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!

What do you get when you cross knights in shining armour with the frog prince?

If you want to bring a bit of whimsy to a fantasy LEGO creation, a good place to start is making your characters animals. Oh, and giving them a massive sword. That’s the angle that Dan Ko has gone for in this charming duo. Both the frog knight and his snail steed are full of character – and clever parts use! Our knight in croaking armour has some fantastic leafy webbed feet, and the ski for a cross-guard is a neat idea for this asymmetric sword. The snail, meanwhile, has caterpillar tracks wound up to form its shell. Although I must admit – and this might be a niche reference – that with those bright yellow eyes, it reminds me of the slugs from the LEGO Rock Raiders video game. Perhaps they’re distant cousins?

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All the best LEGO builders are mad as a hatter

When you go chasing LEGO rabits, you never know where you’ll end up. Perhaps, like Alice, you’ll find yourself at a mad tea party, like the one created by Centuri Chan and Wendy Graham from over 80,000 bricks! This entirely bonkers display took home Best in Show and People’s Choice prizes from Christchurch Brickshow 2024, and it’s easy to see why with the incredible characters and whimsical details at such enormous scale. To get a sense of just how big this scene is, squint and you can see a minifig-scale tea party under Alice. Curiouser and curiouser!

Uninvited Alice sits at the head of the table with yellow hair that only a very rude host would say wants cutting. If you want to ask Alice how she got that lovely powder blue dress, it took three copies of the LEGO Creator expert Vespa 125 to source the required bricks. (The builders added a cheeky tattoo tribute!) I love the use of ~~pies~~ tarts for buttons. Hopefully there are no knaves around to steal them.

Click to feed your head like the Doormouse said!

Some serious “hustle and bustle” energy

You ever run into a LEGO build that just perfectly sums up your day? While my rushing today was entirely computer-oriented (and involved way too much work in Crystal Reports for my own sanity), the character in this creation by greenarj has far more of a physical speed built up. With a brilliantly-blurred background, this character creation is a stellar woman on the go. Triangle tile sunglasses and banana-curled blonde hair highlight her face. Toothy plates, a banana collar, and a minifigure skirt simulate a white blouse under her black jacket. And don’t forget the banana/bucket handle buckle on her bag, which is absolutely astounding! With all the fruit showing up, I have a sneaking suspicion this lightspeed design is for the Mind that Banana contest over on New Elementary.

“It looks like you’re trying to build a LEGO creation...”

Keep your Siri, Alexa, and chatGPT powered agents. There’s only one digital assistant for me, and he lives exclusively in Microsoft products between 1997-2003… and in hour hearts. And now in LEGO thanks to Piotr Gierwatowski! Assembled from just a few dozen bricks, LEGO Clippy is just as adept as his digital inspiration at recognizing when you want to write a letter. Better yet, LEGO Clippy is never afraid to voice wrong-headed guesses about which pieces you might want to include in your next creation.

A winning woodland hero awaits a champion builder

There’s something irresistible about seeing tiny woodland creatures as brave heroes in the medieval mold, whether in books like Redwall, board games like Root, or comics like Mouse Guard, the latter captured here in LEGO by Markus Rollbühler. The blue jay riding member of the guard keeps to Markus’ unmistakable style of character build, with a strong focus on geometry and color with no eyes or mouth. The balloon panel is a clever solution for a dramatic cape. The acorns and fall leaves create a cozy stand.

This mouse rider isn’t just a tribute to a beloved comic. It’s also a trophy for the 2024 Brickscalibur competition, which is currently open to build submissions. One lucky builder in the “Tails from the Meadow” category will go home with this one-of-a-kind work from LEGO senior designer Markus. May the best mouse win!

Beaker the Muppet – the squeaker of the puppets

Muppets builder extraordinaire Jon-Paul Hansen has made another addition to his LEGO collection of the fuzzy puppets. This time, it’s one of my favourite characters – the appropriately-named lab assistant, Beaker! There’s some great parts use here to capture the squeaky puppet’s features. A couple of aeroplane tail fins sit either side of a dark green windscreen – first introduced in the Botanicals Poinsettia – to make for an excellent labcoat and tie, respectively. As for the fuzzy fire-red hair, that’s superbly recreated with a bunch of red bushes. And speaking of fire – I can practically hear Beaker’s frantic “mi-mi-mi-mi-mi!!”s through the screen!

You have OneShot to appreciate this LEGO Niko

You don’t have to have played the cult hit indie game OneShot to appreciate this LEGO tribute to starring cat Niko by Dylan Mievis. It’s a great character model with a flat face in the style of chibi builds, with great shaping of the cat-kid’s oversized coat and scarf. If you’ve played the game, then you’ll know that keeping Niko safe is the player’s near-impossible duty, and Dylan captures the character’s vulnerability perfectly in brick form. Those big eyes borrowed from the Nightmare Shark Ship definitely help.

Dylan is no stranger to indie gaming builds, having shared amzing tributes to Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight. And as a shameless plug: getting back into building, I recently paid tribute to my favorite indie game of the moment, Tactical Breach Wizards!

Tricksy LEGO parts use makes for a terrifying treat

With the whiff of Hallowe’en still in the air, we’re still seeing scary LEGO builds cropping up. This one by Ari Hytti wasn’t even built for All Hallows’ Eve (it’s part of an ongoing round of Iron Builder), but it definitely fits the bill! And being an Iron Builder creation, it’s absolutely chocka with Nice Parts Use (NPU). Obviously that includes the seed part – a bright orange Unikitty tail – which you can spot in those fearsome flaming swords. But also noteworthy are the constraction armour hooves and the, ah, singular item of clothing, which I believe is a re-purposed Duplo carpet. But you need to look to the head for the best bit. Much of this Warden’s threatening demeanour comes from that toothy scowl, which is printed on a Bionicle Piraka head. It’s the perfect piece for the job, as the eyeholes double as flared nostrils!

Zoinks Scoob, I think we’re LEGO!

Crank up the Mystery Machine, the LEGO Scooby Gang – made by Magmafrost13 – are back in action! Daphne is looking chic as ever with her scarf made from a fern and don’t miss the little eyebrow detail Magma gave her. The gang is always trying to get a grip on whatever monster-of-the-week is running around, so they have hands made from little sticks! Finally I’ll draw your attention to the unique nose the builder gave each character. I think they match each character perfectly, and will certainly help Mystery Inc. sniff out some mayhem!

“I’m not a toy, I’m a building system!”

Forky, the breakout character from Toy Story 4, may be a crude assemblage of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and a spork, but he opens up major existential questions about the nature of ~~life~~ toys. LEGO did once release this not-a-toy monstrosity as a single molded piece, think this brick-built ~~abomination~~ masterpiece by Bas van Houwelingen does a much better job at capturing Forky’s special charms. Stacked red flowers make excellent pipe cleaners, and a bent blue tube closed with a minifig hand is a genius solution for Forky’s mouth. Bas’s creation is made for friendship (or for soup, salad, maybe chili).

The magic of the Bio-cup lives on!

We often feature builds that are entered into the many contests the LEGO community holds, among them the Bio-Cup. But have you ever wondered what happens to these builds once the contest is over? Some are presumably dismantled, but Benjamin Anderson‘s wizard has found a new lease of life after contests’ end! The flowiness – for lack of a better word – is what give this magnificent mage so much character. The way his robes, hat and beard are billowing away from his staff suggests he’s cooking up a particularly spicy spell. As Benjamin put it in his caption: “I didn’t ask how big the room is, I said ‘I cast FIREBALL’!” I would stand back, everyone…

From collectible minifig to majestic model, this Aarakocran Ranger soars

Ever since the release of LEGO Dungeons & Dragons Collectible Minifigures 71047, builders and role-players have been celebrating the mix of new fantasy elements to play with. While the figures are great out of the box, D&D has always been about making your own characters. Some builders prefer to stick to minifig scale for their custom creations, but Mitch Phillips always goes big. Mixing Bionicle, Constraction, and System parts, Mitch’s Aarakocran Ranger strikes the perfect balance of fluffy and and fierce.

There are many great techniques to appreciate, from the intense eyes crafted from nested ninja scarves to the lush wings to the excellent sword brooch. If you’re curious about how an expert goes about designing articulated characters like this, Mitch generously breaks down his process in a video. MitchBuild walkthroughs are among the best resources available for understanding how to integrate disparate LEGO parts.

This isn’t Mitch’s first D&D ranger character. During the 2024 Bio-Cup, he rolled a critical hit with this Dragonborn Ranger.