The appeal of Lego is that its only limitations are your imagination and creativity. You can do damn-near whatever you like with them, but some have taken up the task of recreating famous scenes, buildings, and vehicles, from reality and from fiction. These are 12 of the most impressive.
Real-life is boring. Lego life is better.
12Lego House
British TV personality James May built a totally functioning house entirely out of Lego, using over three million bricks. It was originally built for Legoland but the deal fell through because it would be too difficult and expensive to move the structure to a new location. The house was instead torn down and its pieces donated.
11Titanic
Clocking in at one-hundred and twenty-thousand pieces, this replica is unique for capturing the doomed ship as it was sinking. It showcases many of-the-moment details such as people falling overboard and people boarding lifeboats, showing that the three man team had a sense of humor and design.
10Millennium Falcon
In just two days fans were able to build a two-hundred and fifty-thousand brick, a fifteen-foot replica of the Millennium Falcon ship. The two leading the team—Chris and Dan Steininger, are Lego master builders, professionals actually paid by the company for their efforts.
9Olympic Stadium
This two-hundred-pound build of the London Olympic Stadium was constructed by the group Bright Bricks in celebration of the 202 Olympics and includes unique minifigs made specifically for the occasion.
8Hogwarts
Lego movie tie-ins are a common play-set, but for some fans, an officially licensed product isn’t enough. Alice Finch spent a year building a four hundred thousand piece replica of Hogwarts, basing the interiors and exteriors on both the books and films.
7Mona Lego
Eric Harshbarger built this six-by-eight replica of the Mona Lisa on commission. It utilizes only six different colors and weighs a whopping forty-five pounds altogether. Surprisingly, very little glue was used in the final product
6The Vatican
Reverend Bob Simon spent ten months building this Lego Vatican to celebrate Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to the US. St. Peter’s Basilica was made from half-a-million bricks alone. Simon included a minifig of himself amongst the crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
5Buckeyes Stadium
This one is built at 1/1000 scale and took two years to put together. Builder Paul Janssen spent three years to actually collect the million-plus pieces he needed. He opted to trade with other collectors rather than buy them outright after calculating that the minimum cost would be fifty thousand dollars.
4Volvo XC90
One of the heaviest Lego sculptures ever made (nearly three thousand pounds!), this Volvo is actually hollow. It was built directly on a Volvo frame and was designed as a cross-promotion between the two companies.
3Queen Mary
There’s a lot of big Lego ships out there, but this one is the biggest. The six hundred pound replica of the Queen Mary is another job by the Bright Bricks crew using a quarter of a million pieces.
2Grand Forks
Jamie and Tricia Lunski built a replica of their home town of Grand Forks, North Dakota. With buildings based off of actual buildings and a town square. There’s even a working train moving throughout. Over the years the Lunski’s and others have added to the display.
1Chandelier
Tobias Tostesen used Legos to make a faux-crystal chandelier. With over eight thousand bricks, all of them transparent, the pieces are angled to create the illusion of a gentle curve all around. Each row is angled in an alternating pattern and from a distance looks no different than actual crystal. An impressive way to get more for less.
