Every week readers of the The Brothers Brick Telegram channel choose the Creation of the Week: one project that impressed all of us the most. This week it’s a tie! Dracomata by Michael Kanemoto and king box by Pan Noda both conquered hearts of our readers, getting equal amount of votes.
Meanwhile, the new vote is already on! Join our Telegram channel to follow all the best LEGO creations, latest news, and, of course, vote for your favorites. See you there!
Sometimes a LEGO creation comes along in which even the most jaded of us are compelled to stop what we’re doing and just take it all in. This is the case with LEGO Masters contestant Michael Kanemoto and this piece simply called Dracomata. Michael tells us this took roughly eighty hours over a two-week period. He goes on to say this clip and bar construction boasts almost no typical LEGO stud connections. The end result is something akin to Victorian Clockwork. Maybe that is why the overwhelming feeling you get is to just stop and take it all in. Even the non-LEGO pedestal enhances the experience, giving museum-like quality to this piece.
My passages are normally flooded with jokes and puns but this piece has me lost for words but in a good way. This is becoming one of those “I’m just gonna leave this here” moments so I’ll do just that and allow the breathtaking closeup to speak for itself.
Sometimes bigger is better and sometimes scale can look quite deceiving. This LEGO creation by Liu Di Kai looks quite big but my guess is that in person it is massive. Whenever a build gets really big, parts used to add details tend to be less noticeable. If you look closely you can actually spot the Baby Yoda head used on top of the lowest temple roof as an ornament. Sure, the part is quite tiny, but it is hardly noticeable due to the sheer size of this creation. The ninjago dragon amulet is quite a big part, but even that looks teeny tiny. This is one of those creations that definitely deserves a quick zoom-in so you can discover all the hidden details.
Dragons are always cool, especially when they hang out at high altitudes among the clouds. Andreas Lenander delivers a LEGO bust of a bright red dragon with beautiful details and colors. He uses curving slopes to give the dragon the appearance of scales. You can see this to great effect on the dragon’s throat where the slopes serve this purpose most expertly. There’s some good use of gold pieces to give the dragon a regal look, especially on the whiskers! Because of the clever use of curving pieces, the whole build has a nice flow, like the wind is blowing past the dragon. The cloud base itself has some nice curvy lines to it, giving it a fluffy sort of appearance. You can take a closer look at this build by checking out the video Andreas released for it. He gives some of his own insights, while showing the build from different angles.
We’ve all got that favorite LEGO set from childhood that holds a special place, and Gunnbuilding has reimagined one of his in this revamp of the classic Witch’s Windship. Gunnbuilding has updated both the dragon and basket from the original set to great effect. The brick-built dragon maintains everything that made the classic dragon so popular, including the arched neck, the narrow jaw and red wings. I’m particularly fond of the solution to create the Dragon’s yellow neck and stomach using the spoiler piece. Because this is a digital build, Gunnbuilding was able to color the mixel joints for more seamless styling. If only we got these parts in a wider colour palette…
The witch’s basket has also had a pleasing revamp – less a cauldron and more ship-like in design. Increasing the size has allowed further decoration. The Fright Knight shield, courtesy of a recent CMF series, is a welcome addition. And a skeleton figurehead adds a perfect touch of horror.
Builder Dad’s Bricks has a reputation for excellent Asian ink paintings made of LEGO. This latest addition to the gallery is a gorgeous golden dragon. But unlike a 2-D ink painting, the model springs to life, popping right off the canvas of plastic along with some surrounding clouds and crags. The colors here are so vivid – angular gold and tan scales standing in stark contrast to the wispy white feather parts coming off the beast. This is most pronounced around the dragon’s face, as its mane of whiskers accentuates the pair of 2×2 round tiles in pearl gold staring directly at you. It’s clear there’s ancient wisdom held within, but only shared with those worthy of such secrets.
![[LEGO] Ink Painting - Dance of Dragon 《潛龍登峰》](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52538719742_3e43b7564e_b.jpg)
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.
When I think of nice parts to use in building a dragon, plants are not particularly high on the list, but Andreas Lenander clearly had fun building this dragon bust that looks like it belongs in a parade. I spotted at least 3 different plant elements used to create a feathery plumage, and an eye-catching detail (see what eye did there). Oh, and what dragon would be complete without gold? – particularly the ring element used to adorn the ears.
Ids de Jong invites us into the fantastical realm of Dawnward as a terrifying earth dragon approaches the castle. This microscale scene makes terrific use of parts to convey shape and texture – from the grill tiles forming battlements along the castle walls, to the minifigure chopsticks working as the dragon’s head. The result is a serene autumn day that is about to end in fire and blood. I hope those wagons at the castle’s entrance can make their escape in time.
Bonsai has been done in LEGO before but this wonderful take by Isaac Wilder gives it new life with this stunning dragon shape! At first glance this could just be another bonsai tree but closer inspection reveals it’s true nature. Isaac uses some fantastic techniques to create the dragon head shaping like the use of the rubber band to hold various bars to keep the organic design. And the simple transparent green stud blends in well while still serving as the eye. The base is the same as the official bonsai set so this will look right at home on any fantasy bookshelf!
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.
Sometimes little details get lost on big LEGO models. This is not the case for Marius Herrmann’s latest LEGO creation. This one is big! At least 50 bricks high not counting the antenna. We are looking at a model loosely inspired by ‘The Legend of Anchin and Kiyohime’. I am not at all familiar with the story so I’ll just take Marius’ word that it is about unrequited love. After being rejected one of the characters transforms into a dragon to trap the other in a temple. This is beautifully translated to this build where we can see a tree with lavender foliage violently wrap itself around a Pagoda. I love how subtle yet evident the dragon shape is hidden in the tree. If you focus on the temple you’ll lose the dragon. But if you focus on the tree the dragon is most definitely there.
