Tiny LEGO Wonders

Tiny LEGO Wonders

Build 40 Surprisingly Realistic Mini-Models!
by Mattia Zamboni
July 2016, 208 pp.
ISBN-13: 
978-1-59327-735-2
Full Color, Hardcover

“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.”
Forbes

Tiny Lego Wonders is a simply beautiful book and a must-have piece for the bookshelf of any LEGO fans.”
The Huffington Post

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.”
Foreword Reviews

Look Inside!


Tiny LEGO Wonders Intercity Express

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:

  • A ​space shuttle
  • ​Jets, planes​, and helicopters
  • Flatbed trucks and cement mixers
  • France’s high-speed TGV train
  • F1 racecars
  • Muscle cars
  • Cargo, cruise, wooden ships, and more!​

Let your creativity run wild!

Author Bio 

Mattia 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. Check out his work at www.brickpassion.com.

Table of contents 

About this Book

Chapter 1: The Train Station
Chapter 2: The Airport
Chapter 3: Fire!
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)

Reviews 

Read an interview with Mattia Zamboni on Vice's The Creators Project!

Tiny Lego Wonders is a simply beautiful book and a must-have piece for the bookshelf of any LEGO fans.”
The Huffington Post

“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.”
No Braking

“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.”
The News Wheel

“For any LEGO fans, car fans, or mini-model enthusiasts, Tiny LEGO Wonders is a great investment, and a welcome gift.”
GeekDad

Featured on Scholastic.com'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.”
BrickJournal, Issue 43

“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.”
Brickset

“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.”
BrickNerd

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!”
Joel Reed, @thebrickside

“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. Recommended!”
Cybermodeler

“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.”
Brick Fanatics

“All in all, I’m very happy with Tiny LEGO Wonders. The vehicles look great and building them is interesting and engaging.”
The Brick Blogger

“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.”
BricksFans

“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

Blocks Magazine featured an interview with Tiny LEGO Wonders author Mattia Zamboni in its August 2017 issue!

“A perfect reminder of the surprising level of detail that can be captured at this scale.”
Gimme LEGO

“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.”
Happy Healthy Hip Parenting

“The book itself is beautifully put together. Hardcover books are always beautiful to hold, and the colours in the images are great. Kids and adults alike will get a lot out of this publication. Mattia Zamboni has packed the 200 pages with some really great models.”
Bricktastic

“Profusely and beautifully illustrated with clear do-it-yourself step-by-step instructions for each individual project from start to finish, Tiny LEGO Wonders offers hours and hours of entertaining LEGO based entertainment.”
—Midwest Book Review

Updates 

Page 148 (F-15 Eagle): In step 1, substep 1, use two 1x4 plates in place of the one 2x4 plate shown:

Page 162 (Crawler-Transporter): Please see the corrected page of building instructions, which includes a fix for step 2: