Tag Archives: Dominique Boeynaems

Dominique Boeynaems joins LEGO as set designer – This is Fine!

Usually, the “This is Fine” dog gets dropped when things aren’t going well, but for the builder of this scene, Dominique Boeynaems, things are actually very fine indeed. Spectacular, even! This September, Dominique joins the LEGO Group as a set designer, joining Jiwoo Seon as a member of the AFOL community making the jump to creating the sets that we will all be building in years to come.

Dominique’s builds continually impress us with the ingenious parts usage, the wide range of themes and scales that the builder works with, and a joyful approach to building. Earlier this year, we watched with rapt admiration as Dominique earned Iron Builder status, winning the Iron Forge competition. His entries into the Rogue Olympics (Like the meme here) have been equally delightful.

Dominique shares the news:

I’m incredibly excited to share that starting this September, I will be a Product Designer for LEGO!

While I’ve not been part of the online LEGO community for very long, I have spent most my life with and around LEGO, and this is quite literally a dream come true. This has been something I have wanted to do and have been steadily working towards, since the very day I realised that there was someone at the other end, actually creating all these sets I’ve spent my entire youth playing with.

I’m so excited for this next step in my journey with the LEGO group, that started with a simple yet rewarding retail job in our local LEGO store, and I can’t wait to see a set that i design on the shelves, some years(?) in the future, and to help inspire a new generation of kids, as so many of us were once inspired.

Congratulations, Dominique, and may all your days as a designer be fine.

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How to squirrel away LEGO beard hair [Building Technique]

Maybe with the exception of minifigure hair, there are few LEGO parts that create shapes as interesting as those of the single-molded animal pieces. Case-in-point, Dominique Boeynaems puts a trio of gray squirrels to work creating the beard of this wizard aspiring to be a warrior. With their printed faces shielded from view, there’s little to take away from the furry tails of that scurry hidden on Merlin’s face.

Put your bricks down, flip it and reverse it

UNO isn’t just the card game that teaches kids to count to one in Spanish. It also spawned a TikTok trend with the iconic Reverse card, a totemic item so powerful that it can flip any situation back on the other person. Dominique Boeynaems recreates the most iconic card since the Black Lotus tapped for 3 with UNO’s game changer built from LEGO bricks. It may look like a simple design, but Dominique shows some impressive SNOT building skill to line up the arrows just so without gaps, using brackets as half-plate spacers. It’s such a remarkable likeness that seeing the build atop a pile of actual UNO cards, you’d be forgiven for missing that it’s LEGO at all!

Dominique’s UNO Reverse card was made for the “Backwards” challenge in the Rogue Olympics competition, which also inspired Woomy World’s taco cat.

This LEGO raccoon will steal your garbage and your heart

I’ve gone on record several times about my love of giving LEGO, especially when it’s a design of my own making for a specific friend or peer. And Dominique Boeynaems knows exactly what I’m taking about, with this brilliant raccoon construction that went to a friend of theirs. It’s such a tight, contained character with no part going to waste. I adore the pink hearts for its hind paws, and that ingeniously-fuzzy LEGO tail made of Technic gears.

Dominique Boeynaems pulls a-head with LEGO creativity

The Iron Forge competition just concluded its second week-long sprint where twenty builders were tasked with making creations using the ubiquitous LEGO minifig head as the featured “seed part.” So many delightful builds emerged from the prompt, but one builder kept delivering smiles: Dominique Boeynaems. Each of these builds is worthy of sharing on its own, but together they’re an inspiration to builders and a showcase of what makes the Iron Forge such a wonderful part of LEGO fandom.

Leading with Dominique’s final build, this nearly lifesize accordion came together during a 10-hour sprint and incorporates no less than 44 minifig heads for the keys. Vidyo straps work great for the handles. With the competition name and year worked into the instrument, it’s both a wonderful build and the perfect memento.

Dominque’s frog uses three minifig heads – two for the eyes and one for the fly. A car hood makes for a perfect amphibian forehead.

Click to see more of Dominique’s colorful and heady builds

“Arch” rival builds vie in Iron Forge [Feature]

The Iron Builder competition pits a veteran building champion against a challenger in a LEGO twist on the Iron Chef cooking show. But how does one become a challenger? One path is the Iron Forge competition, where everyone is invited to build and share models using the “seed part,” with the pool becoming a bracketed competition until one is chosen. The free-for-all phase just wrapped up, featuring the seed part of “any mudguard with only one wheel arch.” Here are a few that caught our eye.

“Fun at the Fair” by Dominique Boeynaems – 21 mudguards

“Mud-Guarded” by Bousker – 33 mudguards (each of those traps on the wall uses 4!)

Keep on rolling to more creative mudguard builds

A long time ago, in a savannah far, far away...

After a galaxy-wide sigh of relief, one of the first things that will have crossed the newly-formed New Republic’s mind will have been ‘OK, but what do we do with all this stuff?’. After all, the Empire had a some pretty formidable weapons of war that suddenly needed new purpose. Fortunately, budding entrepreneurs like LEGO builder Dominique Boeynams were on hand to transform them into something better suited for peacetime. Dominique managed to get an AT-AT all the way back to Earth (don’t ask how – I gather he had to promise a lot of freebies), chopped its top off, and now arranges safaris with a Star Wars twist. It’s actually perfect for the job; that heavy armour comes in handy when the lions get hungry, see. They tend to have better luck picking off unruly tourists doing their best Luke Skywalker impression…

Behind the bricks at The LEGO Store

Have you ever wondered what’s behind the pick-a-brick bins at your favorite LEGO Store? Contrary to persistent rumors, there are no elves or advanced Mindstorms robots running the show back there. Builder Dominique Boeynaems takes us behind that Employees Only door to reveal a warehouse full of shelving, boxes, and a pallet truck that should be instantly familiar to anyone who has worked in retail. There’s always something charming about LEGO builds dedicated to the less glamorous aspects of city life and Domnique’s build certainly captures the satisfaction and grace that comes from a well-organized space. The shelves are especially delightful, tightly packed with a mix of colored tiles with a few recognizable micro builds like the Hogwarts Express, Disney Castle, and a botanicals bouquet. It’s nice to see the minifig employees finding joy as well in this adorably mundane vignette.