“Calmwater Cliff House” is a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired multistoried LEGO house nuzzled into a rocky cliff by a sandy beach. Created using black, dark tan, light tan, and reddish brown — or, as betweenbrickwalls puts it, “the colours of the 20th century” — this is a modern home integrated into the landscape to suit a 21st-century lifestyle.
See more of this Wright-inspired LEGO architectural masterpiece
Built for the #Summer Memories Contest on the Brickly app, this scene titled “Summer Beach” by Mark E. is a beautiful representation of an idyllic visit to the beach. I love the visual of the waves breaking and foaming on the beach, with the dark greens highlighting the ocean. Illustrating fond memories of building sand castles with friends and siblings, the only thing more certain than a fun afternoon in the sand was the incoming tide sure to level all your hard work.
If you have a spare five minutes I would thoroughly recommend watching the mesmerizing time-lapse of Mark’s build on YouTube.
The Brothers Brick Senior Editor Chris Malloy and Editor-in-Chief Andrew Becraft recently completed a new hard-cover coffee table book titled Ultimate LEGO Star Wars from DK. An up-to-date reference that covers the full range of LEGO Star Wars sets and minifigs from the first sets in 1999 to The Force Awakens and Rogue One, the book is due out on October 3, and is available for preorder now.
The book includes spreads on characters, locations, and vehicles, such as the various LEGO B-wing sets that have been released over the years.
Here’s the press info from DK:
The definitive guide to the LEGO® Star Wars™ universe, showcasing the vast collection of LEGO Star Wars sets and minifigures released over the last 20 years.
This is a complete, unrivaled encyclopedia of the LEGO Star Wars theme. Fans will have an all-encompassing companion to the LEGO Star Wars cultural phenomenon. Produced in large format and featuring beautiful imagery, this is an indispensable guide for young fans and a stunning reference work for adults. With behind-the-scenes material, it tells the complete story of LEGO Star Wars, from the earliest concepts in the late 1990s to the creation of the most recent sets for The Force Awakens™ and Rogue One™. Created with the LEGO Star Wars team.
Keep your eyes peeled for our exclusive follow-up interview with the authors — and who knows, there may even be a chance for lucky TBB readers to win autographed copies! And if you’re heading to BrickCon 2017 in Seattle in just a couple weeks, the book will be out two days before the convention starts, and Chris and Andrew will be there to sign your copies for you.
If there’s one thing I love more than a beautiful LEGO model, it’s a collection of beautiful LEGO models. Inspired by the Harry Potter vignettes we featured earlier in the year, John Klapheke wanted to build a series of something he was fairly knowledgeable about. The mission John set for himself was to create six vignettes for each of the Indiana Jones movies, each set on a 12×12-stud base.
At first, he was pretty adamant about keeping the entire scene confined to those dimensions. Later, with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull creations, he relented and let some detail spill over (and sometimes through) the sides of the base. John says “aiming for consistency” was the unique challenge of a project of two dozen separate, yet interconnected creations.
Fans of the TV show The Expanse will recognize this sleek vessel. Named by James Holden after Don Quixote’s horse, described in the book as a “stubby black wedge of metal” and visualized in the show as a lean, mean fighting machine, the Rocinante is a former MCRN Corvette Class ship previously known as the Tachi. Julie vanderMeulen had been mulling over building a LEGO version since seeing the show earlier this year. She decided to go with 2/3 minifig-scale to make it a nice, even 100 studs long.
As a proof of concept, she built the drive cone and then shelved it for a while. When she finally decided to give it a go, it just so happened to be the same day SHIPtember 2017 was announced, so she ended up speed building the whole model — and it is gorgeous! Julie has captured the Roci in all her glory, heavily armored and heavily armed — every detail has been stunningly sculpted in LEGO.
In the words of James Holden, “As long as we’re living and breathing, there’s more we can do. We just have to be strong enough.”
Pixar fans — or parents of Pixar fans — will no doubt recognise Karl Fredrickson’s beautiful colourful house from the heartwarming animated movie Up! (…if you haven’t see the movie I thoroughly recommend it). Jonas Kramm loved the movie and loved the image of the flying house getting carried away only by balloons. However his supply of colourful bricks was limited so he went with a scaled-down version of the famous airborne cottage, and it looks superb!
I love the azure trim around the eaves and the well-constructed railing around the front porch. Jonas has even managed to capture the detail of the sidings at this scale, and employed some great techniques to recreate that chaotic cluster of balloons. Oh, and if we happen to get separated, don’t forget to use the wilderness explorer call: “CA-CA! RAWRRR!”
Okay I may have got a little carried away, as it’s not quite the Blues Mobile. Put a giant megaphone on the roof and put a couple of suited, sunglassed musicians in the front seat and I reckon it’d look the part. Slovenian builder Primoz Mlakar has created a wonderful Speed Champions style Police Interceptor. Inspired by vehicles in Ken Block’s Gymkhana 7, the builder has captured the lines and curves of the classic black and white beautifully. Particularly impressive is the use of the tooth piece for a window pillar and the bad robot arms as nudge bars.
I’m pretty sure a motorhead like Donald Duck would love to get his wings on this beautiful toy steam locomotive. David Liu has turned Mickey Mouse into a coal car, while Goofy makes an adorable passenger car. Built for his son, the model has built-in radio control, however, his son prefers playing with it with his hands.
The color schemes look perfect and instantly recognizable – even from a thumbnail. Donald’s sailor’s hat on the engine smoke stack is a fantastic touch! And you really need to join Mickey and Minnie for a refreshing beverage in the passenger car.
Some of the best builders consistently provide top quality LEGO builds, and you may recognize Galaktek‘s style as we have featured his Fluffy & Furious, Four Seasons, and a Fire Truck. Today we have a Vintage Roadster—only his second scale car model. The shaping was inspired by LEGO set 21307 Caterham Seven, while the rest is loosely based on a couple of 1930s Mercedes and Maybach roadsters. Capturing the unique style and curves of the automotive industry in the thirties, this classic runabout looks like it should be in black and white on the cover of Motor Sport Magazine.
Graffiti has been a fact of life since the pyramids were built, but you may not have ever seen LEGO graffiti before (unless you’ve been reading The Brothers Brick for a really long time). Roman says he started with the minifig street artist and then came up with the larger build. The backward bandana as a hood is inspired and it’s good to see he takes his respiratory health seriously.
I love the dripping paint from the freshly painted wall and the items chosen to inhabit the scene. It is a concise frame for a cool piece of instantly recognizable graffiti.
You may recall last month we ventured back to Meso-America 7,000 B.C. with Ayrlego‘s beautiful jungle scene. Now we leap through time and space to the Golden age of Piracy with two wonderful buildings from the fictional Port Woodhouse. First, we have the piratically themed Infantry Barracks where the Captain inspects the troops’ custom carbines. I love how each of the soldiers has a unique face and expression – a couple of those guys in the front row look like a lot of trouble or a lot of fun, depending on your perspective. The use of older ‘yellowed’ white bricks and un-clutched roof tiles (including one with a broken corner) also lend the build an antique feel.
Taiwanese builder LEGO 7 is at it again with another incredible dynamic build. This time, a White Dragon Mech is ripping off the starboard propeller of the Sky Pirates’ flying ship. Lightning ripples out from the dark thundery clouds as the pirates scramble on deck. I love the colors and design of the boat, and the gold railing trim looks great. Have you noticed Monkey Wrench throwing a spanner in the works from atop the crow’s nest? Will Lloyd continue to evade the dragon’s clutches and save the day? Or will the flying clipper plummet earthward and suffer the dreadful fate of rapid deceleration syndrome?
