League of Legends is populated by multitudes of fascinating and unusual characters, both in real life and in the game. One of the game’s more steampunky characters to be found in the game is Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem, and Eric Tsai’s LEGO version looks positively smashing and ready to crash your lane.
The first wave of Angry Bird sets have already been released here in the UK, and consists of six sets ranging from Set 75821 Piggy Car Escape (Price UK £11.99/US $12.99) to Set 75826 King Pig’s Castle (Price UK £74.99/US $89.99). You can see the full lineup in our initial news coverage of the Angry Birds sets, and we also got a first-hand look at them at Toy Fair New York last month. The Angry Birds sets are due for release in the US in April and are not available online or within the US LEGO Stores at present. The Angry Birds sets are all colourful and enticing for the ‘recommended’ age range, between 6-12 or 8-14 as the set size increases. For those of us who are perhaps slightly older than this range, fear not…there are a host of new moulds, re-colours and great new printed tiles that will also bring great joy.
Last year at BrickWorld, a group of builders created a 14-foot-long LEGO StarCraft II display. One of the builders, Cecilie Fritzvold has just now posted detailed photos of her own sections, expanded and updated so she can display them separately at other events — and they’re definitely worth a closer look, especially if you missed the huge display last year.
Cecilie’s Terran Dominion base includes everything you need to survive a Zealot rush, from the Command Center to Barracks and a Factory, bunkers for perimeter defense, and plenty of resources.
Click through to see more StarCraft II LEGO
Mike Dung has built an excellent naval office scene to showcase some of his delightful chibi-style sailor figures. The cute faces on the figures grab the attention, but check out that picture, and the tablecloth draped over the desk. Great stuff.
The characters are taken from the Kantai Collection videogame, popular in Japan, which has players controlling fleets of hybrid battleship/sailor girls. I haven’t played the game myself, but that doesn’t stop me appreciating the wonderful level of cheeky character Mike has captured in his figures…
I’m not really into video games unless they have the name Zelda in the title. But the kids seem to dig some sci-fi game called Destiny, and there are a lot of great LEGO models based on its concept art. This FOTC Hawk from Jake Mundy is the latest example, and there are a heap of nifty techniques in this angular contraption. Check out the full gallery for some inspirational detail and cutaway pictures.
The great Orc stronghold of Orsinium is a key location in the sprawling world of The Elder Scrolls Online, and there are few to do it more justice as a model than Thorsten Bonsch. Thorsten has previously brought us into Tamriel through his stunning depictions of a Dolmen and Stonefalls (and he’s also shown his diorama-building mastery by creating possibly the coolest Tardis model we’ve seen).
The technique Thorsten employs for cobblestone here — accomplished by using white tiles turned on edge, then filling all the gaps with grey tiles and slopes — has been around for awhile. But rarely is it so expertly done, with minimal gaps and perfect integration into the landscape. Be sure to take a close look at the stonework on the structures, too; it’s a great example of skillfully combining flat planes with textured details.
There are many, many monsters in the extremely popular game Witcher 3 — but perhaps no monster sticks in your mind quite like your first monster, the majestic and dangerous Royal Griffin. Builder Charis Stella managed to pull himself free from Witcher’s grasp long enough to design this gorgeous griffin — one that utilizes swords, tails, teeth, and tiles to give this beast both character and a sense of motion. It wouldn’t be too bad a way to go if this beautiful flying Royal Griffin were the one to do you in.
Still though, pretty bad way to go.
Fans of the video game Destiny will immediately recognise this creation by Paul Jeong. For the uninitiated, Destiny is a first-person shooter that incorporates role-playing and multiplayer online styles. Jumpships, such as the Arcadia-class model, are a means of transportation in the game and help you in your quest to save the last safe city of Earth from naughty aliens.
The ship has some lovely shaping thanks to some clever Technic use and plenty of curved slopes. The design is very accurate to the game, as you can see from Paul’s comparison shot.
I love the colors; orange and blue are opposing colors and work so well in this model due to the varied LEGO palatte. There are more images of Paul’s ship in his Flickr album, and it’s worth taking the time to check out the close-up views.
Rod Gillies was clearly a young whipper-snapper back in the early 1980s when Super Mario Bros was released as a video game. Mario and Luigi, the adventurous plumbers who explored Mushroom Kingdom, have evolved into Super Mario Bricks. They made dungarees cool again and gave some much needed resuscitation to the video game market.
If your Mario Bros knowledge is up to par, you will note that Rod definitely has an eye for detail. Mario was the shorter, more portly brother, while Luigi was taller with a smoother, more groomed moustache. The M and L initials on the caps is always a good fallback option to avoid confusion. I bet Rod was glad that brother Sergio didn’t make the cut — some letters are tougher than others in LEGO.
Of all the new weapon variants introduced in Halo 5: Guardians, Nornfang, Spartan Linda-058’s custom sniper rifle, is my favorite. The camouflage and lone wolf designs applied to the classic Halo sniper body was inspiration enough to get building. My LEGO replica of Nornfang measures 54″ long (that’s 171 LEGO studs), weighs 9 pounds, and features a moving trigger, sliding bolt/charging handle, and removable box magazine.
See more photos on my flickr page.
Grantmasters has recently built a scaled down version of the Playstation 4. As an extra challenge for this month, Grantmasters is using this unusual Belville shoe part in his builds. The game controller is particularly cool in this build thanks to the shaping provided by the shoe part.
Video game consoles have been represented in LEGO by a few other builders too. Chris McVeigh (powerpig) has a lovely collection of consoles, including his previously blogged Atari 2600. Chris’ Nintendo NES comes with cartridges to blow on before you insert them into the console.
If you want to see more video game consoles and handhelds constructed from LEGO, here are some others that we have featured:
Destiny has an amazing diversity to the designs of its exotic tier weapons. They range from the elegance of Hawkmoon, to the futuristic sleekness of SUROS Regime. LEGO weapon builder ZaziNombies built another design further defining the varied exotic arsenal. His replica No Land Beyond, a sniper rifle inspired by the Russian rifle Mosin-Nagant in appearance and name, captures the wooden rifle body, long barrel, and iron sights well with approximately 1400 pieces. Watch him demonstrate his LEGO prop and compare it to the in-game model in this video.