Tag Archives: Characters

We love builds with character! Creating characters from LEGO elements, whether traditional System bricks or using elements from Bionicle and Constraction themes, is an amazing way to showcase your building skills. Brining out emotion and personality in bricks is an art!

For Victory, For Glory, For Power- For the Honor of LEGO Bionicle Glatorians!

From reimagined Classic Space sets to a prize machine full of retro tributes, LEGO offers no shortage of nostalgic tributes and easter eggs to minifig-scale themes from the past. Bionicle, despite being the line that saved LEGO from bankruptcy, only received an odd GWP. Among AFOLs, however, Bionicle inspires a growing wave of creativity as the generation that collected those capsules, mastered the flash web games, and pored over the lore of Spherus Magna and beyond come into their own. One of the builders at the forefront of the Bionicle MOC renaissance is Dan V, whose latest project is a reimagining of 2009’s Glatorian line of characters. Dan blends System bricks, modern Constraction elements, classic Bionicle parts to update the figures with an adult fan’s eye for detail.

The Skrall are a warrior species who battled the Glatorians and later sets would give names to some of the faction, but this guy was just “Skrall.” He introduced the maze-patterned shield that is easily one of my favorite elements in any Bionicle set. Dan expends on the shield’s saw-blades and adds an extra pair of Skrull sword arms, evoking an evil spin on Marvel’s Iron-Spider suit.

Strakk is a Prime Glatorian of the Ice Tribe. Dan gives his axe an upgrade and replaces the Thornax launcher with a freezing cannon.

See the rest of Dan’s Glatorian warriors, reimagined with modern parts and technqiues

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Dance your cares away with this LEGO Boober from Fraggle Rock

How do you follow up the anarchic mischief of the Muppet Show? For Jim Henson’s team, the answer was the wholesome hippy magic of Fraggle Rock. The Main Five Fraggless – Gobo, Wembey, Mokey, Boober, and Red – were precursors of the Inside Out emotions, neuroses made felt. My favorite was aways Boober, the curmudgeonly chef, laundry washer, and homebody. Prolific Bionicle builder Abby Lilliebridge is also a fan, as she brought the loveable grump to life in LEGO. Abby gives her usual Bionicle bits a break, working instead with System parts. Light aqua works well for Boober’s distinctive pale fur. A delicious-looking radish makes the perfect accessory. You can learn more about the prolific Bionicle creator in this interview with Abby from 2022.

A beauty and a beast – N.A.B.E._Mocs makes magic with bricks

When a LEGO sculpture can capture emotion, dynamism, and organic shapes without exposing how the pieces hold together, it’s nothing short of magic. Sakiya Watanabe (N.A.B.E_mocs) is truly a sorcerer of bricks, as demonstrated by his latest sculpture of the storm god Fujin. There are so many inspired parts in the head alone – raptor jaws for ears, bigfig fists for cheeks, Balin’s hairpiece for the chin. I can’t even begin to figure out how that hair holds together.

Sakiya based his design on the famous Fujin and Raijin painted screen by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, a national treasure from the Edo period, displayed in Kyoto.

Sakiya Watanabe’s other recent character creation follows

LEGO is perfect for fantastic retro style

One of the most notable attributes of The Fantastic 4: First Steps is its retro style. And Joey Klusnick uses the hard corners of the LEGO brick to wonderfully recreate this retro feel. Joey has kept the hard corner of bricks and plates the create the main shape of each character, keeping curves to draw out notable features: Reed’s hair, Jonny’s flame, Ben’s big legs. As Joey asks, who is your favorite member of the team?

CHAPPiE is consciousness. CHAPPiE is alive. CHAPPiE is LEGO!

Hong Kong-based studio Three Zero creates incredibly detailed designer action figures for a premium price, like a deluxe version of CHAPPiE that would have set you back $230 if you’d ordered in time. Too rich for your blood? Then consider making your own from LEGO, like Wang Juan, a builder who only just debuted on socials. Wang’s character builds are incredibly detailed and articulated. For Chappie, the builder works mostly with System parts to recreate the Three Zero version of the character.

Wang’s account includes a mix of incredible character models – mostly renders – inspired by games and street art. We’ve reached out to the builder to learn more. For now, as a fan of Neill Blomkamp’s gritty South African mash up of Short Circuit and Robocop, let’s help Chappie live again.

What in tarnation? Timofey Tkachev is back with a rootin’ tootin’ varmint shootin’ Yosemite Sam in LEGO

Back in the halcyon pre-COVID days, Timofey Tkachev was one of TBB’s most featured builders. With a catalog of works that includes massive spacecraft, modulars, props, cartoon characters, and mind-bending artistic sculptures, Timofey defies categorization. Back in 2023, Timofey’s prolific run seemed to come to an end as the builder stopped posting for a couple of years. Now he’s back with a rootin’ tootin’ take on Yosemite Sam the third Looney Tunes tribute from the builder. It’s a spot-on likeness of the trigger-happy toon, making good use of orange tiles in that magnificent moustache. The canted cacti are quite impressive too.

In honor of Timofey’s return, we’re reposting our interview with Timofey from 2017, which you can read below.

Continue to our interview with Timofey from 2017

Step to the rhythm made out of grey LEGO bricks!

I would say I’m showing my age with that Roni Size reference, but given New Forms came out the year I was born, perhaps it’s just an aging music taste. The reason I’m trotting it out is because a LEGO builder appropriately known as The Maestro has titled this musical build after a UK drum and bass classic: Brown Paper Bag. This appears to be an alternate universe where Dr Frankenstein is a D’n’B junkie, and he’s rigged up his monster with a banging sound system. It features some clever parts use, too – it took me a minute to realise that head is the back of an elephant’s head. I love the tyres for music notes, too!

Silverpuke Collab redeems Metalheart Y2K aesthetic in LEGO

If you’re a fan of the post-Bionicle LEGO character scene, you might have noticed a spike in monochrome silver creations that look like liquid metal exiles from a Cyberspace graveyard vibing to Nine Inch Nails as they hack the planet.

They’re rad. I poked the building beast who started the trend, Djokson, to find out more about this collab called “Silverpuke.”

Originally, this started with a few of my builds: Psychopomp Alloy, Sinew and Silver Fog. In an attempt to revisit the aesthetic of metallic Y2K renders (metalheart stuff in particular) I used the often maligned palette of silver pieces from Bionicle to achieve that feeling.

The term silverpuke itself used to be a derogatory phrase thrown around on certain fan forums to refer to builds utilizing an overabundance of such parts. The aim with the collab title was to reclaim it. For the longest time, Bionicle builders bemoaned the excessive usage of silver blade pieces in sets, and many called them unusable outside of weapons. So it also serves as a fun challenge when building.

From there, some of my friends were inspired to make their own, and it sorta snowballed into a recurring collab. The builds tend to come together very quickly when inspiration strikes.

A selection of models from of the growing collab follows:

The Silverpuke MOCS go Halcyon and on and on

Swapping MOCs for a double dose of creative styles

When it comes to LEGO mechs and brick-built characters, Zakar.ion is one of the most prolific and distinctive builders in the scene. They’re also one of the most collaborative and generous builders around, joining and starting collabs every week. One of my favorite traditions is the “swap collab” where zakar and another builder each pick a model from the other’s catalog of creations, then remake it in their own style. For zakar’s latest swap, the builder teams with neo_mocs. Here we see zakar’s take on neo’s Luna and Misty characters.

Below, you can see the inspiration and the remake side by side. Some of the elements, like the cat face elements from 11034 Creative Pets, carry across builds, while the body construction is a total re-engineering. Constraction pieces out, macaroni tubes in!

the other half of the collab follows

Rolling up on a raid with your best goblin buddies

You know that feeling when you and your homies all pull up somewhere in matching drip and you feel like you could take on the world? That’s the vibe I’m getting from Eero Okkonen‘s trio of goblin buddies. They look absolutely rad, and full of character. Van-Gug in the middle is definitely the broody leader of the group – they organised this meet-up in the first place. On the left, that is – for want of a better word – the group clown, Bragg. There’s an opportunity to do something wild? They’re in on it. And they’re egged on by the behatted Kargas on the right. Yeah, they might be a little shy, but they still crack the funniest jokes out of nowhere. And you’d best believe they’ve all got each other’s backs with those big swords.

LEGO Palico and feathered mount are ready to help you hunt monsters

Capcom’s Monster Hunter games have gone from niche to mega popular, so it’s high time we see some of the incredible creature designs get the LEGO treatment. Thankfully Mitch Phillips answers the call, not only nailing ornate feathers and fur from LEGO elements but sharing the process so we can train up to capture our own monsters in bricks. For the feathered mount, Mitch draws on leaves, flippers, chima wings, and so many other clever parts. Kudos to Mitch for spotlighting the technique used on the neck feathers that was learned from character-building legend Jayfa. Even though it’s a simpler build, I’m smitten by the ~~kitten~~ Palico companion.

For a breakdown of how the creatures were built, and tips on building complex and colorful characters that draw on LEGO’s broad range of parts, I can’t recommend Mitch’s video stream enough.

Don’t lose your head over this elegant mantis

The praying mantis female will sometimes consume the head of the male while mating. What’s this self-made widow’s secret? alex_mocs knows that there’s nothing more alluring than Bionicle and Constraction elements, seamlessly integrated into organic LEGO builds. This model of the
Viridis Mantidae is the pinnacle of elegance with a touch of menace. Like a master sculptor, alex manages to coax disparate LEGO elements together in ways that suggest that this was the role they were destined to play, from the green whip antennae to the Ninjago sail wings to the Bionicle chest.

alex_mocs is one of the organizers of the Bio-Cup. The first round, with the theme “Dreams,” closes on June 9th. If you’re interested in building MOCs that play with non-system elements like alex’s model here, it’s not too late to enter. Don’t worry – they won’t bite!