Every week readers of the The Brothers Brick Telegram channel choose the Creation of the Week: one project that impressed all of us the most. This week it’s a tie! Dracomata by Michael Kanemoto and king box by Pan Noda both conquered hearts of our readers, getting equal amount of votes.
Meanwhile, the new vote is already on! Join our Telegram channel to follow all the best LEGO creations, latest news, and, of course, vote for your favorites. See you there!
Sometimes a LEGO creation comes along in which even the most jaded of us are compelled to stop what we’re doing and just take it all in. This is the case with LEGO Masters contestant Michael Kanemoto and this piece simply called Dracomata. Michael tells us this took roughly eighty hours over a two-week period. He goes on to say this clip and bar construction boasts almost no typical LEGO stud connections. The end result is something akin to Victorian Clockwork. Maybe that is why the overwhelming feeling you get is to just stop and take it all in. Even the non-LEGO pedestal enhances the experience, giving museum-like quality to this piece.
My passages are normally flooded with jokes and puns but this piece has me lost for words but in a good way. This is becoming one of those “I’m just gonna leave this here” moments so I’ll do just that and allow the breathtaking closeup to speak for itself.
I tend to love LEGO creations that have a lot of different little parts used to create the most intricate details. This creation by Michael Kanemoto does not fit that brief at all. If my count is correct, they feature no more than 20 different pieces. Most of these pieces were only used several times.
Michael uses two of these pieces in abundance — the leaves and carrot tops. These two hero ingredients get used to create the main body of the cat and the mouse. The leaves do a wonderful job mimicking the texture of fur on both animals. Although the cat is truly amazing, the mouse is what really gets me going. It is so cute, so small and yet so detailed. I wouldn’t mind having this one on display for a really long time. Just look at those whiskers and those cute beady eyes!
I think it’s a universal truth that fans love a good mash-up. Marvel and DC. Ninja Turtles and Star Trek. Transformers and Back to the Future. Smush two well-known properties together, and you often end up with something greater than the sum of its parts. That’s certainly the case here, with Michael Kanemoto’s take on two familiar LEGO themes. Friends and Ninjago fuse to become FRIENDSJAGO – a tale of BFF Ninjas, who have captured the airship of the evil warlord Ragamadon (that’s Regina + Garmadon). But Ragamadon would rather see her ship sink than let the ninjas have it, so she’s used her four swords to burst the ship’s balloon.
This alternate reality take Ninjago’s Destiny’s Bounty represents over 100 hours of build time. The entire model is three feet tall and nearly as long. But, perhaps most impressive, the build is suspended in midair on a single 1×4 Technic brick. Gravity-defying feet than I can only contribute to the combined powers of Spinjitzu and friendship.
Most folks in the world won’t be trick-or-treating this year on Halloween, due to the pandemic, nor will there be too many costume parties with bobbing for apples and lots of candy corn. But that should not stop anyone from building awesome wearable LEGO costumes, like this cat head by Michael Kanemoto. You might not get to wear it outside the home, but wouldn’t it be absolutely meow-velous for your next Zoom meeting or virtual conference? Sure, there are more studs showing than I typically prefer in builds, but I suspect it’s necessary here; anything more than the simple outer skin of plates would make this kitty too heavy to wear. And you want your audience to see that it’s LEGO, after all, so that they can be impressed by your skills. Oh, who are we kitten? They’d be scared by your meow-someness. But that’s ok, since it’s Halloween, right?
Check out more wearable LEGO builds in our archives here if you need more ideas for costumes!
What can you build using eleven pounds of Technic beams and wedge plates? If you said a LEGO midi-scale Star Destroyer you might be correct. However, if you said White Spirit Wolf you are likely Michael Kanemoto. Wedge plates and Technic beams are not the first things that come to mind when replicating natural elements but Michael pulls off the look nicely. He tells us this labor of love took about one-hundred hours on and off from April 30th to July 14th.
I particularly love the eyes; there’s a depth and cunning knowing to them. I’ve only viewed wolves from a safe distance but this LEGO creation possesses the same mesmerizing gaze as a real wolf in the wild. How can you stare into this face and deny it whatever it is that spirit wolves want? I’m smitten!
For most of us, tricycles were what we rode as kids, before we graduated to big-kid bicycles. Two wheels were cooler, faster, and just all-around better than three. And we all know how awkward it is to be the third wheel on a date; two wheels are always preferable in relationships and transportation (four wheels are fine, too; both double dates and cars can be lots of fun). After seeing this build by Michael Kanemoto, however, I am thinking that perhaps I threw away that third wheel too soon. That beefy back tire looks like it can get some serious traction, ready to rip up the surface of some alien planet in the quest for more speed, akin to a souped up Polaris Slingshot on steroids.
The frame is made of clips and bars, creating a technical-looking structure that is light and sturdy. Technic panels are placed on the outside to give it clean lines and a definite space-y vibe. I love the greebling of the underside of the cockpit area, including the old classic space flashlight and the ski. The massive transparent light blue canopy adds flair, comprised of several different elements that work well together. The trans-light blue is picked up in the hubcaps of that enormous drive wheel, explicitly in the knob at the center and hinted at by the layered printed dishes stolen from General Grievous and Isla Nublar visitors. I just hope those big wheels keep on turning, carrying the driver home to see his kin.
