Amazing motorized LEGO steampunk sculpture breaks the chains of love

This stunning steampunk sculpture was first revealed at BrickCon in 2015, where it won a well-deserved Best In Show award. Although we covered this creation in our BrickCon roundup post at the time, the builder Paul Hetherington has only just posted his own images — a perfect excuse for us to feature this beautiful LEGO model in more detail.

LEGO Steampunk, Unchain My Heart

This is a jaw-dropping steampunk creation, exactly the sort of thing the genre should be about — exploring the intersection of emotion, machinery, art, and engineering through the prism of a retro-futurist aesthetic. It’s models like this which give me hope that steampunk builders can rise above the “slap some barrels and a smokestack on it” cliches. Just look at the wonderful attention to detail in the mechanical greebles in the statue’s head and top hat…

LEGO Steampunk, Unchain My Heart

And then there’s the statue’s rear. It’s the mark of a quality creation, and a great builder, when a model looks fabulous no matter which angle you approach it from.

LEGO Steampunk, Unchain My Heart

And even better, Paul has motorized many of the gears and details. You can check out all the moving functions in this interview with Paul that Beyond the Brick conducted at Brickcon: