Tag Archives: Animals

These LEGO Kung-Fu Panda characters are fast as lightning!

These days, the only place I really seem to see Kung-Fu Panda material is in poorly-cut Instagram reels. Admittedly, that probably says more about more about my social media habits than the film – and to be fair, it is a great film. Thankfully, Jannis Mavrostomos has freshened up my feed with this great LEGO rendition of the main cast! Each one features some great building. An orange leaf looks great for Tigress’ outstretched palm; Crane’s wings look great, as do the rounded features of Monkey’s head and, er, Po’s belly; and I love Viper’s cherry eyestalks. But the best bit is surely the comically small Mantis. What do you mean, where’s Mantis? He’s right there on the right hand side – represented by a single plant stalk!

Upping the ante with some Nice Parts Use

F. S. Leinad is up to his usual LEGO-building antics again. This is a creation that he tells us he’s been antsy to share, inspired by one single part. Who could have anticipated that Garmadon’s helmet would make such a great nose for this bug? Not me! He’s upped the ante on this one. And while I could antagonize you all with some more ant-related puns, they might be getting a bit antiquated already. Let’s just file this build into the NPU anthology and be done with it.

Ant

This owl won’t ruffle any feathers!

Occasionally, an excellent example of great parts usage shows up online. One of the most recent such examples is this Colorful Owl by Nikita Filatov! This artist has done a splendid job of repurposing parts from the Wildflower Bouquet to create this adorable little friend of an owl. The dark purple bicorn hats make up the fluffy plumage of the owl’s wings, while the belly feathers are made of magenta paddles, and the eyebrows, which add so much character to the little bird, are made of wavy swords. If you, like me, didn’t recognize the disks that make up the whites of its eyes, have no fear; in that tan color, they are from the Wildflower Bouquet – and the part was made originally for the wheels of the James Bond Aston Martin. I’m looking forward to seeing more builds from NikiFilik. This one has been a (wait for it…) hoot!

Colorful Owl

This kingfisher knows all the greatest fishing spots!

With all of the excitement for the new official kingfisher LEGO set, it’s no wonder other builders – like Ryan Van Duzor – are giving us their own unique take on the subject. This LEGO model captures a kingfisher in its most exciting moment as it just hits the water and drops in on those unsuspecting fish. If you’re like me and didn’t recognize those fish right away, don’t feel too bad; those are Duplo fish that were discontinued in 2018. The air-water boundary in this scene is skillfully held together by transparent slide shoes and the kingfisher is crowned with feathers from the Chima line. While this bird may not make a splash, I think the build will!

A LEGO dragon inspired by an unlikely source

Check out this LEGO dragon Joss Woodyard has built. Cute, isn’t he? His name is Pit, and I love his flowery tail and scaly body made from pink rock pieces. But he’s more than just a loveable li’l guy! (Pit, that is – though I’m sure Joss is lovely too!). The reason he’s called Pit is he’s named after the pitaya fruit, which is also a source of design cues. Those black dots on his white underbelly? That’s the seeds you find in these fruits! The green dorsal fins? They’re the leaves! It’s a really clever way of taking inspiration from something completely unrelated. Unrelated? Well, not quite – the other name for a pitaya is a dragon fruit. What a great idea!

Draconis Pitaya

In this year of the dragon, Joss is building one of these each month – and if his previous creature creations are anything to go by, he’ll definitely be featuring on our pages again!

Twice the helmets for double the NPU

Hot off the heels of featuring in many of our end-of-year lists, Maxx Davidson gets off to a cracking start with his first LEGO build of 2024. Or should that be a… Croaking start? With the latest Iron Forge seed part, he’s crafted one of the cutest amphibians out there: the red-eyed tree frog. Said seed part is the minifigure helmet, and there are actually two variants used here. Both designs have been around for a long time, albeit in decidedly modern colours! The classic spaceman helmet in orange makes up the frog’s toes. Meanwhile, the flowers use a colour variation that’s barely a couple of years old – the ‘newer’ crash helmet in coral pink. I say newer – that part is now 30 years old! (Holy heck, that part is 30 years old?! Where does the time go…)

Red-eyed tree frog built for this year’s Iron Forge! Seed part of a minifig helmet used 14 times.

Meet the emerald enchanter that’s a defender of all LEGO fauna

While he’s certainly no Radagast the Brown, this nature-loving LEGO wizard by greenarj is clearly best friends with all the birds and beasts of the land. I adore all the plant pieces integrated into the enchanter’s cloak and hat, sporting nearly every color of green in the brick palette. His gnarled dark gray staff is an exceptional conglomeration of tubing, bars, clips, and minifig utensils. But let’s not forget all the effort put into this verdant vagabond’s entourage. The owl, bird, squirrel, fox, and bunny are all wonderful pieces on their own. The sheer number of ingenious connections and part uses among these five tiny beasties is astounding, but my favorite has got to be the tuft of fur on the fox’s chest made from Master Wu’s beard.

Green wizard

LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals [Review]

We continue our look at 2024’s Creator 3-in-1 sets with the largest one announced so far, LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals. Realistic animal models are a Creator tradition, even going back to the precursor Designer Sets – that’s 20 years! Let’s tour this 780-piece set, which will be available January 1st and retail for US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £59.99. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the flamingo.

Read on for our full review

All hail the peacock’s plumage

The male peacock is one of the prettiest animals in the entire animal kingdom. Sorry, ladies but that bro is has got it going on! Even the LEGO frogs know it; just look at them, basking in his magnificance and glory. This bit of cross-species love is brought to you by gGh0st who is competing in the Iron Builder competition. The seed part is the watering can and they’ve used twenty-five of them here. I’m sure there’s a watering can pun I could have used here but I’m just too in awe of this pretty peacock to think of it. Let me know in the comments if you have some because otherwise my watering can is dry.

Peacock

It’s best not to lock horns with this one

The Lamprima Adolphinae, AKA the Sawtooth Stag Beetle, is something you were not even thinking about less than a minute ago but, now that it’s here, you have to admit is pretty amazing. That is the magic of a LEGO builder like Lokiloki29; one minute life is business as usual and the next you’re marveling a strange beetle. Loki squared times 29 tells us that the Sawtooth Stag Beetle is native to New Guinea and uses its formidable mandibles for fighting. Logic states, and it should go without saying, that while in New Guinea, you shouldn’t get into fisticuffs with it while at a sports pub or something but, judging from the comments we see around here from time to time, logic has left some of you ages ago and you’d relish the opportunity to pick a fight with anything and everything offering even the slightest whiff of provocation. Prove me wrong, you weirdos!

Lamprima Adolphinae

Do I make you itchy?

I love insects and spiders. Really, I do. Tops on my LEGO wishlist is the new 21342 Ideas Insect Collection but boy, does looking at insect photos make my skin crawl! I’m scratching as I type and that is a testament to how realistic this new flea creation by Mitsuru Nikaito is. “Associative itching” is a real thing and, according to the science-y types at the University of Pennsylvania, itchy associations crosses species because primates get it, too. It’s a sensation so good, I decided to pass it along to you all. Let me know in the comments if you’re feeling it too and, if you love creepy-crawlers, check out our insects archives for more skin-crawling goodness.

LEGO Flea mech_05

Be careful with this beautiful black panther bust

Sometimes, good art requires patience. You may have a painting like Monet’s composed of thousands of little dots, or you might make Rubik’s cube mosaics. Or you’re Dicken Liu, and have turned a selection of LEGO bars and hinges into a beautiful black panther bust. I cannot imagine how long this must have taken to line everything up! We’ve seen similar builds in more two-dimensional mosaic form, but this is the first I can remember being a free-standing model. There’s all sorts of parts hidden within, including snakes, brooms, laser rifles, fishing rods, handlebars and more. And while I can appreciate the time this design must have taken, am I the only one who kinda wants to crush it to see how it deforms…?

Black Panther-01