Tag Archives: Manga

Posable Arale and Gatchan figures are super cute

Arale Norimaki is a fictional character from the Dr. Slump manga series, created by Akira Toriyama. Arale is a robot girl who is strong, energetic and a bit naive. This playful model by LEGO 7 — which also features two Gatchan, or Gajira Norimaki — is a wonderful tribute to these unique characters, who make an occasional appearance on the popular anime Dragon Ball from the same creator.

Arale & Gatchan

One of my favorite details is the use of a white rubber band wrapped around Arale’s ankles as a rumpled sock. The simple construction of her gloved hands, made from only 6 parts each is another nice touch. On the Gatchan, an inverted yellow chair forms a bib for this critter who is known to eat just about anything.

LEGO 7 has tweaked the model just a bit to give us a very dynamic and especially playful scene.

Arale & Gatchan

Goku takes on Frieza in the Battle on Namek

Given the popularity of the manga and animated series, it’s surprising how few LEGO creations we see inspired by Dragonball Z. David Liu corrects this oversight with an adorable pair of custom BrickHeadz featuring Goku in his “Super Saiyan” form battling Frieza in his “100% Full Power” form on the planet Namek. Goku’s spiky golden hair is perfect, and the inverted purple cheese slopes add exactly the right detail to make the evil Frieza instantly recognizable.

Battle on Namek

Ultraman Lives

The truest test of popularity is whether or not someone can recognize your costume after 50 years. That’s no doubt the case with this famous monster-bashing Japanese television icon, Ultraman. Built by Jan Lego, this ultra-pose-able figure is actually based on the more recent manga series design, but he nonetheless kicks just as much monster-butt with more style to boot.

Ultraman (Close) by Jan Lego

Packed with detail, Jan’s Ultraman is a prime example of a well built brick figure utilizing form and shaping to its fullest advantage. If you want to see dozens more views of this beauty, head over to Jan’s Ultraman album–you won’t be disappointed, although overconfident kaiju may be.

Ultraman by Jan Lego

The Shinigami Ryuk from Death Note manga

In the Death Note manga series by Tsugumi Ohba, the character Ryuk is a shinigami or “death god” who meddles in human affairs by giving a young man named Light a notebook that enables him to kill anybody at will. While not particularly my style of manga, I can certainly appreciate this LEGO bust of Ryuk by Ilia. Ryuk’s hair and wings (?) blend into the dark background Ilia uses, making his eyes and teeth jump out even more. The character’s iconic apple makes another contrasting splash of color.

Ryuk from Death Note by Combee on Flickr

Bug eyed monsters

Current followers of Manga will recognize this as the Terra Formar, a humanoid evolution of cockroaches that lives on Mars (…hmmm, ok). I’m terrified enough of the domestic variety, so this is the stuff of nightmares!

This LEGO version is the work of our favorite Japanese builder Moko, who decided he should pit it against one of his other bug-eyed creations, Kamen rider. At first, Kamen Rider does well by delivering an effective wound to the thorax:

But then he decides to karate-chop off the Terra Formar’s head. Big mistake! Because as we all know, that move is basically ineffective on cockroaches and their kin. The thought of this brute running around headless for two weeks is just too horrible to imagine. Hopefully Moko’s next creation will be some kind of giant boot.

Manga scale Star Wars figures

The iconic cast of Star Wars characters has been immortalized in LEGO in may different styles over the years and Rod Gillies (2 Much Caffeine) has a fresh take on the Star Wars universe if they were Anime Manga characters:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Each figure is fantastically detailed and worthy of a blog post … even the base is fantastically done.

“Kurogane no Linebarrel”

One of our resident masters of Mecha Izzo Legostyle returns to give you the uncut fix you so desperately need. The model is based on Japanese Manga also known as “Linebarrels of Iron” that tells a boilerplate story of a bullied junior high school student who acquires super powers and a giant robot to dispense justice and one-liners while causing a great deal of mayhem. I’m not sure why, but my eye is drawn to those beefy yet precarious looking legs.

LineBarrel01

I’m gonna cut you good!

Joe Perez (MortalSwordsman) returns by popular demand with this manga inspired Angel Dragon. The builder calls it an “action figure“, and with a pose like this, who am I to debate such wisdom.

Description

Friday Night Fights (Round 16)

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another tap-out edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout is a classic match-up of hipster vs manga-nerd with street-cred on the line. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:

Fighting out of the red corner, from The city of big shoulders…Dave “The KillerKaleta and his “Bat-Cow and Robin“.

Bat-Cow and Robin

And fighting out of the blue corner, from the school of hard knocks…”Murderin'” Mike Dung (MikeVd) and his “misaka“.

misaka04

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the battle for logistical supremacy, a broad slate of judges called the fight 7-5 in favor of Nathan Ɲ. Tune in next week for another action-packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

Melissa Seraphy, LEGO and Cute

Brickshelf user tkh has some brilliant manga/hobby characters in his galleries. His latest, one Melissa Seraphy, is particularly amazing.

Strike this

TKH takes to the sky with this creation based on the Manga and Anime, Strike Witches. I’m not an Anime fan, but I can appreciate this build. It’s quite unique, follows the subject matter very well, and looks awesome. What more could you ask for?

Lego Anime Strike Witches Manga

See tkh’s brickshelf gallery for more…

One Piece at a time...

Though I am not familiar with the subject, this articulated master-piece by Mike Nieves really strikes a chord. It never ceases to amaze me how much personality can be portrayed with these little things we call LEGO.

Lego One Piece Brook Manga