Tag Archives: Vignettes

Vignettes are like the haiku of the LEGO world. Usually built on a base 8 studs wide by 8 studs deep, vignettes show a little scene or a moment in time. But like written poetry, there’s plenty of variation on the basic theme.

We’re head over heels for Vignweek’s day 5 upside down builds [Feature]

Do not adjust your screen. Today’s round-up of Vignweek builds features topsy-turvy creations around the theme “upside down.” This is also the last set of builds created with a 24-hour limit. Some builds are photographed upside down, others are constructed from the ceiling down, and others split the difference with mirror worlds. These are just a selection of the incredible upside-down vignettes from both familiar builders and some new faces.

You can always count on NikiFilik for bright and playful builds, and today is no exception. What a fun twist on perspective as this stunt plane flips in the sky.

Someone had to do it, and that someone was buillding_after_dark. Spider-man’s upside-down kiss remains one of the most iconic scenes in all of superhero cinema and the builder recreates it perfectly.

You’ll flip for the rest of these upside-down vignettes

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Life is a LEGO highway as Vignweek day 4 goes road tripping [Feature]

Vignweek 2025 crosses the halfway point with the fourth daily challenge prompt: “Road trip!” Once again, incredible builders heeded the call and quickly assembled LEGO vignettes interpreting the theme in a myriad of ways. Let’s have a look at some of our favorite builds of the day.

Fresh off judging the Summer Joust, LEGO legend CheesyStudios drops by Vignweek with this incredible tribute to Badlands National Park. The forced perspective works brilliantly, and the striated rocks with the bands of sand red are stunning.

_BrickBytes hits the road with cozy VW camper van. The metallic fists as a grille is a brilliant use of a specialized part.

Hitch a ride and for more amazing road trip vignettes

Fishing up some amazing nautical LEGO scenes from Vignweek Day 3 [Feature]

Day 3 of Vignweek has closed, bringing with it a bounty of brick-build vignettes with the theme of “nautical.” Participants had plenty of leeway to interpret the theme and offer up watercraft ranging from ancient to futuristic, structures both cozy and apocalyptic, and sea creatures big and small. And every build here was constructed in just a few hours! Thanks to @RebelLUG for hosting this creative contest. Now on to some of the Day 3 highlights…

CRCT Productions plunges beneath the waves for this evocative scene of submarine exploring a deep sea reef. The submersible is great, but I especially love the fish made from quarter round tiles.

Joël Jurg sticks to the ocean theme with a Roman Emperor’s pleasure barge. I love that w not only get an incredible miniature model, but a history lesson about how insanely luxurious the Emperors lived.

Brownbricks brings us to minifig scale with a seasteader living in a makeshift container house. It must be a lonely life – good thing he has a cat to keep him company!

Voyage on for more aquatic vignettes

Vignweek Day 2: Color us impressed with these monochrome creations [Feature]

Vignweek is an annual competition hosted by RebelLUG that challenges builders to assemble a vignette around a daily theme. Just 24 hours to turn around a build with no rest days! It’s a marathon and a sprint for some incredibly talented LEGO creators. We rounded up our favorites from day 1’s “Archaeology” theme here. For day 2, the theme is “Monochrome,” challenging builders to make a vignette using just one LEGO color. Here’s just a sampling of the amazing creativity born from this challenging constraint.

Jakub Kozina gets his greebling on with a tribute to the knobby little bits that space and machine builders so adore. Excellent glue and modeling scissors too!

Sydrarian offers a microscale scene of a tower in the clouds. There are so many impressive curves in this lovely composition. The builder also gets a bonus color through use of negative space to give the tower windows that pop.

NikiFilik‘s creation may be red, but I’m feeling green with envy at the skillful technique on display.

More monochrome creations await

Digging up some awesome LEGO vignettes as Vignweek 2025 kicks off [Feature]

Vignweek is an annual competition hosted by RebelLUG that challenges builders to assemble a vignette around a daily theme. 5 weekday builds and a weekend build, for a total of 6 builds in 7 days. It’s a marathon and a sprint for some incredibly talented LEGO creators. The contest kicked off on Monday with “Archaeology” as the theme. Here are some of our favorite creations from day 1.

Carson Lacy zooms in with Johnny Thunder exploring a lush jungle site. I hesitate to call them “ruins” as this location seems as slick and studless as they day it was built. It’s probably cursed, but this beautiful build certainly isn’t!

Behold_The_Loaf offers up an alien archaeologist scanning a future Earth. What do they make of this Octan fueling station?

Join us as we dig up more amazing LEGO vignettes

A sled dog for the modern era

They say that dogs are humankind’s best friend. That rings true in several walks of life, and among the elderly, they can be a vital source of companionship. But as Sigmund Haugland‘s LEGO vignette proves, they’re just as useful in times of emergency! All it takes is a little ingenuity- and I’m not just talking about those forced perspective portraits. A defective stairlift is no match for a fishing pole and a doggy treat!

Bapanada! Welcome to this map store from LEGO Dirtmouth

The long-awaited Hollow Knight spin-off, Silksong, is slated to finally come out later this year. (It’s really happening this time, right? Right?!) It’s been a long wait, but it has allowed LEGO builders such as DJ (GioiaLego) to hone their craft and bring the roguelite to life in brick form. This is one of the first locations you see in the game: Cornifer & Iselda’s map shop. It can be difficult to translate 2D designs into LEGO’s 3D nature, but this is a terrific execution! The parts choice for the Hollow Knight is perhaps most noteworthy; purists may not be keen on the dots added to the crash helmet, but there’s no escaping what a perfect choice the spike is for its nail weapon!

Silksong is coming any day now, honest – but until then, you can pass the time browsing our archives of other Hollow Knight builds.

Seaside Cafe is the essence of old world cozy

There’s something hopelessly romantic about travelling through Mediterranean towns where medieval walls and ancient ruins mingle with modern life. Y.R. Bricks captures that contrast and charm with a slice of seaside life LEGO. The builder’s stonework is flawless, with a mix of profile bricks, SNOT and subtle offsets for a texture that looks like it’s endured for centuries without crumbling into rubble. The use of color is phenomenal, such as carrying the pink accent from the cherry blossom tree over to the flowers in pots and climbing vines.

As an extra challenge, the builder also fit in a cafe interior, which looks so specific and detailed, I feel like I’ve been there! Tips for any visiting American minifigs – coffee = espresso, asking for “half and half” will only get you confused looks, and why would you ask for your drink to go when you can grab a spot and savor it by the sea?

Knight finds himself between a rock and a horned face

2025 is turning out to be a banner year for LEGO dragons, with sets like 31161 Medieval Dragon,
71847 Guardian Dragon, and 10375 Toothless, but our favorite dragons are the ones hatched up by brilliant builders like FS Leinad here. This MOC on a rock pulls big personality from surprisingly few parts. Folded wings and a curved neck made from simple arches and plates pair with Bionicle forearms. The scene-stealing NPU (nice parts usage) is the dragon’s face, brilliantly made from robot arms tucked inside an Atlantean squid warrior head piece. Excellent use of verticality makes this 12×12 vignette seem much larger than the footprint would suggest. The dragon has the knight on his back, but the big lizard looks more curious than murderous. I hope these two work things out without resorting to violence.

FS Leinad built this “Encounter” as an early entry into the 2025 Summer Joust, which runs through August 1.

Take me home, country roads

No stranger to The Brothers Brick, Andrew Tate showcases this terrific LEGO build of an old-timey truck with a vignette that is the very picture of rural life. While I don’t believe this is meant to be any specific make or model, Andrew’s use of the 2×6 train windscreen element is an absolutely perfect choice for capturing the character of a truck of this vintage. For me, the whole scene is reminiscent of the nostalgic mid-century pre-war “when and where is this exactly?” idealized look of a Studio Ghibli film, and I’m really digging it. I’d love to get a behind the scenes look at a couple areas of this build, especially the supports of those beautifully spaced fence pickets, and those lovely wheel hubs.

Picture Perfect – Life in LEGO Polaroids (Guest Feature)

This started as a quick contest entry. Just one little diorama for the LEGO Ideas “Picture Perfect Memories” challenge. I thought I’d build a single model—frame it up like a Polaroid, submit it, and move on with my life.

Instead, I made six.

And who among us hasn’t gotten carried away and spent the whole night building? For me, there was something satisfying about having small ideas in my head that I could actually finish. Each one took a couple of hours. Nothing sprawling. Just compact moments, built quickly and intentionally.

I like building small. It forces you to be economical, which I think can be more impressive than going big. It also lets you focus on what really matters—telling a story.

Each of these builds is based on something that happened in my life, or something close to it. They’re impressions. Memories, simplified and captured in plastic. And in sharing them, I hoped to set a kind of template—something other people might follow to build their own.

Take a look at the story behind each of the six Polaroid vignettes and maybe be inspired to make your own

Run-down never looked so good [Building techniques]

This public market style bike shop by adotnamedstud uses the metal gate element to attach shingles along different angles for a great weathered look. The addition of a small utility pole, a satellite dish, and rooftop foliage adds visual interest. I also like the compact tool drawer in front, made with modified tiles.