By now, you will have seen our shortlist for our annual Creation of the Year award. What?! You haven’t? Well head on over here to see it! It’s one thing to create one, year-defining build. It’s another thing entirely to consistently hit such heady heights in multiple builds over the course of a year. That’s what our Builder of the Year award celebrates!
This might be someone whose builds were just too good not to feature over and over again (think last year’s winner, Maxx Davidson). They might have achieved success in other spheres, such as winning contests (Jonas Kramm won his Iron Builder round in 2017) or gaining LEGO Ideas sets (Sandro Quattrini, 2021). Or perhaps they showed growth, taking their builds to new heights like Dicken Liu did in 2023. What will set our 2025 winner apart? Take a look at our shortlist and cast your vote in the comments!
DeRa
It’s not unusual for our BotY nominees to have featured in shortlists elsewhere, and so that proves with our first nominee, DeRa. Their tiger was a highlight of 2024, and even got updated this year; then a stunning Godzilla made it into our 2025 Creation of the Year shortlist too. And while incredible organic shapes have almost become DeRa’s calling card, we’ve seen plenty more besides, from real-life houses to massive Gundam.
Sakiya Watanabe (N.A.B.E.mocs)
DeRa’s friend and fellow Japanese builder Sakiya Watanabe’s archive on our site only goes back to the end of last year. But don’t let that fool you – this is a builder of rare talent. You’ll have read about Howl’s Moving Castle during its CotY nomination, but how about Japanese weather deities Raijin and Fujin? Or some of his birds, such as the bald eagle or scarlet macaw? All of them show a deft mastery not just of LEGO elements, but of the sculpting of dynamism in static builds – no mean feat! And best of all, you can get an insight into this builder’s story from our interview with Sakiya.
Syrdarian
On the other side of the globe, another ambitious young builder made waves this year across the LEGO community. Syrdarian has been active for a few years now, but 2025 was when the French builder hit his stride with top honors in both the Summer Joust and Vignweek. After participating in community events like Frogust and TimeForCrab, Syrdarian kicked off a fun new challenge – NovHENber – that inspired dozens of amazing chicken builds. And on the topic of giving back, Syrdarian created a valuable guide to building, arranging, and photographing “ground-based” mocs that we were lucky to publish earlier this year.
Ivy (ivybrickss)
Ivy had an incredible 2025 between a strong showing in the Iron Forge competition, dreamlike Bio-Cup entries, and especially her epic Mechtober marathon (that we interviewed her about it here). In addition to great moc construction, Ivy is an innovator at how to bring an audience into the creative process, using her channels to turn building into a fun and welcoming event for all.
Benjamin Anderson
On the face of it, you might not think that getting beaten in an Iron Builder round would be grounds for a BotY nomination (sorry to bring it up again!). But in Benjamin Anderson’s defence, he was up against some pretty stiff competition in Ari Hytti – and it shouldn’t overshadow what a terrific year of building he’s had. And what we can say is that he has really got stuck in to the community side of things, be that through Iron Builder, the Bones-to-Brick dinosaur collaboration, or taking inspiration from Hero Factory x Ice Planet 2002 mash-ups. And although you won’t find it in our archives, how cool do these lightsabers posted back in March look?!
Luke (cathedralofbricks)
We often like our builders of the year to cover a range of themes, but we simply couldn’t ignore what a year Luke has had. We first caught up with him back in July, and discovered he’s only been back in the hobby for a handful of years! Considering that, and the size of his usual builds, his output this year is nothing short of prodigious. As well as epic medieval castles (which were good enough to win not one, but two Summer Joust prizes), he’s tried his hand at pirate ships and fellowships. We talked to him not long ago about the latter, and it’s certainly a sight to behold!
Trevor Pearson-Jones (moptoptrev)
As mentioned above, we don’t discriminate between quality and quantity. That said, Trevor Pearson-Jones has enjoyed a very prolific year, averaging almost a post a month on these pages! The over-arching theme from his archive is definitely ‘whimsy’. We loved the unique NPU of a LEGO box as a turtle shell, and he got stuck in to the modifications of 10349 Happy Plants that took over the internet this year. And we’re big fans of how he’s finished the year – not just because of his interview with us! But because Trevor has sated our hunger for puns with a festive flourish, such as a missile-toad or these fantastic bah humbugs.
Margit (margit_mocs)
Ever since emerging from her LEGO dark age 4 years ago, Margit has honed her skills in a wide range of contests and community events, from habitat challenges to the Iron Forge. In 2025, her skills reached new heights with amazing entries in the Bio-Cup, including maybe our favorite creation in the event – this haunting ghost fish! In addition to her boundless creative talents, Margit has also bravely used her building for advocacy and awareness of topics like neurodivergence and IVF.
There you have it: eight builders who are all deserving of the coveted Builder of the Year title. But there can only be one! Check back in the new year to see who it is – and be sure to cast your vote in the comments!