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!

Princess Monoblock protects the forest

The blocky Brickheadz building style meets classic Japanese anime in this cubist LEGO rendition of San from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke. Immediately recognisable to fans of the movie, Nathan DeCastro‘s model captures all the essential elements of the famous character. Those streaks of red makeup are perfect, tapering to a point thanks to the use of curved 1×1 tiles, and the white fur headdress and the necklace are excellent. Now all this needs is a giant wolf built to the appropriate scale!

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Enjoy a fire-breathing brew that’s good to the last dragon.

Who wouldn’t want a fantasy-themed coffee machine? To meet the demand, Anthony Wilson has built an adorable little fellow named Vay the coffee dragon. Vay is packed full of character, thanks to a pair of big eyes and the positioning of his body. His fistful of coffee beans is the essence of hospitality. This is in contrast to the hand tucked behind his back, seemingly saying, “what are you waiting for? Drink up!” Vay’s sleek curved body suggests he is fast in flight, which seems appropriate given his daily caffeine intake. Equally impressive is the coffee machine itself, which uses transparent colored pieces to show the water level in the reservoir. We dare you to drink this cup of joe. It’ll give you scales on your chest!

The world’s most famous plumbers face their turtle nemesis

How do you make Super Mario Brothers even better? Recreate its stars in LEGO bricks. Build Better Bricks has done exactly that. First up, Mario faces off against Bowser, with both characters put together brilliantly. Mario looks smart in his trademark dungarees, and appears eminently poseable thanks to the use of Mixel ball-and-socket joints. Bowser kind of steals the show here though (making a change from stealing the Princess), with a perfectly sculpted form. The face in particular is excellent — I can almost hear his throaty chuckle.

And Mario’s little brother shouldn’t feel left out of the fun. Here he is, looking petrified as usual. However, at least he has his trusty Poltergust vacuum-backpack to deal with any persistent spectres. Don’t worry Luigi — there is nothing to fear but fear itself…

Living metal encasing dying flesh

Nobody likes to die horribly at the hand of a horrifying flesh and machine amalgam, such as this Remade inspired by the criminals and other undesirables sentenced to such an existence in British author China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station. This LEGO version by AdNorrel invokes a strange kind of morbid curiosity that just will not let you look away — as long as the incomprehensible thing is not coming at us…

There is a lot to love (or fear?) about this creation. The organic parts are very well done, using minifig arms and sausages and even a dark red scarf to create flowing rounded shapes, highlighted by blue rubber bands representing veins. If you look closely at the head, you might recognize a tiny bit of a shrub piece peeking out of a red flower element, making for a good structural part in a build with this many crazy angles. With the mechanical parts, the Remade combines gore and the fear of technology into something nobody wants to see, yet one that we’re unable to stop staring at.

Monstrously good building

Hot on the heels of LEGO versions of the cartoon cast of Futurama, Palixa and the Bricks now takes on another band of animated characters: Mike, Sully, and Boo from Disney’s Monsters Inc. The studs-out construction style is perfect for the two monsters, somehow managing to effectively evoke both Sully’s fur, and Mike’s leathery hide. I think the modelling of Sully’s face is spot-on, and I particularly like the Tauntaun horns gracing his head. Little Boo is just perfect peeking out from beneath her hard hat — a nice companion to the larger pair, and perfectly scaled for the teddy bear clutched in Sully’s paw. All we need now is Roz: “Watching. Always watching.”

I saw Santa playing classic games

While the elves are busy making toys for girls and boys around the world, how does Santa spend his evening? For Taiwanese builder Joffre, the jolly old elf likes to hang up his hat and unwind with some retro gaming. Santa’s physical features are exaggerated so that he looks super stout and rotund. Joffre’s caricature is amusing and reminds me of the Santa from Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. And is that a Nintendo Famicom he’s playing? It certainly looks the part!

Santa’s game room can be converted into a giant holiday gift, complete with a slick-looking bow.

Fight or flight? Why not both with this LEGO Meta Knight?

Nintendo has produced some of the most beloved franchises in video game history, including the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series. The character of Meta Knight has appeared in both and, thanks to The Frenchy Bricks Junky, now exists in LEGO-form. Meta Knight is complete with his purple wings and legendary sword, Galaxia. Despite his small size, LEGO Meta Knight is fully poseable thanks to various clip and hinge elements.

He even has movable thumbs, as seen in his wave “goodbye!”

The slimiest rat on the ship

Slimefoot the Stowaway is a Magic: the Gathering character that is most definetely not a rat, but his presence on an airship must have been much like a cross between a fungal rot and a rat problem with all the little saprolings he spread aboard the Weatherlight. Not sure what a saproling is? Me neither, and to be honest, nobody really knows anything apart from the fact that they are either of plantal or fungal origin and that there is a lot of them. Eero Okkonen has faithfully created Slimefoot and his pals.

With a mastery in human shape, Eero has done a great job of capturing what is basically a deformed humanoid with a mushroom top for a head and overgrowth all over his body. The colours are expressive, and the tentacles, while not present on the original art on the card, add a lot to the character and make for a great transition in the neck area. A great addition is all the little saprolings at the mushroom man’s side, whose various shapes really capture the mystical and magical appeal of the original art.

“Fatality!” Scorpion breathes fire into this LEGO character

“Get over here!” for one of the most iconic one-on-one fighting games. Julius von Brunk brings us a LEGO rendition of Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion, complete with the character’s signature fire-breathing fatality move. Back in the 1990s, imagery like this freaked out parents and helped contribute to the development of the modern ESRB rating system. However, we think even Joe Lieberman would have to agree that Julius’ scene is spine-chillingly good. When we learned he used practical effects in rendering this scene, it left us screaming, “finish him!”

Snow’s up, dude!

“Dashing through the snow, on a rocket powered board. O’er the slopes he’ll go, with his elven horde. Jingle build! Jingle build! Jingle all the way! LEGO 7‘s clever Santa makes us shout ‘Hooray!'”

With the singing out of the way, I love this unconventional portrayal of old Saint Nick. Santa’s pose captures the spirit of snowboarding, right down to the jumper plate representing his mouth shouting “woo!” His white beard flowing in the wind conveys a sense of speed.

See more of this radical Saint Nicholas

RIP Steve Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants

Tartar sauce… Steve Hillenburg, the creator of the long-running Nickelodeon show SpongeBob SquarePants, has passed away from complications of ALS. He was 57. It’s amazing to think this show has been on the air since 1999, and hard to think of a cartoon character as ingrained into 21st century popular culture as Mr SquarePants, who has appeared in everything from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to LEGO sets to my favorite pair of yellow pyjamas. So long Steve, and thanks for all the fish.

Building in the two tone style

During the late 70s and early 80s The Specials made some of the most innovative and iconic singles to ever grace the British music charts. Not only did they mix ska, punk and rocksteady beats to raucous effect, they married it with a two tone fashion sense that set them apart from their peers. Red 2 has caught the band at the height of their powers, as they appeared in the music video for their 1979 hit A Message to You Rudy. The LEGO version of the group perfectly capturing their tonic suits, and my favourite part of the build, pork pie hats made form small dishes and domes. It’s no small feat to build all nine members, but it pays off with each posed in mid-swagger, capturing the very essence of their musical style.