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.

An epic LEGO tale of death

This fantastic vingette by Thorsten Bonsch is a LEGO recreation of a scene from the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). The ESO is an online multiplayer role playing game and this particular scene comes from the latest part of the saga, The Thieves Guild. The build is not an action scene but, as Thorsten calls it, a ‘still life’ that tells a story – can you imagine what happened by looking at the evidence left behind?


The builder uses a great building technique to curve the bricks and allow the ground to slope gently upwards to the right side. In addition, the rock formations are very nicely shaped and hints of colour are just enough to capture your attention. The more I look at this scene, the more intriguing I find it.

Personally, I think that a huge snake-like creature has eaten the first man and then reaches the second and kills him just as he mortally wounds the snake with a spear to the heart. All that remains are the bones and undigested evidence that tells the story of their deaths.

Previous ESO-based creations by Thorsten have been blogged by us and are worth a second look: the City of Orsinium, the Stonefalls in Morrowind, and an amazing 11,000 piece portal called The Dolmen.

Not just a tree house, but a LEGO tree fort

Did you have a tree house as a child?  jsnyder would have been very disappointed by my basic tree house if his LEGO tree fort reflects his idea of one.  This creation is on three levels with a swing bridge that spans across two huge trees.  There is a look out at the top of the largest tree with a telescope to keep an eye out for potential attack (or parents looking for you at bedtime). The trees themselves are well shaped and I love the mix of studs on show and tiles to add texture.

Billy's Tree Fort

The details are really adorable in this build, for example the tyre swing and rope pulley system to allow a crate of resupplies (perhaps more ice lollies) to be lifted high up into the tree.

Billy's Tree Fort

You can see more detailed views of the tree fort on his Billy’s Tree Fort album on Flickr.

“I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up!”

Moby Dick is one of those novels that requires real commitment to get through, with its lengthy diversions and deep symbolism, but rewards careful reading and sticks with you for decades afterward. It also makes for great LEGO inspiration, as Ryan Rubino’s white whale battling a giant squid from back in 2009 certainly proves. Letranger Absurde enters the fray with Captain Ahab entangled by the line from his own harpoon, hauled to his doom in the dark deeps of the sea. The sperm whale itself steals the spotlight in this build, with what appears to be a surfboard for a tongue, but don’t miss the excellent sea floor, complete with conch shell, brain coral, and even a treasure chest.

Moby Dick

The austere beauty of pure geometry

Although LEGO bricks and plates are regular symmetrical figures, rarely do we come across creations based on perfect geometry. Hanging Gardens by Letranger Absurde is a modest architectural masterpiece built around harmony and symmetry. Because of the fact that the model was photographed at 45 degrees angle and all the surfaces are carefully tiled, it looks totally like a level from the Monument Valley video game. Bonus points are for falling water: the building technique is brilliant, especially the use of Mixels tooth bricks as water foam.

Hanging Gardens

27 amazing LEGO vignettes bring Harry Potter to life

The amazing world of Harry Potter is only made more fantastic when portrayed through tiny LEGO vignettes. When we first spotted Marcel V.‘s series of astounding little Harry Potter scenes, he’d only created 5. He’s created them as a personal project to challenge himself throughout the month of March, producing almost one every day, and he’s now reached 27. Marcel tells us he worked 3-4 hours daily to create the scenes, and relied on inspiration from the books, movies, and even some Harry Potter games.

Come with me on a magical journey through the life of The Boy Who Lived.

#020 - (The) Fluffy awakens

Click to look through Harry Potter’s life in LEGO

The history of art and architecture in a single LEGO monument

Toltomeja captures the evolution of art and architecture through iconic scenes pictured along the face of a mountain. From the paintings in the Lascaux Caves to abstract modern art, the builder captures 10 historical eras and their signature styles. You can discover each scene by checking out more photos and descriptions on Flickr.

The Mountain of Art

The Mountain of Art

When one world is not enough, you just need an escape route

Sometimes life can become routine and monotonous, giving no rest or calm. But Angelo_S. reminds us that when everything around is dull and cold and gray, there’s always an escape.

Rømningsvei

This work is a beautiful metaphor combining two opposed worlds in one shot. A skillfully executed microscale vignette seen through the gateway looks twice as alluring due to the forced perspective effect.

For bricks, they flew pretty good

Take a look into the brick-built airplane cockpit built by kosbrick. With carefully selected printed LEGO elements and clever use of minifigure paint rollers as the throttle and steering wheels, the scene looks authentic and ready for takeoff.

Airplane Cockpit

To burn an empire

Only the baddest of the bad could go up against the might of Rome and come out on top. That’s what infamous Gaelic chieftain Vercingetorix did at the hilly battle of Gerogvia (to none other than Julius Caesar) in 52 BC; and now in 2016, we see his pyrrhic victory come to life in the latest creation by legophthalmos. Clearly this is one barbarian you don’t want to mess with.

Vercingetorix by legophthalmos

Old friends, new faces: LEGO Space reimagined

Space is one of LEGO’s core themes, along with Castle and Town. These three themes, for me, form the foundation that the rest of LEGO is built on. As a kid, and even now, my tastes run definitely toward the Castle/Town end of things. I am, however, developing a healthy regard for Space that comes from a passion around real spacecraft. I have a lot of respect for space builders, because it’s a theme I struggle to build in myself.

Jeremy Croft has taken a look at LEGO Space, and re-imagined many of the classic themes. He’s titled his series “Old Friends, New Faces,” and each build is full of nostalgia. Let’s count down Jeremy’s 10 builds, and wander back to when space was blue, grey, and trans-yellow.

OFNF #4: Space Police I

Click to launch in 3… 2… 1… go!

Beware the deadly embrace of the facehugger!

The lifecycle of the xenomorphs in the Alien franchise is fascinating — from egg to facehugger to chestburster to a rapidly growing black monster. While we’ve seen many LEGO xenomorphs over the years, including a great minifig-scale version by TBB’s own Tim Lydy, but not too many other stages in the creature’s lifecycle (other than the amazing LEGO chestburster by the Arvo Brothers nearly 10 years ago). Tim has corrected this with a wonderful vignette featuring a facehugger leaping from its egg sack towards a surprised Colonial Marine.

Facehugger Strikes by Tim Lydy on Flickr

Tim uses minifig hands to represent the facehugger’s flailing arms, and suspends the jumping facehugger above its empty egg case with clear LEGO. The expression on the doomed marine’s face is priceless.

Rare sighting of a LEGO elephant in the room

British builder Tim Goddard is well known for his fantastic Neo-Classic Space creations, but his latest build provides a change of scenery.  We are not the only people admiring this lovely scene of a mother elephant and her calf — there’s a brave photographer filming their every move. Her camera is mounted on a professional looking LEGO tripod and she has managed to locate a rare ‘Classic Space safari outfit’ for the event. Up in the tree, a vulture seems to be keeping watch.

Elephant Idea

The elephants are minifig-scale and ingeniously constructed with Mixel joints providing movement of the calf’s legs and the mother’s ears.  Tim has designed their skin with a mix of textures; studs on show, smooth tiles and the odd light bluish grey ingot to provide a wrinkle or two.

I was going to make a clever comment about the mother’s knee joints and impossible movements but remember, this is LEGO and anything is possible!