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!

Carpet come baaaaack!!!

There’s a new round of Iron Builder competition now underway and Jonas Kramm is already getting amazing builds out there. His newest contribution to the brutal battle is an interesting one. It’s instantly recognizable as an Iron Builder challenge creation, but there is so much nice piece usage that it is hard to tell that the “seed part” (the piece which the duelling builders in the Iron Builder challenge are required to use in each build) is a Duplo grass piece. It could be the lip-stick piece! Or the black ponytail hair piece! But it’s not. It’s a wretched Duplo brick.

With all the unique part usage in this creation, it’s easy to miss subtle details that mark the difference between a good builder and a master builder. Jonas has used perfect tiny gaps between pieces on the unfortunate carpet rider’s turban to represent the folds and edges of the cloth. Attention to detail on all levels like this is one of the reasons why Jonas got invited to the Iron Builder challenge to begin with, and deservedly so.

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Nightmares that invade our dreams are made of Bionicle parts

I’m both afraid and amazed at this winged, evil humanoid incarnation. Alieraah utilises a vast array of bionicle parts to create a monster that has various points of articulation and a well shaped organic form. This creates a pose-able creature with personality. The dynamic poses and expression keep me looking at it, and seeing new details every time I do. That tail looks absolutely deadly. Also, did you notice the Galidor piece that he uses?

His story continues

A year ago, we featured a series of autobiographical builds from Dave Kaleta. He’s recently shared the next step in his story, which he states took 6 months to create. Given that the next chapter in his story involves a small child in a crib, 6 months seems perfectly reasonable!

There are some great things in this scene: mom’s posture flipping on the light, and the perfect fetal position of dad on the floor. I think the 1×2 brick with the technic hole is inspired use for what I imagine is a chatty, energetic toddler. The Batman and Robin minifigs as toys are perfect at this scale!

BrickHeadz from a galaxy far far away...

We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later: the invasion of BrickHeadz has crossed over to a galaxy far far away. Jared Chan brings us four Star Wars characters; the twins Luke and Leia along with Han and C-3PO. I’m impressed with the builder’s use of a limited palette of gold bricks to pull off the shiny protocol droid.

LEGO Guardian from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Breath of the Wild on Nintendo Switch is capturing the attention of gamers, switching up the way console games and The Legend of Zelda is played. Introduced in the game is a new six-legged ancient enemy called “Guardians,” and one has already been recreated in LEGO by Tim Schwalfenberg. The gold segmented legs, red and pink patterns, and single blue laser eye have been captured in bricks well.

Sad robot will make you happy

LEGO’s new Brickheadz line has prompted a few fan-built creations using the same chunky feel. This robot by Luigi Priori was inspired by the official line, but rises above aping the style to be a great model in its own right. Here the chibi look enhances the creation, whereas recently I’ve seen a lot of Brickheadz-style figures where the blockiness has felt a little forced. Luigi’s Mr Robot may look terribly sad, but he’s nicely put together — the over-sized limbs work well with the cubist feel of the torso, creating a super-deformed super-cute robot with a real sense of character.

Being stomped on every day is the life of a Goomba

In 1985, when Super Mario Bros was all the rage, the very first enemy that approached Mario was Goomba. To this date, the fate of a Goomba has been to be stomped on again and again, for eternity. The Goomba that Cecile Fritzvold crafted is an evolution over the years, where a set of reverse fangs were introduced to give it a more menacing look for a baddie in the game. No game is complete without the Question Block, which only leaves me wondering, I’ve yet to see a decent Mario built with bricks in a long while… anyone up for the challenge?

Are mermaids fish, mammals, or amphibians?

Not long ago YOS Lego introduced us to LEGO versions of our favourite sisters from Frozen, and we were all wondering if they had had too much of a fright or too many energy drinks with those wide eyed expressions! And now apparently Ariel the Little Mermaid seems to have consumed the same concoction. Aside from their wide eyed expressions, which do play well to capture a strange emotion, these builds of Ariel and her alternate human form are a delight for their details and proportions. The brick layering techniques used here bring out the best highlights of Ariel’s signature red hair.

Meet the ultra-cute Shinheadz and Blackheadz

LEGO recently released a new series of sets called Brickheadz, cute brick-built characters that seem to be the LEGO equivalent to Funko’s Pop Vinyls. And it’s no surprise that fans are responding with their own characters in this style. Tokoyo Tag Team have two couples to share the limelight. Firstly we have Shin Hayata, the lead character in the Japanese TV show Ultraman, and one of the monsters he fights, namely Gyango, who appears in an episode gloriously translated as The Rascal from Outer Space. Ultraman’s helmet has the perfect retro-futuristic vibe of a 1960’s sfi-fi television show.

Next up we have King Joe Black from the television series Ultraseven, a follow up to Ultraman. The slug-like creature next to him is Twin-Tail, a 15 kiloton prehistoric monster from the Return of Ultraman series. What a cutie!

Capturing characters in this chibi style is a great way to hone your character building skills by picking out the key features with bricks. I’m sure there will be lots more of these fan-built Brickheadz to come.

I am not an AI, I am a living thinking entity

Major Motoko Kusanagi is a cybernetic human employed in law-enforcement in the Japanese manga, anime, and forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster, Ghost in the Shell — 50% cyborg-intelligence, 50% human, 100% LEGO. Builder Grant Masters uses an old Belville figure with coat of paint to show how the protagonist hooks up to a network of systems. The twisted tubing provides a suitably cyberpunk backdrop to the scene, and it’s all enhanced with some nice uplighting.

A conversation with Swedish superbuilder LegoJalex [Interview]

We recently had the chance to sit down with Johan Alexanderson (LegoJalex) to discuss his building style and approach to the hobby. A part-time web developer, as well as a free-lance illustrator and comic book artist, Johan is 35 years old and lives in Sweden. Come with us as we explore the mind of a builder!

TBB: So how did you get into LEGO building?

LegoJalex: I started building about 5 years ago, after a “dark age” of about 15 years. I had a stressful time then and I really needed something to relax with, so naturally I started to build again. Building with LEGO has so many great memories for me and I really like the creativity involved. I think there are similarities with my interest in drawing and illustrating, where in both you have to think in a creative and artistic way.

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Start getting emotional with the Inside Out family

With LEGO’s introduction of BrickHeadz, we’re starting to see fan builders apply their creativity to featuring their favourite characters in this new form. Mark Gotidoc captures the essence of these five Pixar characters’ emotions cleverly with just the right tones and elements, but with one difference from LEGO sets: no printed body parts. The only parts which are printed are the eyes, which truly convey the expressions of each individual. The rest are cleverly fashioned in minimal parts but with maximum effect.

I particularly like how some of the fists are fashioned with “lamp holder” pieces, instead of the expected plate holders (which to me look like hooks more than anything else).