About David Pickett

Dave Pickett is interested in the intersections of LEGO, pop culture, digital media, and LGBTQIA+ representation. Dave is the creator of YouTube channel BRICK 101 and co-author of The LEGO Animation Book. When he’s not building with LEGO bricks, Dave enjoys playing video games, reading comic books, watching nerdy TV shows, and exploring Chicago with his husband Bert and their dog Sophie.

Posts by David Pickett

Worlds collide in this clever theme park mashup [Video]

If there really was a theme park with cloned dinosaurs, who do you think would own and operate it? Considering Walt Disney Parks is the world’s largest theme park company and Disney has a history of purchasing competitors, it’s not a huge stretch to imagine a T-Rex sporting Mickey Mouse ears. Paul Hollingsworth and his team at Digital Wizards Studios explore this hypothetical scenario in their clever brickfilm, Jurassic Disney World.

Paul and team have done a great job integrating official sets such as Cinderella’s Castle and the Jurassic World gyrospheres with custom builds like Jurassic Park jeeps and a bubblegum tank for Minnie Mouse. Every scene is densely packed with clever gags, impressive animation, and easter eggs (such as a brief cameo by a mutant dinosaur from the short-lived Dino Attack theme). Be sure to watch it twice to appreciate the finer details.

Don’t be sheepish [Video]

Sheep by Maxime Marion is a cute brickfilm about being true to yourself instead of following the flock. It is also a joyous celebration of the 1×1 round eye tile and its siblings the eyelash tile and the stink eye tile. Maxime creates a wide variety of emotions and expressions using various combinations of these three simple pieces.

I would argue that these eye tiles are some of the most important parts added to the LEGO palette in the last decade. Just as the introduction of the minifigure led to a major shift in the scale of vehicles and buildings, the introduction of the eye tile has led to a huge increase in character-focused creations, both in official sets and in fan creations. I hope more brickfilmers follow Maxime’s award-winning example and start incorporating brick-built characters into their films. Watch Sheep below.

It’s over 9,000!

While the piece count for this Dragon Ball Z creation by Moko might not numerically match Vegeta’s most famous quote, our enthusiasm level for this LEGO rendition of his Great Ape form certainly does. The face is a knockout, with a great use of minifigure arms to define the eyes and a strategic use of anti-studs to add texture to the ears and nostrils. The rest of the model is full of subtly impressive techniques, like the dinosaur tails to add definition to the shoulder’s edges, the tail made out of tires, and the inverted and slightly angled pectorals.

Vegeta

Be sure to visit Moko’s blog for additional photos of this phenomenal creation.