About Iain

Iain Heath is an avid builder specializing in the "Bricks of Character" style, which he helped define. He has been using LEGO to parody popular culture since 2007, when he created the now infamous Stephen Hawking model. He is a SeaLUG member and regular theme coordinator at BrickCon. For five years he also ran a blog called The Living Brick, that showcased the best character-based LEGO creations from around the world. You can find his irreverent body of work on Flickr.

Posts by Iain

Let’s carve some meat!

Well as long as we’re having a slow news day, I’ll use the opportunity to share the latest bit of rubbish that I threw together… Before Halo, before Unreal, before Quake, before them all, there was DOOM – the first person shooter that started it all. DOOM is now more than 20 years old, and still going strong! This is my homage to game:

Click here for tons of close-up shots. Or if you’re in the Seattle area next weekend, come see it on display – alongside a million other incredible fan-built LEGO creations – at BrickCon. But if you can’t make BrickCon, don’t worry, I created a little “fly-through” video for you:

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This is your moment of Zen

Yes, there was no Friday Night Fights last night. Sorry. Hey, we’re all very busy finishing our builds for BrickCon! But instead of going on a violent rampage, just take a deep breath and soak in this temple triple gate by Hiroshi Kataoka (片岡ひろし). Oh, and ignore the ninja. He’s hiding. You can’t see him.

And if that creation doesn’t cause a wave of tranquility to wash over you, here is another one by the same builder that should do the trick. Unless you have cherry allergies.

“You came in THAT?!”

There’s really no need for me to say anything about Chris McVeigh‘s latest creation… So enjoy the temporary absence of my usual pointless banter, and scroll down for the punchline!

The road less travelled

It was 45 years ago today that the Beatles released their penultimate album, Abbey Road, which included such hummable ditties as Here Comes The Sun and Octupus’s Garden. Five years prior to that, the “Fab Four” made their first appearance on American television with the Ed Sullivan Show. Letranger Absurde has decided to capture that moment in this Miniland scale vignette:

And while Abbey Road didn’t exactly produce as many smash hits as the Beatle’s earlier albums, it’s cover was certainly a memorable one, and continues to be mimicked in one form or another to this day …including Miniland form, twice! These versions by minicoop4 and Lauchlan Toal respectively both make great use of forced perspective to recreate the road and cars in the background:

Bruce Lowell: Staple of the LEGO community

If the creation below doesn’t have you quoting Milton from the movie Office Space, then there’s something wrong with you! After seeing an earlier stapler design by Jimmy Fortel, the amazingly talented Bruce Lowell decided to adapt it to take advantage of the fact that LEGO bucket handles are now available in gray.

Fun movie fact: Originally, Swingline never made red staplers. The movie’s makers had to paint one red. But after the movie’s success, so many people bugged Swingline about it that they eventually did started producing red ones!

If you’re not familiar with Bruce’s work – which focuses on realistic versions of everyday objects – then you really need to check it out. To get you started, here is a tasty roundup of some of the things that Bruce produced over this past summer:

(…no, I’m not suggesting Koala’s are tasty; but I have tried barbequed Kangaroo, and it was delicious!)

What Once Was

Of his latest creation, Gabe Umland says “For some reason post-apoc has fallen out of style, but it doesn’t mean it’s not still cool”. So true! Inspired by this drawing from DeviantArt member Dumitrescu Ioan, Gabe’s diorama captures the ramshackle world of repurposed ship parts on the bed of a long dried-up ocean:

But it’s all the little details that make a scene like this more interesting – and warrant a closer look – right down to the very comfortable-looking interior of an old shipping container:

I’m a lumberjack and I’m ok...

Military technology often gets repurposed in peace time, so it makes perfect sense that in the future this might happen to Mecha or Exo-suits. A concept that is brilliantly envisioned by Dave Kaleta in the Lumberjack 4000, a terrifying tree killing machine:

This build is loaded with play features for all kinds of arboreal mayhem, including chainsaws, axes, and climbing spurs. But I really love the through-the-chest wood chipper and Buffalo Plaid color scheme! And the choice of a female operator (Lumberjill?) is a nice touch.

“I wanna stuff some chocolate in my face!”

Inspired by his favorite song from the hugely popular Disney movie Frozen, Ian Spacek recreated this moment from the scene in which Anna sings the movie’s “I want” song – For the First Time in Forever.

Ian recently unveiled this at Brickworld Chicago, where I was lucky enough to see it up close. And fortunately, our pals from Beyond the Brick were there to interview Ian all about the build too. Wanna know how many log bricks it took to make that roof?! Watch and find out…

Friday Night Fights: Who is the weakest Link?

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another round of Friday Night Fights. Tonight we delve into the world of video games, and you’ll think you’re seeing double as we pit Link from Ninentdo’s Zelda series against… himself!

In the green corner we have a “manga scale” rendition of our Hylian hero by Rod Gillies, that comes with an internally lit treasure chest:

While over in the, er, green corner …ok, let’s call this one the pine corner… is a fully articulated version by Chris Roach.

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding, by way of comment, who will win the Triforce of Power, and who will get stuck with the Triforce of Incontinence. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, In pursuit of Exo-llence, Martin’s kitty mech narrowly beat out Niki’s APU, with a score of 9:8. But only because Martin voted for his own creation! Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

I’d like mornings if they started later

Once again the Mixel eyes are working their magic, as you can see from these nifty versions of comic strip characters Garfield and Odie, built by LegoJalex. Garfield is accurately portrayed with his trademark lasagne (for breakfast!) and irritating canine alarm clock.

Garfield’s popularity undoubtedly lies in his unique wit. In fact, Wikipedia describes him as pessimistic, sadistic, cynical, sarcastic, sardonic, negative, obnoxious, snide, lazy and fat. My God, he’s basically my perfect role model!

Och aye the “No”

Last night the people of Scotland voted against breaking away from the United Kingdom, thereby ensuring an uninterrupted flow of Mars bars in one direction, and Doctor Who actors in the other. And proving that I certainly have no monopoly on capturing current events in LEGO, James Pegrum built this scene to mark the occasion:

Pointless political war to now rage in the comments…

Unidentified Friendly Object

A strange alien species deserves a suitably strange and alien-looking space craft. So this star fighter by Tyler Sky is the logical runabout for those mysterious and unfathomable creatures, the LEGO Friends. And it goes great with Tyler’s Friends roadster!