Stilt House

by norton74 | 7, Apr, 2023 | Builds, Latest, Top builds

The iconic Stilt House now in LEGO form!

SUPPORT IT NOW!

One of my favorite builds, the Stilt House, is now on LEGO IDEAS and you can support it to give it a chance of becoming an actual LEGO IDEAS set! Click here and support the Stilt House!

May 31, 2023: Stilt House LEGO IDEAS UPDATE!

A few days ago my Stilt House achieved the coveted 10,000 votes on LEGO Ideas: it’s unbelievable!
I’ve worked hard to promote the project and I am delighted to have achieved the goal.
I thank everyone who helped me in this incredible journey. I don’t know how it will end up but I am already very happy and satisfied with it.
Thank you all! You’re awesome!

Have you ever dreamed of living in a Stilt House?
Stilt houses are houses raised on stilts, or piles, over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding and have been used for millennia, with evidence in the European Alps that stilt houses were constructed on a lake over 6000 years ago. Settlements primarily composed of stilt housing are common in Micronesia and in Oceania.

As children or adults, everyone has dreamed of living at least for one day on a Stilt House and if you can’t live in a real one then you can build it with LEGO bricks!

From the Tree House to the A-Frame House to the…Stilt House!
Those who love LEGO bricks also love odd and bizarre houses such as the beautiful Tree House or the cozy A-Frame Cabin (this last one sounds very familiar to me). A Stilt House like this cannot be missing in our collection, isn’t it?

The story behind this Stilt House
My little Stilt House is the home of Theo, an old bearded fisherman who loves spending his days fishing and preparing the nets. The stilt house is in fact equipped with an ancient fishing machine, called Trabuchet. From the platform, two long arms called antennae stretch out suspended some feet above the water, supporting a huge and narrow-meshed net.
Every now and then Pablo, Theo’s best friend, visits him by boat, since the azure hut can be reached by a little wooden dock or by an unstable ladder starting right from the sea. Today Pablo is docking at the Stilt House, he’s going to visit his best friend Theo, they’ll have fun for sure.

The relationship between human and sea
The relationship between Theo and the sea in this set shows as a relationship of appreciation and respect. Theo loves everything about being a fisherman. He is lonely at sea and his sea friends are his companions. He has great respect for the sea as well as the inhabitants that swim and live in it. 

“He looked across the sea and knew how alone he was now. But he could see the prisms in the deep dark water and the line stretching ahead and the strange undulation of the calm. The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water, then blurring, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.”

Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

About the set
The brick-built Stilt House amazes for the extreme similarity to the real ones and for the attention to detail. The set is composed by the main building and many minor details all around such as the fishing machine, the tight dock made of wooden boards, the ladder and others. The entire scene is like a postcard. Two minifigures are included in the diorama, Theo and Pablo. The set is built with many special and fun techniques, for sure you will love to build it!

If you’ve always dreamed of a Stilt House like this now you can build it and have fun!
With your support, hopefully we can turn the Stilt House into an actual LEGO IDEAS set.

Thank you all for your support, comments and shares!

A cute Outpost with a useful Outhouse

by norton74 | 10, Jan, 2023 | Builds, Latest, Top builds

While I was waiting for the official release of my A-Frame Cabin as an LEGO Ideas set I built a brand-new creation. My first build of the year is a little diorama featuring a very cute sea outpost combined with a very useful…um…outhouse.
Both the building has the same color scheme, medium azure for the walls, tan for little details and medium nougat for the roof. It’s the first time I’ve used lavender plant leaves and I’m very happy with this color. Probably some details will seem familiar to you, in fact some parts come from my previous works such as Theo’s Trabuchet fishing hut which I built in the autumn of 2021.
The little outpost is built half on rock and the other half on stilts. I added a handful of little details to let it fun and lively. Do you like it? Let me know in the comments below.

Hayao Miyazaki, his Nibariki (Citroën 2CV) and Tokyo snowfall

by norton74 | 13, Dec, 2022 | Builds, Latest, Top builds

A few months ago I built the personal studio of Hayao Miyazaki, Japan’s greatest animation director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, best-loved of all the Japanese animation studios.
Now it seems that it snowed heavily in Tokyo, so much so that Hayao is walking in snow with his snowshoes and with his Husky.
A pair of skis are already loaded on the Citroën 2CV, heading towards Mount Fuji!
楽しい時間をお過ごしください

Back in 1998, Hayao Miyazaki designed and built a house for his production company, called Nibariki. This house is located nearby Studio Ghibli’s main building. Nibariki means 2 horsepower in Japanese and the name is a clear tribute to the beloved Citroën 2CV that the artist has been driving for more than forty years.
Above you can see both Mr. Miyazaki’s new office and his Citroën 2CV. And of course our beloved masterful storyteller too.
Miyazaki bought his first 2CV as a university student in the early 1960s. It was a right-hand-drive model, imported from the U.K. and painted bright yellow.
A 2CV first appeared in Miyazaki’s first feature-length film, 1979’s The Castle of Cagliostro. An action-adventure tale involving a mischievous gentlemen thief, the well known Lupin III, and featuring multiple car chases, including the heroine, Clarisse, escaping in her 2CV.
Miyazaki’s current Citroën is a 1987 2CV 6 painted in light gray and is exactly like the one you see in my latest creation.

Haunted A-Frame Cabin | Monster Fighters tribute

by norton74 | 22, Oct, 2022 | Builds, Latest, Top builds

While I’m looking forward to the release of my A-Frame Cabin, chosen as one of the next LEGO IDEAS sets, I built a spooky variation of the rustic house based on the 2012 LEGO Monster Fighters series.
It is a kind of tribute to the MF Haunted House released in 2012 by TLG.
Size and shape are basically the same as the A-Frame Cabin, colors, details, setting and Minifigures are completely different.

If you take a deeper look, you can spot many references and Easter eggs directly related to the LEGO horror theme.
The gramophone, the trunk with the top hat, the glass dome with a bone inside are all objects from the MF set. The gate is also a clear tribute to the Haunted House.
And take a look at the zombie heads above the gate columns, do you remember where they were in the MF set?
Last but not least don’t miss the magic Bat Moonstone of Lord Vampyre, the villain of the series.

Enjoy and happy Hall🎃ween!

The Guardian of the Abyss and the Wolf Fenrir

by norton74 | 1, Oct, 2022 | Builds, Latest, Top builds

My latest creation is loosely inspired both by the story of the writer Xavier Liras, creator of the Spiral Universe, and by the illustration of the artist Alexander Shatohin.
Below you can read a very brief summary of Xavier’s story that describes my creation well.

The story goes that the Guardian of the abyss lives right on the edge of the abyss. His job for generations has been to explore the Abyss and its mists and gain insight into what is happening in the world.
The Abyss has many levels, it is the manifestation of the psyche of humanity.
There is a terrible war going on in this world now that could plunge us into extinction. The Guardian must lure Wolf Fenrir to the surface and be devoured. But the wolf will not be able to kill him completely and, back in the abyss, he will be forced to spit it out. Only then will the initiation of the Guardian into the deepest Abyss begin.

It is the first time that I have built an animal made of bricks, in this case the head of a wolf, and it was fun and challenging. I think I can still improve the shape but for now I’m happy with that. I hope you enjoy!

“Drawing inspiration from author Xavier Liras and illustrator Alexander Shatohin, builder Andrea Lattanzio shares a tense moment as the Guardian of the Abyss lowers himself into the jaws of the mythical wolf, Fenrir. There are great details throughout this immersive LEGO scene, as well as some innovative building techniques. I particularly like the shaping of the olive-green fir tree, the use of cloth elements for roof patches, and the use of a minifigure accessory molding sprue for the doorknob. The wolf emerging from the mists is also worth a close look, with a yellow gear-shift base for an eye and a maw full of pointy teeth.”

(“There seems to be a wolf at the door.”  The Brothers Brick – October 12, 2022)