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: 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
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
The word flamingo actually comes from the Spanish word flamenco, which came from the earlier Latin word flamma, meaning flame or fire. The name seems all the more apt for this LEGO Flamingo created by BrickBro given that it’s actually built from red bricks rather than pink. The posing of this bird is perfect, with one foot characteristically tucked up whilst the other wades through the shallow water. I love the dual purpose of the clear dish, which firstly holds the bird in a standing position, but also depicts a ripple in the water. Those stick legs look just as fragile as an actual flamingo’s legs.
This shapely bird has some clever, albeit illegal, techniques in the neck area, where the builder has used a short length of tubing to attach the tiles bottom-to-bottom. The model is built only from LEGO parts however, and stands surprisingly steady on that one little stick leg.
The overwhelming cuteness of this red panda by Vitreolum might blind you to some of the great LEGO parts usage on display. Sure, it’s the chubby feet and the stripey tail that’ll catch your eye — but don’t miss the white croissants as bushy eyebrows, and the black Kepi cavalry hat for a nose! This is a cracking little model, somehow managing to be realistic but packed with cartoony character at the same time.
I always feel a deep sympathy for moths stuck indoors at night, attempting to flutter straight somewhere but instead circling a nearby electric light they mistake for the far-off moon or stars. LEGO lepidoptery enthusiast Revan has constructed a gorgeous white moth alighting on a patch of ground, complete with sprigs of grass enlarged to great proportions. Revan has captured the big black eyes and stubby little legs of these adorable fuzzy night-time creatures.
Next time you see a moth trapped indoors, be gentle and help it, won’t you?
Isn’t it adorable? Australian builder aldo k has done a phenomenal job sculpting this fuzzy grey nuisance. While the real thing might break your fence or punch you in the face, this adorable rendition makes great use of parts to create the perfect curves for a kangaroo. I particularly love the face: it has so much character! The ears bring it to life.
Chicken Little is everyone’s favourite neurotic chicken who runs around telling everyone that the sky is falling and is mocked for his efforts. Well, just as Chinese New Year approaches, Alan Boar has created this adorable LEGO version of Chicken Little as he appears in the animated movie. His cute chicken features, stripey T-shirt and geeky specs are perfect, even though Alan had to compromise on colour and use grey instead of green frames.
Thankfully Alan decided to build Chicken Little with his beak closed. In the movie, Chicken Little has teeth, presumably in case he gets a bit peckish, but it just seems wrong to me.