Tag Archives: Animals

Is it a bird, a plane or a butterfly?

You would be forgiven for thinking that this was a huge LEGO butterfly. It certainly seems to have the key features of one; four wings, clubbed antennae and a segmented body. In fact, Milan Sekiz has called this beastie a Leption, the combination of the Serbian words ‘leptir’ meaning butterfly and ‘avion’ meaning airplane. I love those shapely wings, Milan must have used some LEGO mathematics to work out how best to fill their centres with decorative, coloured parts.

You will notice that there is a pilot at the helm, holding on to some handlebars – is he steering or just along for the ride?

Fans of butterflies may enjoy revisiting these two previous butterflies we have highlighted; a colourful glass-like butterfly and a larger, realistic butterfly.

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From the Cairngorms to your own home, build the wildlife of Scotland [Instructions]

Earlier this month, we wrote about Brick to the Past‘s huge Scottish diorama, The Jacobite Risings, a build taking 10 months and using 1 million bricks. Within this creation spanning 16 square metres, were some adorable, microscale models of the Scottish wildlife found in the Cairngorms. Brick to the past have provided instructions so you can build your own Osprey, Deer, Capercaillie and Black Grouse.

Osprey are a bird of prey and returned from extinction within the UK to make their home in the Cairngorms.

Click for more instructions to make Scottish wildlife out of LEGO

The dragon that still roams our earth today

The largest species of lizard that still roams the earth today is the Komodo dragon. This monster LEGO version, built by Dennis Qiu, is made from about 5500 bricks and sports a very lifelike menacing pose. It might surprise some to know that recently researchers have discovered that Komodo dragons can reproduce without mating ensuring a single isolated female can have male offspring and ensure the species continues. Dennis has used a lot of curved slopes and wedges to achieve this shapely, pose-able LEGO version of the Komodo.

A brave minifigure has volunteered to stand next to this beast to give a sense of its huge scale.

Tremendous timorous beastie

It’s not often you see a LEGO animal built almost exactly to scale. But this fantastic mouse by Thomas Poulsom (of LEGO Birds fame) looks almost ready to scuttle off around your house in search of cheese. I love the beady black eyes, the pink nose, and the way Tom has done the ears. And the whole creation is enhanced immensely by the short depth of focus — adding a fuzzy close-up feel which further reinforces the small scale. Squeakily-good stuff.

Against all probability, a sperm whale is called into existence above the surface of an alien planet

SHIPtember may be over, but there’s still plenty more spacecraft measuring over 100 studs in length left in the sea. Feast your eyes on Christian Benito‘s fin-tastic, Spelljammer-inspired SHIP. In addition to a snazzy design, this beast has an articulated tail, exposed “rivet-style” studs, crystallization along the head, and a heavy-duty turret gun. What else could a space whale SHIP ask for?

For more photos of Benito’s creation (including several interior and work-in-progress shots) check out his Flickr page.

Let’s go on a wild goose chase! [Video]

Jason and Kristal from JK Brickworks have a knack for making LEGO builds come alive with movement. To celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday recently, they’ve built the Canadian goose! The mother goose is a remote-controlled motorized build with a string to pull along her little goslings. The result is a very realistic family creating havoc at your command!

I don’t want to spoil all the fun in how it’s all put together, but you certainly do want to watch the video feature.

Beasts from Bricks [Review]

Beasts from Bricks: Amazing LEGO Designs for Animals from Around the World is the latest LEGO instructional book from Quarry Books, authored by LEGO artist and designer Ekow Nimako. This is the second book in the series following Birds from Bricks. The 144-page book presents illustrated step-by-step instructions to build 15 animals from around the world: Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, Oceania, Central/South America, the Caribbean, and North America. Each set of instructions includes a couple of paragraphs of information about the animal’s characteristics and habitat. Also included is a bonus gallery of Ekow Nimako’s more complex, large-scale animal designs.

Read the full review after the jump

I, for one, welcome our robotic lemur overlords

We have a complicated relationship with lemurs here at Brothers Brick. On one hand, they’re cute, cuddly, and good at fishing LEGO bricks from down the back of the couch. But on the other hand, they’re messy, nibble on our server power cables, and smell a bit. Maybe we should look to replace our lemur with one of Mitsuru Nikaido‘s mechanical versions?

This is a great model — natural curves and shaping, with lots of cool functional-looking robotic greeble stuff going on under the smooth plating. Nice use of a hot air balloon plate piece as the lemur’s back — a lovely sinuous curve. And that tail — magic.

Meow-nificent!

This LEGO creation from David Liu feels like a scene lifted out of a kids fable — a pivotal moment where a little kitten presents a gift to a bigger cat. Will the tiger accept the peace offering? Who knows — but while the story plays out in your head, don’t miss the interesting use of the Brick Separator. Did you spot it? Brilliant use for a pouncing pose!

Megedagik’s war bison

Animals are one of the hardest things to build in LEGO, due to their natural shapes and smooth surfaces. Unless you’re opting for robotic versions, you can’t just cover tricky parts up with any old light gray part and call it mechanical greebles! Brick Surgeon has done a wonderful job building a perfectly natural, realistic, and non-robotic LEGO bison. Here it’s being ridden by a warrior named Megedagik, whom we can only assume is too cool for horses.

Don’t miss the excellent use of minifigure hair pieces for the bison’s shaggy head, and assorted plants around the scene. The builder has used olive green minifigure heads as cacti — effective part use, further enhanced with some pretty lavender buds.

Dainty dreamy duckling that dazzles

What’s not to love about micro builds, especially when they’re this cute and adorable? Builder Minigray! gives us a little dreamy-eyed duckling staring into space. Stripping down to essentials is the key to make miniature builds like this pop and come to life. The orange beak matching the clever use of the diver’s flippers as the webbed feet tickled my fancy!

Evolution is so creative – that’s how we got giraffes

And thanks to the creativity of BrickBro we got this adorable baby giraffe. Just like the proper African giant, this animal is entirely covered in distinctive coat patterns made with bricks, plates and even 1×1 tiles of just two colors, tan and brown. Upon closer inspection it’s easy to see that just like the author’s previous build — an elegant flamingo — this giraffe possesses a couple of unexpected building techniques. For instance, the lower part of its body is built with studs facing down.