Tag Archives: Joffre Bricks

LEGO Nausicaä glides to a brighter future

Before co-founding Studio Ghibli and going on to win two Oscars for Best Animated Feature, it was Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind that cemented Hayao Miyazaki as Japan’s great animation auteur. Joffre Zheng pays tribute to the film with a brick-built Nausicaä on her swooshable glider racing over a herd of Ohmu as they skitter across the desert. The diorama uses forced perspective to sell how high Nausicaä soars over the titanic bugs. The use of bowed slopes to give the dust clouds a sawtoothed edge does a great job evoking Miyazaki’s style and conveying the Ohmus’ terrifying speed. As a bonus detail, Nausicaä’s glider features an LED that lights up with a button press.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

For other masterful Nausicaä models, check out these builds from Tino Poutiainen, TBB alum Iain Heath, and Alex Hui.

Busting a Stitch

Stitch is an adorably cuddly alien lost on Earth, and as the weirdest blue teddy bear he’s rather difficult to translate into LEGO. But this bust by Joffre Zheng is fantastic, capturing his expressive eyebrows and ears with ease, while also employing a variety of shades of blue. Joffre says the internal structure consists mainly of Mixel ball joints, which help him achieve the odd angles of many of the pieces, like the quarter circles for the eyebrows.

Stitch

I’m looking for my son Nemo... oh, nevermind, he’s right here.

If you suffer from coulrophobia, you have nothing to worry about, cuz this clown…fish by Joffre Bricks is not that kind of clown. Known for their bright orange bodies with white stripes, the clownfish, which also has a fancy Latin name (Amphiprioninae), is such a happy little fish that wouldn’t scare anybody. The gently swaying tendrils of the anemone may be deadly to other fish passing by; the clownfish has nothing to worry about.

Clownfish

That one frog from the poster!

One of the most famous frogs in the world is the red-eyed tree frog. This gloriously rainbow-colored amphibian has graced many a poster. In fact, I had the one with them stacked on top of each other hanging on my own wall growing up. What I didn’t realize at the time was that those cute little ones definitely aren’t babies… Anyway, Joffre Zheng continues the admiration with this roughly-lifesize LEGO sculpture. Simple but adorable. Fun fact: their vibrant colors are mostly for attracting mates, but also safety. They try to keep the colorful parts of their body hidden while they rest on leaves. Then when a predator comes, they open their eyes and flash those legs to startle the would-be killer.

Red-eyed tree frog

Another fun fact: the scientific name for this rainforest creature is Agalychnis callidryas, and the species part of that name derives from Greek words meaning “beautiful tree nymph”. Fitting, right?

You can check out more cool animal builds in our archives, as well as more creations by Joffre.

Swol Santa is ready for Christmas

Santa Claus is ready to thwack some holiday cheer into the grinchiest of Scrooges. Created by builder Joffre Zheng, this ripped LEGO Santa spends the whole year getting swol to make up for all the cookies he eats on Christmas eve.

White Beard

No beard? No problem. The white pointed mustache is all that’s needed to convince me to stay on the nice list. I really like how well this model is put together. The boots and pants both give a rustic feel to an already super manly Santa. The lack of a tall, pointy hat increases the size of his jaw, adding to the “I bench-press a dozen elves everyday ” vibe.

Let’s look at the candy cane. Some might complain that it’s not as curved in the crook as candy canes usually are, but here it works. The brutalist lack of gentle curves adds to the toughness of the build. I guess Santa’s body was less of a bowl full of jelly than we thought.

Harry holds on for dear life

We’ve all seen plenty of LEGO models showing minifig-scale scenes from the Harry Potter books and movies, so it was quite surprising to see Joffre Bricks come up with a wonderfully whimsical take on the flying car scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Using just a few simple plates with clips for the arms, and a very blocky style for the car takes nothing away from this delightful depiction. And while the round white plates with a center hole may be perfect for Ron’s bulging eyes, Harry’s giant terror-filled eyes are pure genius.

Hold on Harry!