Due to the tragic murders of George Floyd, Manuel Ellis, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and far too many other African-Americans, racial injustices that Black people experience every day have come to the forefront of white consciousness once again. We’ve been examining how this very real-world issue affects the hobby we participate in, not just for a moment in time but on an ongoing basis. Earlier this week, we sat down with Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, whose LEGO work we’ve featured several times, including his stunning Flower Girl sculpture and wonderful Beasts from Bricks book. Our conversation with Ekow covered his experience growing up playing with LEGO, interactions with the LEGO hobbyist community, the Afrocentric and Afrofuturist themes of his artwork, and how LEGO communities such as The Brothers Brick can operate more inclusively. We ask you to watch the full video before reacting with comments. While the reaction from some quarters...

“Welcome to Jurassic Park”. I’ve loved Jurassic Park since devouring Michael Crichton’s original novel in 8 hours of straight reading, months before the movie adaptation had even been announced. Then there were the years of waiting, wondering if Spielberg could possibly deliver on Crichton’s vision, before we finally experienced the jaw-dropping impact of seeing “real” dinosaurs on the big screen. In a world where CGI effects are the norm, cinema audiences have become rather blasé about regularly seeing the impossible made real — back in 1993, this was something special. The effect this movie had on me was considerable, and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of recreating elements of the film in bricks. I figured I’d never be able to build a LEGO version of the whole park to the scale I wanted if I used minifigures, so instead I decided to give it a go in microscale… I was keen...

Don’t ask how I know this but when dealing with a gelada it is best to not make eye contact, don’t bare your teeth and for the love of God, don’t ever look at his butt. Nevermind the series of unfortunate events that may or may not have occurred to make me privy to this information, just heed my warning and don’t ask questions. With that said, I’d like you to take an indirect glance at this awesome LEGO gelada built by Andrew Steele. With some clever parts usage, this model possesses the correct stance and facial gestures of a real gelada about to attack. (Not that I would know.) This build is so clever you may want to smile, but I would advise against it. In fact, you ought to just move on and check out the other toothy beasts Andrew has built. Safer still, you might like to peruse...

I don’t know what I find more surprising about this space station by builder CheesyStudios, the vibrant color pallet or the fact that it was built, photographed and edited in under 24 hours, impressive. Original linkOriginal author: Tommy

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, I won’t go into details why (but you can read a bit about it here). And while I’m not promising to be as prolific as I was before, I do intend to blog more. In fact, this MOC by builder JK Brickworks was the first creation I’d seen in a while that made me go “hey, that’s cool”, and I actually wanted to blog it. I’m going to call that progress. Anyway, this thing standing still is adorable, but the fact that’s it’s mechanical, and all the critters have their own personality just makes it irresistible. Check out the video below to see it in action. Original linkOriginal author: Tommy