Tag Archives: Dragon

King Gleeok brings three times the LEGO trouble to Hyrule

Gleeoks are the three-headed dragons who have menaced Link going back to the very first Legend of Zelda game. King Gleeok, introduced in Tears of the Kingdom, is the most fearsome incarnation of the recurring boss to date, and makes for one of the most menacing LEGO dragons we’ve ever seen. Built by Mitch Phillips, the model wasn’t created via Ultrahand, but instead employs a masterful blend of System and Bionicle techniques to achieve the inticate organic design. The three toothy heads first catch the eye, colored to match the elements of Thunder, Flame, and Frost. Then you might be drawn to the spidery wings whose membranes come from the sails of several LOTR Corsair ships. Perhaps my favorite section of the build is King Gleeok’s scaly chest, which, if you look closely, you can see is made from red discs affixed to a net and wrapped around the torso.

KING GLEEOK

It’s such a complicated build with unusual parts that you can’t fully appreciate it from pictures alone. Thankfully, Mitch guides you through the build process on his YouTube channel.

To see more of Mitch’s Zelda-inspired builds, fire up your Sheikah Slate and check out his pug-faced LEGO Bokoblin and (my personal Zelda nemesis) this terrifying LEGO Lynel.

Terribly Terrorizing Tiny Dragon

The word “dragon” should naturally conjure an image of a fire-breathing, terrorizing great lizard, its eyes filled with the promise of impending doom. Now, envision that same image but on a much smaller scale. The dragon crafted by creator Bart Marable, though diminutive, manages to capture the essence of this mythical beast. It depicts a dark creature exhaling flames upon what appears to be a tranquil island village, where residents live out their days in peace. In this compact creation, the creator has paid meticulous attention to detail, from the water supporting the island to the tip of the cathedral’s cross, leaving nothing to be desired.

Microscale castle with dragon

LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale – One-shot wonder or a critical miss? [Review]

This year, we celebrate a very important anniversary in the LEGO community. And no, I’m not referring to the 50th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons, although that’s certainly an epic milestone. Instead, I’m talking about the 25th anniversary of Star Wars LEGO sets. For it was all the way back in 1999 with that star-crossed fusion of intellectual property that some of us first believed we could see our favorite bricks paired with D&D. Well, it’s finally happened with LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale. Coming in at 3,745 pieces, this set is based on the contest-winning design by fan Lucas Bolt, and sculpted into the final model by LEGO designers (and huge D&D fans) Mark Stafford and Jordan Scott. The set will release on the LEGO website on April 1st for LEGO Insiders (April 4th for everyone else), and retail for US $359.99 | CAN $469.99 | UK £314.99. But will Red Dragon’s Tale pass the TBB constitution check, or are we headed for saving throws? Read on to find out!

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Delve further into the dungeon below!

An elegant dragon

This elegant LEGO horned dragon by Aiden Rexroad appears to have a fluid, sinewy shape thanks to the ball joints of Bionicle, something that’s difficult to achieve with traditional System elements. A pair of large claws turned upside down gives the distinctive horn on the dragon’s nose, which lends a lot of uniqueness to this build. Meanwhile, Aiden has turned to Destiny’s Bounty from Ninjago to repurpose the cloth sails as wings.

Athaya

Never ending fun in the sun

It’s that time of the year again when the Rogue Olympics contest sweeps the LEGO community. The first round’s theme is “Above the clouds”, and builder Dan Ko delivers this wonderful scene from the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story. Coming in at 27 parts, the scene features Atreyu and Falkor flying through the sky, an iconic and immediately recognizable scene from the movie. What I really like about this build is Falkor. The luck dragon’s body comes together with a series of battle droid bodies. At this scale, they work well to bring the Falkor’s face and body to life.

Die unendliche Geschichte

Behold the elegant Dracomata

Sometimes a LEGO creation comes along in which even the most jaded of us are compelled to stop what we’re doing and just take it all in. This is the case with LEGO Masters contestant Michael Kanemoto and this piece simply called Dracomata. Michael tells us this took roughly eighty hours over a two-week period. He goes on to say this clip and bar construction boasts almost no typical LEGO stud connections. The end result is something akin to Victorian Clockwork. Maybe that is why the overwhelming feeling you get is to just stop and take it all in. Even the non-LEGO pedestal enhances the experience, giving museum-like quality to this piece.

Dracomata

My passages are normally flooded with jokes and puns but this piece has me lost for words but in a good way. This is becoming one of those “I’m just gonna leave this here” moments so I’ll do just that and allow the breathtaking closeup to speak for itself.

Dracomata

The splendor of Jinxia Cave

Sometimes bigger is better and sometimes scale can look quite deceiving. This LEGO creation by Liu Di Kai looks quite big but my guess is that in person it is massive. Whenever a build gets really big, parts used to add details tend to be less noticeable. If you look closely you can actually spot the Baby Yoda head used on top of the lowest temple roof as an ornament. Sure, the part is quite tiny, but it is hardly noticeable due to the sheer size of this creation. The ninjago dragon amulet is quite a big part, but even that looks teeny tiny. This is one of those creations that definitely deserves a quick zoom-in so you can discover all the hidden details.

Jinxia Cave-03

Look to the skies and you might spy a dragon

Dragons are always cool, especially when they hang out at high altitudes among the clouds. Andreas Lenander delivers a LEGO bust of a bright red dragon with beautiful details and colors. He uses curving slopes to give the dragon the appearance of scales. You can see this to great effect on the dragon’s throat where the slopes serve this purpose most expertly. There’s some good use of gold pieces to give the dragon a regal look, especially on the whiskers! Because of the clever use of curving pieces, the whole build has a nice flow, like the wind is blowing past the dragon. The cloud base itself has some nice curvy lines to it, giving it a fluffy sort of appearance. You can take a closer look at this build by checking out the video Andreas released for it. He gives some of his own insights, while showing the build from different angles.

Sky dragon

Whipping up a spell to update a beloved set

We’ve all got that favorite LEGO set from childhood that holds a special place, and Gunnbuilding has reimagined one of his in this revamp of the classic Witch’s Windship. Gunnbuilding has updated both the dragon and basket from the original set to great effect. The brick-built dragon maintains everything that made the classic dragon so popular, including the arched neck, the narrow jaw and red wings. I’m particularly fond of the solution to create the Dragon’s yellow neck and stomach using the spoiler piece. Because this is a digital build, Gunnbuilding was able to color the mixel joints for more seamless styling. If only we got these parts in a wider colour palette…

6037: Witch's Windship (Redux)

The witch’s basket has also had a pleasing revamp – less a cauldron and more ship-like in design. Increasing the size has allowed further decoration. The Fright Knight shield, courtesy of a recent CMF series, is a welcome addition. And a skeleton figurehead adds a perfect touch of horror.

What a lovely plumage for a delightful dragon

When I think of nice parts to use in building a dragon, plants are not particularly high on the list, but Andreas Lenander clearly had fun building this dragon bust that looks like it belongs in a parade. I spotted at least 3 different plant elements used to create a feathery plumage, and an eye-catching detail (see what eye did there). Oh, and what dragon would be complete without gold? – particularly the ring element used to adorn the ears.

The happy dragon

Hold me closer, tiny dragon

Ids de Jong invites us into the fantastical realm of Dawnward as a terrifying earth dragon approaches the castle. This microscale scene makes terrific use of parts to convey shape and texture – from the grill tiles forming battlements along the castle walls, to the minifigure chopsticks working as the dragon’s head. The result is a serene autumn day that is about to end in fire and blood. I hope those wagons at the castle’s entrance can make their escape in time.

Dawnward castle and the earth dragon

Tree of the dragon

Bonsai has been done in LEGO before but this wonderful take by Isaac Wilder gives it new life with this stunning dragon shape! At first glance this could just be another bonsai tree but closer inspection reveals it’s true nature. Isaac uses some fantastic techniques to create the dragon head shaping like the use of the rubber band to hold various bars to keep the organic design. And the simple transparent green stud blends in well while still serving as the eye. The base is the same as the official bonsai set so this will look right at home on any fantasy bookshelf!

Dracaena Marginata (Dragon Tree)