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!

Abs to die for

We’ve seen a few LEGO Predators in our time — from small-scale Predators killed by alien queens, to massive brick-built Predator busts — but this bad boy from takamichi irie is a cracker. Wonderfully detailed for its scale, this model features excellent posability and comes equipped with a lovely selection of armaments. The face is brilliant — immediately recognisable in a handful of pieces. However, the highlight is surely the torso — those abs look like the result of a whole lot of crunches during interplanetary hunting trips.

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Pale Man is the stuff of nightmares

I’m not exactly sure what Anthony Wilson was going for with this undeniably expressive piece of LEGO art, but if his plan was to instill terror, I’d say he nailed it. Just look at those eyes. The self-removed heart, exhibited neatly in a glass case, doesn’t comfort me at all about this fellow’s intentions. He looks like he’s in a bad mood and wants to tell you all about it. No doubt Pale Man will fit in nicely with my other nightmares about giant spiders and man-eating bears.

What are the three rules of owning a LEGO Gizmo?

(1) Keep your Gizmo away from bright lights, (2) don’t let him get wet, and of course (3) never feed him after midnight …no matter how much he begs. If you can stick to these rules, then you might be ready to build your very own 1980’s furball. Or it might just be safer to admire John Toulouse‘s adorable LEGO Mogwai (complete with a stylish wooden box). Yeah, that’s probably your safest bet.

Moana’s pet rooster Hei Hei struts his stuff

If you haven’t seen Disney’s charming Moana, you may not recognize Hei Hei, the Pacific Island princess’s dim-witted and comical but seaworthy companion. I love how LEGO 7 has captured the quizzical head tilt of the foolhardy rooster. The colorful design staged against the pale blue looks exquisite. Take note of the minifig flippers for the plucky poultry’s wattle and the dark green round corner elements as tender chicken wings, although I am sure Maui would probably still say he needs fattening up.

The Supreme Life President of Hell will see you now

A meeting with the Supreme Life President of Hell sounds worse than a visit to the dentist for root canal treatment. Thanks to zgrredek, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld character of Astfgl has been brought to life in LEGO, complete with a pile of paperwork to shuffle through. Discworld fans will know that Astfgl revolutionized Hell by moving away from physical torture and instead turned Hell into a mind-numbing bureaucracy.

The figure of Astfgl is perfect with those clasped hands and evil grin. You can tell he’s just waiting to hand you a pile of impossibly long forms for completion. Without a doubt, the star of this build is the cracked, ‘fires of Hell’ floor with glowing embers. I feel an evil cackling laugh coming on…

The smallest Prime

Optimus Prime is an ever-popular subject for modelling in LEGO bricks. Just recently we featured an impressively large Transformers city scene featuring the big ol’ truck-bot. However, it’s not often we see such cute details at small scale as in Peter Reid‘s latest creation. Immediately recognisable, this great little build has a nice depth of texture despite its size. I can’t help but provide my own soundtrack to this model — Peter Cullen’s tones pitch-shifted up to Calvin And The Chipmunks levels of squeakiness.

A grand day out with the bricks

Wallace and Gromit enjoy a lunar picnic in this LEGO scene by Patrick B. Whilst simple, the renditions of the inventor and his dog are nicely done, with Mixel eyes providing a bunch of character (however did we builders manage before those came along?!). The robot is perhaps a little small, but that’s made up for by the cool picnic equipment — don’t miss the thermos, the wicker basket, and the use of an upturned tricorn hat as a dog bowl. Eeh lad, that’s grand.

And the monkey flips the switch

Normally, my obsessive nature would freak out about incorrectly attached LEGO bricks. Yet somehow, despite the way LEGO 7 has created the jaws of these sublime simian spacemen, my clutching disorder doesn’t seem to mind. These cheeky chimpanzee’s heads have been created using only a handful of bricks, yet convey a huge amount of character. One transparent dome helmet and stylistic articulated space suit later, and you’ve got yourself a moon monkey. Double that and add a hexapedal all-terrain moon buggy and you have a scene that could elicit a smile from anyone.

There is no force in the world that can rival the Roman war machine

The Roman war machine was an impressive force in its time and to this day inspires many people, for better or for worse. This time it is for the better, as the Russian LEGO building duo Dmitriy and Anna have created an extremely expressive legionnaire using a relatively limited selection of bricks. There are many simple solutions for complex shapes, like exposed studs as the kneecaps and chin, as well as curved slopes that capture the shape of lorica segmentata perfectly.

The warrior’s weapons should not go unnoticed either: while the gladius in its scabbard is not quite perfect, I do not see how it could be done much better, but the pilum and scutum are basically flawless.

Einstein’s mass squared off in bricks

BrickHeadz are a bit like Marmite, dividing opinion into “love them” or “hate them” camps. It seems that even this famous theoretical physicist is not immune to becoming a squared mass of bricks. Krzysztof J has chosen to depict Einstein with his infamous tongue sticking-out pose next to a blackboard demonstrating his widely known equation E = mc ². I love the 1×1 tile representing the ‘squared’ part of the equation and the builder’s clever use of a grille tile for Einstein’s furrowed brow.

We don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents

If you watched PBS’s Joy of Painting back in the 80s and early 90s, you’ll probably recognize BrickinNick‘s most recent creation. If not, I’ll give you a few hints. This icon was known for his soft voice, his permed afro (which BrickinNick captured perfectly in LEGO brick), and his positive outlook on life. Bob Ross also taught me that there’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend.

Those were the salad days

Seasoned fans of Japanese television might recognize this tricycling toddler as Kinoko Sarada (lit. “Mushroom Salad”) from the 80’s show Doctor Slump. The show – which I’ve never seen but sounds completely insane – was the brainchild of Akira Toriyama, who later went on to create the more widely known Dragon Ball. In fact many Doctor Slump characters – including Miss Salad – even make cameos in the latter. Taiwanese builder Helen Sham has captured the bratty fashionista’s likeness perfectly, right down to her cool shades and pull-along radio.