Tag Archives: 1:1 Scale

Lifesize props that will have you asking “Is it LEGO?”

Capes and surf boards make a stunning arrangement [Building Techniques]

With Valentine’s Day coming up, have you considered building a LEGO floral arrangement for your sweetie? The official Botanicals collection makes it easy. However, Khang Huynh takes it a step further with some stunning build techniques. At quick glance, this may appear to be “just” a well-appointed, well-photographed floral arrangement; so realistic you can hardly tell it’s LEGO. But upon close inspection, the flowers are comprised of red capes while repetitive use of green surfboards make up the leaves. Put it all together in a classy vase (including what seems to be a light brick, no less) and you have something quite lovely indeed.

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Dominique Boeynaems pulls a-head with LEGO creativity

The Iron Forge competition just concluded its second week-long sprint where twenty builders were tasked with making creations using the ubiquitous LEGO minifig head as the featured “seed part.” So many delightful builds emerged from the prompt, but one builder kept delivering smiles: Dominique Boeynaems. Each of these builds is worthy of sharing on its own, but together they’re an inspiration to builders and a showcase of what makes the Iron Forge such a wonderful part of LEGO fandom.

Leading with Dominique’s final build, this nearly lifesize accordion came together during a 10-hour sprint and incorporates no less than 44 minifig heads for the keys. Vidyo straps work great for the handles. With the competition name and year worked into the instrument, it’s both a wonderful build and the perfect memento.

Dominque’s frog uses three minifig heads – two for the eyes and one for the fly. A car hood makes for a perfect amphibian forehead.

Click to see more of Dominique’s colorful and heady builds

Link’s legendary LEGO sword that seals the darkness

Throughout The Legend of Zelda series, earning the Master Sword marks Link’s transition into a worthy hero. Builder Dylan Mievis has created many memorable video game tributes in the past and definitely proves worthy with this LEGO model of the Master Sword as seen in Breath of the Wild. Coming in at 110 cm in length, the replica is life-size (insomuch as a video game prop can be) and painstakingly faithful to the original design, down to the embossed Triforce at the base of the blade. Dylan depicts the sword as Link finds it, embedded in a pedestal, just like in LEGO The Legend of Zelda 77092 Great Deku Tree. Even more game-accurate, Dylan pairs the sword with a beautiful Silent Princess flower. Go ahead and try to draw the sword if you think you have the courage (and enough heart containers!).

Ringing in Autumn with some hot proboscis action

On the calendar and in accordance with dropping temperatures around here, Autumn is being shown the door by Old Man Winter. However, in Mattia Careddu‘s world, Autumn is just arriving as evidenced by their latest LEGO creation. Here we see a dynamic duo; first up is the red spider lily (Lycoris radiata), the Japanese flower that symbolizes the arrival of Autumn. Next on the docket is what appears to be a hummingbird but it’s Macroglossum stellatarum, a kind of moth called the hummingbird hawkmoth that behaves exactly like a hummingbird. I’ve found the hummingbirds around my feeders to be hyper-intense, territorial, and belligerent toward one another so, in this regard, some people also act like hummingbirds. This duo is doing birds and bees stuff. If you haven’t yet been made privy to “the talk” I advise you ask someone else. Or Google it.

The builder is no stranger to life-size flowers and unusual insects. We also like this Sri Lankan duo.

This life-like LEGO Les Paul will rock your socks off!

If you’re a guitar person, you will generally fall into one of two camps. Either you’ll be on the side of the surf-rock Fender Stratocaster, or you’ll favour the heavier, crunchier sound of a Gibson Les Paul. LEGO have already made a set out of one of those – but it’s nowhere near as big as the one Hungarian builder LEGO Revival has just made! This is a life-size replica of not just any guitar, but their very own instrument, which you can see in the background of this shot. And although I learned to play on a variant of the Stratocaster, I always coveted a Les Paul Standard like this. So excuse me while I geek out on guitars for a little bit!

Come and nerd out with me, and see the incredible detail in this guitar

Corny builds as smooth as butter

Competition is cooking in a new Iron Builder duel between returning champ and prolific builder Duncan Lindbo and a fresh face on the scene, Ari “loafbuilds” Hytti. Per tradition, a challenger takes on one of four reigning Iron Builders to build models based around a surprise “seed part.” This time the seed part is the unikitty tail piece in bright light orange. “Allez Brick!”

Ari is a builder whose public LEGO creations have mostly focused on Bionicle and character builds, like his compelling entries in the 2024 Bio-Cup. You wouldn’t guess that from Ari’s first salvo, a brilliantly life-like pair of corn cobs that use 82 tails to create the truthy kernels, wrapped in complimentary sand green husks. It’s an ingenious use of the part that should serve Ari well in the competition.

It’s an iron builder tradition to respond to your competitor’s build with one that rhymes. Duncan ripostes with a playful scene of produce gone bad. Corn returns in miniature, with palm leaves making great husks at this scale. An appealing friend, perhaps resting his bones for a Fortnite, joins in the kitchen carnage. We can’t wait to see what these two builders cook up next!

LEGO noodles fit for a ninja

After an intense day of training for ninja exams, nothing satisfies like a bowl of miso ramen with chashu pork and all the trimmings. This life-size ramen bowl in LEGO from H.Y. Leung, inspired by the signature dish from Ichiraku Ramen in the Naruto anime, looks delicious enough to slurp up. From the perfect marbling of the chashu pork, to the ripples in the opaque broth, to the prominent jelly-textured egg, to the careful arrangement of bamboo shoots and spring onion, Leung’s creation is the idealized form of a bowl of ramen. The naruto fish cakes employ a novel technique of red whips on 3×5 cloud plates. The ornamentation and kanji wringing on the bowl are reproduced beautifully in bricks. Leung’s best trick is the chopsticks, cleverly suspended and decorated with rune tiles. Even more impressive, they hide a play feature, sliding up and down as they pull noodles from the bowl!

A gilded birdcage from a golden age

The LEGO creations of Qian Yj aren’t just remarkable achievements in building with bricks. They transport the admirer to another place or time, whether at minifig or 1:1 scale. For his latest build, Qian creates a lifesize LEGO birdcage and its smol birb occupant. The mix of colors soars, especially the pairing of gold and bright blue. A simple 2×1 grille plate is fresh and exciting when used in abundance in an unfamiliar context. For the birdcage’s gold bars, Qian uses piano wires from the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano. As beautiful as the model is, I’m glad to see the small red songbird enjoying life outside the cage. Good birb.

Got an achoo? Guile’s gotchu!

Once you see this clever LEGO tissue box built by Dicken Liu you really can’t unsee it. I dare you to forget about it. See, you can’t! But that’s how it goes with really fun and clever stuff. The ever-vain Guile from Street Fighter is known for his Sonic Boom and sweet flattop haircut; the latter replicated nicely as tissue. Now you can dream of knocking M. Bison’s lights out every time you blow your schnozz. If that’s not a flawless victory I don’t know what is!

Sisters of the sword forge LEGO blades

For the Geneva sisters Anna, Sarah, and Geneva (aka Three Little Mice, Tayaya, and Geneva D), creating with LEGO is a family affair. The three talented builders collaborated on a series of life-size swords to showcase at this year’s Brickworld, each forging a personal blade with its own personality.

Geneva’s broadsword, dubbed Kalypso, is the largest of the three, requiring two hands to hold. Using brown and metallic silver (and a touch of Spinjitzu!) on the hilt for a studded leather look, this is clearly the blade of a warrior. She pairs the sword with the smaller and more play-friendly dagger, Acheron, which boasts a serrated blade and a menacing Hero Factory spiked ball on the hilt.

Read on to see unsheath the other blades!

I spy a builder making blocks from LEGO bricks

Nostalgia bomb, incoming. This delightful build from Jonah Schultz is three things in one: a tribute to timeless preschool toys, an homage to the ubiquitous I Spy puzzle books from the ’90s and a showcase of an Iron Builder‘s ingenuity with LEGO bricks. There are so many details to love, from the perfectly proportioned BRIO trains in primary colors to the wonderful debossed lettering on the alphabet blocks, to the judicious use of specialized elements like the Bellville teddy bear, Duplo balls, and Race Car Guy accessory to complement the studs-free build. The most impressive feat of all is how the seed part – baseball bat in silver – is incorporated into the build as train axles, domino pips, and a camera button. And it’s a hidden object puzzle! Can you spy all of the secrets hidden in the picture?

Guess what I did, Batman? I built a mask out of LEGO, Batman.

Much like cartoons, LEGO themes, and pop-tart flavours, every generation will have its own favourite Joker from the Batman series. If they’ve seen the Batman movies, that is. Or the TV series. Or read the comi- you know what, maybe that’s a bad comparison. But my point stands: every Joker is memorable in their own way. Heath Ledger’s take on the character stuck in TBB alum Nick Jensen’s mind. The opening scene of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight had the villain of the piece robbing a bank in a clown mask, faithfully recreated here. It’s extremely accurate, and very artfully shaped, and the Joker’s calling card is a great touch, too.

As for Nick’s calling card, that’s undoubtedly his myriad collection of 1:1 scale LEGO builds. Our archives are full of loads of great examples of his work.