The builds of Jeff Friesen (@jeff_works on Instagram) are familiar to many LEGO Fans on Instagram: he has a certain style in the worlds he creates: whether Spaceships, Cities or Castles, his sense of line and colour is immediately recognizable. In his latest book – Building LEGO® Worlds – Create the Worlds You’ve Only Imagined (Nostarch Press, released August 2026) – he breaks down his process: from terraforming and landscaping, through to filling your new world with microscale life.

The good folks at No Starch Press set a copy over for review:Let’s take a closer look.

The book starts with an introduction to terraforming: creating the landscape on which you might choose to create your world – on anything from an 8×8 plate to 25×25 stud footprint. He breaks down options you might have – How will you design your mountainsides and cliffs? Will they be stacked or staggered in their design? How will water influence the shape of the landscape? Will the water be transparent or opaque? Will there be waterfalls?

What sort of settlement, town, or city will be present? What sort of foliage? How about the transportation that you might expect to keep your society moving along?

And along the way, instructions are provided to help start you on your way to your own creative world-building.

Friesen looks at multiple options for landscaping your world – be it with simple, single studs in different colours; or small plant elements joined together to create more detailed trees. And how might your garden interact with the surrounding buildings?

From here he looks at streetscaping – roads, lamps, bridges, statues and fountains, all able to be described in a couple of pictures each.

We are encouraged to seek out elements that stack well to create buildings – giving the example of the Three Brick Build – where only 3 different kinds of bricks are stacked to create mesmerising towers. This is followed up with inspiration for travel on road, rail and sea.

The second part of the book looks at specific themed worlds – an elf-inspired glade, a pirate cove, an ancient Mediterranean civilisation, even a modern metropolis, with trips along the way to an Art Deco Metropolis and Steam punk

Each world brings hints on carving out the landscape, and instructions for assembling the buildings, along with suggestions for how you might apply your own spin on them either by virtue of taste, or your personal parts library.

The instructions provided are clear and simple to follow..

Over the years, Jeff’s Instagram account has been full of inspirational miniworlds from all eras, some based on civilizations we have seen, while others are flights of imagination in past, present and future.

This book starts off by providing clear instructions before leading the reader down their own path to creating worlds of their own.

My copy is a hardback, and it had no problems staying open on the correct page while I took a closer look – no pages flopping backor such bothers. This is a beautiful book to hold, handle and receive inspiration from.

The book is now available from NOSTARCH PRESS and I am excited to offer a 30% discount on the book through to the 5th of September using the code RAMBLING30.

This book was provided by No Starch Press for Review Purposes – all opinions are my own.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!