Tag Archives: Lego ideas

LEGO Brings Adorable A-Frame Cabin to Life with Amazing Details

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An architectural icon from the years 1950 to 1975, the A-Frame cabin still remains one of the most eye-catching and visually memorable home styles. Characterized by an A-shaped design, the frame eschews a ceiling, instead opting for tapering walls that create a unique space to inhabit, with the option of high ceilings or even multi-level living that feels dynamic yet rustic at the same time. This cabin designed in LEGO bricks by LEGO user Norton74, captures the trend of the A-Frame heyday. In ways it also challenges the very nature of the LEGO Brick, which was itself designed to make traditional cuboidal structures back when it was invented in the 1930s.

Designer: Norton74

The beauty of Norton74’s A-Frame cabin is just how remarkably real it is. Whether observed from the outside or even its immaculately detailed insides, every corner of this build has something new to reveal. The cabin itself sits on a stone brick plinth, with colorful larch trees in the background. It’s mildly decrepit, with crooked staircases and boarded-up doors, but that adds to its charm.

The inside of the cabin shows exactly how charmingly rustic and cozy it is. A multi-level design gives you a recreational area at the bottom (with a fireplace), and a bedroom on the top that features two single beds and even some cobwebs on the wall for that forest charm. To access the insides of the cabin, all you need to do is ‘open’ its slanting walls outwards. Hinges on the bottom of the walls make it easy to access the interiors during play-time, and close it back once you’re done.

The inside is just filled with all sorts of details, from tools to trinkets, and even a tiny kitchen of sorts with a dining table. Norton74’s rather mindfully used discolored wooden bricks (including even some with shingle detailing) to mimic the variety often found in wooden cabins – especially ones that have been repaired and restored.

There’s even a backstory to Norton74’s cabin design. “Two brothers, Dan and Ethan, burned out on modern working believed that stripping away modern comforts and living more simply in nature would lead to a more spiritually a creatively fulfilling life. They looked for a cabin in the woods and finally found out this old wooden A-Frame Cabin. They fixed it up, and now they live there happily,” he mentions.

Dan and Ethan aren’t the only occupants of the cabin. Aside from the spiders on the first floor, the cabin is also accompanied by chickens, rodents, a skunk, and even a bear lurking around in the back.

Norton74’s LEGO A-Frame Cabin started its journey as a submission on the LEGO Ideas forum, where it received overwhelming support from the LEGO fanbase. Earlier this year, LEGO turned Norton74’s submission into a retail box kit (you can buy the LEGO A-Frame Cabin right now), although the design went through multiple rounds of changes to make it smaller and simpler for younger users to build. If you ask me, I prefer Norton74’s MOC (My Own Creation) overwhelmingly. It’s charmingly crude, has a son-of-the-soil appeal to it, and certainly possesses much more character if you ask me!

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LEGO and Air Hockey Combine in This DIY Brick-Based Mini Table

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Although there’s no air involved in this particular build, the LEGO Ideas Tabletop Air Hockey kit captures the joy of slinging a puck around from left to right, trying to score a goal while protecting your own post. Submitted to the LEGO Ideas forum, this fan-made build from ‘LordFamousTulip100’ sits on the global LEGO forum with nearly a 1000 votes.

Designer: LordFamousTulip100

With a highly sturdy reliable construction that can easily handle the occasional violence of Air Hockey, LordFamousTulip100’s build comprises a staggering 2,500 bricks. The playing surface is smooth, has all the markings, and is spacious enough to accommodate two players comfortably. It’s still compact enough that the entire apparatus can sit on a coffee table, occupying perhaps the same amount of space as a large board game.

“The model features two brick build mallets and two pucks, which the goal can comfortably fit and store when you are not playing,” says designer LordFamousTulip100. “The playing surface is made with the largest pieces possible to ensure a smooth game.”

The board also features a goal counter to keep score, and has exposed dotted bricks on either side that you can plug your mallets/strikers into when not in use. The lack of air-based lubrication may be the one thing really missing from this game, but it makes up for it with the ability to be customized/modified thanks to the open-source LEGO-based design!

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The Iconic Interstellar ‘Miller’s Planet Scene’ gets its own Adorable LEGO Brick Recreation

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“Cooper! This is no time for caution.”

As the Ranger Ship descended on Miller’s Planet, hope suddenly turned to dismay and then to horror as Joseph Cooper and Dr. Brand realized that not only was the planet unviable for human life, their crew member was dead, they had wasted 23 years simply in the minutes they spent on the planet’s surface, and they were just mere moments away from a killer tidal wave approaching them from the horizon. The scene from blockbuster space-thriller Interstellar is noteworthy for causing a wide range of emotions and creating a visual tension only director Christopher Nolan can conjure. Now, LEGO builder Minibrick Productions is paying tribute to the Miller’s Planet scene with their tiny LEGO-based recreation that features the ranger aircraft, astronauts Cooper and Brand, and the shapeshifting robots TARS and CASE.

Designer: Minibrick Productions

Miller’s Planet is the first of the 3 planets explored by the group of astronauts looking for a viable alternative to earth. While crew-member Romilly stays back on the main ship, Cooper and Brand (played by Michael McConaughey and Anne Hathaway) travel to the planet, located close to a black hole. Little did they know that not only would this visit be futile, it would cost them decades because of the planet’s proximity to the black hole, causing a warp in space-time. Minibrick Productions’ rendition of this scene is as accurate as it gets, with all the characters and a rather realistic-looking Ranger spacecraft to match. McConaughey and Hathaway come outfitted in their space suits, while TARS and CASE, two monolithic-looking robots sport repositionable arms that allow them to walk like a human.

The Ranger craft itself is more than just aesthetic. Pop its hood off and there’s an entire cockpit where Cooper and Brand fit right in, along with a crawl-space where TARS or CASE can dock themselves. The rear hatch on the craft can open and close too, revealing the ramp through which the astronauts enter and exit the craft.

“This set would be mindless fun to a child who dreams of exploring space, as well as any collector who wishes to display one of the most iconic vehicles from science fiction,” says Minibrick Productions, the creator behind this LEGO scene. The LEGO Miller’s Planet scene from Interstellar comprises just 532 bricks, making it a relatively simple build for kids and enthusiasts alike. It currently sits in LEGO’s Ideas forum with over 4000 votes from the community. If it reaches the 10,000 mark, LEGO’s internal team will review it before turning it from a fan-made submission into a box-set that anyone can buy. Click here to vote for this build!

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This LEGO Snow Globe with the Lo-Fi Girl inside is Peak Holiday Wholesomeness!

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It’s truly amazing what people can do with the right combination of LEGO bricks. From building Bugattis to functioning calendars, the bricks have an unmatched versatility, and just in time for the holidays, LEGO-builder BrickAbe came up with yet another perfect LEGO project – a functioning snow-globe! The cherry on the cake, however, is that this snow globe also features YouTube’s most well-known fictional character, the anime girl from the LoFi Girl YouTube channel, known for her endless streams of great downtempo music.

Designer: BrickAbe

The Lo-Fi Girl Snowglobe is an interactive mechanical toy that features elements of Christmas along with the popular LoFi girl character, seen writing in a notebook with headphones on, with a laptop and a lazy ginger cat becoming a standard fixture in the background. BrickAbe’s globe captures these elements beautifully, turning the album art into a full LEGO-based diorama with a ground and first floor. The first floor becomes LoFi girl’s study, while the ground floor transforms into a living room during Christmas season, complete with gifts, and a decked up Christmas tree that rotates when you crank the lever outside!

The entire construction is incredibly wholesome, capturing the Christmas spirit in a rather adorable way. The diorama sits on a red platform that comes with its own Yuletide motifs, including stockings and presents, while being covered with a clear bell jar that is capped off with a snowflake on top!

“My greatest escape with Lo-Fi Hip Hop comes around the holidays. I feel very relaxed sitting next to a glowing fireplace, under a warm blanket, with Lo-Fi music playing in the background,” BrickAbe mentioned. “The idea for the snow globe came from a drawing I made a while back for #lofigirlchristmas. You can see this drawing displayed right above the fireplace. I created a charming loft apartment inside, decorated with holiday joy and Lofi Girl references!”

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Someone Built a Life Size Mechanical Flip Calendar out of LEGO and it Actually Works!

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The beauty of LEGO bricks lies in the fact that even though they were designed to help recreate life in a miniature scale, they can be used as actual building blocks to make functioning products and working prototypes. We’ve seen loads of examples of these on the site, from the functional orrery that accurately captures how our solar system moves, to something as benign as a working lawnmower that actually features moving plastic blades! LEGO bricks have endless potential and it seems like we’re still just scratching the surface with them, but ever so often we come across an example like this LEGO mechanical calendar that actually lets you change the date by turning a series of dials on its side.

Designer: Sariels Bricks and Pets

The Mechanical Flip Calendar is the brainchild of LEGO builder ‘Sariels Bricks and Pets’ who created this marvel to explore the beauty of bricks to replicate complex mechanical linkages and interactions. Featuring three flip-down elements to represent the month and date, the calendar lets you manually change its display every day by rotating the dials on the side. The flip-down elements include all 12 months as well as all days of the month, with individual yellow rotary knobs on the side that let you adjust each element manually. Meanwhile, a slider on the right side of the calendar also lets you highlight the day of the week, completing the entire calendar experience. The entire process is analog (the date doesn’t change on its own), but there’s a joy to watching how the elements change when you turn the knobs on the side. It’s retro design at its very best.

“There is no mechanical synchronization between days and months to keep things simple, instead there are three knobs with stepper mechanisms, so you can easily move each counter flap by flap,” mentions the designer. “[The calendar] comes in a see-through casing, the flaps are just 3 studs thick and built using 4×4 tiles, so numbers can be easily printed or applied using stickers.”

With over 6,000 votes, the Mechanical Flip Clock is blazing through the LEGO Ideas online forum leaderboard. The purpose of the forum is to allow LEGO enthusiasts to share their own unique builds, which can be voted to the top by other members on the forum. If an entry reaches the coveted 10,000 vote threshold, LEGO’s official team internally reviews the entry before turning it into a box set that anyone can buy! You can cast your vote for the Mechanical Flip Clock here.

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LEGO Antique Chandelier is a gold chrome-plated fixture with 8 LEGO candles

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Looking remarkably like something from an old Victorian mansion, the LEGO Antique Chandelier pays tribute to the decorative lighting fixture with a near-realistic representation of the luxurious light. The Antique Chandelier measures 16 inches long, weighing a whopping 17.8 ounces or half a kilogram. It doesn’t light up, regrettably, but that was a trade-off on LEGO builder DallasBricks’ part to ensure the chandelier looks exactly like its inspiration.

Designer: DallasBricks

The LEGO Antique Chandelier is DallasBricks’ submission to the LEGO Ideas forum, a public site where LEGO fans build out their own creations and vote on the best fan-made projects.

The LEGO Antique Chandelier comes together using a variety of gold chrome-plated bricks to allow it to shimmer when there’s a light-source nearby. The chandelier comprises of 8 candles around the rim and one light piece at the bottom. The candles themselves use LEGO pillar bricks with the ‘capital’ on the top resembling melting wax! The candles are finally capped with transparent orange egg-shaped bricks that look like flames.

Other decorative elements on the Antique Chandelier include ornamental chains that connect the main body to each candle arm, along with ‘crystal’ pieces used all around to help scatter light and create the shimmering effect associated with chandeliers.

The chandelier, sadly, doesn’t light up. “I’m sorry about that feature missing, which is important for a chandelier, but I thought making an engine to make it work would have been too big, and this means not suitable for the set,” said LEGO builder DallasBricks.

At 17.8 ounces, the 16-inch Antique Chandelier is a little too heavy to be mounted within most LEGO constructions unless you opt for the ‘illegal’ method of trapping the upper hub of the chandelier between two blocks. While that isn’t traditional (and most LEGO purists would undeniably object to it), it’s pretty much the only way of securing this Antique Chandelier to a LEGO build given the fact that a traditional press-fit wouldn’t be able to hold the chandelier’s overall weight. The chandelier itself holds together thanks to a “hose rigid”, (75c47 piece), almost the same height as the chandelier itself, connecting the whole inner structure in a way that uses mechanical friction to keep the entire unit together.

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This Ingenious LEGO Chess Board folds into a Sculptural Tower when not in use

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You could design a board game to be so compact that it folds into practical nothingness when not in use… or alternatively, you could turn it into an object of art that disguises the board game as home decor. Ferbrick1’s Tower Chess LEGO build takes the latter approach. The cleverly designed chess board morphs into a castle tower when not in use, storing the chess pieces in built-in racks, while the board wraps around to become the tower’s brick facade. Nobody would guess that an entire chess set is hidden underneath, but the minute you open the setup, it’s guaranteed to drop a few jaws and elicit some audible gasps!

Designer: Ferbrick1

An incredibly clever entry into the LEGO Ideas forum, this particular build comes from the mind of LEGO creator Ferbrick1. Designed to look like the tower of a castle or the ‘rook’ chess piece in the game, it fits all the players inside its hollow design and has the LEGO board wrapping around it to conceal the pieces. When you want to play a game, unwrap the board and lay it on a flat surface, before taking the pieces off their individual racks. Once a piece is killed off in the game, it can be placed back on that rack to keep the entire game organized.

The kit transforms into a standard chess board with 64 squares and 32 chess pieces

The Tower Chess Set’s beauty lies in its biggest constraint – it’s made ONLY out of LEGO bricks that have been assembled ‘legally’. That means no gluing pieces together, no wedging them into one another, and no using non-LEGO pieces to build the set. Ferbrick1 hasn’t fashioned us with any details about the number of pieces or the overall dimensions, but his entry into the LEGO Ideas forum does have over 6,000 votes from the LEGO community. If it does get to the coveted 10,000 mark, it’ll be reviewed by LEGO’s internal team before being turned into a retail box set. If you want to see that happen, I’d recommend giving the Tower Chess your vote!

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Charming LEGO Popcorn Machine is a Nostalgic Tribute to Retro Movie Theaters

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I hope that whoever came up with the idea of pairing popcorn with watching movies knows exactly what a massive impact they’ve had on the cinema experience. Movie theaters are practically incomplete without popcorn machines, and I can’t think of a single time in my entire life when I’ve wanted to have popcorn MORE than I have while watching a movie. Designed to capture the beauty of this relationship, LEGO builder Dimexart decided to create the iconic movie theater popcorn machine. A standard fixture at any concession stand, this popcorn machine is synonymous with cinemas. Sure, we can make our own popcorn at home in Dutch ovens or microwaves, but there’s just something different about popped corn that comes from this machine. The machine comes with a rotating kettle encased within a glass chamber. With a height-adjustable lid, the kettle constantly churns out popcorn, which falls out and fills up the glass chamber directly. It’s a hypnotic process that’s so embedded into everyone’s memories that looking at this LEGO recreation will probably remind you of the theaters and make you imagine the smell of butter!

Designer: Dimexart

Apart from building with LEGO bricks, Dimexart has also built a reputation for himself for recreating retro machines almost immaculately out of LEGO blocks. His functional antique cash register and vintage toaster hold a special place on this website, and the Popcorn Machine is soon to be a favorite too! The machine is styled in all its retro glory and comes with a 955-piece build, although whether that includes the LEGO popcorn is unknown. Yes, the popcorn is made from LEGO bricks too, and each individual kernel pops out of the machine’s built-in kettle, sliding down the ramp and into a popcorn bucket.

You can load the kettle by accessing it through a door in the back, and an M-Motor powers a rack and pinion mechanism, causing the LEGO kernels to pop out and slide down into the bucket for you to munch on later. While the machine originally was designed for LEGO popcorn, you could theoretically fill it with actual snacks too, like M&Ms and other hard candy, making for an interesting Halloween treat-deploying gadget!

With over 5000 votes, Dimexart’s Popcorn Machine is dominating the LEGO Ideas forum. If it gathers 10,000 votes, LEGO’s internal team will turn it into a box-set that all of us regular-folk can buy! You can cast your vote for Dimexart’s Popcorn Machine here.

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Picasso’s iconic ‘Portrait Of A Woman In A Hat’ gets recreated perfectly using LEGO bricks

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What better way to recreate the Cubist painting style than with actual cubes?! This LEGO reinterpretation of Pablo Picasso’s iconic painting trades brushes for bricks and the results are remarkable…

It’s hard to find someone who isn’t familiar with Picasso. His influence can still be seen in painting, sculpture, design, and architecture. In his lifetime, he achieved iconic status as a painter, but his legacy as an artistic pillar solidified after his passing. While opinions on his character are divided, to say the least, there’s no disagreeing that Picasso was a master of his craft, ushering in a movement that disregarded the basic laws of composition, perspective, and classical visual representation. The Portrait of a Woman in a Hat is perhaps one of Picasso’s joyful portraits. Blending simplicity with intricacy, this composition effortlessly captures the essence of the girl, the radiance of daylight, and the uplifting ambiance of the scene. Picasso’s artistic prowess shines through in this masterpiece, incorporating elements of cubism and expressionism that only he could execute with such finesse… that is, until the LEGO brick decided to give it a shot!

Designer: Mecesoo

Created by LEGO user Mecesoo, this brick-based portrait captures the very essence of Picasso’s strokes by using colorful plastic bricks instead. The entire painting set is made from a total of 1070 bricks, with no collisions and no loose bricks. It’s roughly true in size to the original too, making it even more of a brilliant replica.

Mecesoo brilliantly uses a combination of different LEGO bricks to achieve the authenticity the painting deserves, from the lively eyes and eyelashes to the rouge on the cheeks, the colorful hair, and even the outfit, which features the vibrant outdoor hat.

The portrait is also accompanied by a minifigure of Picasso, an easel with his canvas on it, and two iconic Picasso quotes along with the artist’s signature. “When creating a Picasso minifigure, I was inspired by old photographs from his studio,” Mecesoo mentioned. “Of course, there had to be the famous striped shirt and checkered trousers, which I found while browsing through the photos.”

Mecesoo’s fan-made creation currently sits on the LEGO Ideas public leaderboard gathering votes from other LEGO enthusiasts. If it touches the coveted 10,000 vote mark, LEGO’s review team will turn it into a box-set for people to buy.

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LEGO Tributes 50 Years of FedEx with this adorable brick-based Truck and Deliveryman

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With FedEx’s 50th anniversary approaching, what started as founder Frederick W. Smith’s college term paper idea has evolved into a vast transportation, delivery, and business services corporation. Boasting a workforce of over 500,000 employees, a fleet of 700+ aircraft, and a staggering 200,000 vehicles, FedEx successfully delivers nearly 15 million packages every business day! To commemorate this behemoth, architect and full-time LEGO fa David Clavijo decided to build out FedEx’s most recognizable element using LEGO Bricks – the FedEx truck.

Designer: Daniel Clavijo

Clavijo’s build comes complete with a LEGO truck that features two opening doors and a boot that’s loaded with cargo packages. Of course, each truck is also piloted by a FedEx delivery driver in their iconic navy blue uniform.

The truck itself is incredibly true to its inspiration – the iconic 1996 Freightliner Van. The entire truck is covered in white, with the FedEx logo on the front as well as the side. There’s even the diamond-shaped DOT hazardous chemicals flip sign on the front, accurately capturing every element of the FedEx truck’s design.

The truck features two opening doors – a sliding door on the front that lets you access the driver’s cabin, and a rolling shutter door at the back that reveals the stacked mound of parcels of all shapes and sizes inside the truck. Clavijo also mentions that one of the sides of the truck is removable (shown below), as is the roof, letting you neatly stack the parcels inside to be transported to their destination. The LEGO FedEx Truck is currently a fan-made submission on the LEGO Ideas forum. You can vote for it here and have LEGO turn it into an official box-set!

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