Tag Archives: Birds

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.

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A(nother) peacock’s plume in bloom – this time dressed all in white

You may recall that this time last year, we featured a colourful LEGO peacock courtesy of Joe Lam. Since then, said peacock has gone on to be displayed at the LEGO House in Denmark – leaving poor Joe peacock-less. The solution? Build another! And it’s just as pretty as the first one. It uses a similar technique for the tail, being made up of leaf and foliage parts. But the monochromatic colour choice of white gives it an altogether different feel. This time, the colours are confined to the base, creating a lovely contrast, and drawing the eye towards this bird’s sole bit of colour: its eye. Hopefully we will get to see the two side-by-side before long!

This LEGO build is no stab in the dark!

In the dark of night a fancy assassin finds its target in this LEGO build by Seth Peacock (Obsessionist)! This Bio-Cup bird brings together a wide array of unique parts, so let’s take a closer look. Right under the roofline, that decorative brickwork is made of Rhotuka Spinner launchers above a couple of pieces from Bionicle’s Rahkshi. The arch of the window is made from two different types of rubber band holders, while the windowsill is made from projectile launchers. Finally, Seth got a lovely feathery texture from using the Visorak foot to make up the bird’s tail. It’s a good thing that bird isn’t a crow, otherwise there might be a murder!

Dueling wizard builds give us something to crow about

Sometimes great minds really do think alike, as evidenced by two rhyming vignettes created for the Summer Joust “Beast Masters” category. Each creation features a brick-built blue spellcaster and their over-sized corvid companion, but despite similar theming, the two models demonstrate very distinct approaches to setting a LEGO scene. First up we have “The Wizard and the Raven” by Ids de Jong. Another admirer described the build as having an “I Spy appeal,” which is a great way to put it, with so many fun elements from throughout the years decorating the scene. The human figure, for which Ids credits the style to Markus Rollbühler, is definitely bringing strong wizard energy with the clever beard technique utilizing Gandalf’s hair piece. I love the personality of of the crow with the nightmare eyes from LEGO Dreamzzz, a good friend who seems eager to deliver scrolls to distant lands.

Next is “Rook and Ruin” from builder Maxx Davidson (who’s been on a roll on the site lately with his whimsical creations!). Maxx’s vignette focuses a bit more on story as it captures the warlock mid-casting as his spell rips the ground asunder. I love the inspired use of a minifig arm for the warlock’s nose, the hand gripping a pair or roots to make the mustache. Nya’s Rising Dragon head makes for a wicked torso. The rook mixes smooth and spiky elements with a touch of pearlescent tiles to create some truly lovely plumage. Two mages, two crows, two magical builds!

What happens when you cross a vulture and a dinosaur?

Joss Woodyard has a thing for creative LEGO creature designs (just look at what he’s got in our archives). But since 2024 is the year of the dragon, what better excuse than to get some awesome dragons out of him? April’s entry takes inspiration from birds both ancient and present for a striking feathered fiend. It’s part bearded vulture, part Archaeopteryx – the feathered flying dinosaur from the Jurassic period. And the feathers are what really make this build stand out, using a variety of pieces from the Bionicle and Chima lines of years gone by.

A Colibri of the highest calibre

I do sometimes wonder where Andreas Lenander gets his inspiration for some of his more fantastical LEGO creations. Part of the fun is taking a guess, and for this one, I’m somehow getting a vibe of mythical Mesoamerican deities. It looks like some form of bird, but equally, it also looks like… Not quite a bird? The strange foliage and dragonfly-esque creature next to it certainly evoke somewhere exotic. Perhaps it’s a cousin of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent. As a matter of fact, Andreas has named this piece ‘Kolibri’, and Wikipedia tells me that Colibri is a genus of birds with brightly-coloured plumage from Central and South America. Hey, maybe my hunch isn’t that far off after all!

This kingfisher knows all the greatest fishing spots!

With all of the excitement for the new official kingfisher LEGO set, it’s no wonder other builders – like Ryan Van Duzor – are giving us their own unique take on the subject. This LEGO model captures a kingfisher in its most exciting moment as it just hits the water and drops in on those unsuspecting fish. If you’re like me and didn’t recognize those fish right away, don’t feel too bad; those are Duplo fish that were discontinued in 2018. The air-water boundary in this scene is skillfully held together by transparent slide shoes and the kingfisher is crowned with feathers from the Chima line. While this bird may not make a splash, I think the build will!

LEGO Icons 10331 Kingfisher – An iconic bird in brick [Review]

The LEGO Botanical Collection has been a huge success, with loads of adult fans scooping those sets off shelves to decorate their homes and offices in a fun and cheerful way. The LEGO Ideas Insect Collection was also a hit, giving a bit of variety to these similar types of adult-oriented sets. It only made sense that the company would try to branch out into some of the more elegant representatives from the animal kingdom. Speaking of “kingdom” they picked an excellent candidate with the LEGO Icons 10331 Kingfisher. Join us as we swoop in for a closer look at this 834-piece set, available February 1st, and retailing for US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31149 Flowers in Watering Can: Transformations and the conservation of studs [Review]

Traveling the yellow brick road from the savannah to the windowsill, we arrive at a home for some flowers and winged creatures. Today we take a look at LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31149 Flowers in Watering Can. This set caused us to sit back and reflect a bit on the nature of 3-in-1 sets and if more thought is going in to the secondary models than used to – and if so, is it working? Here’s our review of this 420-piece set, which is available now from LEGO.com for US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £24.99.

Read on for our full review

All hail the peacock’s plumage

The male peacock is one of the prettiest animals in the entire animal kingdom. Sorry, ladies but that bro is has got it going on! Even the LEGO frogs know it; just look at them, basking in his magnificance and glory. This bit of cross-species love is brought to you by gGh0st who is competing in the Iron Builder competition. The seed part is the watering can and they’ve used twenty-five of them here. I’m sure there’s a watering can pun I could have used here but I’m just too in awe of this pretty peacock to think of it. Let me know in the comments if you have some because otherwise my watering can is dry.

Birds of a feather save Sam and Frodo together!

With all the winged beasts transformed into sets for the LEGO Harry Potter line, let’s hope that the creatures of Lord of the Rings can get the same treatment soon. And the place to start would certainly be with a minifig-scale Great Eagle, just like this one built by Shaun Sheepa. The texturing here is a real treat! quarter-round tiles, rock textures, and even this fairly awkward wing piece all come together to give the Eagle quite the plethora of plumage. And the magmatically-colored base pops nicely underneath the brown bird, while reminding the viewer of the “peak” of the tale’s drama around Mount Doom. Just hold on, Gandalf. Frodo and Sam have got to be there somewhere….

This is definitely my preferred type of tweeting

It’s taken a few attempts, but spring seems to have finally sprung here in Finland. In any case, the birds are a-singing every morning, which puts me in the mood for LEGO builds like Louis Barbedor (Loysnuva)’s. He’s a cute little fella, isn’t he? The bird, that is. I’m afraid I don’t know Louis well enough to say either way. I like the construction of the body – it’s very nicely rounded off with some newer curved slopes and wedges. The branches are a nice touch too; presumably their main function is to support those spindly legs, but it works so nicely as a stand for this little tweeter.