Tag Archives: Dan Ko

There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow this St. Patrick’s Day

LEGO builder Dan Ko wishes us all good luck and fortunes on this St. Patrick’s Day. I checked my lineage and I’m Portuguese, French-Canadian, Polish, and Ukrainian. No Irish. No matter our heritage we can still appreciate the neat techniques used to construct this lucky leprechaun. If it’s alright with everyone I may still have a healthy pour of Jameson later and toast in honor of all my Irish friends. And if anyone kisses me today thinking I’m Irish, then I’ll just smile, raise my glass, and take it all in stride. If you celebrate the occasion, then Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you and yours.

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A carry-on that can carry you away

Have you seen the chaos that is air travel lately? Well, Dan Ko has crafted the perfect solution for the weary traveler. This Pacman Speeder is a hoverbike that gets you where you need to go in a hurry. And, when you reach your destination, it’s small enough to fit on a bellman’s cart and store in the hotel closet. Now that’s traveling in style.

This tiny Star-Lord makes us wanna dance

The new trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 just dropped this past weekend, so what better time to look back on the previous installments of the franchise? Dan Ko was inspired by the upcoming Star-Lord’s helmet set to build a smaller version of the helmet, and then he completed the look with a brick-built Star-Lord. Peter Quill’s signature Vol. 1 look is recreated to great effect here, with the minifigure cape and wedge plates forming his long coat. And suspending the figure in the air via the thrust of his jet boots is the perfect finishing touch.

The hippest holiday builds we’ve ever seen.

We’ve often praised Dan Ko for his inventive parts usage, but these two Christmas ornaments might just take the cake…or fruitcake, as it were. Starting with a set of legless minifigure hips as faces, Dan has crafted Santa and the traditional Christmas Nutcracker as ornaments suitable for hanging on any LEGO fan’s tree.

Santa’s got minifigure parts working overtime, as a single leg fills in for his beard. And I’m particularly impressed with the small space Dan was able to leave in the Nutcracker to denote his chompers. Make sure to check out more of our coverage of Dan’s impressive builds right here.

Stone Pinocchio still wants to be a real boy

Dan Ko reimagines the story of Pinocchio but then in stone bricks instead of wood. Well, really it’s LEGO bricks of stone, but you get the idea! The little stone mason has been quite busy creating a lot of rocky statues. The main figure is the one of a little boy that is told to come alive by magic. However the other two statues in the picture really deserve to be highlighted too. The dragon is amazing and the figurehead is quite exceptional as well. Dan also created a lot of different hammers and tools the stone mason uses to craft his exceptional sculptures.

A happy little dragon with a hobby

Humans aren’t the only ones who like to build castles out of LEGO! Sometimes dragons do too, like this cute little red one from Dan Ko. This nerdy dragon, Nurdley, comes to us for the BrickNerd Nerdvember contest. This year’s theme is High Fantasy, which means this dragon will feel right at home with his custom castle. I just love this build! It’s a small build, but that just means there’s got to be all sorts of clever parts usage. It’s easy for things to take on a blocky design with LEGO, but there are some really cool parts that can add curves and shape to a build. Take for example the minifigure phone pieces for Nurdley’s arms. Or the excellent usage of car seats for his wings. Even the castle uses some cool parts for further texture and definition, like the pieces making up the tower.

A broom that zooms

Keep your eyes on the skies this Halloween. You never know when this witch by Dan Ko might dive-bomb you. This tiny build is big on character, with just a few lime green pieces forming a gloriously grumpy witch’s face. Cleaver use of cleavers make the perfect pair of arms. And it’s all suitably suspended in the air with some of Spider-Man’s webbing. (It just occurred to me, I bet Peter Parker can decorate for Halloween in no time flat.)

The corpse groom

In the past I may or may not have had a slight addiction to a certain mobile game that involved plants and zombies. This adorable little LEGO zombie created by Dan Ko reminds me of this game. The zombie looks like a happy medium between a zombie and a plant. But that may just be because one of his legs is a carrot top connected to a leaf tile and the hands are made of green claws, which I’ve seen used as grass or plants numerous times. One of the best parts of this creation is the fact that the Hulk had to sacrifice one of his hands for the head of this well dressed zombie.

Icon see what you did there: these LEGO versions of Elvis, Freddie, and Michael Jackson are amazing!

When it comes to iconic rock stars, there are few as easily recognizable Elvis, Freddie Mercury, and Michael Jackson. And now, talented builder Dan Ko has taken those memorable personas and transformed them into miniature LEGO statues. These tiny titans combine instant name-recognition with very clever part usage. For example, check out the ingots forming Elvis’ sideburns, the yellow handlebars in Freddie’s jacket, and the white croissants as Mike’s arms – clever stuff!

If you’re interested in building your own set of these, instructions will be available for purchase starting October 15th as part of 2022’s Creations for Charity drive. But while you wait, be sure to check out our archives for more musical goodness!

A flying purple people eater

HBO’s House of Dragons has nothing on Dan Ko. Dan has crafted an adorable dragon rider as part of the yearly Creations for Charity fundraiser. Both the rider and the dragon have short limbs that extend from big cylindrical pieces for the torsos, almost like a couple of fantasy corgis. We’d be delighted to catch a glimpse of this duo flying overhead.

Do not be alarmed. This is only a (man)drill.

LEGO builder Dan Ko has been producing a lot of small stuff lately but we’ve clearly been mighty impressed, by golly! He takes a couple of blue bike helmets, a red lightsaber handle, a Minifigure beard and a few other pieces to cleverly construct this mandrill bust. There is so much character and expression for such a small build. It’s part of what makes Dan’s work so impressive. This is only a LEGO mandrill but I’d still advise not to make eye contact, just in case. While trying to keep peace with this primate, you ought to back away (very slowly, and for the love of God, don’t show your teeth!) and check out the myriad of other neat little things Dan Ko has built lately.

Check out the hit new kids’ show “Golden Compass Babies”

Okay, so maybe it’s not a real show. But Dan Ko has got us wishing it was. After a viewing of His Dark Materials, Dan was inspired to build a tiny panserbjorn. An armored polar bear has never looked more huggable.

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