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!

Let’s celebrate Kenny Baker (1934-2016) with this LEGO R2-D2 retrospective

Kenny Baker, the diminutive actor who played R2-D2 in all Star Wars films except The Force Awakens, died peacefully in his sleep today. The 3′ 8″ actor operated Artoo from inside, sealed up “like a boiled egg.” In addition to R2-D2 Kenny Baker also played Paploo the Ewok in Return of the Jedi as well as key roles in movies like Time Bandits and The Elephant Man. To honor this actor who had such a huge impact on Star Wars, here’s a roundup of some of the best LEGO R2-D2 models we’ve featured here on The Brothers Brick over the years.

One of my favorite LEGO Artoos is this small LEGO R2-D2 by Jeffery Kong.

Click through to see more of the best LEGO R2-D2 models

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Fly me to the moon, and let me build among the stars

As an anime fan, it is always a pleasure to see a build inspired by one of the most iconic anime of all time, Evangelion. I’ve seen many amazing EVA builds, but as soon as I saw this build by Nobu_Tary, it was no question that he pulled out a perfect Rei Ayanami:

Recreating characters with LEGO bricks can be tricky, but this build has an incredible shape, looks solid, the colors are spot on, and it appears to have great articulation. This would look awesome amongst my anime figure collection!

For a guy with three hearts, you are not very nice.

Even though I’ve come to moderate my expectations for Pixar sequels, I found myself charmed and highly entertained by this summer’s Finding Dory, co-directed by LEGO Wall-E designer and Pixar animator Angus MacLane. The movie was full of unique, heartwarming characters, and radiohearhoy has lovingly recreated several of them in LEGO.

Easily my favorite character was Hank the cranky octopus, who it turns out has at least one heart of gold. The 1×1 round plates on Hank’s tentacles show how small this LEGO creation actually is, proving that it’s not how much LEGO you own, but how you use the pieces you have.

Click to see more Finding Dory characters in LEGO

This doctor prescribes some madness

It is no secret that Djordje is one of the best character builders, and he usually manages to inject incredible personality to his builds. This time, he managed to capture the essence of a mad scientist with Doctor Karnakogg:

First of all, the cartoonish proportions are spot on, and you can see that this build is not really heavy on pieces — but those pieces are used in a really creative way, making it all the more impressive. What really gets me is the personality of this build, expressing that perhaps a mad scientist can be both scary and charming.

These aren’t Star Wars minifigures you’re looking for

…but these Star Wars figures just may be the coolest ones around. We covered Omar Ovalle‘s Endor Trooper last month, but Omar’s been busy since then converting lots of LEGO Technic figures into awesome Star Wars characters. The Technic figures, which LEGO produced from the late 80s to the early 2000s, are considerably larger than traditional minifigures and have a lot more poseability. The size also allows more accurate scaling with small characters, like Yoda and the Jawas, who both look quite good as minifigures next to the Technic figs. Boba Fett definitely takes the cake for the best looking figure though, as he blasts his way out of the Sarlacc pit.

Click to see more Star Wars Technic figures

Which yellow character would win in a fight? SpongeBob, a Minion or Pikachu?

It’s a question for the ages: which yellow cartoon character do you side with? Wise-cracking SpongeBob Squarepants, the most anthropomorphic sponge to live under the sea? One of Gru’s Minions, an adorable comedy sideshow who manages to steal the limelight? Or Pikachu, the elusive and beloved Pokemon? Takamichi irie decided to build all three, so you can see how the LEGO versions stack up. Cast your votes in the comments!

‘Ello, guv’na

Kids, the key to a really great photo-realistic mosaic is to build big, using simple colors. Oh, and make sure you choose an extremely cool character. Let me tell you, nobody is cooler than Sir Michael Caine. If you only know him as Alfred in the Nolan Batman trilogy, or as Austin Powers’ “fahjah,” you are missing out on one of the hippest cats in the history of British cinema. David Hughes has captured an iconic photograph from 1965, 5 years before Caine finally quit smoking.

AD.AM, the future of Lego

Rarely does one think of smooth curves when discussing Lego. While the 2×4 red brick may be the most famous piece, its the new age parts that are turning the corner on what Lego can become. Utilizing parts from the Bionicle and Constraction lines, designer Tremah has sculpted Lego for the future in the form AD.AM, an awe inspiring robotic being. Sleek, form fitted, and futuristic white coloring, AD.AM is surely ready to become the prime example of what Lego bots have and will become. The future is now people!

“But I don’t want to go among mad people...”

Oh you can’t help that — we’re all mad here. So much so that we love these Alice In Wonderland figures by Brick Blue Wren very much indeed. We’ve featured a couple of Alice-themed LEGO creations recently, and personally I never tire of seeing Moko’s brilliant Alice and the White Rabbit model, but I thought these figures were very cool too…

The details of the Mad Hatter’s outfit are simply spot-on, and the shaping on the female figures’ outfits is excellent. I particularly like the turntable bases on the Red Queen’s dress — simple parts use, but creating a realistic impression of an embroidered pattern. I want a White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat at this scale now please. Oh, and a drug-smoking Caterpillar while you’re at it.

Original Star Wars movie poster recreated in LEGO

Gamabomb‘s latest model is a fantastic recreation of the original 1977 Star Wars movie poster. While the large figures of Luke and Leia have been effectively crafted using bricks (check out the abs on Luke!), the builder has also cleverly used minifigs of C3PO and R2D2 to represent the famous droids as they appeared in the original print, while the sinister Vader looms out of the background shadows. All in all, this is an excellent version of an iconic image, immediately recognisable even as a thumbnail, yet rewarding of a zoom-in to catch all the details. The Force is strong with this one.

LEGO Worms with arms

Worms was an artillery strategy video game released in 1995, back when worms were fashionable. The sometimes-controversial builder Suck My Brick has nicely captured these well-armed and battle-ready guys in LEGO form. There is definitely a humorous side to arming worms with grenades, flame-throwers and machine guns, and the comedy has been transferred to these brick versions. From hot dog bun eyebrows, through a cigarette-chomping worm, through to a Rambo-worm with bad teeth, what’s not to love about these little dudes?

My favourite is the grumpy warworn worm on the right with his grenade and WWII-style helmet. There’s some ingenious parts usage to create his grenade pin. Shame he has no hands to pull the pin and throw it!

Super Mario looks super with bricks

In 2015, the thirtieth anniversary of Mario, Nintendo released an awesome amiibo of every player one’s favorite koopa slaying plumber as a 3D version of the original character sprite. Perhaps used as a guide, John Kupitz constructed the 3D projection with LEGO bricks to equally impressive results. Sure, the voxels in the LEGO version aren’t perfect cubes, but they’re close enough that the build is instantly recognizable.