Tag Archives: Eero Okkonen

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen belongs in the pantheon of great builders. His innovative models mix System, Bionicle, and Constraction parts in mind-bending ways to create expressive characters, whether from beloved books and games or fully sprung from Eero’s imagination. Eero’s work has been showcased in the LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery, and he’s been a regular contributor to New Elementary, putting new parts through their paces and giving an AFOL perspective on new sets. Eero has been documenting his builds on the Cyclopic Bricks blog since 2012, allowing his journey as a builder to inspire countless others.

Alias: Pate-Keetongu

Stressed? Have a cup of tea

Builder Eero Okkonen is no stranger to The Brothers Brick. His large-scale figures are something of a legend around here, often featuring warriors, wizards, and sci-fi women. Today, he brings us a samurai warrior, joined by a maiko, or apprentice geisha sharing tea. He beautifully captures both the modest down-turned visage of the maiko and the tired pride of the old warrior. What makes this build unusual for Eero is that the stunning figures are set in a lush landscape, which features a blooming garden complete with Zen Buddhist shrines and a reflection pool.

I love the way he has used the texture of the undersides of 1×2 plates for the samurai’s armor, along with the decorative flowers stuck to them. The elbow brick in light bluish grey is used to good effect in both the facial hair of the samurai and the three legged shrine in the corner. You also don’t want to miss the golden chainsaw blade used as a hair ornament on the maiko! The whole scene is so tranquil that I wish I could go there and take part. Now where did I put my tea cup?

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Samurai mech: The ultimate upgrade

There are a handful of builders who consistently produce spectacular creations; Eero Okkonen is one of them. This time out he’s turned his attention to a reimagining of the classic 2012 Ninjago set 9448 Samurai Mech. It’s quite the upgrade! The official LEGO set is a little clunky and disproportioned, but in contrast Eero has designed a tough giant of a mech, which cleverly integrates the key aesthetic elements of the original, such as the gold stomach ring and katana blade. It’s however in the detailed building of the mech’s head, which utilises an array of black macaroni tubes and specialised elements to create its demonic features, that we see a master-builder lift his model out of the ordinary.

One fancy bike for a fancy rider

It looks like the classic chopper is never going out of style, as demonstrated by this futuristic looking bike with swooping handlebars by Eero Okkonen. I love the way that the wings on the rider’s boots are picked up as a detail on the back of the bike. One missable detail is the red bumper part used to support the rider as he’s leaning into those sharp turns.

I don’t know about you, but I am also getting a definite Akira vibe with those big red angled parts at the front and back of the bike. And speaking of red parts, the macaroni pipes give those boots quite the look.

If you like this model, be sure to check out some other creations by Eero recently featured here on TBB.

Rather large for a small dwarf

We have featured many character builds by Eero Okkonen in his big burst of creativity a while ago, and now he is back, as active as ever. While Eero’s style varies slightly from build to build, this stout dwarf still stands out as an outlier.

The build uses a smart selection of colours to present a ceremonial armour, dark gray as steel (or more probably some sort of truesilver) along with gold, and well-blocked brown as leather in the gloves and pants. Kanohi Masks of control from second generation of Bionicle are used as the shoulderplates, and binoculars with Viking horns and a bucket handle are used as a dragon-like ornament on the dwarf’s helmet. But the best detail has to be the beard, using a car grille to achieve a convincing texture.

A distinguished wizard of the eighth level

If you’re familiar with the Discworld novels, you likely know exactly who this is: Archchancellor of the Unseen University, Mustrum Ridcully. I must admit, I am not familiar with the books, but if you’re like me, that doesn’t lessen my enjoyment. This bust, created by the exceptional builder Eero Okkonen is gorgeous. The lines and features of people are hard enough to capture in drawings or clay, let alone LEGO bricks. Take a guess how he built those scowling lips. Genius!

We feature Eero’s incredible (and prolific) work often. Just take a look at his Slimefoot or an archer inspired by Lyndis from Fire Emblem.

The slimiest rat on the ship

Slimefoot the Stowaway is a Magic: the Gathering character that is most definetely not a rat, but his presence on an airship must have been much like a cross between a fungal rot and a rat problem with all the little saprolings he spread aboard the Weatherlight. Not sure what a saproling is? Me neither, and to be honest, nobody really knows anything apart from the fact that they are either of plantal or fungal origin and that there is a lot of them. Eero Okkonen has faithfully created Slimefoot and his pals.

With a mastery in human shape, Eero has done a great job of capturing what is basically a deformed humanoid with a mushroom top for a head and overgrowth all over his body. The colours are expressive, and the tentacles, while not present on the original art on the card, add a lot to the character and make for a great transition in the neck area. A great addition is all the little saprolings at the mushroom man’s side, whose various shapes really capture the mystical and magical appeal of the original art.

When you shoot a bow and arrow, you aim at the clouds....

When Eero Okkonen set out to build a female archer, he found inspiration in nomadic cultures and the character of Lyndis from Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series. Eero has built a reputation for building impressive-looking characters out of LEGO bricks, and his archer is no exception. In this model, bright, bold colors and earth tones play off of one another to great effect. In terms of form, the figure’s pose is realistic, from the stretch of the bow to the flow of the dress.

Eero makes excellent use of certain elements, such as barrels used to form a quiver and a balloon tire for the hair bun.

By what do we measure a man if not by his beard?

We recently noted in an article about RADIANT EXERT IV by Eero Okkonen how quickly the builder is producing his human figures, but then he comes back with a double-whammy and shares another one, but with a much longer beard. And beards make everything better. Just to emphasise how fast Eero actually is, you can check some dates of when his latest creations were photographed! And if that wasn’t enough, the builder reveals at the end of his personal blog post that he still has six more figures waiting to be uploaded!

But if we focus on his build instead of how Eero is a LEGO building cyborg monster who never sleeps, we can see quite the figure of Hans Langseth, the record-holder for the longest beard in history. The scale really opens up many possibilities for details, like cheek-bones made out of 1×1 round plates and a handlebar moustache made out of… handlebars! The beard is a simple technique of stacking 1×2 plates on one another on one stud only, forming a chain that pivots on these individual connections, forming a rugged and easily formable shape. All this is put into a more real environment with the ornate chair Hans is sitting on.

Femme fatale can be interpreted in many ways

We have seen many top-notch character builds from Eero Okkonen over the years, including his recent recreation of the Finnish band Circle, and it seems Eero has nailed the human form in bricks so well that he can pump them out with an (ironically) inhuman speed, with each better than the last!

The builder often takes inspiration from Japanese videogames and cartoons and his latest creation, RADIANT EXERT IV is no different. While there is no specific source material that Eero has tried to recreate, the bulky armour, bunny-ear ribbon in her hair and a miniskirt are unmistakably Japanese. There is a strange yet perfectly balanced mix of bulk and elegance, with eye-catching details like a sword with a laser blade made of Clickits string and wings on her boots.

Trying to build a balance

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen shows master-class LEGO character creation with the Herald of Scales, imagined in ancient Egyptian styling. The inspirational seed part for Eero here was the mini-doll skirt used as, well, segments of the Herald’s skirt! Equally notable is his use of chains as both embellishment and supports on her staff, and again as beautiful braided hair.

Eero details the artistic and building processes on his blog, which you can read here.

Perfectly pieced together

Every LEGO build starts somewhere. In the case of “Reverend Frantic” by Eero Okkonen, everything started with the chest. Eero notes on his blog that the build began with the inspiration for the chest, which is composed of two red big-fig arms. It’s a very curious piece to use as the chest of a figure, however the curvature of the element really adds fantastic visual interest to this build.

From the use of skeleton arms as fingers, to turning the 4-way lug wrench piece on the chest into what appears to be a cross when combined with a lightsaber blade holder… there’s quite a bit going on here the more you look.

“How is it possible to power a weapon of this size?”

What, you thought I’d just go with “It’s a trap!”? That’d just be lazy. (Also, repetitive.) Admiral Ackbar may not have had the most memorable line in The Force Awakens, but his presence at the Resistance base marked another point in the movie that reminded us we were watching a true Star Wars film again. Master character builder Eero Okkonen captures the essence of the Mon Calamari admiral with a variety of slopes, vehicle fenders, reins, and other sundry bits.

A few pieces of brown lend subtle texture to what would otherwise be a mass of dark red. His expressive eyes are built from a black 2×2 boat stud layered over a round 2×2 yellow tile.