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.

Brick-built seahorse has legs where you wouldn’t expect them

Part horse, part fish, part dragon, part saxophone — the seahorse is one of the weirdest-looking creatures you’ll find under the water. However this aquatic oddity’s peculiar appearance hasn’t put Brother Steven off creating a LEGO version, and the result is lovely. The orange works well, with restrained use of pearl gold and some exposed studs adding some welcome texture and scale-like details, and the spines along the back are excellent. The sandy base is nicely done — adding a coral reef context without distracting from the central model, but the overall shaping is the main attraction here. Don’t miss the use of minifigure legs to create the final curl of the seahorse’s tail — an inspired parts use.

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Smoothly keeping dissidents at bay

This slick robotic four-legged police unit, dubbed KA-9 by LEGO builder Red Spacecat, has such a polished aesthetic to it that I could almost see it called the “iProtect” in our dystopian future. The ultra-grippy toes made of rubber Technic axle connectors is a genius design, and the subtle detail of eschewing larger tiles for a series of 1×1 tiles on the upper legs gives the perfect impression of heavy armor plates.

This kitty is no matoran’s pet

A small group of Bionicle builders have been reworking sets and themes from the early years of the Bionicle theme. They have just recently released pictures of another collaboration in my favourite Bionicle subtheme – Rahi (basically “animals”) from 2001. This build is Muaka from the 8538-1 Muaka & Kane-Ra set, reimagined by Red.

There is so much to love in the set’s reinterpretation. The builder stays faithful to the original with hoses on front legs and treads on the hind ones, but integrates them perfectly to achieve a smooth flow. And speaking of smooth flow, the tail is quite organic, made out of a 3mm flex tube element going through yellow 2×2 dish pieces and small tyres. My favourite part is the use of giant arms on the mouth, giving it the feline look that the original set lacked (which always looked more like two T-rexes…).

This Bioni-frog is one wild amphibian

LEGO constraction (construction action figure) themes like Bionicle have introduced a broad range of parts, which many builders have leveraged to create organic-looking creatures. Such is the case with this lovely Ghekula Frog built by Djokson, which they describe as “an amphibious swamp-dwelling Rahi.” I suspect the red-eyed tree frog inspired the build, as is evident in the lime green body, white underbelly, and red eyes. Of particular interest are the feet, which utilize blue robot arms and minifigure arms as toes. The end result is one lively amphibian.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.