Building LEGO versions of Transformers has always been a massive task from both the builder’s skill and the bricks’ limits. Joe Perez has already shown his mettle with a frankly unbelievable Soundwave, and now he’s gone and done Sideswipe too.
It goes from this:
To this:
In around nine steps which require nothing to be added or removed from the model. Impressive!
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.
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.
Big LEGO spaceships tend to capture a lot of online attention, but this is the sort of model which people should spend ages drooling over. This Taiwanese temple from delayice is simply stunning.
The roof grabs the eye with its lovely pointed corner ridges and the smattering of studs for texture. But don’t miss the lovely landscaping around the temple itself — an attractive mix of round tiles for stones and green plates for grass. And then zoom in on the original photo to see how the builder has cleverly mixed shades of brown to create a realistic feeling of aged and worn woodwork. This is a fabulous model.
I love seeing Friends colors and sets incorporated into awesome builds, and Allan Corbeil has done a magnificent job with that. He’s given us a lovely Cafe Corner modular building, based on 41035 Heartlake Juice Bar.
While I love the black and white old-timey pictures, I have to share the stand-alone shot, too. The Juice Bar looks just lovely built into the ground floor of this brick building. The detail for the top floor is quite lovely and very reminiscent of the details that LEGO puts into other modular sets, particularly 10243 Parisian Restaurant and 10251 Brick Bank.
Before going bust, the Swedish car manufacturer Saab built cars that were stereotypically driven by architects and college professors. The cars were always a bit quirky and different, which is probably one of the reasons why the company went bust. Saab didn’t start by building cars, however. Its eponymous parent company started by building aircraft for the Swedish military and it is still going strong. The Saab J 35 “Draken” (Dragon), built by Stefan Johansson, first flew in 1955 and was one of Europe’s first supersonic fighter aircraft.
Stefan’s model clearly shows the very distinctive cranked delta wing of this Cold War classic. The Swedish military typically required their aircraft to be suitable for operations from poorly prepared surfaces, in terrible weather and to be maintained by conscripts with relatively little specialised training. The resulting aircraft always looked rather different from their contemporaries. This also applies to the Draken’s replacement in Swedish service: the Saab JA-37 “Viggen” (Thunderbolt). If anything, Stefan’s model of this jet is even more impressive.
It has a large double delta wing, canard foreplanes and an unusual undercarriage with double main wheels in tandem, designed to facilitate operating from unpaved runways. Another quirky feature is that, in order for the jet to fit inside small underground hangars, its vertical tailfin can be folded down. Judging from the row of hinges this can also be done on the model. The complicated curvy shapes of fuselage are recreated very effectively using various slopes, and while I am normally not a fan of studless builds, the choice to build the model’s wings using bricks on their side works really well. Saabs are unusual fighters and an unusual choice of subject for LEGO models, but these are just more reasons to like them.
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.
This dangerous looking spaceship is filled with clever techniques and interesting parts. The extensive use of Technic gear racks is especially menacing, but the real standout here is the innovative sticker usage. They weren’t custom printed. Rather, Adrian chopped up a bunch of the yellow stickers from set 75053 The Ghost (from Star Wars Rebels) and placed them on the model in an interesting pattern. The stickers were already printed to be scruffy-looking, but the builder wanted them to be even scruffier. So he abraded the stickers by rubbing the model back and forth on a wooden table. The stickers aren’t shiny and smooth any more, but the result is definitely worth it.
Feelings can often be difficult to share, but thankfully, music can do it for us. The perfect song can tell someone everything you want to say but don’t know how. It can take us back instantly to points in our life, reminding us of those we love. James Zhan has built this wonderful gramophone, with beautiful gilded details. Atop the record is Minnie, with Mickey playing the record.
To me, it tells me the song reminds him of her, and there’s something very sweet in that message.
The record spins, too!
Hotline Miami LEGO are two things which shouldn’t mix. One is an ultra-violent top down murder fest of a game, and the other is a made-for-kids interlocking bricks system. Luckily, Nannan Zhang does both properties justice with this little scene from the games.
Aside from the great colours used to imitate the game and the textured brick pieces being used as carpet details, what I really love is the fact that (as far as I can tell) only LEGO pieces were used. The Chima headpiece acting as a Tony Mask works particularly well. It all comes together so well and makes me want to play the games again.
Near the beginning of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Poe and Finn hijack a TIE fighter and make their escape. The scene plays out in the hanger of the First Order’s star destroyer, the Finalizer. This hangar has been painstakingly recreated in LEGO by LegoSpencer in this project that took six weeks to create. The final build features four official LEGO TIE fighter sets as well as a few dozen stormtroopers and an untold amount of detailing. For a closer look, you can also check out the builder’s thorough breakdown video.
