Tag Archives: Dan Ko

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.

Pocket Santa

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.

The Nutcracker

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.

An Unexpected Request

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.)

Halloween Quick Builds: The Witch

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.

Zombie Walk

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!

Music Icons

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.

Dragon Rider

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.

Monkey business

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.

King of the North

Why sort when you can Groot?

Famed LEGO builder Dan Ko described a phenomenon that most of us know too well. He had a brown chair piece sitting out at his desk collecting dust for quite some time so instead of sorting it into its proper bin, he decided to build Groot with it. Then he figured, what’s Groot without his BFF Rocket? So because of Dan’s-laziness, I guess- we can all admire a quick little built chock full of fun character. Sorting can be a tedious business. You tell yourself you’re going to get to it someday and reach LEGO builder nirvana, which is zero brick unsorted, but then days turn into months and months into years, and, in the case of some of my friends, you have about an Olympic-sized swimming pool worth of unsorted brick. Do you all know anyone who has reached LEGO-sorting nirvana? Because I sure don’t!

Groot & Rocket

General Ko-nobi! You are a bold one.

Dan Ko has been bold enough to create a bust of everyone’s favourite rheumatic cyborg. Much like Darth Maul, General Grievous is one of those villains that just oozes evil but was perhaps under-used on the big screen. Nevertheless, Dan has perfectly captured the essence of Grievous. The combination of the reptilian eyes with those wedge slopes is so perfect! The lightsabers that he famously collects (General Grievous, that is, not Dan) around the base are also a nice touch. Even villains need a hobby, I suppose. I guess it’s more exciting than collecting stamps.

General Grievous Bust

Pint-sized dinosaur and friend are on the hunt

This adorable LEGO vignette of two characters from the animated show Primal, by Dan Ko is a fun scene. Even though it was built with a small number of parts, it is big on charm with some very clever part usage, like the Minifig bowtie used for the dinosaur’s eyebrows, and the claw part used for the feet. But that single clip for the two spindly front legs is perfect.

Spear and Fang