Tag Archives: Biocup

The Bio-Cup is one of the most popular building competitions in the LEGO community. This annual fan-run event focuses on builds that utilize Bionicle and Constraction elements.

Magical LEGO owl says give a hoot, don’t transmute

The Wizard’s Emissary from Nathan Don (Woomy World) is a truly magical build that pushes LEGO to its limits. Woomy’s owl showcases the builder’s usual panache for NPU (short for Nice Parts Usage, but “nice” doesn’t seem sufficient!), cherry picking parts from across LEGO themes and eras to create organic shapes with a highly tactile mix of textures. The sand blue feathers from the LEGO Kingfisher set are the starring plumage, supplemented by a mix of wing elements and other eclectic parts to create a perfectly-proportioned owl. I love that Woomy has given the bird its own fur-trimmed cape. The staff is equally exceptional, showcasing an octagonal canopy as a gem. As a final fun detail, Woomy hides a Kanohi mask amongst the crystals.

The Wizard’s Emissary was created for the second round of Bio-Cup tournament and was the winning entry under the Wizard category. Keep up with competition in our Bio-Cup archives.

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Beautiful build of a terrible lizard with horrible hands

The first fossil remains of Deinocheirus were a pair of massive forelimbs with long fingers which earned it its name, literally “horrible hand.” These mysterious claws and the surrounding speculation captured the imagination of LEGO character artisan Eero Okkonen as a child. It wasn’t until the 2010s that scientists were able to find enough remains to piece together the rest of the duck-billed omnivore. It’s this version of the dinosaur that Eero recreated in LEGO for round 3 of the Bio-Cup. The model expertly blends Constraction and System parts for organic shaping. The colors, especially in the head, are splendid – a far cry from the dull shades of 20th century dinosaur depictions. I especially admire the dorsal ridge along the back, mixing tail pieces, 2×2 round bricks, and cables. Eero rounds out the build with some great pre-historic flora and, keeping on trend, an adorable crab built around an Atlantean headpiece.

This build takes guts

However bad your day is today, chances are this poor LEGO barbarian is having a worse one. That’s due, of course, to the terrifying beast clawing through his entrails in this dynamic scene by J6Crash, built for round 2 of the Bio-Cup. As gruesome as the scene is, it’s hard not to admire the techniques used to bring the build to life: rippling muscles on both the barbarian and the beast, the clusters of gray fur sprouting from the beast’s clawed hands and feet, and of course the oozing entrails. The beast is positioned to look right at the camera, giving you the impression that you’ve interrupted his meal — and now he’s eyeing some dessert.

Click this Link to see LEGO Ganondorf return to Hyrule

Ganondorf is back to menace the kingdom of Hyrule in this LEGO creation by mSquid_! The evil sorcerer is clad in the finest clothes and armor LEGO has to offer, so let’s take a look. His boots are made from mudguards and look how nicely the 1×1 corner tiles fit in the gap! His shinguards are barrels only available from one Indiana Jones set from 2009. Further up, Ganondorf is wearing a single handcuff as a collar, and a sail from a pirate ship for a cape. Within the sculpting of Ganondorf’s head, I’m amazed at how all the parts came together to perfectly recreate the villain’s face. Ganondorf’s lower jaw is from a collectable orc minifigure, while mSquid_ borrowed a technique from this year’s Droideka set: using backwards lipstick pieces for Ganondorf’s red eyes. From head-to-toe, mSquid_’s Ganondorf strikes an imposing figure.

This build was an entry in this year’s Bio-Cup 2024, and be sure to check out our archives of the Bio-Cup entries from this and past years. I think mSquid_’s competition will be green with envy!

Going rogue in the Bio-Cup

The Bio-Cup, an annual tournament for LEGO constraction builders, has grown to become one of the biggest events on the LEGO fan calendar. The preliminary round has concluded and 27 builders advanced to Round 2, where each is assigned a D&D type character class as a theme. VelociJACKtor, whose first round entry tugged our heartstrings, is first across the line in Round 2 with his “Wandering Assassin,” in the “Rogue” category. The assassin is an elegant figure armed with a Bionicle blade and a face/mask borrowed from Garma Mecha Man. The highlight, though, has to be the rogue’s mount, a lovely robot mixing Bionicle and Technic parts, topped with a System saddle, which gives new meaning to the phrase “rubbernecking.” VelociJACKtor has given the pair such a personality, one can’t help but be curious about their harrowing travels across a techno-fantasy landscape.

While we wait to see who makes it to Round 3, be sure to check out our Bio-Cup archives.

That time I threw up in a Beetle

Famed LEGO builder Joey Klusnick has found a nightmare scenario in me that I never knew could exist. At my age, I’m happier sitting on a shady bench and watching youngins go on amusement rides rather than going on myself. Getting jostled around just doesn’t have the same appeal as it did when I was younger, plus I’d spill the cocktail I’d inevitably be enjoying. Enter the nightmare scenario, which is part gravitron, part mech-beetle and all vomit-inducing. Plus, there is no passively sitting on a bench with this thing around. No siree! This beast grabs its victims and plants them into its spinning gravitron compartment and spins them to death. To death, you hear me? I told you kids those amusement rides were dangerous!

You can even see the Gravitron Beetle in action if you’re brave enough. Not me though. I’ll just sit here with my Vodka Tonic and contemplate where my life went so wrong.

Celestial love finds poetry in motion

What is love but an irresistible attraction between two heavenly bodies? Legonerdphotos brings the metaphor to life in LEGO with an anthropomorphized sun and moon locked in each other’s orbit. Like a high-concept PIXAR project, the builder manages to turn an abstract idea into deeply relatable characters. Who would have guessed that a cold grey meteor and a trans orange tridax pod could convey such emotion? The figure designs are a perfect mix of alien and intimate, especially the tendril arms that hold each other so lovingly. The photography is stellar, perfectly staged, using compositing to achieve the slight glow around each figure’s head.

Dancing of the Spheres is legonerdphotos’ interpretation of the theme “Gravitational Energy” for the BioCup. We’ve seen blessed with some truly out of this world creations in this year’s lineup. I can’t wait to see what legonerdphotos and the other advancing builders come up with in Round 2.

Can’t find a good LEGO connection? Just add more!

I get a real kick out of seeing parts from the old Star Wars Planets line used in LEGO creations. I’m not sure why that is – perhaps it’s the round features juxtaposed with the often angular lines of other bricks, or the challenge of having only two connection points. Well, I say only two… Nuhvok_mok has come up with an inventive way to add more! In this somewhat sinister droid, the Death Star is used for the top portion, with the photoreceptors attached to it using LEGO magnets. Ingenious! Appropriately enough, the whole things reminds me of the Death Star interrogation droids from Star Wars: A New Hope. I wonder if there’s a tiny interrogation droid floating around in there…

Need a hand with your LEGO creation?

J6Crash has created this entry for this year’s Bio-cup LEGO building competition that looks straight out of a sci-fi movie or video game. The variety of LEGO elements used is fantastic – the use of the Toa Phantoka ball-shooters at the base being of particular note. But it’s the questions that this build asks which elevate it beyond an ordinary Contraction contest entry. Clearly this is some sort of synthetic hand, but why does it need to be supercharged with electricity like this? Is it completely synthetic? Is it – or was it – a human hand? And, er, where’s the rest of it? Surely there’s an equally cool-looking arm and body lying just out of shot. But its purpose is anyone’s guess….

Have a nice trip, see you next fall

I feel bad for Timmy, and I feel even worse for his LEGO Bionicle collection. Builder Magmafrost13 has taught this Constraction collector a lesson in gravity with this round 1 entry into the Bio-Cup competition. With all the excellent parts usage in this creation, it’s hard to pick a favorite. But the use of a pair of Kanohi masks to form Timmy’s surprised face and hair is truly inspired!

Pushing the boundaries in the Bio-cup

There’s nothing better than being surprised by a LEGO builder, is there? We’ve featured Eero Okkonen many a time on this here blog, and you might be familiar with his fantastic character builds in our archives. Personally, I was so familiar with them that I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he also built this awesome “Reactorback Strider”! It was built for the on-going Bio-cup competition, and it’s quite unlike anything he (or anyone else, for that matter) has built before. To my eyes it has one foot in the Horizon video game series, with the other firmly in Dieselpunk or retro-futurism. In reality it seems it’ll soon have both of them in that brutalist-looking microscale town, though. I love the way it looks, but even more than that, I love seeing a builder push their boundaries!

In space, no one can hear your heart break

With the new alien movie coming to theaters this summer, the offspring of sci-fi’s scariest endoparasite is back. An endoparasite is defined as a creature that lives or is born inside another animal, like the appropriately named chest-burster built in LEGO by VelociJACKtor wrapped around some poor soul’s heart. Small gears make the perfect set of teeth, while a curved white shoulder piece from the buildable Obi-Wan figure forms the iconic rounded forehead. I can almost hear the squelching….