! The purple energy binder connection between the two engines looks about as reliable as the “real” energy binders proved during the Boonta Eve Classic.
Amazon Prime Day is one of Amazon’s big annual sales, and this year it includes a number of fantastic deals on LEGO. The deals expire once a certain number of people have claimed them, but they’re still active currently. The sales are open only to Amazon Prime members, but don’t forget that you can get a 30-day free Amazon Prime trial.
First up is the Star Wars 75095 UCS Tie Fighter, for $125.99, or nearly $75 off retail. This is an amazing deal for a Star Wars UCS set. At publishing, this deal is 55% claimed, so don’t hold off.
LEGO Architecture 21026 Venice is available for $21.95, or 27% off retail.
Also available is 60067 Helicopter Pursuit, which is 30% off at $27.99.
You can browse all of the Amazon Prime Day LEGO deals here, but most of the rest are LEGO gear. Don’t forget that Amazon also has some stellar deals on sale that aren’t part of the Prime Day sales, such as Legends of Chima Razcal’s Glider (70000) for 61% off, bringing it down to $4.68, and LEGO Dimensions Back to the Future Doc Brown Fun Pack for 67% off, bringing it to $4.98.
Following on from the introduction of the Build Your Own Adventure books last year, August 2016 sees the launch of two new titles in the series: Build Your Own City Adventure, and Build Your Own Star Wars Adventure.
The Build Your Own Adventure series is different from most other LEGO books in that it comes with an exclusive LEGO set. The book features set instructions followed by a story illustrated with models created by builders from the LEGO fan community. The Brothers Brick’s very own Rod Gillies worked on the Star Wars book and we pestered him into giving us a sneak peek before the book is officially released.
The model in the set is very cool — a microscale Y-Wing fighter, built in a “chibi” style similar to the Microfighter range of collectable sets. The spaceship is piloted by Zin, a Rebel pilot and the hero of the book’s story. The tale sees Zin traverse the galaxy on a secret mission, visiting famous Star Wars planets and locations.
After taking a flick through the pages, we arranged to ask Rod a few questions about the book, the building process, and getting to work with the LEGO Star Wars designers…
Click through to read the interview and see more images from the book