Tag Archives: Jayfa

The guardian spirit of the woodlands

The ancient woods have even older guardians, and this one does not seem like one to be trifled with. Named Tyto, the mighty beast is part owl and part lion, with the antlers of a stag. LEGO builder Joss Woodyard has expertly sculpted the chimera to achieve an organic, regal shape.  The furry chest is made of Hero Factor armor pieces layered together, but it’s the wings that really sell the beast for me. The feathers are created with many different kinds of wing elements, but primarily several dozen white stylized wings from the Legends of Chima theme. They’re strung together with clips over a spine of flex tube to create the wings’ shapely curves.

Tyto

Oh, and that name? Tyto is the Latin name for the genus containing owls. This magnificent beast will watch over all his feathered friends.

All hail the Great He-Goat!

Francisco Goya’s disturbing Black Paintings — in particular “Witches’ Sabbath” or “The Great He-Goat” in the Prado Museum in Madrid today — have inspired Joss Woodyard‘s latest entry in the ongoing BioCup contest. The Satanic figure is surrounded by gloom, lit by a circle of candles, wearing a shaggy cloak made of black wings. The yellow lever base is terrifyingly perfect for the slit-eyed gaze of the Dark Lord, while minifig arms provide the split lip of the beast’s muzzle. In its left arm, the Devil carries what appears to be a swaddled child, perhaps a sacrificial victim.

The Great He-Goat

In addition to naturally organic shapes from Bionicle and Hero Factory, Joss softens the shapes further with tires and strings. All of this makes the He-Goat’s exposed rib-cage all the more horrifying, built from insect or spider legs. I can nearly hear the chitinous rustling as he lurches toward you in the dark…

Simurgh yourself in the lore of this mythical beast

As LEGO builders ourselves we are inherently already fond of the creations we write about here on The Brothers Brick. What makes me take special notice however is something like this Simurgh built by Joss Woodyard. According to Joss, the Simurgh is a unity between land and sky incarnate. According to Iranian legend, the mythical creature is so old that it has seen the world end three times over. Plus it will also rid your surrounding area of snakes, so there’s that. I’m seeing also a unity between System brick and Bionicle. This seems to be Joss’calling card as he has taken us through a menagerie of mythical beasts before.

The Simurgh

We’re gonna need one helluva scratching post!

Leave it to Joss Woodyard (Jayfa) to build something so alien yet we can still recognise it as a feline. That is a testament to this builder’s excellent choice of color, shaping, and pose-ability. The pneumatic T-bar as his nose and the Hero Factory armor as the mane are stellar parts usage. This is one cat I’d not want to meet in a dark alley or even a well-lit alley for that matter.

BattleCat

This satiated pose makes me feel slightly better but still.

BattleCat

I advise you to give this cat some catnip and tuck into Jayfa’s archive to see the other times we were totally wooed by his stuff.

Electric Boogaloo is Cyberpunk, right?

We’ve featured several of Joss Woodyard (Jayfa)‘s amazing LEGO characters and creatures in the past, but this one is probably my favorite. Cyber-Punk is a super-expressive build that feels like it stepped right out of a comic book. A Toa Okoto head is enhanced with magenta dragon horns and quarter circle tiles for a stylish hairdo. The highly poseable legs are Bionicle beams surrounded by rubber LEGO tires. And there’s a nice bit of detailing on the shoes with an ice skate for laces.

Cyber-Punk

This was built for the preliminary round of Bio-Cup 2020. I can’t wait to see what else comes out of that competition!

Beware of the ‘borg

If you haven’t seen Treasure Planet, you must. It’s one of Disney’s most underrated films. And if you have watched it, you can probably pick this guy out from a mile away. John Silver is a partially cyborg version of the classic Long John Silver character from the famous Treasure Island stories, and this LEGO version by Jayfa is an excellent recreation. Using balloon elements to create a rum belly is top-notch parts usage. He also wouldn’t be the same without his little space-goo buddy, Morph.

John Silver

We’ve featured Jayfa many times on TBB. If you’d like to see more of his exceptional work, check out our archives.

Your doom approaches (slowly)

They say bad news travels fast, but you’re the enemy of this battle turtle by Jayfa, then your bad day might take a while to arrive. This little four-legged LEGO mech is delightfully tank-like, just like its real-life armored inspiration, but unlike fleshy reptiles it’s got a big artillery piece letting it lob shells instead of just hiding in one. The ring of inverted 1×2 slopes (likely attached to a piece of flex tubing) is something we don’t often see on mechs, but gives this cold beast a great organic curvature. And of course, I have to mention the Bionicle shoulder plate for the head, which looks almost made for the purpose.

T-84 155mm Heavy Artillery Unit

A glowing write-up of a glowing build

When it comes to making superb creatures out of buildable figure parts, no builder is better than Jayfa. From dragons to dinosaurs, monsters to men, Jayfa can build them all and make them look amazing. This latest creation is no exception. Called the Oracle Dragon, it has glow-in-the-dark antlers, spines, and eyes, along with the coolest mustache since Lando Calrissian. It was inspired by a stop-motion puppet, and does a great job of capturing the look. With the posability of the joints, one could feasibly use the LEGO model for stop-motion movies, as well. That’d be cool.

Oracle Dragon

The wing elements from Legends of Chima look great as the tufts on the tail, and I love the translucent pieces on the underbelly of the beast. In fact, the whole color scheme is fantastic, including the splash of red on the back of the head. The antlers make interesting use of minifigure hands and flex tube for their unique shape (but don’t tell the purists, because I think the flex tube has been cut!). The best part of it all, though, is that face. I’m going to have to study the face to copy it for a dragon of my own down the line, because it is incredible, so simple yet so expressive. Curious what the eyes and antlers look like glowing? Here it is:

Oracle Dragon

The magic inherent in transparent purple LEGO bricks

I’ve always felt that there’s something magical about transparent LEGO bricks and that transparent purple LEGO bricks are extra magical. Builder Jayfa also sees something in those elements, as evidenced by their Voidwalker. The entire build is an ode to “nice part usage.” Hero Factory ball joints and armor create the body of an elegant beast. Meanwhile, White Hero Factory armor covers the body, leading to a head that combines Legend of Chima wings with an eerie black large figure armor for the face. Even the tail ends in style, with minifigure wings at the tip.

Voidwalker

According to the photo description, Voidwalker was built in just two days. I wish my own creations came together with such quick beauty!

The Demon’s price seems reasonable — he only wants your soul

Demons stalk the night. Or at least they do in Jayfa‘s world. This LEGO Bionicle creation is a wonderfully dark and brooding character, put together using a prototype mask and custom-designed wing membranes. The pose is excellent, powerful and intimidating, and the colour scheme is spot-on — those splashes of trans-blue work brilliantly with the pearl gold against all the black. Inexperienced warlocks beware, this probably wasn’t the low-level denizen of the Netherworld you meant to summon…

LEGO Bionicle Winged Demon Balrog

Hammer of the Gods

We’re seeing a lot of planetary themed builds lately and I couldn’t be more pleased. This time builder Jayfa takes on Pluto, deemed a planet in 1930, then shunned into the cold abyss of non-planetary status in the early aughts and then (depending on which publications you read) has been recategorized as a planet. Maybe. Wait, is Pluto a planet again this week? No matter what its official status, you can’t help but give some love to the distant little dwarf. Here Pluto has been embodied as a hammer-wielding dwarven cyclopian blacksmith with icy claw bits for a mustache and even his fists are an icy blue. Massive Viking wheels and trans-light blue webbed radar dishes make up the hammer. The photography, with its light and dark elements, is nothing short of magic. The end result is a blacksmith who makes weapons and armor fitting of the gods.

Pluto: The Celestial Dwarf

If you enjoyed this tribute to distant Pluto, be sure to check out Jayfa’s haunting huntsman mech and ferocious flower.

Kissed by a rose in a little shop of horrors

Some people think talking to plants helps them grow faster. To that, I say it’s all great until one of those plants turns into a man-eating flower bent on devouring you, green thumb and all. Unafraid of the consequences, Jayfa built this LEGO beauty of a ferocious flower. The curved stem and flower petals are cleverly formed using constraction (constructible action figure) elements, along with palm tree leaf pieces and a tan prickly bush. Fortunately, this looks like something you would find in a Castlevania game instead of your backyard, but you never know what the garden guru next door might be cooking up….

Kiss From a Rose

If you like fantastical creatures like this, you’ll also want to check out Jayfa’s colorful Rygas the Basilisk.