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.

Monday morning at the watering hole

Frequently featured LEGO builder Eli Willsea is on a roll with a series of vignettes, this time building a scene around a collectible Minifig and a crustacean, who share something something in common: The hermit and the hermit crab meet each other at the local watering hole. The candle piece is used to create several bamboo stalks above the scene and as a path for the crab to follow to the water. Recently released Ninjago sets that include the katana in lime green make perfect plants along each side.

If you like this build, be sure to check out some other vignettes by Eli we’ve featured here on TBB previously.

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An explosive meeting of two great LEGO themes

Two LEGO themes come together in this cool vignette from CheeseyStudios. Steve seems to have a love for the explosive lure of TNT–maybe he’s found the secret joy of creepers… The knight seems unsuspecting of the danger waiting outside the castle gate, but his horse is vigilant. This vignette is built for the day 2 Vignweek prompt of ‘Theme Mix’, and CheeseyStudios’s has a great love for the awesome themes of Castles and Minecraft. The two blend together wonderfully with their blocks and bricks, most obvious in the rocks, land, and wall near Steve. I also admire the castle banners with their dual blue and the clever use of the Friends theme horse saddle. Another great use of the horse saddle is for the underside of the brick-built horse and its raiment. The horse towers over all with its long legs, ideal for catching Steve before he lights any TNT!

After a busy day of digging, these explorers like to shred

Eli Willsea brings us a double dose of fun by combining two LEGO themes into one. This mash-up of Adventures and Island Extreme Stunts brings the best of both worlds into a radical ancient skatepark, with plenty of obstacles like ramps, stairs, and even a quarter pipe. I like to think that Dr. Kilroy is trying to deduce the perfect sequence of tricks to open a secret passage.

You dirty swine, I’ll have you sweating like a pig!

Sometimes you come across a LEGO build and it hits everything you look for in a build; fun, story, and some great part usage. Here, MySnailEatsPizza has put together a fantastic vignette of a lie detector test, except with Pigs as the characters in this amusing scene. Injecting a spot of the absurd into the scene and why not? The characterization and emotion in this scene are told through the fantastic positioning of four half-eye tiles capturing so much through nothing more than perfect placement.

There’s some excellent detail that has been added to this build from the lie detector to the pig’s wonderful construction and the subjects sweat evident around his chair.
I could wax lyrical all day about this build but sometimes you just need to pull up a chair and enjoy the scene (but maybe not these chairs!)

A breath of wild air in the land of Hyrule

Link travels through the wetlands of the Lanayru region of Hyrule in this LEGO vignette from builder Peter Hart. The scene is simple, but illustrates much in the hero’s journey from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Exposed studs and varying levels of plates capture the rough texture of the ground beneath Link’s feet. Transparent plates show the movement of the water, the little waves lapping around land and plant life. The pine trees stand tall over Link, their needle laden branches showing off a good use of those flower stalk parts.

From this additional angle we can get a better view of that nice boulder Link is passing by. It features sharp edges from all angles thanks to the use of strategically placed slopes. Also from this angle the ground and plants around Link can be seen a little better. The ground curves excellently down to the waters flowing by. This little vignette captures a snapshot of the game’s presence and atmosphere for this region from the game. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and boot up my Switch…

An inspired basilisk

This little LEGO creation by KitKat1414 may sit on a tiny base but it packs a huge amount of skill. KitKat says this fantasy build is based on the ruins of St Andrew’s Cathedral, and the mottled stonework is excellently sculpted to portray the decaying Gothic architecture using a wide variety of grey elements. The green basilisk is wonderfully articulated circling the spire, and the face is a masterwork of brick techniques, of which the best might be the two baby dragons that combine to form the nose.

Excellent Excalibur in a stone with a secret

Dicken Liu has added another life-sized weapon to their collection, following on from the lightsaber that we featured a few weeks ago. While this one still comes from a long time ago, though, it does come from a galaxy that isn’t so far, far away, even if it exists mainly in legend. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking this is just your average very good LEGO sword. But since it’s embedded in a rock, there’s no mistaking it: this is the legendary Excalibur. As a piece, this looks excellent – the gold highlights and green foliage add some visual interest to the black and greys of the rest. But hang on… There do some to be a few holes in this particular stone… What’s going on here?

Let’s see what happens when we pull the sword from the stone…

A pub with a particular palette

For Summer Joust, Metarix Builds had to create a build limited to a single-color gradient. The result is this wonderful tavern with all manner of browns and tans, but nothing else. Even the pub patrons stick to the rule. But there’s no loss of detail or interest because of the limitation. In particular, the Studs Not on Top construction of the floor has an effective ramshackle wood vibe. I’d love to grab a pint in a place like this. Definitely a darker beer, like an amber or a brown ale.

I only paint in black... Or very, very, dark grey

Confession time. I know Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones is one of the most well-known rock anthems ever, but… I prefer the cover that pop singer Vanessa Carlton did. (She’s just an incredible artist, OK?) Before you accuse me of blasphemy, let’s take a look at this creation by another incredible artist, Woomy World. This build is inspired by the lyrics from the song (“I see a red door and I want it painted black”), with the black rose rising from the door forming the title of the piece. The rose looks fantastic, using everything from macaroni tubes to a dragon wing to give an ethereal, almost other-worldly feel to it.

It sits in contrast with the other everyday elements of the build, but they are no less impressive for it. I love the umbrellas representing drips of paint from the bucket. The painter would also be worthy of a feature on his own! The suit jacket uses Technic panel pieces which are an inspired choice and look fantastic. The hair is where I keep getting drawn to though: there are so many different pieces but they all seem so carefully placed. I can see flintlock pistols, a minifigure satchel and at least one minifigure arm. The Rolling Stones might be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but this creation surely belongs in an art gallery!

You’re gun-gonna love this Star Wars vignette

The Star Wars Prequel trilogy is old enough now that the original target audience’s nostalgia has begun a full-scale reevaluation of how those films are perceived in the culture. And Okay Yaramanoglu has taken full advantage of that to give us this microscale rendition of Otoh Gunga, the underwater city that is home to Jar Jar Binks and his fellow Gungans. While my own perception of Episode 1 hasn’t changed much in the last couple of decades, I’m in love with this build in part because it’s a refreshing change of pace for Star Wars builds. Don’t get us wrong, we here at The Brother’s Brick will never tire of Star Wars content. But, that said, sometimes all the shades of gray in the spaceships or the hues of tan in yet another desert landscape can start to feel a little monotonous. Here, Okay has broken that pattern to capture the unique bubble design of the city and even paired it with the departing Bongo sub, taking a couple of Jedi to Theed to see the queen.

This butcher stand brings home the bacon

Dan Ko has packed a lot of detail into this 12×12 vignette of a medieval butcher’s stand. Inverting the tiles in the awning lets the anti-studs add a pop of texture, and the use of a few 1×1 round plates amongst the round tiles on the ground help give a sense of rough and uneven cobblestone. But the most interesting technique is the way the minifigure roller skates are holding the bars in the underside crevices of the 10×2 brick being used as the butcher’s workspace. It’s details like that which can pack a small build with a smorgasbord of visual intrigue.

Celebrating Pride with a small vignette that speaks volumes

As part of LEGO’s AtoZofAwesome campaign, Dave Schefcik constructed a 16×16 vignette to celebrate the letter C, for Coming Out. Dave’s done a lot of impressive building in this small space, from angling the house, to the framing of the whole scene in a variety of plants offering up a rainbow of blooms. And the selection of minifigure pieces perfectly captures the feelings Dave was looking for.

“Discovering your identity is a lifelong process, and coming out can be a defining moment. In this build, I’ve tried to capture the feeling of coming out–the moment of tranquility when I finally accepted who I was. To me, coming out represents a new beginning to a beautiful journey, stepping forward into a more colorful world full of possibilities.” – Dave, New York