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!

To stand divided, we will surely fall

The Super Deformed (SD) aesthetic, sometimes better known as Chibi designs, has a unique appeal when representing characters, emphasizing cuteness and innocence. I think it works well with LEGO as a medium, especially when filled with details. Though this pair may not transform into their vehicle forms, these two best buddies Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, are built by Choi Dam Baek (최담백).

Posed in their robot mode, not only do they look great, but they do have enough articulation to bring them to life in a wonderful example of the Chibi aesthetic applied to unusual characters.

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Building it old school: PlayStation’s Spyro in LEGO

We see a lot of LEGO dragons, but they’re rarely as cute as Marius Herrmann‘s version of digital superstar Spyro. This winged beastie, familiar to PlayStation (and N64 and Xbox One) owners, is a delight, perfectly capturing the cute styling of the character. It’s worth taking a close look at this model to check out some of the details. Don’t miss the smart segmenting of Spyro’s underbelly, the subtle ridges down the tail, and the use of dismantled minifigure legs to provide the dragon’s nostrils! The base is a nice touch, adding more visual interest than simply displaying the model alone, and I love the inclusion of Sparx, Spyro’s flying insect pal.

The LEGO Movie 2’s sewer babies just got bigger

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part officially opens today (be sure to read our LEGO Movie 2 review), and to mark the occasion, “Big Daddy” Nelson has taken a few of the movie’s smallest characters and given them a huge makeover. Built in the style of the classic 3723 Creator Minifigure set, these giant sewer babies look just like their miniature counterparts from the TLM2 Accessory Set.

They have even more range than the toddler elements they’re based on, featuring double-sided heads and movable hands. They’re also more complex than you might think, with some clever mosaic work needed to translate the prints on the torsos and heads into bricks.

Rocket barrage incoming from Overwatch’s Pharah

Pharah is such a unique character in Overwatch, combining the classic rocket launcher/jump jet pairing with a futuristic armor suit influenced by Egyptian culture. The team at Build Better Bricks has built an impressive LEGO sculpture of this formidable flying hero. Their model features outstanding attention to detail in her blue armor with gold embellishments throughout and detail in her partially exposed face and braided hair.

B3’s Pharah model is fully articulated to duplicate several flying poses from the game. My favorite is the Ultimate pose, which reveals rocket salvos primed to rain justice from above. Also notable is the clever, compact build of the Overwatch logo on the display stand.

Got a gyro or gear loose? You need Gyro Gearloose’s Little Helper

Fresh from the Disney town of Duckburg, here’s Little Helper, built from bricks by Oliver Becker. Eccentric inventor Gyro Gearloose’s automaton assistant makes for a delightful LEGO character — using ribbed metallic hoses for limbs is a perfect choice, and cockpit parts for the robot’s lightbulb head are simple yet effective. I find it wonderful how such a model, put together from relatively few pieces, can embody so much character. It’s down, in no small part, to the care taken in posing the model for photography, getting the curves of the back and limbs just right. The dangling feet are spot-on, as is the thoughtful angle of that transparent cranium. Lovely.

The drinks are on us

When you think of Star Wars, the first things that come to mind are likely spaceships and laser swords. But cantinas occupy an only slightly less iconic place in the lore of that galaxy far, far away. One of those seedy, backwater bars is the Half-Pint Cantina, proprietor Hass Mavoc, brought to us in LEGO form by bcinman6. A character from the builder’s own imagination, Hass is a Sarian barkeep with some excellent shaping to achieve his alien features. Most notable are the red Hulk arms used behind the eyes and the space armor for the mouth.

The spectacular, marvellous and wonderful Incredibles

We’ve seen great builds of the Parr family before, but these Incredibles by Philippe Moisan take them to a whole new scale. Despite the somewhat minimalist styyle, they subtly yet splendidly capture the essence of each of the characters in their animated form. One can tell how each LEGO part was specially chosen for a particular reason. For instance, Mr. Incredible’s mask looks perfect made with only the 1×2 rounded plate with open studs. And you have to love the creative simplification of the insignia on his chest, which is simply an incredible work of art!

Glittering with gold, and a beastly shade of blue, Toa Gathu is comin’ for you

The other day I took a visit to LEGOLAND California, where they still have a Bionicle ride, along with statues of some of the Bionicles themselves, and got a pang of nostalgia for the days of old when Bionicle was still an official LEGO theme. Unfortunately, its unlikely the theme will ever be revived. Luckily, as long as the parts still exist, we will always get to enjoy fan made creations from the theme, case in point: Toa Gathu by Mitch Phillips.

I particularly like all of the small details on this figure, such as the brown minifigure backpack as a utility pouch, and the usage of lots of small pieces to achieve a trim, athletic shape for the Bionicles torso. This Bionicle has certainly been hitting the gym, unlike many of the official sets whose legs and arms were quite spindly and thin. Lastly don’t miss the nice usage of a gold LEGO Duplo door piece as the shield.

Wait Wait...Don’t tell me!

Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! is a weekly radio game show series on NPR. Questions typically revolve around the news with a lighthearted take. When Dave Kaleta attended a taping of the show, he brought with him LEGO versions of the host, announcer, and celebrity panelists. After the show, he presented a model to each of them. Dave has done a great job capturing the spirit of the series, with Peter Segal’s head tilted toward the panelists as if he’s asking a question. At the same time, Roxanne appears to be doing a happy dance after giving the right answer, while Paula seems to lament hers was wrong. Dave’s figures are well-built, with cute headsets made of 14 mm tires and string with end studs. The panelists even have their complimentary water bottles. Well played!

A fairwell from Mr. Narwhal

Christmas may be over, but Buddy the elf is the kind of guy you want to hang out with all year round! This BrickHeadz rendering by Kendall Brown (headzsets) isn’t quite possible in real life with available part colors, but it sure is cute! Buddy’s pal, Mr. Narwhal, comes to the surface at the beginning of the movie to wish him luck in finding his real father. He’s a pretty adorable character, and looks fabulous in LEGO form.

This classic video game enemy is even less threatening when made of LEGO

The folks at Build Better Bricks have continued their series of LEGO designs based on Super Mario characters with this adorable Goomba. This build looks pretty simple at first glance, but there are some clever techniques used to create the simple shapes of the classic video game foe. The eyebrows were the first thing to catch my attention, the key piece attaching them to the body seems to be the relatively new bar 1L with 1×1 round plate with hollow stud. I’m not sure how they achieved the half-stud offset for the mouth, but I guess I could buy the instructions if I really wanted to find out.

This Goomba would look perfect alongside the Mario, Luigi, and Bowser models by Build Better Bricks we previously featured.

The founding fathers of classic gaming

As a big fan of classic gaming, I was thrilled to see Mike Dung’s adorable chibi trio of LEGO Nintendo characters. Mario and Link are here, as is the LCD handheld gaming legend that is Mr. Game & Watch. I love that Mario and Link’s tiny bodies are poseable, and the sculpting of their facial features is spot-on. Despite being monochromatic, Mr. Game & Watch looks quite animated! After seeing these figures, I could play a few rounds of Super Smash Brothers.