Tag Archives: Dragons

From Classic Castle, Creator, and Ninjago to Harry Potter and D&D, dragons have long been an essential part of the LEGO mix. Brick-built dragons are also a popular inspiration for adult builders, from medieval monsters to Chinese sky serpents. What type of dragon will you build?

Smug Smaug Sits Smartly in the Spotlight

There are a lot of Lord of the Rings LEGO creations out there, but Geneva Durand brings something extra to this offering. The great dragon Smaug sits atop a golden horde – pretty standard there – but this horde is lit from below with a warm yellow glow. The dragon’s form is excellent, with a good mix of red colors and a solid wing design featuring curved tile to create texture. Triangle tiles are clipped and wedged upright to create the creature’s spine, and golden horns are used to give him a grumpy expression over the Mixel 1×1 round printed tile eyes. The mix of golden-toned elements, chromed gold coins, and under-lit transparent elements, though, is what made this build stand out to me. Mainly because I wonder if Smaug’s body heat is melting that pile of gold, or maybe he just farts fire. Well, whatever it smells like, this build looks great.

Want more LOTR goodness? Check out some other featured builds!

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Smaug the brick-built dragon

We’ve seen LEGO Tudor-style buildings before, and quite often the building is the main focus of the creation. We’ve also seen LEGO brick-built dragons before, and just like the Tudor-style buildings, they too tend to be the main focus of the creation. Not so for KitKat1414, however. They built an amazing Tudor-style house to represent one of the houses of Lake Town and it is lit! No literally, it is on fire!

For the woodwork on the house, Kitkat1414 used window frames and filled those in with bars to represent the wooden beams. In other places, the window frames were filled in with cheese slopes representing stained glass windows. Often these types of buildings can be very earth-toned, and while that’s mostly the case for this one, if you look closely you can spot quite a few colours being used. There is a lot of sand blue and even some lavender hidden in the roof, and the house gets a dark green door which complements the dark red Smaug in a lovely way. The dragon itself is a true work of art and there are multiple parts used in very clever ways. One that really deserves a quick mention is the use of the Bionicle minifigure legs for the dragon’s nose bridge and eye sockets. The last part that deserves a little highlight is the angled bar with stud used to represent icicles. And naturally, there are quite a few Tolkien references hidden in this wonderful build. Can you spot them all?

LEGO Ninjago 71762 Kai’s Fire Dragon EVO – Ooh, that’s a burn! [Review]

The January 2022 Ninjago EVO theme has some very targeted “6+” age range offerings. LEGO designer Niek van Slagmaat shared on Twitter how that age range is a group that’s currently under-represented in Ninjago fans, and now LEGO aims to change that. Among the lures is LEGO Ninjago 71762 Kai’s Fire Dragon EVO, which will be available January 1st from the LEGO Shop Online for US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £24.99. This 204 piece set includes an upgradeable Fire Dragon, a drone, and three minifigures. Is this a set that will evolve to be a fan favorite? Read on and see what you think!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

LEGO Ninjago 71760 Jay’s Thunder Dragon EVO – A shocking growth spurt [Review]

We continue our tour of the January 2022 Ninjago EVO with the first of the “6+” age range offerings. LEGO Ninjago 71760 Jay’s Thunder Dragon EVO will be available January 1st from the LEGO Shop Online for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99. LEGO designer Niek van Slagmaat shared on Twitter how the 6+ age range is the targeted demographic for the EVO line, a group that’s usually under-represented in Ninjago fans. This 140 piece set includes the Thunder Dragon and two minifigures – will that be enough to tempt the younger crowd? How about the (sometimes much, much) older Ninjago fans out there? Read on and judge for yourself!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

LEGO Ninjago 71766 Lloyd’s Legendary Dragon – You want wings with that? [Review]

Most Ninjago sets are based heavily on the tie-in media, but the latest theme, EVO, takes a different direction. As LEGO designer Niek van Slagmaat shared on Twitter, this wave is meant to be “a line of Ninjago that [will] not only stand on its own without content but also be the epitome of Ninjago toys.” That’s a pretty challenging goal, but it does open up a lot of creative spaces for new adventures. We’ll be taking a close look at most of these sets, starting with LEGO Ninjago 71766 Lloyd’s Legendary Dragon. This 747 piece set will be available January 1st, 2022 from the LEGO Shop Online for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £54.99. Dragons are pretty safe territory for Ninjago – but how does this latest beast stack up?

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

LEGO Ninjago 71754 Water Dragon – Wherein Nya gets the blues [Review]

Ninjago is known for two main things (outside of Ninjas, anyway) – giant mechs and sweet, sweet dragons. The Seabound theme introduces another majestic beast into the mix with LEGO Ninjago 71754 Water Dragon. This 737 piece set is available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $69.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £59.99. In addition to the dragon there’s also a mini-sub, five minifigures, and a display pedestal. Sounds like a good mix, but is it really? We picked up a copy to find out – come along as we take our own deep dive!

Click to read the full hands-on review

This Gringotts has a Niffler problem

I love, love, love the big LEGO 75978 Diagon Alley. It got me through the first part of the pandemic. I do however have to admit that there is a big void in this set created by the missing Gringotts bank. The predecessor 10217 Diagon Alley did come with a Gringotts bank, but this one is of a much smaller scale compared to the buildings of the newer set. Stefan Johansson solved this problem for us. They created a larger-than-life Gringotts bank complete with a white marble facade, imposing columns, bronze doors, a track with little carts, underground vaults, and of course a dragon to protect all that gold. This build is ginormous. For the white facade, Stefan used a lot of white plates, instead of bricks, to create different patterns in the wall. You can hardly notice this from afar but this build is worthy of a quick zoom. There are a few parts that deserve a quick mention. The use of the hemisphere is quite clever. I’ll have to dig through my collection to see if I own it in that colour. Using the party hat in gold as a lightning rod is a very nice little touch that I might have to reuse at some point. This creation is filled with details and action features like the tracks. The carts actually work and the Goblins are just waiting to take you to your personal vault. Overall I love this build but I wouldn’t deposit my money there. It looks like they have a serious Niffler problem!

This frosty friend just wants to play, hopefully

Djokson has constructed this cheerful-looking wyrm in a chilly colour scheme, ready for winter. The head is mostly made up of ice-styled pieces, including Strakk’s mask from Bionicle which represents the nose of the creature. At first, the eye might appear to be a normal stud but it is actually a heart piece from the Clickits theme. A dots strap is placed across a balloon segment forming the creature’s stomach, portraying a round, organic look. The wings, in white and transparent blue, have only been featured in one set which was a large buildable Chima figure from 2014. By using a selection of unusual parts, Djokson has succeeded in creating a unique build with a cute and charming appearance.

The Rock Raiders theme gets an upgrade

Rock monsters beware! Deus Otiosus has constructed this fantastic tribute to the classic LEGO theme, Rock Raiders. The models mimic the colour scheme featured in the original sets which makes these creations feel all the more authentic. Snowshoes form the upper part of the dragon’s head with spear guns representing horns. The brown piping across the chest is similar to the style of the windscreen piece that was frequently used in the original sets. The wings have an unusual construction, with large fans at the upper areas and stacked clip pieces at the lower sections. There is also a fun speeder build which uses a Bionicle mask to form its front section. It seems the Rock Raiders have a powerful new ally, ready to pierce through layers of stone in order to find precious energy crystals.

Rock Raiders was one of those fantastic LEGO themes with rich lore and intriguing storylines. Check out more articles on custom LEGO Rock Raiders models, inspired by the boulder-breaking heroes.

Who knew a dragon could be so gorgeous?

I have to say, as a writer for TBB, I’ve seen A LOT of custom builds. I spend far too much of my time scanning Flickr and Instagram for the next awesome piece of art to share with you all. Maybe it’s the fantasy nerd in me, but this… is exceptional. This dragon, built by talented LEGO designer, Wes Talbott, is all sorts of awesome. The ombre, rainbow-esque coloring is so perfectly executed! Making it for The LEGO House collection, he fittingly calls it, “Chromalagous” but the beauty goes beyond the color palette.

The placement of the scales is so organic and detailed, it truly looks like the skin of a giant reptile. It certainly doesn’t look like LEGO at first glance. And I don’t know about you, but I find myself with my mouth agape, muttering “how?” questions. Those horns?! I’d love to get a look at the internal structure, but this has to take a great deal of sculpting talent. What techniques does he use to make all those odd angles? Your guess is as good as mine.

Wes is a prolific artist, both in LEGO and graphically. Check out some of his official work in our archives, including reviews of the new 21327 Typewriter and 21325 Blacksmith Shop.

Never make light of a Lizard’s bloodline

Though the Bionicle and Hero Factory lines died a while ago, plenty of fans still covet and horde the pieces that LEGO provided us during those golden ages. Nonetheless, builders hold onto the parts to provide some unique and specific detail to their character models. I had a chat with Alex_mocs about their build process for this model, Dawnpike Azaria, inspired by the Lizards in the game, Divinity: Original Sin. Alex challenged himself to sculpt a more feminine reptilian character saying that he hadn’t seen “many feminine coded dragon characters built from LEGO.” Thus, he had fun sculpting a lizard-like head with that energy in mind. He certainly did well, utilizing dragon wings, vines, and various other decorative elements to capture the frills and horns common to this character’s people. Though the color palette limited his piece choices, Alex made great use of them throughout Azaria’s figure. Her armor and jeweled necklace are wonderful details that work well to fill in the gaps that some pieces leave. Alex also found that gold hoops fit snugly around some rubber tires which made it possible for them to be stacked and hold their position. He used this technique in the neck, tail, and ankles. Meanwhile, Alex admitted to using a paperclip in the gold hose around her waist to help her chainmail skirt hold its shape.

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The fiery third Pokémon form: Charizard

If you gotta catch ’em all, then you gotta get Charizard. The final stage of the fire-lizard Pokémon, this LEGO Charizard is seen flexing his muscles as depicted by builder nobu_tary.

Nobu_tary is well known for their craftsmanship of animals and birds in LEGO form, as well as objects and characters from Japanese culture. Charizard is another testament to their skill with bricks, using a minimalist method to capture defining features without having to cram in every detail. Yet here, every edge and corner is perfectly fitting of the mighty dragon Pokémon. The use of orange minifigure legs is an example of that: you don’t see claws exactly, but you know they’re there.

I’m also really digging the flaming tail that is characteristic of Charizard. By using a few random red sloped bricks, nobu_tary is able to quickly convey the sense of fire without having to use flame bricks. You get the same experience with Charizard’s head. No eyes, yet its still obvious who this Pokémon is.

If you’re struggling to build a highly detailed LEGO animal or robot, I have good news for you: don’t. Nobu_tary is proof that less is more. Also, if you haven’t seen nobu_tary’s parody of the Year of the Ox LEGO set, you should. It’s hilarious.