Pikachu better watch the road, since the outcome of Pokémon vs car generally doesn’t end well, as illustrated by Cecilie Fritzvold. The whole scene is well done. I like the (unfortunately very flat) Pikachu next to the line in the road. The tire gets great texture from the modified 2×3 pentagonal tiles. Let this stand as a PSA: pay attention when playing or walking in traffic!
Canadian builder Nick Della Mora shows his love for Destiny with his life size LEGO replica of the Young Wolf’s Howl, an exotic tier sword first appearing in the Rise of Iron expansion. It would have been difficult to construct the engraved Iron Lords crest on the blade and still have the blade hold together when wielded, but it would also look inaccurate to skip that detail altogether. Nick’s choice to instead focus on the red-orange glow of the crest was a creative idea, and led to a neat light-up effect.
In the video below, Nick shows the light-up crest and the techniques used in the blade to maintain stability.
If you enjoy LEGO Destiny, you may also like Nick’s Cosmodrome diorama, or other exotic weapons such as the Khvostov 7G-0X and No Land Beyond.
Singaporean builder Kelvin Low has put together quite an impressive construction of an Atlas Mech from Titanfall. This mech has excellent greebling, making it visually interesting and full of detail. Greebling isn’t easy; it’s a matter of using the right parts to make it work both in design and color selection. This mech does a good job on both.
A couple builders share their love for LEGO and video games with scaled-up models of controllers from past and present. First, from Cecilie Fritzvold, is the sleek PlayStation 4 controller. Cecilie shows great attention to detail, creating the D-pad with fairly new 2×3 shield pieces in black spaced out slightly, and the centered speaker with the right number and arrangement of holes.
Chris Maddison takes us back 30 years before the PlayStation 4 with his classic Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Chris nails the colors and line work of the classic game pad, making it difficult to tell at first the model is made with LEGO bricks.
I spent many hours as a kid playing 1994’s amazing vertical scrolling flight shooter Raptor: Call of the Shadows on MS-DOS, so I instantly recognized this scene by Havoc. It’s a brilliant game for its age, with an upgradeable ship and damage that has to be repaired between missions. I love that Havoc has built the entire interface into the model, including the health bar on the right side, and that explosion which looks perfectly retro.
I hadn’t thought about this game in 20 years, but I decided to look it up again after seeing this fantastic creation and was elated—and more than a bit surprised—to discover it’s not only available on Steam but can be played for free in a browser. Guess what I just spent the last half hour doing?
Finally, builder Havoc has even recreated the pixel art from the cover.
Since completing my LEGO Ronin Titan back in August 2016, I received numerous requests for a building guide for him. After reconstructing him in LEGO Digital Designer and photographing steps requiring techniques that stress parts, I present step-by-step directions to build your own Ronin. Take a look at the parts list, then follow the video below and tear up the Frontier with a brand new broadsword-wielding mech.
The adventures of Master Chief and Marcus Fenix I get as an Xbox player are great and all, but it’s becoming clear I’m missing out on great games on PlayStation like The Last of Us and Journey. Mel F. shows love for the critically acclaimed indie title Journey in a vignette full of clever parts usage. Unikitty tails in tan and the arms of the chicken suit minifigure show the flow of a sandstorm, and a dark red minifigure fan as the playable robed character also evokes movement.
Like many Destiny players, I have spent many hours grinding out XP slaying Fallen in Old Russia’s Cosmodrome. Without even reading the title of this build from Nick Della Mora, I knew it was specifically The Divide region of the Cosmodrome. That particular group of buildings are recognizable, as many Dregs and Shanks have been sniped from atop them.
But for me, the highlight of the build is the Fallen Walker. It is not only accurate in its aesthetics; it waddles like the one in game, and the head slides out, exposing and illuminating the weak spot. Watch these functions, and an overview of the whole scene, in the following video.
How do you recreate a video game using LEGO? You could build the game’s characters, or even a 3D version of a level. But that doesn’t capture the movement videogames have. Or you could do what Jason Cichon has done, and take the term “side-scrolling platformer” quite literally by turning the classic Mario Bros into a moving diorama.
The various pieces of the level are attached to a conveyor belt out of sight, and a crank on the diorama’s side scrolls the level past the viewing screen, duplicating in 3-dimensional bricks the feeling of moving through the level.
Even though this medieval store by Isaac Snyder uses textures and techniques we see very often in medieval builds lately, it still manages to look unique; first by its complex layout and secondly by its use of dark gray as the stone bricks, which is for some reason rather uncommon. While the model is called Sigurd’s General Goods and is not a direct recreation, it is obviously inspired by the Bits and Pieces general store in Solitude, from Skyrim.
Isaac’s shop even has a full interior.
See more of this delightful Skyrim building
The LEGO Group have wandered into the realm of wearable LEGO with things like the LEGO Friends Friends Jewelery Set #853440, but this helmet and shoulder armour by Timofey_Tkachev takes wearable LEGO to a whole other level. Tomofey’s LEGO cosplay is inspired by the Space Marines from Warhammer 40K, originally the tabletop miniatures game and now a video game.
The shaping of the helmet is particularly impressive, especially around the eye sockets and the mouth where accuracy has been maintained despite the difficulties when using LEGO pieces to build curves.
Robin, a playable character in Fire Emblem: Awakening and Super Smash Bros Wii U, has been constructed beautifully by Eero Okkonen. The build in its entirety is full of excellent techniques that capture the character’s likeness, especially in her long coat and hair, and her jagged Levin Sword is simple yet effective.
If you enjoyed Eero’s Robin, you may also like his other fighters in Super Smash Bros, such as Varia Suit Samus, Zero Suit Samus, and Palutena.
