While I am unfamiliar with the source material of the Battle Chasers comic, I do recognize an epic character design brought off the page into life…or brick. LEGO Designer Wes Talbott has done exactly that with his build of the character Calibretto. And in the process, it seems Wes has managed to use every new slope, wedge, and tile that exists. This build could also fit in perfectly in the LEGO Nexo Knights theme.
March is becoming a packed month in the LEGO building community – Marchitecture, Imperial March, and our old favorite Marchikoma when builders make “think tanks” inspired by the mecha of the classic anime Ghost in the Shell. A think tank is a sentient mech characterized by 4 (or sometimes more) legs with feet or rollers, a pair of manipulator arms, and sensor “eyes,” that skitters about like a high-tech militarized spider or crab. Each year builders find ways to add a fresh spin to the iconic design. Let’s bring on the Marchikoma mecha of 2025!
We start with this Blue Planet Attacker by LEGO set designer Wes Talbott. Inspiration came from Wes playing with the latest smooth nougat parts in his collection, which paired with red-orange evoked the classic Life on Mars LEGO theme. Bright yellowish green and dark azure highlights make for a distinct color scheme. But it’s those manipulator arms and big eyes that ooze personality. Wes paired the mech with a patch of incredible space terrain where the military mech makes peaceful first contact.
Fellow LEGO designer Chris Perron also skates in with this beautiful Ice Planet mech, the Snow Scuttler. Chris took inspiration from the CMF Ice Planet fig for the design specifics, like the curves and sensor eye. Aside from the iconic trans neon orange elements from the classic theme, Chris incorporates X-Pod lid and Fabuland windows to create maximum curves with minimal seams.
Skitter on down for more think tank goodness
It’s a well-known fact that two of the best things in the universe are Star Wars ships and LEGO teal. What do you get when you blend the two? Teal Squadron, the long-running collaboration between some of the top builders in the community that imagines a brighter look for the Rebellion. Last week, Teal Squadron saw its biggest display ever at the Bricktastic convention. Joining the lineup was a new fighter from LEGO set designer Wes Talbott: the Phthalo Phantom. There’s no letter in the alphabet to match these striking and unconventional wings (4xV-wing, maybe?). Wes based the design off the StarViper from the X-Wing tabletop game.
To match the collaborative display’s aquatic setting, Wes poses the ship over an aquamarine patch of sea with lovely spray kicked up in its wake. The rear view also offers a better look at those impressive engines, which cleverly employ LEGO shovels to focus the thrusters.
We’ve previously featured Theo Bonner and Tim Goddard‘s contributions to this year’s Teal Squadron collaboration. Beyond the Brick captured the amazing display in motion.
We cover loads of amazing LEGO builds over the course of a year on the Brothers Brick. In fact, over the course of the past 12 months, that’s over 700 individual creations! Now they’re all great, obviously – but every year, a handful really stand out to us, and we like to bestow upon one of them the Creation of the Year crown. It might be a creation that uses parts in a new and interesting way. Perhaps it’s a collaborative build, combining the talents of multiple builders to reach new heights (just like last year’s winners!). Maybe it’s so epic in scope and scale that we simply couldn’t stop thinking about it. One thing’s for sure: it will have taken our breath away! The TBB staff have trawled through their memory banks and our site archives to draw up a shortlist of 10 of our favourite builds. These won’t necessarily be the most popular – keep an eye out for that list in the coming days! – but we will announce the winner on New Year’s Eve. Read up on our nominees, and check out our previous winners in the archives!
Without further ado, let’s meet our nominees!
In their professional capacity as LEGO designers, Chris Perron and Wes Talbott have collaborated on some of the best fantasy sets ever released, including Rivendell and the Red Dragon’s Tale. So what do these friends get up to when they’re off the clock? How about an epic reimaging of a beloved ’90s castle with modern building techniques and design aesthetics? The massive build debuts at the upcoming Skærbæk Fan Weekend event, but for those who can’t make it to rural Denmark, the builders graciously offer a detailed tour of this house of the Dragon Masters.
Click to explore the reforged Fire Breathing Fortress!
This past weekend, LEGO fans from all over the world converged on Skaerbaek, Denmark for the ultimate builder gathering (that also happens to be in LEGO HQ’s metaphorical backyard). Builder and LEGO designer Wes Talbott featured this fantastic horde of baddies at the Fan Weekend, about to pass through their nerco-powered portal to attack their sworn foe, the Moon Elves. The intricacies of the portal are spectacular, from the organics growing out of its side to the stone dragon heads sitting atop it. But my favorite part has got to be Wes’s integration of bones and skulls into the structure, using the 1×1 round plate with bar. The part really gives those skeletal minifig heads a jaunty slant, evoking the makeshift/natural/ritualistic nature of goblin magic. But don’t let the glowing green gateway distract you from the brilliantly-crafted army surrounding it. Specifically, that big, boney behemoth in the background is a masterclass in character creation and choice part usage.
If you have no knowledge of “Chromalagous” by awesome LEGO designer, Wes Talbott, stop right now and check it out. It’s one of my most favorite builds of all time! Now, if you’re familiar with that build, you might see similarities to this one. Wes hopes to create a rainbow of dragon busts at a slightly smaller scale to that of their predecessor – starting with this Red Chromatic Dragon. As with the last one, this dragon’s shaping is gorgeous and organic. It’s also inspired by D&D.
I’m a huge fan of the shape of the horns in particular, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the collection looks like! Stay tuned for more, but while you wait, check out some other builds of dragons. We’ve also created content surrounding some of Wes’ official designs for you to discover. For example, take a peek at the 21325 Medieval Blacksmith review and the modular 10270 Bookshop designer video.
I have to say, as a writer for TBB, I’ve seen A LOT of custom builds. I spend far too much of my time scanning Flickr and Instagram for the next awesome piece of art to share with you all. Maybe it’s the fantasy nerd in me, but this… is exceptional. This dragon, built by talented LEGO designer, Wes Talbott, is all sorts of awesome. The ombre, rainbow-esque coloring is so perfectly executed! Making it for The LEGO House collection, he fittingly calls it, “Chromalagous” but the beauty goes beyond the color palette.
The placement of the scales is so organic and detailed, it truly looks like the skin of a giant reptile. It certainly doesn’t look like LEGO at first glance. And I don’t know about you, but I find myself with my mouth agape, muttering “how?” questions. Those horns?! I’d love to get a look at the internal structure, but this has to take a great deal of sculpting talent. What techniques does he use to make all those odd angles? Your guess is as good as mine.
Wes is a prolific artist, both in LEGO and graphically. Check out some of his official work in our archives, including reviews of the new 21327 Typewriter and 21325 Blacksmith Shop.
LEGO Ideas 21327 Typewriter, the newest Ideas set revealed, was designed by Wes Talbott and James May. They both wanted the Typewriter to have as much functionality as possible, and say it was a challenge to create a working model where Technic and System bricks work well together.
Click to see the Designer Video!
LEGO has continued to diversify the products that it sources and launches via its LEGO Ideas platform, which for many years has been perceived as focusing on licensed themes like Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, Voltron, and so on. But increasingly, LEGO has approved wholly original designs, such as 21310 Old Fishing Store. Yesterday, LEGO officially revealed 21325 Medieval Blacksmith, an original design by LEGO fan designer Clemens Fiedler. The set includes 2,164 pieces with 4 minifigures, and will become available on February 1st, 2020 at a price of US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £134.99..
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Read our hands-on review of LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith
From the inception of an idea to final reality, the LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith took over 3 years to become an inspiration from a fan designer to an official LEGO set. Go behind the scenes with designers Sir Austin Carlson and Wes Talbott as they share their journey together with the original designer Clemens Fiedler.
Click to watch the designer video
LEGO set designer and artist Wes Talbott saw the large macaroni pieces in the new 43179 Mickey and Minnie Buildable Characters set and knew immediately that he must build a beholder from Dungeons and Dragons instead. I approve of every last facet of that preceding sentence. It has an engaging start, takes us on a riotous journey through the middle, then concludes with a most satisfying end. Some best-selling novels don’t even go that well. What can I say? When it comes to geek memorabilia or the big corporate mouse, I will side with boardgame monsters every time. I think you’ll agree that this beholder is a sight to behold.
