Tag Archives: Joss Ivanwood

The final dragon from The Year of the Dragon

In the waning hours of 2024, Joss Ivanwood presented his final LEGO dragon for his Year of the Dragon project and it’s a doozy of a deer. Draconis Cervus takes inspiration from fallow and sika deer with their reddish nougat-colored fur and white underbellies. Joss tells us that the furry parts he has been using in this series are quickly becoming his favorite pieces but he takes particular pride with how the eyes turned out, which makes use of a Technic tow-ball inserted into a gray Mixel socket. What a lovely and satisfying end to an equally satisfying project! I look forward to whatever Joss will be doing in 2025. In the meantime, be sure to check out our Joss Ivanwood archives to discover highlights from the Year of the Dragon project and even older offerings from previous years.

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Shortlist announced for TBB Creation of the Year 2024 [News]

We cover loads of amazing LEGO builds over the course of a year on the Brothers Brick. In fact, over the course of the past 12 months, that’s over 700 individual creations! Now they’re all great, obviously – but every year, a handful really stand out to us, and we like to bestow upon one of them the Creation of the Year crown. It might be a creation that uses parts in a new and interesting way. Perhaps it’s a collaborative build, combining the talents of multiple builders to reach new heights (just like last year’s winners!). Maybe it’s so epic in scope and scale that we simply couldn’t stop thinking about it. One thing’s for sure: it will have taken our breath away! The TBB staff have trawled through their memory banks and our site archives to draw up a shortlist of 10 of our favourite builds. These won’t necessarily be the most popular – keep an eye out for that list in the coming days! – but we will announce the winner on New Year’s Eve. Read up on our nominees, and check out our previous winners in the archives!

Without further ado, let’s meet our nominees!

Draconis Scyphozoa – a jellyfish-inspired dragon

LEGO phenom Joss Ivanwood has been building a dragon every month in 2024; Year of the Dragon in case you’re wondering why. It turns out, eleven months into the year, this jellyfish-inspired dragon marks the first instance of creative block. It’s quite understandable, trying to design a dragon based on a jellyfish; I imagine there were several iterations of this magnificent beast, several head-scratching moments and maybe sleepless nights. But the end result is probably my favorite of the entire line. I mean, look at those tendrils made from legions of clips and that arching transparent bell. It’s proof that something can be deadly and beautiful all at the same time. Joss tells us that while he’s aware that jellyfish don’t have brains, he couldn’t resist including the new brain creature piece from the Mindflayer D&D minifigure. That’s a smart use for that brain piece!

We adore Jayfa’s smashing pumpkin dragon in LEGO

Usually, a ripe pumpkin invites you to carve its flesh to make a Jack-o-Lantern, but Joss Ivanwood‘s pumpkin creation needs no help in creating a scary face and it looks poised to carve you up if you get too close! Draconis Cucurbita is the 10th entry in Joss’ Year of the Dragon series of monthly LEGO builds and it’s one of his best. Big macaroni tubes are the star elements here, supplying the ribbed pumpkin bodies – a wonderful technique, with bananas filling in the gaps – and the snaking neck and legs. The long vine-like tail is especially effective at evoking a pumpkin patch. With only two dragons left in the project, we can’t wait to see where Joss will draw inspiration from next!

A fun guy with a passion for woodland adventure

Sometimes those bright red toadstools appear out of nowhere and you’re like, what otherworldly thing is this? Maybe LEGO creature builder extraordinaire Joss Ivanwood feels the same way when he discovers a toadstool. He’s been building a dragon a month for a long while now and September’s offering is called Draconis Amanita and is inspired by the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria). He tells us he’s always been fascinated by the way so many mushrooms grow from fallen trees, giving them new life. So, he fathomed it would be a cool idea to make the whole dragon as a group of mushrooms growing out of the same log. I bet this dragon’s mycelium network is off the hook! It’s probably the root of all awesomeness! I’ll just let myself out and go spore some bad jokes somewhere else.

Dragon meets Mantis Shrimp

The term “shrimp” doesn’t typically evoke an image of a fearsome creature, but what if you combined the obscure and dangerous Peacock Mantis Shrimp with a Dragon? Lego builder, and imaginative creator, Joss Ivanwood, who takes pride in designing and building “dragons, robots, monsters, and more,” has merged the otherworldly mantis shrimp with a dragon. The use of bright colors, combined with what can only be assumed is an expert-level application of LEGO Technic joints, transforms a fish’s nightmare into a vibrant and imaginative reality.

Draconis Wisteria is a garden-variety dragon with a twist

As we cross the halfway point of 2024, Joss Ivanwood (jayfa_mocs) continues his Year of the Dragon LEGO celebration with his sixth offering: Draconis Wisteria. June’s dragon is a tribute to the flowering wisteria vine. The idea first came to Joss at the start of the year, but it took until now for the vision to fully come together and the results truly soar. Joss excels at organic shaping in his builds, especially when liberated by the chaotic outgrowths of roots and vines, as he demonstrated with his orchid-inspired Demogorgon. The model masterfully incorporates a lot of snaking brown parts that you would expect with the theme, and a few parts you might not, like a hairpiece for upper maw, and golden One Ring eyes. This dragon is such a perfect execution of a concept that just feels right. I can imagine the majestic beast nesting on a pergola, draping its wings to create a lavender canopy and perfectly camouflaging itself in plain sight.

With six months remaining, I can’t wait to see what other imaginative spins on the dragon Joss has in store for LEGO fans.