Tag Archives: Creature

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.

Palm oil is made of orangutan tears

When LEGO announced their first plant-based plastic elements, some people were concerned how the plant material would be sourced and whether LEGO would clear rainforests for farm land. The irony of the situation is that most people who complain about LEGO’s alleged ecological crime (which the LEGO Group denies) also eat food made using palm oil, which is proven to be a major cause of tropical deforestation. One thing is for sure, with this oranguan build by Simon Pickard and the right context, LEGO bricks may benefit the rainforests through raising awareness of what is happening to our planet.

Orangutan

The use of earth orange and studs shown on all sides really captures the furry look of an orangutan and the dark gray parts are a great contrast as the skin, both in colour and texture. The proportions are spot on and the pose is quite expressive too. The build’s seeming simplicity is a strong point too; I can really imagine this creation sitting on a desk or on a shelf, reminding us of the diversity of life.

Discovering the lost bird of paradise

Last year, the LEGO Group launched an Indiegogo crowdsourcing campaign for LEGO Forma. With LEGO Forma sets shipping this year, it was only a matter of time until someone incorporated the skins into a custom LEGO model. Aaron Newman took fish fins and turned them into the wings of a colorful, magical bird. If you didn’t know they were from LEGO Forma, you just might think they were made for this build.

The Enormous Bird of Paradise

Adding further context to the model, Aaron created a scene in which explorers discover the majestic bird. Looking at the team members, at least one can’t handle all the colors.

Encounter in the Jungle

A graceful companion for a wizard of refined taste

The wizarding world of J. K. Rowling has been generating quite a lot of interest in the LEGO community recently, in large part thanks to the recent revival of the official Harry Potter LEGO theme. There have been many amazing creations and many contests dedicated to it (such as our own Microscale Magic contest), showing how popular the universe of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts is among LEGO fans. Revan New‘s latest creation is the winning entry to a contest on bricker.ru, the goal of which was to create a magical animal that does not exist in the books and movies, but very well could.

BEATITUDINEM AVEM or just wavebird

The builder has obviously succeeded in making an animal that looks coherent with the fantasy of J. K. Rowling’s universe, but it is much more than that. The head of the bird is an intense mix of rounded parts representing feathers and the body is full of wedge plates and slopes to get this same effect of feathers and colour patterns. A nice little detail is translucent fins used as tail feathers, giving the bird a truly magical feel. But Revan New does not stop there. He adds a little stand for his wavebird complete with velvet and a magic wand.

A leap from the early 2000’s

Regardless of your opinion whether Galidor is a toxic LEGO theme or not, there is no doubt the real life version of this Galidorean Tree Frog by Logan W. would be incredibly poisonous. The recent rise of Galidor’s popularity has produced some amazing creations, both serious and less serious. But this one I am having trouble categorizing as either…

Galidorean Tree Frog

The centerpiece of the creation is Allegra‘s torso with some eye stickers on what would be her breasts. The use of red ball joints as fingertips is inspired already, but the builder went an extra step, using minifig helmets as larger fingertips on the middle fingers.

Building it old school: PlayStation’s Spyro in LEGO

We see a lot of LEGO dragons, but they’re rarely as cute as Marius Herrmann‘s version of digital superstar Spyro. This winged beastie, familiar to PlayStation (and N64 and Xbox One) owners, is a delight, perfectly capturing the cute styling of the character. It’s worth taking a close look at this model to check out some of the details. Don’t miss the smart segmenting of Spyro’s underbelly, the subtle ridges down the tail, and the use of dismantled minifigure legs to provide the dragon’s nostrils! The base is a nice touch, adding more visual interest than simply displaying the model alone, and I love the inclusion of Sparx, Spyro’s flying insect pal.

LEGO Spyro

That’s some mighty fine blood you have there...

Mosquitos aren’t good for much, if you ask me. Except, perhaps, one thing–being turned into excellent LEGO models, like this one by Omar Ovalle. A rework of an old model, Omar has given it new life with giant ant wings and a proboscis fittingly made of a harpoon. The creature’s silver sheen makes me wonder if this is, in fact, a creature at all, or if it’s perhaps a drone-squito, AKA my newest nightmare.

mos•qui•to |məˈskētō|

Gazooks! Here come Cahdok and Gahdok!

Years after being discontiniued, Bionicle remains a strong and very much autonomous theme in LEGO fan builds. Unique pieces and almost complete freedom of angles set it apart from most other styles, but was it always so? Jayfa and Andrew Steele bring us back to 2002, a time when Bionicle was still searching for an identity and was for the most part a sub-theme to Technic. The glorious titan set Cahdok and Gahdok was a load of gears, rubber bands, liftarms and most importantly, play features. I do not think this re-imagining has much of those, but it does capture the spirit of the Bohrok queens.

Cahdok and Gahdok

Click to see Cahdok and Gahdok compared to the original set

Bring on the LEGO butter and bib

The line of LEGO Star Wars constraction figures has unleashed a plethora of new sculpted parts to feed the Bionicle building frenzy. However, this delicious looking lobster by 楚 沐猴 puts some of the parts from LEGO 75529 Elite Praetorian guard to a very different use. The finished product is a crustacean that looks good enough to eat.

Untitled

The crystal Vulptex from Star Wars comes to life in LEGO bricks

The crystal fox-like Vulptices from Star Wars: The Last Jedi are something that I never thought would be able to be represented well in LEGO form. But builder Runa Lindblom (legovalkyrja) has pulled it off quite nicely indeed with this large-scale version. The red elements on the ground depicting the exposed salty mineral beds of the planet Crait is a nice touch and just enough to bring a little contrast and realism to the whole sculpture.

Using an array of both white and transparent bricks is all that was needed, though knowing where exactly to place them for maximum effect is always the secret. The amount of painstaking work to angle the various transparent elements is key to getting the intended effect.

The Nian beast roams again this Lunar New Year

According to Chinese lore, the Nian beast emerges each New Year’s to prey on the world of men, thwarted only by its fear of the color red. This was among the origins for that color’s prevalence in Chinese New Year’s celebrations, which this year falls on Feb. 5. This magnificent LEGO Nian by TBB-regular Jonas Kramm shows the creature in all its splendid glory, ready to wander the countryside in search of unfortunate humans to feed upon after its winter slumber. Everything about this model looks polished, but the tiny detail that struck me was the perfect manner in which the Bionicle ball sockets are integrated into the head to hold the teal eyes.

The Monster Nian

A spiny lizard beast

This green monster by Mitch Phillips look tough enough to tackle anything, thanks to a heavy layer of armor plating. It’s a fitting LEGO element to use as armor, since that was its original purpose. However, it was originally designed to clad two-legged characters rather than creatures like this. Look closely at the upper legs, too, for they’re actually sea monster heads from the oft-overlooked Alpha Agents theme.

Nui - Meko - 01

It’s not wings that make the dragon, but the ferocity of his character

I used to think that a dragon without wings was simply a lizard, but I wouldn’t dare say that to the face of this wingless dragon built by Leonid An. His name is Glaurung the Fierce, and with his athletic, lean build and large claws, this dragon looks like it could easily rip any opponent to shreds, especially a heckling human who dares mock his lack of wings.

Glaurung the Fierce

What I love about this dragon in particular is the way the builder has used repetition throughout the body, neck, and tail to achieve a very clean organic figure. For example, the robot arm piece is used at least twenty times, laced through flex tube to give both the subtle and more drastic curves the body of the dragon required. The 2×2 round tan boat studs are used as armor plating from the top of the neck of the dragon, all the way down underneath the belly to the tail, making for a wonderfully consistent aesthetic.