Category Archives: Castle

A medieval triptych: from affluence to affliction

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Sometimes, life may be different than it appears, and comfort and fear may arise from the same space. Jonas depicts such a contradiction in the Middle Ages. His small but effective build is filled with many details and master craftmanship. The top level is occupied by a Medieval beauty enjoying her hot tub. She possesses some luxury items such as a mirror, perfumes and books which were rare for her time. She seems completely unaware of the horrifying truth happening far below. The middle floor seems to be furnished to brew homemade beers, and the arched ceiling makes the room dark and cramped. Even with the presence of mice, the room may be enjoyable for a certain type of person who wishes to craft a beverage in silence. But the big barrel hides a secret trap door which leads to misery in the lowest level. A poor man is tied to a big wheel and his screams only echo in his spinning head, which is filled with the laughter of this masochistic band. Considering the torture tools scattered around, he will suffer a lot.

Secret Door

Watch the Autumn leaves change from Stonecreek Lookout

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Sergeant Chipmunk is the master of texture. First, it was insanely beautiful, jagged rockwork. Then, a sleek and stylish castle of ice. Now, it’s a deceptively simple castle with extra-blocky crenellation surrounded by autumn-time trees. The new texture? Well, Chipmunk put a handful of 1×1 round tiles to great use by carefully stacking them into dragonscale-like textured walls for his castle. I can’t imagine the zen-like patience this man must have.

Stonecreek Forest

The sea serpent leaves a mighty wake

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Timothy Jones says that he hasn’t previously built water effects or large organic creatures from LEGO, but his first attempt is rather impressive. A monstrous creature rises from the sea right next to a castle on a rock, lifting a tiny boat in its enormous maw. I don’t have very much confidence that the ballistas aimed at the big blue beast will have much effect…

Sea Serpent's Wake

Ready, Set, Escargot!

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This past weekend saw one of the world’s great annual LEGO conventions arrive, Brickworld Chicago. With it came dozens of new builds and spectacular collaborations to dazzle the public. One such dazzling display came from the builders of Eurobricks, a popular online LEGO forum, who built a spectacularly intense and hilarious snail race for the ages.

Ready, Set, Escargot! by Peter Strege

This award-winning collaboration was a truly large and world-spanning operation kept together with tight planning and a singular cohesive snail design made by team leader Mark Larson. His design, which was itself awarded the title of Best Creature at the convention, was used by nine other builders to construct more snails which were individualized with unique colors and themed castles–and then finally placed into an epic race.

Giant Troll Castle by Mark Larson (Photo by Peter Strege)

 

As the snails raced around the track, other inhabitants took up residence in the center field, constructing buildings such as the Mollusk Mosque and the spectator stands. Baby snails were hatched and trained to become racing champions, as butterfly transports and a very cool moving airship floated above.

Spectator Stands, Photo by Peter Strege

Mollusk Mosque, Photo by Mark Larson

Airship by Garey Conley

The full collaboration team consisted of the following builders: Mark Larson, Pete Strege, Kristel, Garey Conley, Ace and Cecilie Fritzvold, Ben Hauger, Mikael Sjostedt, Adam Myers, Marco den Besten, Vincent Kessels, Bob de Quatre, Phred, Prune Face, Quarryman, Rogue Angel, and TBB’s own Simon Liu and Tim Lydy.

For more images, see the Ready, Set, Escargot! Album

Kiyonobu Military Centre

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This Asian-style castle by Henry F. is so beautifully put together that I can’t stop looking at it. At first glance, this build appears clean and simple, but further reflection reveals tons of amazing details like the wooden lattice-style steps with multiple landings, the iron-barred windows, and the amazing texture Henry built into the rock formations. Henry cleverly designed this build with multiple levels, each one stepped up a little higher than the previous level. This results in a terrific photo composition that shows all the details of the build in one clear photo.

TSJ - Kiyonobu Military Centre

You can check out close-up photos (including a shot of that sweet, mullet-rocking soldier) on Flickr.

Flying boats make a forest stop-off

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Check out this fantastical scene from Brother Steven. We’ve got medieval-style treehouses, a brawl in a bustling marketplace, and a tethering tree for magical flying boats! Excellent work all round.

Gentleman of Fortune

This model pulls of a difficult trick — creating a scene with fantasy elements which still manages to feel realistic. It’s well worth clicking through to the original image and zooming in to see all the lovely detail on display in the marketplace around the base of the trees.

An Elder Scrolls wonder

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I consider some computer games to be pieces of art, and Elder Scrolls has always been one of those. You may find many great details in the stories, dialogues, characters, geography and locations, and Tava’s Beak is among those inspiring landmarks in The Elder Scrolls Online. Thorsten Bonsch is apparently very impressed with this ancient statue from an unknown civilization and decided to recreate it with LEGO parts. The result is magnificent! Almost every curve of the big rock is perfectly represented. Here’s a screenshot from the original game to compare with the LEGO version.

Tava's Beak

The Blue Dragon Inn

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This brightly colored Inn by Nick V (brickthing) is just packed full of detail. I can’t say I would have ever recognized it from it’s source material, but Nick’s description says it was inspired by a number of buildings from Asterix. I’ll take his word for it!