Tag Archives: Animals

Righteous swimming LEGO sea turtle totally rocks, so give him some fin

Grant Davis is a true LEGO wizard. His talent for creating whimsical and nearly stud-free models that innovate with colors and complex angles would be enough to make him one of our favorite builders, but it’s Grant’s mechanical artistry that makes him a legend. Like his LEGO Ideas pop-up book collaborator Jason Alleman, Grant often builds kinetic sculptures – LEGO models that integrate power functions for fluid movement. His latest creation, the Swimming Sea Turtle Machine, is a slice of Finding Nemo brought to life in bricks. The adorable seat turtle with its surfboard fins and cartoon eyes delights as it swims under the waves, but to truly appreciate the model, you need to look deeper.

Swimming Sea Turtle Machine

On his Brick Innovations youtube channel, Grant walks us through the months-long development process. The video reveals Grant’s iterative design process and serves as an excellent primer on the challenges of kinetic builds. You’ll learn ratios of how gear rotation translates into vertical motion and see the pitfalls when rigid bricks and motors are out of sync. You’ll also see how the turtle evolved from a more realistic sand-green model to the cartoonier lime green version here, and you can even see them swim together! Even if you’re not ready to invent a kinetic model of your own, Grant’s behind-the-scene look is sure to give you a greater appreciateion for what your LEGO bricks are capable of.

LEGO tiger burning bright

Although I like both cats and dogs, I’m definitely more of a cat guy. And of all the cats, my favourite has to be the tiger. Now admittedly, keeping a tiger in my one-bedroom apartment is a recipe for disaster, but I’d settle for this stunning LEGO big cat built by DeRa. With its menacing demeanour and the nimble joints that DeRa worked into the build for posability, it looks ready to knock my LEGO collection off the shelves, just like a real feline.

LEGO Tiger

At first glance, the technique used for the stripes is not dissimilar in places to LEGO’s own incredible tiger set. But DeRa has really cranked up the detail and realism with some savagely clever parts and techniques. I spy a spider, croissants, Islander crests, and even whole roast turkeys in that furry face. It may look like an apex predator, but I still want to pet it.

LEGO Tiger

Build your own baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng [Instructions]

Pygmy Hippo calf Moo Deng is just two months old and already is the viral star of Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo. She has her own makeup trend, merch, cryptocurrency, and now, thanks to Cornbuilder, her own LEGO fan model. Cornbuilder perfectly captures Moo Deng’s bouncy meatball energy, and thanks to instructions generously shared by the builder, you can too!

Moo Deng

Click here for Cornbuilder’s MOO DENG INSTRUCTIONS.

Hitting the bullseye with a poison dart frog

One thing you should know about the LEGO community is that certain animals have something of a cult following in brick form. The crab craze has been well-documented in our TBB archives, for instance. But another favourite is the humble frog. This one comes in all shapes and sizes, from the little green frog piece to more life-sized models like Áron Gerencsér‘s latest amphibian. Áron is a bit of a don when it comes to Bionicle and other ‘constraction’ figure pieces, so it’s little surprise to see them used to such good effect here. The blending of organic shapes is practically seamless. This li’l guy looks about ready to jump off the screen!

Poison Dart Frog

And yes – the frogs, too, have their own Brothers Brick archive. Hop on over to have a look!

You can lead a horse to water in LEGO

There’s a truism among artists that horses are impossible to draw. In life and imagination, they’re majestic beasts, but as soon as you try to recreate that unique form, the proportions are all off. Capturing a horse’s distinctive majesty is doubly difficult in LEGO, but brick artist Vincent Kiew stepped up to the challenge with a splendid steed drinking from a stream. Vincent nails the horse’s muscular build with excellent shaping from head to hocks. Samurai helmets make for a very clever solution for the horse’s hooves.  A detailed patch of meadow rounds out the scene with lovely flowers, brush, and ladybugs adding to the pastoral beauty.

By the river

Such wonderful things surround you right here on the ocean floor

The wonders of the seafloor are on full display in this entrancing build by BardJaskier, where the variety of ocean flora and fauna represented is matched only by the variety of elements used to build them. In addition to using standard LEGO molds like crabs, octopi, rays, and fish, BardJaskier gets creative to fill out the rest of the marine life. The flame-and-umbrella pairing to create jellyfish is inspired, as are the simple but effective combinations used for the coral polyps. I can also pick out carrots, broomstick ends, purple minifig hair, and tan samurai swords. Go ahead—take a closer look and see what else you can spot. Just make sure to hold your breath.

Under the Sea!

Fairy and toad are friends

Prolific builder Eero Okkonen is the Geppetto of the LEGO community, crafting detailed characters with such personality that they seem ready to come alive. His latest model of a blue fairy isn’t inspired by Pinocchio, however, but by a fairy tale from Eero’s native Finland, Pessi and Illusia. Eero employs his usual panache for NPU (nice parts usage), with the highlight perhaps the Queen’s Dragon heads used as Illusia’s skirt. As lovely as the fairy is, it’s Pessi the adorable toad who steals the show here, with those perfect saucer eyes and sporting a wonderful wicker basket of interwoven flex tubes. The scene is rounded out by delectable cloudberries on stems that incorporate foam leaves, appropriately enough, from the Belville Flower Fairy Party.

Pessi & Illusia

Pixelated whale is a symphony of light and LEGO

LEGO artist FukuTaku is a master of 3D models in the pixel art style. What makes his builds truly special is how he uses color to simulate video game lighting, which combined with studio lighting of the bricks, make his models positively glow. Like ray tracing you can touch. Until now, most of FukuTaku’s work has focused on video game tributes, like his Dragonlord, which wowed us with its searing heat. For his latest masterpiece, FukuTaku turns to the natural world with a pixel whale that honors the colors of the sea with a cool and tranquil glow.

White Whale

Dive in to see the White Whale from every angle!

Reflect on this robust LEGO rhinoceros

Sad but true fact: only two northern white rhinos remain in the world. While members of the southern subspecies are more numerous, both animals have seen their numbers depleted by poachers seeking their ivory. We’re not told which subspecies David Manfred‘s LEGO model belongs to, but his tribute to this endangered beast is a marvelous sight nevertheless. Prepare to be impressed by the layers of bricks stacked to get the rhino’s body just right, or the interlocking wedge plates that form the head, or the arch piece used for a nostril. And here’s a less sad but true fact: according to the builder, the inside of the rhino model is filled not with standard LEGO bricks, but with much-larger Duplo bricks to save money. All in all, both the model and the animal itself are majestic specimens.

White Rhino

If I ran the zoo, it would be filled with LEGO animals

Something’s not right in this LEGO scene by Jonah Schultz. Maybe it’s the fact that these zoo animals should be in their enclosures. Maybe it’s that evil look we’re getting from the giraffe. But most likely, it’s the baseball bats that have been fashioned into a wonderful turnstile. Jonah pushed the limits of that part thanks to the ongoing Iron Builder competition between himself and Maxx Davidson.

The Getaway

Oh the Hu-manatee

This excellent LEGO build by Legonerdphotos! steals and borrows pieces from a powerful array of Bionicle heroes and villains! Its head is made from the all-mighty Mask of Life, while its shoulders and tail fins are made from the head-pieces of the great Bohrok-Kal. The little bundle of seaweed the manatee is carrying is a hairpiece from a single minifigure from the Hidden Side line. Speaking of vegetation, the grass at the front to either side of the scene comes from spines of the Barraki lord Ehlek. Further back, the tall fronds are from this year’s Dreamzzz Cat-Owl and the vast field in the middle is made from Gresh’s shoulder guards. All-in-all Legonerdphotos has put together a lovely diorama that shows it’s better down where it’s wetter; take it from manat-me!

Tranquility

Aye-aye-aye... Is our reaction to this surprisingly creepy jungle critter

Long-time TBB readers will know that our unofficial mascot is a lemur. Why? Well, not only is A. Lemur our resident dogsbody, he’s also the cutest* member of the TBB team, and therefore best suited to the role. Don’t tell him, obviously – he’ll ask for a snack raise, and he already pretends to be the boss when Andrew isn’t looking. In all seriousness, we should count ourselves lucky; we could have ended up with something creepier, like Velocijacktor‘s aye-aye. Now these little primates can be pretty un-nerving in the flesh, at least if Google Images is anything to go by. But rendered in Bionicle pieces, and eyeing up that poor little beetle, suddenly it looks like an other-wordly horror. Yep, we can be content that we just have to contend with our lemu-hey! No! For the last time, the server cables are not for eating!

Aye Aye

*relatively speaking, of course