Once again, builder Maxx Davidson has treated us to some delightful eye candy, skillfully incorporating not only LEGO bricks, but also other assorted elements that might require a deep dive into the internet to confirm their authenticity as “LEGO-branded.” Titled ‘Assorted Childhood Toys,’ the undiscerning eye would be hard-pressed to identify these as toys built out of other toys. However, the builder has expertly used LEGO to transport the beholder to a place of reminiscence.
Famously, stepping on LEGO is one of the most painful experiences known to humankind, second only to stubbing your little toe. (Woe betide you if you stub your little toe on a LEGO creation.) But what does stepping in LEGO feel like? We should ask Takamichi Irie. He has made the bold choice of creating a red Nike sneaker out of bricks. They say you need to suffer for your art, but even so, it’s a brave builder who willingly makes something where you’re always stepping on studs!
Thankfully for Takamichi’s feet – or one of them, at least – he has got a normal shoe to complete the pair. And to be fair, the brick-built one does compare very well to it! It’s so well shaped, it actually looks kind of comfy. And you wouldn’t need to worry about finding one in your size: you can always build it a little bigger. You know, maybe there’s something in these brick-built shoes after all…
Mirko Soppelsa is (literally) building up quite the collection of massive LEGO Star Wars builds. This time, Davin Felth AKA TK-1023 is the subject of Mirko’s expert handiwork. What do you mean, you haven’t heard of Davin Felth?! If I say “Look, sir! Droids!”, does that help to jog your memory? Well, now you know his name, and you have to suffer with that useless knowledge taking up valuable space inside your brain like I do. Let’s just go back to admiring Mirko’s superbly detailed sculpture… And once you’re done with this one, you can see some of his other marvels in our archives.
The last time Khang Huynh and Ky Duy Phong teamed up, they built one of the most impressive creations to feature on this website last year. With the Lunar New Year – or Tet, in their native Vietnam – coming up, these builders have joined forces again to create this suitably seasonal affair! It’s a colossal apricot blossom tree, symbolising good luck, good health, wealth, happiness and love in the new year. At the same time, this creation in particular symbolises just how talented Khang and Ky are! The large scale means some parts can be put to clever uses. A bunch of green swords are perfect for blades of grass, and the butterfly at the top uses wings re-purposed from an Avatar set.
Aido K‘s latest LEGO masterpiece has left me lost for words. Well, not completely speechless – but this is a family-friendly website, so I can’t publish my audible reaction. My favourite genre of creation – if you can call it that – is people using the engineered properties of the LEGO system of parts in unusual ways. That’s where the idea for this build came in: LEGO bricks are designed to work under compression – that is, being squashed together. Aido turned that on its head, so this uses elements in tension (i.e. being pulled). So that boat in the middle is almost entirely shaped by chains under tension and the pull of gravity. It’s beautiful!
That means the boat can fold down flat for easy transport – which is just as well, as this model made its debut at the Brickvention show in Melbourne over the weekend. Seeing the boat rise from the chains is very satisfying!
Next weekend, the LEGO convention Brickvention will return to Melbourne, Australia, bringing with it so many brick-built creations from the continent. Now we’ve seen some pretty impressive stuff from this show in past years, so it should be no surprise that a LEGO dragon of this scale will be making an appearance for this year’s con. From the mind of Donny Chen, this marker of the coming Chinese New Year 2024 can stretch out to 2 meters long and contains 1300 2×4 oval tiles as golden scales.
As impressive as the body is, with a flexible skeleton supporting all those tiles, the dragon’s face is also quite the marvel. Pearl gold has a fairly limited part palette, but Donny is still able to create some fantastic shapes in constructing the eyes, crown, and jawline of this majestic mythical beast. I particularly like his use of 1×1 slopes to create the appearance of small scales along the dragon’s snout and chin. I hope those of you able to make it to Melbourne can enjoy it in person.
You know LEGO’s 10315 Tranquil Garden? What if it was a bit more… Other-worldly? Might it look something like this Crescent Moon Garden by Nannan Zhang? I would say so! Nannan – formerly of these pastures, of course – was inspired by a real-world garden sculpture hybrid for this, and I love his take on it. I have to imagine it’s set on some distant world with floating rocks, giant trees, and a grumpy hermit who built a whole temple just so he could get some peace and quiet away from the world. Well, sorry, grumpy hermit, but I want to come and visit!
So, how’s everyone feeling about 2024 so far? We’re still writing threes instead of fours by mistake – not helped by all the 2023 recapping we’re doing. But while we’re deciding our Creations of the Year or looking back at our most popular articles, Kristel Whitaker has seen in the new year in a big way! She’s built some big LEGO blocks out of, er, smaller LEGO blocks. We could use some of these in TBB Towers to remind us what year it actually is. Although it won’t help us work out how much longer before we stop saying “Happy New Year” to everyone. New year, same problems!
What do you think of when it comes to festive animals, either in real life or in LEGO form? Reindeer are a given. Turkeys are probably up there too. How about insects? If your answer to that is yes, either you’re getting 21342 The Insect Collection as a Christmas present, or you’re Nathan Hake. His charming caterpillar is braving the cold for some winter fun! Much like Nathan, this caterpillar is quite the sculptor – a smorgasbord of slopes and curved slopes on their sides make for a very convincing snow butterfly. Having an extra pair of hands clearly comes in, well, handy!
Be sure to check out a 360° view of Clive on Nathan’s Flickr page. And Merry Christmas!
We see all sorts of annual building challenges organised by the LEGO community, but right now there’s one being run by the LEGO Group themselves: the #BuildtoGive campaign. The task is to build a heart, tag it with the hashtag, and a LEGO set will be donated to children in need. It can be a simple build with bricks, or it can be as complex as this one by Maxx Davidson! Master Model Builder Maxx has gone to pains to create an anatomically correct human heart. You’ve got the arteries, and, uh… The ventricles, and… Who am I kidding, I’m no cardiologist. Still, I can tell it’s a stunning model for a good cause!
Seeing a great LEGO build can take you on a real voyage of discovery. Dicken Liu‘s latest creation is a Japanese Tengu mask, which I think we can all agree looks fantastic with its dragon-wing brows and ‘stache. But it got me thinking what these masks were actually for; after all, I’ve seen a lot of them in comics or on TV without really knowing much about them. So I went to Wikipedia to do some research. But two hours have gone by, my tea’s gone cold, and I’m now reading about Japanese architecture in the Heian period. It’s very interesting, but I’m no closer to finding out what these blasted masks mean! Oh well. At least we learned what a good builder Liu is – but then again, we already knew that.
Man, I really need to play the Horizon series of video games. Now that might seem like a bit of a random ramble from yours truly (hey, it’s what I do best). After all, Horizon: Forbidden West came out 18 months ago now. The reason it’s suddenly on my mind is down to this mean-looking machine that Nicola Stocchi has built from nearly 8,000 pieces. This elephant-like creature, called Tremortusk, is apparently designed “to cull the human population”. I’m glad I read that particular piece of information. Had I only heard the name I would’ve guessed Tremortusk was a Pokemon or something. Somehow, I doubt this thing will take kindly to a Pokeball being lobbed at its head. So now I know not to try that. Every day is a school day!
This isn’t the first creature in Nicola’s Horizon menagerie either – have a look at some of the others. They’re not all as friendly as Tremortusk here, mind, so tread carefully.