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!

As American as apple pie

Four score and twenty.. No wait. The only thing we have to fear is… Uhhhm. Mister Gorbachev tear down this… Hang on. Ok, got it: Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company – George Washington. And George seems to be in pretty good company in this collection of busts by Tyler Clites depicting the Founding Fathers. WISHING OUR STATE-SIDE READERS A HAPPY AND SAFE INDEPENDENCE DAY FILLED WITH FIREWORKS, FRANKFURTERS, AND FREEDOM!

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Many unikitties were sacrificed for Marilyn

At one tail per Unikitty, many Unikitties had to be sacrificed for this Brickheadz to come to life. The effort paid off for Krzysztof J as the effect it provides for Marilyn’s curly headlocks is almost ideal. A few other stylistic standouts include the infamous mole, which is ingeniously made with the negative space of a 1×1 brick with a single knob, and the clever use of minifigure hairpieces that make up the upper section of the corset.

Give me a call when you want to start taking things a little more seriously

“Here’s my card…” French builder Jimmy Fortel built a stylish LEGO take on The Joker as portrayed by the late Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. I can just see the insanity in that face. One of my favorite details is the use of red wedge plates on his smile; the texture from the stud cutouts is perfect.

Ponies are cool, but LEGO ponies are about 20% cooler

If the rain clouds are still hovering overhead then it’s time to call the cavalry, otherwise known as Rainbow Dash. In the world of hit TV show My Little Pony this pugnacious pegasus maintains the weather and clears the skies of Ponyville. British builder Andrew Harvey used around 3700 LEGO bricks to capture Dash’s colourful likeness, even managing to give her a sense of movement in the process. This sculpture is cleverly made using a “studs out” technique for the head, body and wings – but those expressive eyes are my favourite part of this model.

There’s also a view of Rainbow Dash’s swishing tail as she makes her way back to Ponyville to kick away a few rain clouds. And if you’re in the vicinity of Manchester, England this weekend you can even marvel at this model in person at the Bricktastic LEGO show.

The LEGO community and the dark side of comments

The online LEGO community is an all-around friendly place and quite open to newcomers, with very few exceptions. What few realize is that this comes at a high price; the comments exchanged by builders are friendly and positive — and often that means only positive. And here lies a potential pitfall, because honest critiques and (seeming) negativity tend to be avoided for fear of creating awkward situations. Additionally, not all builders want to receive constructive feedback. The end result is that most creations gather a plethora of dry comments that do not really help the builders improve much. I have been passively raising awareness to this problem for years now, but never have I gone to such lengths as Aaron van Cleave, who has made a series of bad creations as a social experiment.

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Bet he won’t reprimand his daughter

Every LEGO builder knows it’s better down where it’s wetter, but LEGO 7 takes it into uncharted depths of building skill with his rendition of King Triton and Princess Ariel. The Little Mermaid herself is immediately recognisable, but it’s the modeling of the Trident-wielding monarch which grabs all the attention in a fabulous combination of System and Hero Factory parts. That beard! That crown! Great stuff, but the best bit is the use of hot air balloon pieces for the tail. Genuinely inspired.

You say po-tay-to, and I say po-tah-to!

This is one of those builds that had me going “why didn’t I think of that?!” The part that inspired it was the balloon element first seen in 2015 the Friends set 41097 Heartlake Hot Air Balloon and which has since been issued in a variety of colors. Builder Tan Kok Mun takes the classic child’s toy Mr. Potato Head (which younger readers may be more familiar with from the Toy Story movies) and recreates him almost magically and perfectly in his standard get-up. If you haven’t already noticed, there’s a little bit of a smart use of transparent bars to help the arms appear connected to the body …nice work!

Oh this is the night, it’s a beautiful night, and we call it bella notte...

Who knew those LEGO hot air balloon panels would make perfectly floppy pupper ears? Well as you can see, builder LEGO 7 knew. In fact, their spot-on take of the iconic spaghetti scene from Disney’s Lady and the Tramp is packed full of tremendous NPU (Nice Parts Usage) which gives these two pups a cuddly, soft appearance. The only thing missing from this creation is moonlight and accordion music.

A challenger approaches

Take just one look at these stunning LEGO video game characters by Anthony Forsberg and you’ll be itching to play a few rounds of Super Smash Bros. Pictured from left to right are four of the toughest characters ever to enter the arena: Mr. Game and Watch, Fox McCloud, Pac-Man, and Kirby. These brick-built renditions of the pixelated icons from your childhood are pretty spectacular.

And to top it off, Anthony even built adorable miniature versions of these four foes!

Jeepers! Zoinks! Ruh-roh ...run Scooby-Doo!

Remember those good old days when Scooby-Doo and the gang used to get chased by villianous museum curators dressed as ghosts? Well Tim Lydy sent the thrill of the chase up a notch at Brickworld Chicago last week with a kinetic creation depicting Scooby-Doo and the gang and running from three more recent characters from horror films.

First up to chase is Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movie series, then we have Pennywise from Stephen King’s novel It and finally Freddy Kruger from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. The scary chasers are very well built and instantly recognisable. Each character has its own running style, especially Scooby-Doo himself who appears to be frantically “wind-milling”. You can view the video here.

If in doubt, use a plumber’s screwdriver

My father always referred to a hammer as a “plumber’s screwdriver”, which is maybe a little unfair on professional pipe-botherers. However, it’s the first thing I thought of when I saw Anton Sundström‘s LEGO Mario sculpture. Everyone’s favourite dungaree-clad videogame hero is wielding a rather fetching hammer here, in a re-creation of his look from Paper Mario.

Although limited in its joints, the model has excellent pose-ability to match the videogame original. Check out this classic “jumping for a coin” action…

Good grief Snoopy! Does it begin with A Dark and Stormy Night?

This has got to be one of the most adorable builds of the gang from Peanuts that we’ve seen. Builder Genecyst does an amazing job with this little scene showcasing Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown and the always opinionated Lucy van Pelt.

However, while it all looks great, there’s something I feel is somehow amiss which I just can’t see. I’m pretty sure it’s not just my observation, but I’ll still take the perception that this is one fine build that deserves looking at.