Notice anything familiar about Simon Schweyer‘s most recent build? You should because this lush landscape was featured on our blog last month. At that time, however, this two-toned rocky shoreline was home to a thriving Greek Polis. Simon ingeniously (and quite literally) razed his Greek city to the ground and started building anew on the existing bedrock. His resulting medieval scene is so different from the original build that I didn’t recognized the recycled landscape at first. Both builds are jaw dropping, but I prefer the Red Shield Inn. Simon truly hit his stride the second time around.

Apparently, experienced builders are known to repurpose parts of their builds from time to time. And why not? Recycling saves time and tests the limits of your creativity. It forces you to step back and really think about your build. Then transform it into something completely different. I’ve never recycled a build of my own, but I’m eager to give it a try now that I’ve seen Simon’s success with the technique. One note of caution for those of you who also plan to give this a try: Be cautious when repurposing an old build into an entry for a contest. Many LEGO competitions have rules specifically prohibiting this kind of thing. Be sure to check first.

I’m curious to know what other transformation have taken place. Have you repurposed part of a build before? And if so, were you able to recycle anything other than the landscape?