Tag Archives: Swan Dutchman

LEGO bust of Nefertiti captures ageless beauty

Although Koen Zwanengburg may not be as prolific as some builders, he makes up for it in sheer quality and talent, winning TBB’s LEGO Creation of the Year award for 2020 with his 16,000 LEGO brick mask of King Tut, for example. Koen follows up that Egyptian-themed LEGO creation with a depiction of the woman most modern scholars believe was Tutankhamen’s mother, Queen Nefertiti, the wife of the “heretic king” Akhenaten.

Nefertiti

Koen has recreated the famous bust of Nefertiti sculpted by Thutmose, discovered in the artist’s ancient workshop in Amarna by German archaeologists in 1912 (and controversially still housed in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin rather than in its home country of Egypt).

See more details of this amazing LEGO sculpture of Nefertiti

Jewelled eggs for all occasions

Easter might be over, but fancy, colored eggs aren’t only for this holiday! Back in 2015, we featured Koen Zwanenburg’s original wedding-themed LEGO Fabergé Egg, but now he’s back with more. Named for the most famous creator of exquisitely handcrafted ceramic, gold, and jewel-encrusted eggs, these rare and precious gifts were made for Russian royalty. Each one has a hidden surprise inside, and today they’re worth millions of dollars. Inspired by the design, Koen has graced us with several of his own.

The Jewelled Egg Collection

Just like the real deal, they open to reveal a surprise. (All except for the one made with gold radar dishes because the unique design doesn’t allow for it to open.) One egg even opens vertically instead of horizontally! Also like the real thing, these each have a different theme and name. The one below, for example, is called The Sea Egg.

The Sea Egg

Koen (Swan Dutchman) isn’t the only one who makes LEGO Fabergé eggs. We featured a similar one by Marion Weintraut. But if you’d like to see more of Koen’s fabulous work, check out his opulent, lifesize King Tut mask or his collection of adorable animals that you can build too!

You, too, can fill your zoo with over 20 adorable animals!

As someone obsessed with animals and animal builds, I’m pleased to share some exciting news! TBB’s 2020 Creation of the Year builder, Koen Zwanenburg, is providing instructions for his collection of cute and cuddly LEGO critters! These cartoon-ish creations are some of my all-time favorite animal builds. Just look at that walrus’ flippers – genius! The size and style lend themselves perfectly to repeating the techniques with all sorts of characters. And now, you can build them and collect them all yourself.

Cuddly Toys: The Animal Collection

While you’re here, be sure to check out some of Koen’s other builds! In addition to many other completely different creations, he’s also used this technique for both Super Mario and Christmas characters.

A ‘barrow full of Easter eggs

I’m not entirely sure how Easter is celebrated in other countries, but in the US it means the Easter Bunny is coming. This mysterious character, who secretly delivers and hides colorful eggs filled with candy, is the mascot of springtime. And while Easter is still a serious religious holiday for many people, it’s an excellent excuse to play and celebrate. Koen Zwanenburg’s rabbit (looking very much like the Nesquik bunny) is a fun tribute to the season! My favorite parts are the croissant eyebrows and cloud plate cheeks!

Easter Bunny

Koen says the eggs in the wheelbarrow are actually “easter eggs” of LEGO themes. Can you guess what they are?

Microscale Agrabah from Disney’s Aladdin

This microscale model by Koen Zwanenburg is of Agrabah, the fictional city from the Disney animated film Aladdin, and serves as the perfect bird’s eye view to the minifigure-scale scene we highlighted earlier today. The numerous tower tops using a variety of pearl gold domes and curved elements are well designed, and the inkwell part ties them all together nicely. One of my favorite missable details is the use of 2×2 macaroni tiles facing each other to create those lovely dark pink and teal stripes in the three larger towers. It also takes some clever brickwork to pair eight of the pearl gold 3×3 quarter domes together into a solid sphere.

Arabian Nights

And if you liked this microscale Agrabah, be sure to check out Peter Ilmrud’s minifig-scale Agrabah we featured earlier today!