So last week we talked a bit about official sets from LEGO featuring bookish properties—but a mass-produced set from LEGO can’t match what a true LEGO genius can do with those little plastic bricks. Let’s get down to it!
Matija Grguric, an architecture student from Croatia, was inspired by the official LEGO version of the Burrow from Harry Potter to create his own. It actually leans to the right and everything!
Kindergarten teacher David Kaleta’s love of LEGOs has combined with his love of Batman to create some truly astonishing pieces. He’s been working on his version of stately Wayne Manor (which is the only way to refer to that residence, rest assured) since 2005; the following photo shows it in its incarnation in 2012, but Kaleta has, undoubtedly, been adapting it further and further. There’s a lot of Easter eggs in the build, including a tiny Prince and Apollonia from Purple Rain.
Kaleta even whipped up a The Hunger Games diorama back in March, when the film adaptation was released.
Paul Versmeech created his own version of 221 Baker Street from Sherlock Holmes, complete with a robbery happening right under the noses of Holmes and Dr. Watson, and a Moriarty on the street. Watson’s even reading a copy of The Daily Prophet, as appropriated from the official Harry Potter sets.
As you can imagine, The Lord of the Rings is fertile ground for custom LEGO creators, and there’s tons of custom builds based on the novel and the Jackson films. However, I have elected to show you Steve M.’s builds of the Argonath, the kingly statues you probably remember from The Fellowship of the Ring film. Well, not technically show you, as he lacks a Flickr account, but link you. Each statue is two feet high and composed of thousands of bricks, to the point that I’m not sure if Steve M. is joking when he says he took out a second mortgage on his house to buy enough pieces. It’s absolutely astonishing work; here’s the King of the Eastern Shore and the King of the Western Shore.
I spent the fourth of July with my family; I read Becoming Jane and The Prestige this week, and I’m currently in the middle of Russell Brand’s My Booky Wook. I got most of my books for my Jane Eyre research on Thursday, so my efforts there are being redoubled.
TheOneRing.Net is giving away two Comic-Con exclusive invisible Bilbo Baggins figures until the fifteenth. The Baen Free Library is full of free downloads, including The Shadow of the Lion and On Basilisk Station. Night Shade Books is offering Butcher Bird and Grey as free downloads at the moment. Vertigo Comics is offering free downloads of the first issue of several series, including Fables, The Unwritten, and Y: The Last Man. (And you will go download The Unwritten.) Small Beer Press offers several of their books as free downloads, including Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners. If I’ve missed your giveaway or freebie, drop me a line!
The Literary Omnivore 
Holy cats. That’s some impressive LEGO.
I’ve always wanted to get into LEGO, but alas, I don’t have the space to properly display it once it’s done. I guess I could always build something just for the sake of building it, then dismantle it later on, but I’d rather keep it around after I’ve put so much work into it.
Exactly! Luckily, they do offer smaller official sets; Frodo and Gandalf take up a tiny bit of my desk. Of course, the really impressive official LEGO sets are huge…
The only LEGO I own is, not surprisingly, a mini-fig of Sherlock Holmes.
Oh, from those surprise bags? I’m always nervous to buy one of those…
Yeah, a friend of mine who collects LEGO sent it to me. No risk involved.
The LEGO Burrow is so impressive. You made me want to buy Harry Potter Lego (even though this isn’t officially part of it).
There’s tons of Harry Potter LEGO; they even sell keychains with little super-glued together minifigures. I’ve been meaning to get a Wonder Woman!
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