Tag Archives: Creatures

Creepy crawly or fuzzy & fluffly (yes, that’s possible in LEGO), we love our LEGO animals. Check them out here, and fall in love yourself.

Who coils around the ruins under the sea?

Generally speaking, all the LEGO pieces can be divided into two huge categories: bricks of strict geometrical shapes and more sophisticated, organic-looking elements. The thing is, it takes much more than just a handful of organic shapes to design an awe-inspiring creature — you have to find just the right combination of pieces. This is exactly what Tino Poutiainen achieved in his most recent 12×12 vignette. There are so many things that impressed me in this work, and I particularly like how a dark red flex tube is combined with light yellowish-green fangs. And if you are afraid of sea-serpents, keep your eyes above the water level and you’ll find a set of brilliantly designed sails made with 3×2 cupboard door pieces.

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I hope they get here before the fruit rots

I really like LEGO creations that tell a story, and Road to the Fruit Festival by Jonas Kramm has enough self-contained world-building to inspire the imagination. These tiny fruit merchants offer next day delivery, provided you live very, very close. Are these tiny people with human-sized mounts and wares? Or are we looking at some seriously up-scaled produce?

Each build has clever building techniques and part usage to discover. The road-marking statues have Rancor claws for legs. There are minifigure neck ruffles as parts of flowers, and large figure shoulder armor in the wheelbarrow.

But I’m also a sucker for well built LEGO snails, and this one is a beauty. It was the first build in this set, and was apparently so much fun to make that the rest of the scene came to life around it. Those minifigure hairpieces make for perfect berries, and the dark red dome brick make for a tempting pair of cherries. And that snail is darn spiffy, too. I like the cupcake eyes and muted color choices. The Clikitis leaf for the slime trail is a nice visual touch, too. And the Minifigure shark arms for petals in the flower…the closer you look, there more there is to enjoy here.

This isn’t the first amazing creation of Jonas’ we’ve featured, and it’s a good bet that it won’t be the last. I just hope the future includes even more snails.

That rumbling just might be Godzilla: King of Monsters

What’s that rumbling you hear? It could be that three-bean burrito repeating on you or it could be something even more monstrous. LEGO Saturn V co-designer Valerie Roche teams up with her Space-X co-designer Matthew Nolan to build Godzilla: King of Monsters. The end result is 2034 pieces of pagoda-toppling mass-destruction! Godzilla’s features include a posable head, with snapping jaws, articulated arms, elbows, hands, and fingers.
Also articulated legs, knee joints, ankles, and feet as well as a rotatable tail and his signature dorsal plates, which “ripple with internal energy”. I’m going to assume that means light bricks. That is some good Godzilla action right there! We’re pretty fascinated by this mutant monster. Check out our Godzilla archives.

All hail the Great He-Goat!

Francisco Goya’s disturbing Black Paintings — in particular “Witches’ Sabbath” or “The Great He-Goat” in the Prado Museum in Madrid today — have inspired Joss Woodyard‘s latest entry in the ongoing BioCup contest. The Satanic figure is surrounded by gloom, lit by a circle of candles, wearing a shaggy cloak made of black wings. The yellow lever base is terrifyingly perfect for the slit-eyed gaze of the Dark Lord, while minifig arms provide the split lip of the beast’s muzzle. In its left arm, the Devil carries what appears to be a swaddled child, perhaps a sacrificial victim.

In addition to naturally organic shapes from Bionicle and Hero Factory, Joss softens the shapes further with tires and strings. All of this makes the He-Goat’s exposed rib-cage all the more horrifying, built from insect or spider legs. I can nearly hear the chitinous rustling as he lurches toward you in the dark…

This dragon works for scale

This elegant LEGO dragon by builder Mitch Phillips is inspired by the red dragons from East Asian mythology that are said to bring good luck and happiness. I think it’s working, as this build makes me happy indeed. I love the elegant curves and the fact that many of the dragon’s scales are made from minifigure flippers. The red fins are complemented by orange Technic teeth as a different texture of scaling. Blue colors in the robot arms fingers and large fins mirror the crown of three-leaf plates in the head.

A closer look at that head reveals the intricate build in the eyes–highlighted by the use of the “One Ring” from the Lord of the Rings theme to add a touch of chromed bling. This dragon is fierce, but also a thing of beauty.

Deep Woods Off

Heading into the forest? You’d best watch yourself. There are…things in there. Critters. Faeries who don’t take kindly to intrusion. Don’t believe me? I’ve seen ’em! And so has Ted Andes! Captured their likeness in LEGO, even! Those top wings are from 2015’s 76039 Ant-Man Final Battle, and the lower ones are from the 2004 Alpha Team Mission Deep Freeze sets. There’s Knights Kingdom II shoulder armor, and Bionicle Rahkshi Back Cover armor as their legs. Curved Hero Factory blades serve double duty as swords and long hair. This combination of themes seems almost as mythical as these faeries themselves!

Dancing with the dark

We’ve featured a number of VB‘s disquieting creations in the past. Their latest, The Anito takes it’s inspiration from the ancestor spirits of Philippine religions. Perched among overgrown idols, this mysterious figure gazes at us with piercing white eyes almost lost in a sea of organic curves capped with bony appendages. Is that a white flute the figure is playing? Is this music we really want to hear?

I like the work put into the setting. Those bony elements return in dark tan to form some dead plants, but that’s balanced by a good mix of bright green vegetation. The dark green bits in the foreground include the head of the Norse Midgard Serpent. Mixing mythologies a bit, maybe, but totally worth it for the effect.

As an aside, that idol on the right is uses some big toothed wheels to form the mouth. That’s soooo close to fitting my “Technic Gears for teeth” trope of late. It’s a thing I tell you. A THING. Either that, or all these creepy images are just really starting to get to me.

Simurgh yourself in the lore of this mythical beast

As LEGO builders ourselves we are inherently already fond of the creations we write about here on The Brothers Brick. What makes me take special notice however is something like this Simurgh built by Joss Woodyard. According to Joss, the Simurgh is a unity between land and sky incarnate. According to Iranian legend, the mythical creature is so old that it has seen the world end three times over. Plus it will also rid your surrounding area of snakes, so there’s that. I’m seeing also a unity between System brick and Bionicle. This seems to be Joss’calling card as he has taken us through a menagerie of mythical beasts before.

The nicest of dinner companions

I love the films of Guillermo del Toro, and Pan’s Labyrinth is one of his creepiest. In “The Feast”, mr_youm brings us a LEGO rendition of the Pale Man that’s every bit as creepy as the cinematic counterpart. Technic gears form a frightful maw, topped by minifigure legs creating the nose. Layers of wedge plates creates some great textures in the torso, and there are a lot of Mixel joints present to make him extra poseable. But don’t overlook the feast itself. I really like the silver carafe design, including that inverted tooth plate for a spout and dinosaur tail for a handle. And the mix of black and transparent red 1×1 round plate in the bowl just looks…eerie. Oh. And there are eyes on the plate. That’s not sinister at all. You know, maybe I won’t stay for dinner…

So…that “gears for teeth” thing. Is it a building trope I missed? Because it feels like I wrote about another creation with the same technique just the other day…

Gliding in the ocean depths, not a care in the world

In a LEGO world of massive castles, spaceships, and battle mechs, sometimes I appreciate the littler oddball things. My case in point; this manta ray by DanielBrickSon. It makes me wonder what it would be like to be a manta ray just gliding in the ocean depths without a care in the world. It’s a pleasant thought, really. Daniel calls it Mantax, which my limited research cites it as being the German name for the Pokemon Mantine. It also shares the name with this old Bionicle figure. Whatever it’s called and whatever the inspiration, I think it’s pretty neat.

The better to eat you with!

We all remember the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, right? There’s a part where Little Red says to her wolf grandmother “my, what big eyes you have”. To which she retorts “the better to eat you with”. Wait, that didn’t turn out right. Anyway, the point is old people are scary! PaleoBricks mixes Bionicle with “regular” LEGO to build the wolf in grandma clothing quite nicely. The shawl is a great touch as well as the…um…grandma hat. Grandmas still wear those, right? The wolf’s expression looks like he really does want to eat you…with his eyes. It has been a while since I’ve read the story but I’m sure it also involved doilies and a dish of Werther’s Originals. And a ticking clock, a VCR, and one of those creepy pictures of Jesus that moves when you walk. Old people! Am I right?

Odd Noises in Empty Rooms

Strange creatures have been infiltrating our LEGO posts here at The Brothers Brick lately and I couldn’t be more pleased. My case in point; this cleverly built sea serpent by Ivan Martynov. Call me weird but its many eyes and multiple shrimp-like appendages already tick boxes of things I’d totally be into. Add to this the fact that it was inspired by the ghosts of weirdo monster artist Trevor Henderson and you have yourselves one happy Brothers Brick writer. The depth indicator and other details around the border offer the illusion that this creature was captured on camera. Plugging the coordinates found in the lower-left into Google places this encounter at a precise location in the Atlantic north of Puerto Rico. I don’t know about you but I am smitten. We’ve been smitten by Ivan’s work a few times before.