Arcane cityscape joins Lord of the Rings and other immersive LEGO masterpieces from jnj_bricks
Immersive scenes in LEGO transport you to a universe where everything is made of plastic bricks but feels alive. Creations like these not only require building on a large scale but also need a keen eye for perspective and lighting to create a convincing world. One of the very best builders in the format is Joe (jnj_bricks), whose epic scenes over the past five years have consistently left us spellbound. For his latest, Joe visits the opulent city of Piltover from Netflix’ Arcane show. (Keep your Stranger Things, this is the Netflix show I wish had official sets!). Joe explains that the scene was prompted by his wife, who build the teal-roofed building on the left. The remainder of the majestic cityscape uses a clever mix of scales, starting with minifig scale for the rooftop where Vi and Jinx survey the city (love the subtle mosaic work!), to midi-scale pavilions of glass and gold and aristocratic residences, to distant towers in microscale.
Joe’s Arcane tribute is just the latest in a long line of LEGO vistas from this RebelLUG legend. Let’s take a look back at some of Joe’s other immersive builds, starting with those based on the builder’s favorite film saga: The Lord of the Rings. The seven-tiered Gondorian city of Minas Tirith is famously immense, yet Joe finds a way to pull off the epic impact of a Peter Jackson bigature in Microscale with incredible forced perspective.
Several years prior, as one of his first immersive scenes, Joe recreates many partings at the Grey Havens. Even the distant golden sky is brick-built.
Joe doesn’t work only at minifig scale for foreground characters. In this tribute to the Plague’s Tale, a collab with W. Navarre, the builder uses a character in the Markus Rollbühler style. The rockwork throughout this build is simply breathtaking.
It’s hard to look at this build, titled “Cold Omens,” and not feel a chill! Built for Brickscalibur back in 2022, it remains one of the most amazing winter scenes I’ve ever seen. This build and the one above contributed to Joe winning the coveted “Dragonslayer” award that year.
For the previous year’s summer joust, Joe created one of his largest ever builds – a stone sanctuary in the mountains. Incredible lighting and the addition of fog in post make you feel like you’re up in the mountains with the minifig monk.
While medieval settings are more common in the builder’s work, Joe also applied his cinematic style to an immersive cyberpunk scene. Here the builder plays with both brightly-colored bricks and backlit transparent colors to create an futuristic cityscape.
Transparent bricks also feature in the bifrost bridge in Joe’s tribute to Thor’s home of Asgard. The microscale city features NPU draining on elements from constraction sets for the fantastical city skyline.
Earlier this year, Joe joined fellow RebelLUG members in a cinematic tribute to the Dark Knight (we spoke with the builders behind the collab here). Even at a smaller scale, the scene feels lifted from a fully realized brick Gotham.
This landscape of a Chinese peasant is another reminder that you don’t always need a massive collection of bricks to create epic vistas. A foreground barely 20 studs wide opens up to vast landscape. I like the use of classic tree elements turned sideways where the green valley meets the karst mountains.
Finally, this more intimate immersive scene captures the moment Joe got engaged to the woman who would go on to help build the Arcane citscape, bringing things full cirlce!
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