Tag Archives: Nature

Guardian of the natural order

When I take in this LEGO God of Nature by builder Konstantin T, the first thing that comes to my mind is balance. I don’t necessarily get the vibe of a god solely focused on flora and fauna, but rather a deity representing the balance of the cosmos, of the “nature” of all things. And while this includes plants, animals, the elements, and even the visiting pilgrim, the angular, metallic nature of the altar leads me to thoughts of how those “organic” entities live in harmony with the natural world.

There is some truly breathtaking Bionicle craftsmanship in this design! The ability to use such large, single-purpose parts for tree trunks, stairs, and wisps of energy emanating from the god is outright stellar. But the peak of this build has got to lie in the design of the wandering pilgrim. Here’s a better view of our world-weary traveler below.

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Exploring the cycle of life and death in all its haunting beauty

The cycle of Life and Death is something that most don’t like to think about, because it’s seen as scary. However, as we see here in this LEGO build by Dylan Mievis, it can also be beautiful. This build is for the Bio-Cup contest, where builders have to use pieces from Bionicle, Technic, Galidor, etc. The theme is “Nature”, and there’s nothing quite so natural as Life and Death, which Dylan describes as a “beautiful symphony”. In the build we see a potted plant growing up and through the seated human skeleton. The thriving plant brings a sense of wonder and grace to what would typically be frightening and stark. Of course, the plant doesn’t hold a monopoly on beauty. The amount of detail in the skeleton is astounding! It’s not often we get to see the radius and ulna in skeleton arms, or the tibia and fibula in the legs.

Even the knee caps are present, and the fingers and toes articulate. The ribcage is impressive as well, a good use of horns. I really like the design behind the spinal column. The ball joint connector has always reminded me of vertebrae, and here it fulfills that purpose. And let’s not forget to mention the wheelchair! It’s full of fantastic Technic parts, from the wheels to the footrests. The simplicity of the plant twining throughout pairs nicely with the complexity of the skeleton and chair. There’s a bittersweet note with the gold ring on the skeleton’s finger, speaking to a life left behind… Altogether, this shows the balance and cyclical nature of existence. Life turns to death, and death to new life. Truly, a hauntingly beautiful harmony in the symphony of the universe.

Life-size LEGO raccoon, made of 3,750 pieces, is right up your alley!

With this taxidermist-quality replica of Procyon lotor, builder Felix Jaensch displays just how much can be done using primarily basic LEGO bricks and plates. I mean, this is the kind of shaping and contouring we’re used to seeing at LEGOLAND theme parks! The coloration here is perfect, and I especially like the pixelated fade from light to dark gray about halfway up the beast. Trying to balance a color gradient with 3D shaping can go wrong very quickly, but Felix handles it here like a pro.

Zooming in on the face, there’s the continuation of the stepped contouring from the body going down right to the end of the trash panda’s boop-able snoot. The other features added here (the eyes, ears, etc.) aren’t composed of the same basic bricks and plates as the rest of the body. Yet these features don’t feel out of place in the design. Despite introducing some slopes and curves, they don’t distract from the form, and gently draw attention to the key features of the animal.

A hands-on approach to caterpillars

This huge LEGO caterpillar is constructed with giant minifig hands by builder Dan Ko for an Iron Builder challenge. Dan cleverly uses the bright green hand pieces for the many legs of the towering insect. The caterpillar possesses a wonderful color palette with those pastel pieces at every segment. Red leaves frame the caterpillar’s face, giving it bushy eyebrows and a great beard. The antennae test the air as the caterpillar rears up to intimidate the hunter. Nearby plant life watches the scene indifferently, not really a care in the colorful world. What’s cool about this build is the ingenuity it demonstrates with a part limitation. The giant minifig hands are the parts to work with, and Dan found a creative way of using them. The caterpillar is awesome, and I hope it can be friends with the hunter instead of enemies.

Giving nature a hand

The Flower Pot Girl (from the collectable minifigure series 18) gets a boost in this thought-provoking build created by Pascal Hetzel. The model shows an arm raising the colourful minifigure and flowers out of a stone box. Transparent wedges seep through cracks in the stonework and could be viewed as toxic waste with the arm saving the plant life from falling in. The forearm is presented in a staggered motion in order to portray the limb outstretched at an angle. Macaroni pieces are used to represent humanoid curled fingers with small bulb pieces in white forming the fingertips. Best not to give this one a shake, otherwise those carefully placed wedges and flowers will be going everywhere.

A charmed LEGO cottage

A quaint little stone cabin in the woods is overgrown with vines and flowers. Far from a creepy, stereotypical witch’s home, this project by builder Castor Troy, in collaboration with builder Max Brich, was focused on giving witches a better image. The creatures of the forest seem to love gathering around this witch’s delightful cottage. The builders sought after a more rehabilitated, benevolent witch, emphasizing the magical relationship with nature and their healing abilities, instead of reinforcing negative stereotypes. Wooden accents define the edges of the stonework wall using brown hinges and a little bit of LEGO geometry. Angled roofs snugly cover the home, as a cobbled chimney rises up next to a lovely A-frame roof as tall as the tree next door.

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A scenic path to a forest retreat

Builder Salt_city_bricks gives us a lovely LEGO retreat in a peaceful forest. Two travelers make their way home after an adventurous walk through the forest. They cross a cute little bridge that uses headlight bricks, open studs, and flex tubing for its curvature. Vibrant trees and flowers surround the house on the hill and the babbling brook. There’s not a bit of space left unused on the forest floor! It’s full of plant life, even growing up the sides of the hill to wreath around the multi-story house. The color blocking breaks the scene up into smaller areas to explore.

Take a closer look at the trees and flowers

Exploring the cloudy canopies of Algastarr

This LEGO build by Peter Stella shows us something wondrous aboard a stylish frigate. The ship we see here is a new version from a previous build of Peter’s that hadn’t met the builder’s expectations. Trimming the nose and the top of the engine block, this ship’s structure stands out with it’s new geometry. The colors really pop too! Check out that sand-blue inverted slope in the first blue stripe. I favor those teal blocks just below the stripe–such a cool color to see on a spacefaring vessel. However, the ship isn’t the only cool thing in this build; let’s talk about the planet. The floating islands are beautifully constructed using simple techniques that really shine. I particularly like the shaping of the leaves on the trees, and the use of an Indiana Jones whip on the small one in the bottom right corner.

Want to see more about this build, and what went into it? Peter has a great YouTube video detailing the ship, the islands, and how they’re all constructed.

Music to the ears and eyes

I don’t know about you, but if someone said the phrase “the Muse of Song” to me, I would have assumed they were talking about a pseudo-prog-rock band from England. Kitkat1414, who is clearly much more learned than me, has instead taken inspiration from this phrase of Greek literature to create a stunner of a build entitled “the Sweet Sound of Blossom”. The sculpting here is terrific (particularly the piano – look at the pedals!), but it’s the use of colour that stands out to me. Building solid blocks of white is a bold choice as it can be difficult to pick out details, but the green and blue hues of the surrounding foliage give enough contrast to the build without being too overbearing. What does draw the eye are the muse’s dark red hair and her dress made from teal (which as we all know, is the best LEGO colour). These serve to pull the viewer into Euterpe herself, while the focus is gradually drawn away by the creeping vines and plants. In fact, the whole composition of this piece just hits all the right notes! (I’m here all week, try the fish…)

Non-toxic but still inedible

Deep in the forest, far from the beaten tracks, a colony of fungi fruits from the remains of an old tree. Builder Paulo Loro brought new life to some old table scrap mushrooms by integrating them into this natural display. Fungi can be difficult to identify so its hard to say if these are based on enoki, shiitake, or something else—I’m no mycologist. All I can say is there’s a certain magic to the twists and turns the mushrooms make. Tail pieces are used to represent the stalks of the fruiting bodies while dish pieces represent the different stages of caps. The most mature of the species use the rock elements with eggshells underneath as gills.

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What a great place to observe nature

Take a moment to relax, with this idyllic scene. Built by Sergeant Chipmunk, the model depicts a lush grassy area with a stream running through it. The bridge has a great arc in its form, possibly created by having a flexible tube through the 1×1 headlight pieces. Draw your attention to the birdhouse and you might see it has a particularly interesting construction. The roof is made up of two book halves and the main body of the birdhouse is a basket with a green duck sticking its head through the handle.

“It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy...”

In an era when cable TV and video games were just starting to compete for our attention, the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes inspired a generation of kids to have a renewed appreciation for the wonder of the outdoors and the versatility of cardboard boxes. But the cartoonist, Bill Watterson, was always adamant that his strip never be merchandised in the way comics like Peanuts and Garfield had been. So, outside of a few book collections, readers were left with few options when it came to celebrating their fandom. Thankfully, LEGO is a product that encourages you to build anything your imagination can conceive of. And Simon Liu has taken advantage of that fact to grace us with brick-built versions of Calvin and his feline companion.

This build recreates one of the more famous images of the pair, a shot of them balancing on a log which first appeared in The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book. It’s everything I’d want to see in a hypothetical licensed LEGO set. Not only are the characters perfectly realized, but the attention paid to the wilderness base they stand on has all the hallmarks of Watterson’s art. The soft palette of colors evokes the watercolors that were often used on supplemental book images. And details like the log’s crooked tiling and the small dip in the creek give the environment the same realistic feel that landscapes in the strip were known for. While Watterson may not ever want to see this as a set for sale, I’ve no doubt that seeing the effort that Simon put into honoring his creations would make him smile.