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.

The Mighty Mythological Minotaur

Inspired by Wes Talbott’s ‘Dungeon Dangers’ template and series of MOCs (see those fantastic sets here), TBB alum turned fellow set designer Carter Baldwin set out to make his own dungeon crawl with an ancient Greek mythological twist. The color choices and contrast are stunning, and the assembly behind the stark blue decorations on the pristine white pillars are more complex than they may first appear. The imposing minotaur is riddled with fun build techniques, my favorite detail being the usage of a full hand and arm assembly to round out its eyes and face. This is a beautiful build that manages to capture both the elegance of Greek architecture and the thrill of a fantasy adventure at once.

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The “sword saint” Miyamoto Musashi in LEGO

Ever since LEGO transported the Castle theme to medieval Japan in the ’90s, samurai have inspired countless LEGO builds. artist_davs pays tribute to perhaps the most famous samurai of all, Miyamoto Musashi, in an incredible LEGO vignette that looks more like a museum diorama than a model built from bricks. Musashi, the famous duelist and philosopher, is uses a minifig head and a cloth-covered brick-built body for realistic proportions.

Musashi’s armor is as impressive as the man himself, incorporating cloth and string. The tatami floor, made from profile bricks laid on their side, is artfully raised a half tile above the floor. If you’re wondering where the kanji scroll comes from, it’s a sticker from the Hanzo vs Genji set and reads “Dragon Head, Snake Tail.” I don’t think that comes from the Book of Five Rings, but it makes sense that Musashi would display it as he was famously fond of playing Overwatch.

This amazing LEGO scene will leave you stranded

The warped mind of Hideo Kojima has created some incredible games. Just in time for the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, builder Care Creations shows how perfect Kojima’s world is for LEGO. The striking vignette captures the danger of traversing a bleak post-apocalyptic landscape where rain ages whatever it falls on and black goo signals the invisible presence of the warped dead. Floating cargo containers and a folding ladder are perfect details to capture in-game story elements, and the full hood rain gear helps protect the courier from deadly timefall. My favorite detail – a minifig trophy for the creepy breach baby!

Where minifig babies come from

Taking your work home with you isn’t always the best idea, but that’s especially true if you work as a Labor and Delivery nurse. Story Brick finds a loophole in LEGO and recreates her workplace in bricks. The builder recreates all of the equipment and essential tools of the delivery trade – I love all the spare gloves ready for the staff. LEGO has released a number of hospitals as part of the city line, but it’s a theme that has yet to make its way into an adult set. Would you want a hospital or clinic to add to your modular city?

This half-timbered beauty is more than the sum of its parts

What constitutes “a lot of bricks” these days? When you see a sprawling diorama from a LEGO expo or a giant new display set, it’s clear you’re staring at “a lot of bricks.” But size can be deceiving when it comes to the number of elements. Take this incredible model from Satnis Creations. It’s a Tudor-style street scene less than half the size of a LEGO Modular, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were close to 10,000 bricks involved. The roof alone has roughly a thousand blue tiles, the walls are packed with 1×1 tiles and cheese slopes, and of course, that sidewalk. Using small parts lets Satnis create stunning detail with maximum precision, like the half-plate offset window frames and intricate half-timbering effects. Excellent period-appropriate minifigs bring the scene to life.

A brilliant lair for the dark arts

Every scene can teach a lesson, and this scene has taught me not to wonder into deep caves. According to Tkytko, that is where Raus’zod has the Weeping Skull Mausoleum. The scene is full of clever details with great building techniques. And all those details come together to create a rather scary lair.

Take some time to look over the entirety of this entry to the Summer Joust competition.

Scaling the castle wall, brick by LEGO brick

Castle has been on a wonderful resurgence of late, and Goran Maksimovic adds some great personality to the mix. A wonderful little tower is being scaled as one of the culprits falls. Each of the four faces seen on the minifigs tells a great story of the action scene. It can take some effort going through minifig face designs, but Goran shows us the effort pays off in the enjoyment of the scene.

LEGO set designer Wes Talbott gets his dungeon delving on in a trio of fantastic MOCs

As a LEGO set designer for Elves, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Zelda, and Wicked, it’s fair to say that Wes Talbott knows a thing or two about bringing fantasy to life at minifig scale. Last year, the builder’s Fire Breathing Fortress reimagining with Chris Perron took our breath away. Now Wes is back with a trio of vignettes titled Dungeon Dangers. The first scene stars a hideous slime made from trans green macaroni tubes from the Dreamszzz sets. My favorite technique is the spiral columns decorated with thorny vines in metallic silver.

Wes was so pleased with the vignette design of a hexagonal base framed with three columns that he kept the pattern across the full serries. The crystalline spider sparkles, but again its the corners that capture my eye with an innovative technique for stalagnate columns. Apparently Wes came up with the concept a few years ago but never had a chance to use it until now. Spider eggs made from clusters of clamshells is another standout technique.

Wes’ final fantasy vignette follows, along with a bonus from the builder

The Art of the LEGO Tableau – building in the “Ground-Based” style [Feature]

When setting a LEGO scene, how much of a world needs to be built to spark the viewer’s imagination?

There are two approaches to bringing a world to life in LEGO: 1) meticulously build out every aspect of the scene with bricks, or 2) provide just enough detail to suggest the bigger picture while letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the rest. While building it all can make for impressive displays, I am drawn to the latter approach.

Various styles can achieve this, each with its distinct charms. Immersive scenes transport us to new worlds, like a window into a picture, by filling the frame with LEGO. Vignettes, on the other hand, embrace the artifice of a model and give the impression that a slice of the world has been captured in bricks. Even if vignettes have their appeal, I have a preference for immersive scenes. They’re more fun, if more part-intensive.

But there’s a third style worth exploring, one that many in the community – including myself – have experimented with. It’s a style that I call “Ground-Based.” As you’ve probably already guessed, this is the topic I’ll be covering today
Learn how to create MOCs in the ground-based style

Nature reclaims all as Vignette Week comes to a close [Feature]

Bricks down! After seven grueling days of non-stop building, RebelLUG’s Vignweek 2025 has come to an end. The first five challenges gave builders just 24 hours to create a LEGO vignette around the daily theme, but for the final challenge, builders could take 48 hours. This time the theme was “Reclaimed by Nature,” which is the perfect excuse to pull out those bins of leaf parts and create something beautiful. As the Vignette builders break out their brick separators, let’s take a stroll through an overgrown LEGO world with some of our favorites of the day.

FS Leinad participated in all six builds, but his final creation is my favorite. The orangutan is a great design (per the builder, “RIP 3-in-1 Forest Animals) but it’s those vultures that have stolen my heart… and pick it apart with those brilliant hook beaks.

ILB Creations completed 5 challenges and also ends on a high note. I love the larger scale and the light blue mortar between crumbling bricks.

Forage for more vignettes that nature has reclaimed

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

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