From Buster the Boxer to Monty the Penguin, Lego has recreated every John Lewis ad from the last five years in amazingly intricate building block scenes. An incredible 116 hours went into re-constructing these moments from the telly promos, and a whopping 9,400 Lego bricks were used. All five ads were constructed by hand by Lego company Bright Bricks, and the complex building process is shown in the sped-up making-of video below. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that It’s not exactly going to be easy for an amateur Lego fan to copy these advanced designs, but at least we can marvel at the finished product. Now living life in fantastic plastic are 2012’s The Journey, 2013’s The Bear And The Hare, 2014’s Monty The Penguin, 2015’s Man On The Moon and finally this year’s Buster The Boxer. The scene which took the most bricks to build was The Bear And The Hare, made up of 2,400 individual pieces, that were put together over 20 hours.
If you want to get a closer look, the models will be on display in the Toys department of John Lewis on the fourth floor of the Oxford Street branch for two weeks during the run-up to Christmas. Now, where’s that old box of Lego and that superglue…? MORE: This dog had the best reaction yet to the John Lewis Christmas advert MORE: Argos have just delivered their own take on the John Lewis Christmas ad “Microscale is one way that an average consumer can venture to make something truly artistic and worthy of shelf space next to framed family photos, pottery, and glass sculptures. The loyalty to details and scale that author Mattia Zamboni has to his models make these works realistic and yet they are still doable for amateurs.” “Tiny Lego Wonders is a simply beautiful book and a must-have piece for the bookshelf of any LEGO fans.” IGN's webseries Up at Noon hails Tiny LEGO Wonders as an “incredibly cool...cookbook for LEGO.” Watch the segment here!
“A new LEGO bible. We've seen many creative uses for the plastic bricks... but this book is like a fascinating non-fiction dive into the medium— Moon Army notwithstanding.” —VICE's The Creators Project “The design choices will delight those who like assembling vehicles, and the identification of skill levels makes it easy to choose projects when working with kids.” In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to build 40 miniature models of race cars, airplanes, ships, trains, and more. These fun, compact designs will inspire you to get creative with as few as nine LEGO® pieces. Imagine what you can build with just a handful of LEGO bricks—almost anything! In Tiny LEGO Wonders, you'll create miniscale models of real vehicles like: Jets, planes, and helicopters Flatbed trucks and cement mixers France’s high-speed TGV train Cargo, cruise, wooden ships, and more! Let your creativity run wild! About the AuthorMattia Zamboni is a fan of computer graphics, photography, and LEGO.
He is the co-author of the LEGO Build-It Book series (No Starch Press), has contributed to several other LEGO books, and has been a LEGO Ambassador since 2015. He works as a researcher in the robotics lab at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, and in his free time, he pursues his passion for 3D computer graphics. Download parts lists for the models here. Table of ContentsAbout this Book Chapter 1: The Train Station Chapter 2: The Airport Chapter 4: The Construction Site Chapter 5: The Car Dealer Chapter 6: The Race Track Chapter 7: The Harbor Chapter 8: The Aircraft Carrier Chapter 9: 3, 2, 1 Liftoff! Chapter 10: The Moon Army View the detailed Table of Contents (PDF)ReviewsRead an interview with Mattia Zamboni on Vice's The Creators Project! “Both the instructions themselves and the models are very high quality and if you have an interest in microscale modelling then this is a book that you will not want to pass up on.”
“Rather than store this book on your shelf and say, 'I wish I could make that,' Tiny LEGO Wonders is meant to be shared with fans and is made accessible to those with a passion for transportation. It represents the boundless creativity and ingenuity of LEGO fans and how the toymaker has become an inspiration to process one’s surroundings in different ways.” “For any LEGO fans, car fans, or mini-model enthusiasts, Tiny LEGO Wonders is a great investment, and a welcome gift.” 's Tech Tools Blog “Zamboni excels in his ability to create and curate models that are quite small, yet accurately capture the design language and shapes of much larger creations.” “This is another excellent book from No Starch Press and one that I have no hesitation in recommending, particularly if you are a microscale modeller already or want to try your hand at it.” “Consonant with the exuberant joy that is a LEGO trademark, this book delivers a fun, whimsical set of colorful blueprints for tiny machines you can use to populate scenes limited only by your imagination.”
—San Francisco Book Review “For newcomers, you'll find easy to build models with great design and manageable part count. To experienced builders and those that already build on a small scale, you'll find excellent reference and inspiration. I give it five out of five Nerdlys.” Featured in the La Crosse Tribune “Full of incredible step by step instructions for over 40 mini builds, there's a lot to keep you and your little ones occupied...can't recommend this one enough!” “This is a great title not only for the aspiring Lego modeler, but as a tool to sharpen the young mind with shape, orientation, and assembly skills that will develop their future engineering skills. Those of us who are old enough to remember Erector Sets and Lincoln Logs will relate to how we developed our own young skills. “This book is easy to recommend as it provides the opportunity to choose from a wide range of mini builds to tackle, with many common parts used and then just a few Bricklink orders to do.
More than that though, the instructions are a great source of mini build techniques – for those who want to find new ways to make their builds smaller, this is a good place to start.” “All in all, I’m very happy with Tiny LEGO Wonders. The vehicles look great and building them is interesting and engaging.” “Although Mattia is listed as the main author of the book, a team of 10 contributors from around the world have also lent their building expertise to the book, which provides it with a nice varied array of models to tackle. Tiny LEGO Wonders is another wonderful LEGO title from No Starch Press, who continue to publish unique and inspirational titles which focus on often overlooked aspects of the LEGO world.” “One point of the book - which has almost no words, just step-by-step illustrations - is that special kits aren’t needed. Each of the featured aircraft, ships, trains, trucks and cars can be constructed with fewer than 100 of the basic blocks that come with most LEGO sets.”
—Silvio Calabi, International Motor Press Association member “Tiny Lego Wonders is as beautifully produced as all No Starch Press publications, but for it to remain pristine on a bookshelf or coffee table would be a great shame. Tiny Lego Wonders needs to look dog-eared, shabby and worn out, because the value of this book is in its use; Tiny Lego Wonders could be the launchpad you need to start your MOCing journey.” —The LEGO Car Blog “A perfect reminder of the surprising level of detail that can be captured at this scale.” “This is hands down the coolest book I’ve ever seen...I love that this book is not only going to make a great coffee table book to show guests, but that it’ll get lots of use by us as well.” —Outnumbered 3 to 1 “Each build included shows the level of difficulty so you know what to expect when you get started. From train sets, helicopters and cruise ships, you’ll definitely find something inside that you’ll want to build for yourself.”