Tag Archives: Donny Chen

With 7,000 pieces, this golden LEGO dragon welcomes in the New Year

Next weekend, the LEGO convention Brickvention will return to Melbourne, Australia, bringing with it so many brick-built creations from the continent. Now we’ve seen some pretty impressive stuff from this show in past years, so it should be no surprise that a LEGO dragon of this scale will be making an appearance for this year’s con. From the mind of Donny Chen, this marker of the coming Chinese New Year 2024 can stretch out to 2 meters long and contains 1300 2×4 oval tiles as golden scales.

As impressive as the body is, with a flexible skeleton supporting all those tiles, the dragon’s face is also quite the marvel. Pearl gold has a fairly limited part palette, but Donny is still able to create some fantastic shapes in constructing the eyes, crown, and jawline of this majestic mythical beast. I particularly like his use of 1×1 slopes to create the appearance of small scales along the dragon’s snout and chin. I hope those of you able to make it to Melbourne can enjoy it in person.

Fresh from the oven, it’s the ginger-brick man

We’re all familiar with the loveable LEGO minifigure, right? And some recent sets and creations have also brought us the big-fig, whether from Harry Potter, Castle, or even a generic theme. But what about the minifigure representation on a medium scale? Donny Chen introduces us to a fresh-baked midi-scale LEGO figure with his delicious gingerbread man. In these post-holiday times, I must admit there’s such a thing as too much sugar. So thanks, Donny, for tempering the size of this cookie-fied fig to something more diet-friendly.

LEGO and a little red bicycle [Video]

If you think about it, it’s probably safe to say that more people in the world know how to ride a bicycle than operate an automobile. In fact, there are some countries where riding a bike is the preferred mode of transportation. It’s also not surprising to know that Denmark, a friendly, quiet, and quaint country (and the home of LEGO) is one of the world leaders in using bicycles for transportation. This working LEGO bike, built by Donny Chen pays homage to bikes everywhere.

Working LEGO Bicycle

The details are totally awesome, from the body shape to the realistic drive-train, freewheel, and pneumatic disc brakes. You’re going to want to watch the video below to get a full tour of all the excellent features!

Wondering why there’s sheet music on the bike’s rack? That’s a nod to Donny’s magnum opus: the incredible LEGO Ideas set 21323 Grand Piano. Yep, he’s the fan designer of one of the coolest LEGO sets of all time! Check out our review, linked above.

LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano makes music starting Aug. 1st [News]

LEGO Ideas has revealed its biggest set yet, 21323 Grand Piano. The massive musical model comes with 3,662 pieces that make up the 25-key keyboard, sleek black lid and body, working internal hammers, and even an original composition. The set will retail for US $349.99 | CA $449.99 | UK £319.99 beginning August 1st (becoming the most expensive LEGO Ideas set ever).

The Grand Piano comes with a motor, smart hub, and sensor used to connect to the LEGO Powered Up app which creates the sound. The piano can be played in either a “self-play” toy piano mode where hitting any key produces the next note in a selected song, or in an “auto-play” mode where the piano moves randomized keys while the app produces music like a player piano.

The Brothers Brick got an early preview of the Grand Piano from the LEGO Ideas design team, so we have included some interesting facts and quotes about the set throughout the article below.

Take a closer look at the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano.

The Pirate Bay, 123 Sesame Street, and Playable LEGO Piano projects are the new LEGO Ideas sets [News]

LEGO Ideas First 2019 review results have just arrived. During the first-ever review results live stream on the LEGO Ideas Facebook page hosted by Samuel Johnson (LEGO Ideas Design Manager) and Hasan Jensen (LEGO Ideas Engagement Manager). Not one, not two, but three LEGO fan-projects — The Pirate Bay project by Bricky_Brick, 123 Sesame Street project by bulldoozer21, and Playable LEGO Piano project by SleepyCow have been announced to become the next official LEGO Ideas sets.

Click here to learn more about the next LEGO Ideas sets…

This LEGO piano is taking baby grand to a whole new level [Video]

Donny Chen is a musician, piano teacher, and piano tuner. That would explain the epic mastery behind this phenomenal LEGO instrument. I’m a piano player myself, and grew up fascinated with the inner-workings of our own (life-size) grand piano. I must say, this little marvel is basically the complete package!

Lego Piano

While it doesn’t have all 88 keys that a real grand piano would have, it does have a very similar mechanism.

Lego Piano

Click to read more about this incredible model and watch a video of it in action!