Tag Archives: playing card

The queen and the king of SNOT

We just love simple LEGO creations that tell a story. And this very smart brick-built sketch by gGh0st tells not one, but two lovely stories. The first is about stunning building solutions. Did you notice all the white bricks in the background composed in some very intricate ways? This is what we call SNOT — studs not on top! And still, with studs facing all four directions, the pieces form a proper shape of a play card, not to mention the rounded corners. And as for the other story the build tells, of course, it’s about love. The forbidden romance between the queen and king that can’t be together… *sigh*

Queen of Spades / King of Hearts

Building a stacked deck

We’ve seen LEGO playing cards before, but I don’t recall ever seeing them built life-size before, like this set by Dan Ko. The cards are very simple as far as the build, but there’s a lot of cleverness going on with the selection of pieces. The Clubs made with two 1×1 round plates and a lever handle are perfect, as is the Jack’s initial made from an umbrella. I don’t recall seeing a lobster on the diamond suit before, but I can roll with it, especially when it’s surrounded by a nifty thin red diamond made of a stretched rubber band.

Blackjack

Dan built them for a contest where he had to use 101 pieces or fewer, and he’s provided this lovely knolled image showing he used precisely 100 pieces.

Blackjack - parts

The cards you were dealt

A jack and an ace. In blackjack, this is a winning hand. In the hands of Ivan Martynov? They’re something a bit more scary. The Jack of Clubs, here, is full of twisty organic shapes that lure the eye towards the center of this digitally-created image. There you find that the red highlights are actually a demonic figure (Jack, I presume) entwined into the larger club shape. Is Jack on some sort of throne? Are those wings? Is this a torture rack? Ivan doesn’t give us any firm answers. I have a feeling we wouldn’t like them anyway.

Jack of Clubs

But that’s not the only card in this deck. You also get get the Ace of Diamonds. I’m even less sure what’s going on here. But suddenly I’m very glad that some of these parts don’t exist in our reality. Yet.

Ace of Diamonds

Ivan excels at creating nightmares out of digital LEGO. Don’t believe me? Go look at our archives.

 

In the court of the crimson king

LEGO builder Grant Davis demonstrates quite a few tricks with this massive King of Diamonds playing card. The seed part is a white 4×4 flower. He incorporates twenty-one of those mamma-jammas into the intricate design of this card. Also expertly woven into the design is yellow ribbed hoses and a myriad of parts situated in complex angles. Grant doesn’t provide size dimensions in his write-up but based on the bricks that we can see, we estimate this feat of artistry is nearly three feet high! Now let’s hope he’ll also build fifty-one of his closest friends to complete the deck. Until then, you may want to settle in and check out some of the other stuff Grant has built.

The King of Diamonds