And I quote, “Stink. Stank. Stunk!” Dr. Seuss’s vile villain who stole Christmas, and his trusty dog, Max, come to us in LEGO form! This awful (lovely) model of Mr. Grinch by Miro Dudas is simply terrible (awesome)! In seriousness, this is one of my most favorite builds in recent history. Miro’s wonderfully expressive recreation is remarkably close to the latest version of the character in the new 2018 movie, The Grinch.
A few months ago, russian builder Timofey Tkachev has uploaded a photo of his latest build in progress on his Flickr photostream. In said photo, the two versions of the same face threw me off from what I should immediately have guessed to be the beginning of the bust of Warcraft’s Sylvannas Windrunner, the banshee queen.
The facial features are captured perfectly, displaying a beautiful woman turned into a monster. Her characteristic features like the slender pointy ears, elongated eyebrows and a heavy eyeliner smeared by tears are immediately recognizable, but it is the more general details of a humanoid face that are really amazing. The lips are very realistic, using a double feather piece on each side and the nose is not only realistic, but looks like something a model would spend a lot of money on at a plastic surgeon. Timofey adds a few extra pieces of information in the photo description: the build consists of 855 pieces, measures 24 cm in height and her eyes light up!
An artist’s work is never done, but even when the stone block is still half rough from the quarry, there’s room to marvel. Gabriel Thomson‘s rugged craftsman may be working with a harder medium than Gabriel himself, but it’s nonetheless a reflection of the skill involved in art, be it made of marble or LEGO. And speaking of skill, the horse head is fantastically sculpted, but no less so than the workman with his thick beard and toned arms.
It’s inescapable. It’s everywhere. And it was recently crowned Meme of the Year at the 2018 Shorty Awards. So immortalizing it in LEGO seemed like the next logical step. I’m talking, of course, about the distracted boyfriend meme, a stock image by photographer Antonio Guillem that became the unexpected flagship for the armada of so-called “object labeling” stock photo memes that have raged across our screens this year. Here is my rendition of it:
Feel free to use this template to give your LEGO-themed boyfriend memes a bricky twist!
Click here to see some examples
We recently covered Mike Nieves‘ excellent Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but of course, she needs an antagonist. Now Mike is back to bring us everyone’s favorite Disney chump, Gaston. With ludicrously bulging muscles and a smarmy grin, this LEGO sculpt captures the essence of Gaston perfectly as he shows off for a disinterested Belle. The little bit of scenery ties it all together, with an excellent stump that even includes tree rings.
Going back to the original book description of Hogwart’s headmaster, Eero Okkonen has created a fantastically faithful portrait. With a beard down to his belt, a nose broken in at least two places – built from a modified plate with tooth brick – and flowing purple robes, this Dumbledore is true in every way to J. K. Rowling’s beautiful prose. The build also utilises some seriously clever piece selections, from the LEGO parrot that forms Fawkes the phoenix’s beak to the wing elements that double for sideburns. Peering over his half-moon spectacles, this model is LEGO illustration at its best.
You can read more about the build on Eero’s Cycloptic Bricks blog.
Builds by Martin Redfern have a signature style, even when the main feature is not an object but just characters. These types of build, using what looks like very simple techniques and common colours, remind me of how powerful LEGO bricks are as a medium.
Martin had a stroke 3 weeks ago and this is his comeback piece, to be gifted to the folks that took care of him during his recovery at the hospital. Martin, from the team at TBB and the LEGO community, we’re glad to see you’re building again, and we wish you a speedy recovery!
This LEGO dragon tamer by Jayfa may not be a reference to everyone’s favorite dragon-taming movies by Dreamworks (or the books that preceded them), but it’s nonetheless epic. The tamer himself is a mashup of claw- and tooth-shaped elements that somehow weave together into awesome armor, and there’s no denying that having greaves made of dragon skulls must give you an edge in intimidating the beasts.
But the real masterpiece here is the dragon with its vivid magenta highlights. From the exceptionally clever brick-built eye (made with a white rod element flanked by two yellow minifigure hands) to the armor plating down the neck made of robot arms and teeth, everything works together beautifully to give the creature grace and personality.
If you are a fan of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, you are probably familiar with Titania, queen of the fairies. Loosely influenced by the bard’s play, Ben Cossy whipped up this lovely LEGO fairy stretching out on the curled leaf of a flowering plant. Ben’s fairy is well-built, with a calm-looking pose and skirt flowing to the side. While the fairy herself is visually stunning, she is made all the more impressive thanks to some detailed landscaping. The sculpting of the flower is breathtaking, including an excellent use of the natural flex of 1×2 plates and 1×1 round plates to form curves in the leaves. It completes the scene in such a way that feels bright and magical.
Polish builder Lucas Aligierski takes us to Themyscira with his LEGO Wonder Woman, a model he sweetly dedicated to his wife. The model belongs to a class of sculptures that expertly blends traditional LEGO System elements with constraction-scale elements like those produced for Bionicle and Hero Factory. The pieces used lend themselves to the very organic, muscled look of everyone’s favorite DC warrior princess. The sculpted look is appropriate for a character born from clay.
Click to see even more crazy detail on this wondrous model
Sometimes the most effective LEGO creations are those that skillfully employ a sparse economy of parts. This creepy figure from Cezium does exactly that–building genuine character from a handful of pieces. Whilst this (blind?) old lady appears to be only gathering herbs, her eyeless visage and the skull-bearing staff create a real sense of unease. I suspect there’s nothing but a frame beneath the cloth habit, but it doesn’t matter, as what is visible is well done. The face (built from an upside down Raptor body no less!) and the skull are excellent, and the use of spider leg parts for the staff’s tips is perfect. Couple the model-building with atmospheric photography and you have a wonderfully unsettling LEGO creation.
In Greek mythology, Medusa is a slithering monster with a stone-cold gaze. The tables have now turned for the Greek gorgon, with Koen Zwanenburg having transformed her into a static LEGO BrickHeadz character. Though often portrayed as a hideous monster, Koen’s version is adorable. The sculpting of the body is particularly nice, with the tail from Jabba the Hutt being used to great effect. Her hair is comprised of several snake head elements, which look practically made for the character. It would be great to see other mythological creatures receive a BrickHeadz treatment this nice!
