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!

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope...

With the recent passing of the actors that portrayed them, we’ve seen a number of fantastic LEGO models of Star Wars characters Princess Leia and R2-D2. But none have captured the connection between these two like Miro Dudas has in this recreation of a scene from A New Hope that really requires no introduction.

In the following loveable hug that would melt any astromech’s circuits, one can almost imagine that this is from an out-take on the set! Miro’s builds have undergone several iterations, and this modified Leia now sports articulation at both the neck and hips, allowing the model to pose perfectly. Meanwhile, his version of R2 possesses a fully retractable 3rd leg, pivoting side legs, and a rotating head! While there are many LEGO R2-D2 designs out there, both official and fan-created, Miro’s is one of my favourites at this scale.

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There are no Sneetches who are best on the beaches

The Sneetches and Other Stories is one of Dr. Seuss’ most meaningful books, touching upon the themes of tolerance, elitism and discrimination. The first story in the collection describes the Sneetches, a group of yellow creatures who find themselves swindled by a businessman named Sylvester McMonkey McBean. Kyle Keller has brought a classic scene from the story to life in LEGO bricks:

Some of the Sneetches have green stars on their bellies and discriminate against those who don’t. Realizing this, McBean creates a Star-On Machine and allows star-less Sneetches to buy their own. The star-bellied Sneetches no longer feel special, until McBean presents his Star-Off Machine. But McBean allows recently starred Sneetches through his machine as well until…

“Neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one
Or that one was this one
Or which one was what one
Or what one was who!”

Coincidentally, TBB’s own Iain Heath also just shared his cleverly-built star-bellied sneetch:

I won’t spoil the ending, but needless to say everyone learns a valuable lesson:

“That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars
And whether they had one, or not, upon thars”

Killer Croc’s victorious escape

We’ve seen the Caped Crusader get out of many tight spots when battling his enemies. But maybe this time he might actually meet his demise at the hands of the menacing Killer Croc in this LEGO diorama by Cid Hsiao. Towering over the fallen Dark Knight, the reptilian menace stands on a crushed pavement that has been shattered by his forceful weight.

Every part of this scene conveys a real sense of action in motion. I love the rock formation and imprint left in the pavement where Batman lays, where we assume he has just been hauled. The Bat-Cycle lying in pieces and that broken pavement at the feet of Killer Croc are simply perfect. The star of the show is however Killer Croc himself. Dressed in prison garb and broken shackles, the build is cleverly constructed using simple joints, giving an organic feel to the beast.

Rally the LEGO Overwatch Heroes

Overwatch continues to inspire LEGO builders with the hit game’s fun and varied heroes. Let’s rally up a few more characters to add to a lineup of great LEGO Overwatch builds, like these great characters from Tim Schwalfenberg, Simon Liu, or my own D.Va’s Light Gun. First up, from Dead Frog inc., is Bastion in his partial camouflage from the animated short “The Last Bastion.” The color choices on his robotic death machine and the overgrowth are great.

Next up, from Piggy Brother, is Reaper. The builder has constructed several other heroes from the game, and his Reaper is one of my top favorites from him. The mask, dual hellfire shotguns, and shotgun shell belt are standout details to me here.

Finally (from yours truly) is the time-jumping mascot of Overwatch, Tracer. Her build started with the idea of arranging two translucent orange half-circular tiles in an hourglass shape to create her goggles. One of the most challenging parts of the build for me was finding a technique that would look good as the lacing on her leggings. I thought the undersides of the various 1×1 brick types used structurally was a good solution.

Bring me Solo and the wookiee

The galaxy’s favorite space-slug gangster, Jabba the Hutt, is one of Star Wars’ more recognizable aliens. Jabba is cold and cruel, but still enjoys the finer points of life on the harsh world of Tatooine.
Robert Lundmark has captured the slimy villain with great attention to detail. The contouring and coloring of Jabba’s massive form is impressive, the base is clean and sharp, the subtly angled face is ingenious, but it’s the eyes that catch my attention most of all. It’s a small detail like that that can really turn a build from a pile of bricks into a living character.

Dee Dee! Get out of my laboratory!

Cartoon Network shows like Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy, The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter’s Laboratory were a huge part of my childhood. GolPlaysWithLego induces nostalgia for the former with a LEGO version of the genius Dexter himself. I like his expression of disdain shown through both the shaping of his glasses, and the use of a thin minifigure sword as his mouth.

The dark side of exercise [Video]

Have you ever wondered how Sith Lords stay fit? No? Me neither. But Slovenian builder MajklSpajkl appears to have. His hilarious kinetic sculpture uses a modified 75111 Darth Vader LEGO set, with less rigid joints. The mechanism is simple in principle, but it works perfectly. Having seen this functioning live at some recent LEGO events in Slovenia, I must say my feelings for it are complicated. At first I felt mildly amused, but the longer I watched it, the more I loved it. And this really is the charm of MajklSpajkl’s MOC: it is built with relatively simple techniques and mechanisms, but what it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for in originality and humour.

And here is a video of it in action, for your viewing pleasure:

We Are Number One but it’s a photo and made of LEGO

Of all the jokes and memes that came and went in 2016, none was as long-lasting and popular as “We Are Number One”. If you’re unfamiliar with it, I’ll let the experts explain it properly, but essentially it involves a song from the children’s TV show Lazy Town being endlessly remixed and fiddled with and then retitled “We Are Number One but [some weird change to the video]“. However, teen builder A Plastic Infinity‘s interpretation involves recreating four characters from the song (Robbie Rotten and his clones) as LEGO figures:

Take note of the quaffed hair which is built differently for each figure, as well Mr Rotten’s characteristic huge chin, cleverly captured using just one half of a ‘hinged plate’ assembly.

One great thing to come from the whole joke, aside from this cool LEGO build, is that the actor who played Robbie Rotten (Stefán Karl Stefánsson) was suffering from cancer around the time the meme hit fever pitch. The attention it brought to the character resulted in him and his family being able to raise a lot of the money they needed via GoFundMe. Good job, Internet!

Shot through the heart, and she’s to blame

Taking a little inspiration from Overwatch’s Widowmaker, Djokson brings us a classy futuristic sniper. A diverse mix of LEGO parts comes together to create a model with style, sass, and more than a hint of danger. The goggles with the yellow lenses are obviously cool, but I like the realistic sniper stance too — hips pushed forward to compensate for the heft of the rifle…

Whilst personally I’ve always been a fan of regular System bricks rather than Bionicle/Hero Factory “constraction” parts, I can’t deny the way good builders use these joints and connections to create models with excellent posing potential. Check out the attitude in this shot…

Death of a hero

Batman’s sidekick Robin may not be the main protagonist of most stories that he appears in, but that doesn’t make his death any less tragic. This powerfully emotional scene built by Yu Chris has great atmosphere with a backlit batman symbol and intense background, but most importantly, it features great brick-built figures whose posing portrays the message of the build perfectly. A lot of LEGO creations are cheerful and optimistic so it’s refreshing to see some more diversity in form of darker themes like this one.

So what if a few people have to die? That’s show business, Baby!

Alexander Blais has perfectly captured Mettaton, the mono-wheeled, human-killing robotic television star of the Underground, from the fantastically quirky retro role-playing game Undertale. This charming rendition uses simple techniques to create the robot with a SOUL. I like the use of minifig hands to represent the dials under his screen, which cleverly uses flat plates to mimic the heart on his display. How would you fight this maniacal metal menace?

Check out the other LEGO Undertale characters that we’ve featured here previously.

Remembering Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) [News]

Beloved actress and writer Carrie Fisher has passed away at age 60, after a recent heart attack. While she will be most fondly remembered for her role as the feisty Princess Leia Organa in the Star Wars saga, Fisher appeared in many other well-known movies including The Blues Brothers and When Harry Met Sally. She was also both an accomplished writer (often drawing upon her own over-the-top life experiences in Postcards from the Edge and more recently The Princess Diarist) and an oft-uncredited screenplay writer with involvement in movies like Hook and The Wedding Singer.

The iconic image of Fisher as Princess Leia will almost certainly be the one that stays with her fans, whether it be sporting the flowing regal gown and giant hair buns of A New Hope, or the metallic bikini “slave girl” outfit from Return of the Jedi. These images resonate with LEGO fans too, and over the years we’ve featured plenty of custom builds of the Leia character. Below are a few of them.

See more Princess Leia LEGO creations