I love seeing well-done, easily recognizable brick-built creatures. I usually see the bigger ones, like mammals and the like. What I don’t often see are adorable insects done in brick.
This butterfly by Dave Foreman (thirdeye88) caught my eye. It’s instantly recognizable, and I have to say I love the vibrant color the wings get from his choice of elements.
Sadly for those whose star sign is not Sagittarius, this awesome six-limbed archer by French builder Nicolas Picot is not to be part of a series, but was built for a Zodiac themed round in a contest underway on BrickPirate.net. But I’m ok with that because I’m a Pisces (…you know, thoughtful, impulsive, outgoing, shy, pragmatic, dreamy, hard working, lazy, always calm, and quick to anger).
Unless you’ve been living on the nerd equivalent of Mars for the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard about Exploding Kittens, a new card game featuring artwork and character designs from Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal. It has already become the largest Kickstarter campaign ever, at this point just shy of $6M in funding from 150,000 backers.
To unlock project stretch goals, the game’s creators have challenged backers to post photos of themselves accomplishing certain “achievements”, such as posing with goats or cramming five spidermans into a Kayak. Nick Della Mora decided to do his part by contributing photos of a taco cat, magical enchilada and potato cat built from LEGO. Which meant he could follow the artwork on the cards, rather than torturing actual household pets!
If anyone feels like creating “weaponized back hair” out of LEGO next, we’d love to see it…
Considering all the rubbish TV shows I used to love as a child, I was undoubtedly very good at suspending my disbelief. However, even as a child I knew Dinobots make no sense whatsoever.
I can understand that, for a robot of alien origin on Earth, the ability to turn yourself into a car and blend into a crowd might make some sort of sense. However, disguising yourself as a 15 ft. tall metallic dinosaur does not strike me as a particularly sensible way to become inconspicuous. I am also sure that their personalities irked me.
Still, that does not mean Dinobots cannot be exceedingly cool as LEGO models, as shown by the tiny but fully transformable versions of Grimlock and Sludge built by Chief Supreme. I like the use of minifig headgear for the robots’ heads in particular. Dinobots may be stupid, but these are definitely clever.
This mesmerizing Phoenix is made entirely from transparent bricks, and was created by Moko as an entry in the Click Brick 2015 Winter Original Model Contest. Starting next month, LEGO stores all across Japan will be showcasing competition entries created by local builders. One of the interesting features of this contest is that every model has to fit within a 20 stud x 20 stud wide, 30cm high space. We’ll be keeping an eye out for pictures of the best entries, and featuring them right here.
For about four years I have been living next to a canal inhabited by crested grebes, gulls, coots and ducks and visited regularly by swans, herons and cormorants. The coots, in particular, are immensely funny. They are reluctant flyers that tend to run across the surface of the water, whilst flapping their seemingly too small wings, instead of actually taking to the air. They are also fiercely territorial and are constantly chasing ducks and other coots away. Their shenanigans put a smile to my face every time.
It will come as no surprise then that I also had to smile at the wonderful pelican built by vir-a-cocha. It was built using only twenty pieces, which goes to show that you don’t need an awful lot of parts to build something that has character, as long as two of them are tiles with eyes printed on them.
The penguins from Madagascar, built by Peter Dornbach (dornbi), also make good use of said tiles and, inevitably, also made me smile. You can support these on Lego Ideas. Penguins may all seem indistinguishable, but one of the neat things about this wacky foursome is how Peter managed to make each unique and recognisable.
2015 is the year of the Sheep*. So in celebration of the new year, Moko has created an adorable little mascot to ring in the festivities. The wooly fleece underbelly of this sheep is just too cute.
*Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram, depending on which version of the Chinese zodiac you look at.
Djordje found this fellow lurking down in the dungeons and I think that is where he should stay. He really looks like he has earned his nickname but I really like the choice of colors on this character. The black clothes make the orange skin really stand out and the purple mohawk makes for a nice splash of color. The construction of the face on this guy is rather special as well. The tooth/claw pieces as detail bits around the eyes give this creature some real character.
Joel Baker is the agent for this team of misfits and directly responsible for their behavior. I don’t know about you but I don’t want these guys pawing around my roof on Christmas Eve, blacklight nose or not!
I love how Joel got so much expression into each of these deer. They may only be the ‘B’ team but they have a lot of personality!
Jin Kei has been working on a tribute to Salvador Dali for some time now. I don’t know if he is finished but this herd of stilt-walking, steampunk elephants was too good not to post.
I can’t imagine how fragile they are or how he got them all balanced. That alone is quite the feat. But technical aspects aside, these creatures are beautiful. I’d love to see them in person as I’m sure they are even more impressive. Make sure you take the time to look at the detail pictures in his photostream. It’s definitely worth it.
Paul Lee just let loose with this little creature from hell. The articulation is cool but it is the rosy cheeks and impish grin that do it for me on this build. Plus the use of the snake for the tail is rock solid.
Cole Blaq makes the dunes come alive with this creepy-crawly. Cole has really created an organic feel on this crazy sand monster by using a variety of minifigures pieces mixed with Bionicle. It also has a cool menacing air that is created by the pose and the bursting effect around it’s body. Lovely!
