LEGO fans usually treat standard LEGO elements and LEGO Bionicle pieces as belonging to separate systems. However all LEGO elements have at least some connection points that are compatible, and those who are brave enough to mix these different systems, can end up making some very impressive LEGO creations. One such LEGO fan is Eero Okkonen from Finland, with a focus on large brick-built figures – another niche a lot of LEGO fans shy away from. The models below represent the four seasons; spring, summer, fall and winter in the form of female spirits. 🙂
The Spirit of Spring is bare-footed with flowers sprouting behind her footsteps, and with her hair blowing in the wind. Her skirt is made of those new hot air-balloon element that were first introduced in the LEGO Friends line. Her blouse incorporates a couple of LEGO Bionicle elements at the shoulders, and there are two more at the waist.
Eero explains on his blog that birch is one of the most common leafy tree species in Finland, and their white bark and black branches were the inspiration for the white dress and black sleeves of the Spirit of Summer. And of course all the green represents green leaves. The magpie sitting on Summer’s finger is a common bird in Finland according to Eero, with beautiful dark-green wing-marks and a long tail.
The Spirit of Fall wears a dark-red and dark-orange dress to represent autumn leaves. In fact quite a few LEGO leaf elements are included in this model. The legs incorporate several LEGO Bionicle parts to create the shape. Those long orange tentacle pieces work great for her hair.
From the four characters the Spirit of Winter is the one that uses the most LEGO Bionicle pieces. There are many white, dark-blue, and translucent-blue elements in the LEGO Bionicle line, and they are applied here in a perfect balance of shape and color. You can spend a long time studying all the clever techniques used to create this beautiful character. And if you would like to take a look at the currently available LEGO Bionicle line for some interesting parts, they are available at the Online LEGO Shop.
So what do you think? How do you like these LEGO brick-built characters? Do you mix regular LEGO elements with LEGO Bionicle pieces? And did you ever try building brick-built figures? Feel free to share in the comment section below! 😉
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Those are awesome! What personality he’s accomplished by giving his creations the articulation to be so posable!
Yeah. That’s an advantage of the ball-and-socket system…
I’ve wondered if all of the balls and sockets of basically the same size would be compatible with each other, or if there are differences between different generations?
That a mismatch would cause more stress and the parts would jump out of position or break more easily?
I think all the large balls and sockets have been the same size since at least 2001. The older ones weren’t the same design (as the older balls caused their sockets to crack on occasion), but the newer designs have retain the same diameter, while incorporating a stronger design. So I think the new CCBS would work fine with the older system. 🙂
I believe this is true. I don’t have any old BIONICLE sets, but the ball in the ball-joint should be the same size as in the newer ones. It is the rest of the design that changed. I do however have some of the old LEGO Castle Knights Kingdom large figures, and they have a completely different joint system. It is truly terrible, and even just looking at the figures will make them fall apart. But they do look good on display. 😀
I beg to differ… Strange bulky mix of Lego and action figures that works as neither…
(I still own a bunch of them second hand, though… Strangely enough…)
Naw, they do look good. I have them right here on my shelf. I particularly like their weapons, shields, shoulder and leg armor, and their helmets are super sweet. The rest is bad though, as you said. 🙄
I like these parts…
But outside of certain colors, they have far outlived the figures…
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=47456&idColor=42#T=C&C=42
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=47457&idColor=42#T=C&C=42
Yes, I love those too! Some of my favorite LEGO parts! So good for greebling! 😀
Those are very good creations. Eero must have a lot of old Bionicle sets, as those orange tentacles only come in one 2007 set (8917 Kalmah). I note also that all the Spirits use Batarangs for eyes, which is a neat technique, although they look a little odd when you focus on them. And the Spirit of Winter should be named Metus for that headpiece. 🙂
Also: http://brickset.com/article/20269/the-disney-minifigures-have-been-revealed! Some of these figs just look weird. But I do like Stitch. And does anyone else see Peter Pan and think of Link (from Legends of Zelda)? That headpiece….
Yeah, I got the press-release too for the upcoming Disney minifigs. We will talk about them tomorrow. And yes, I actually originally thought that Peter Pan was Link. 😀
Link, yeah… Several rejected Ideas sets so far, which has led people to infer that Nintendo is not easy to deal with…
I’m really surprised that Nintendo doesn’t want to team up with the largest toy manufacturer. I don’t see what’s their problem…
Maybe it’s their cooperation with K’nex, seeing as there have been various K’nex Mariokart sets. Or maybe they prefer to stay in video games only, which contradicts my previous sentence. 😕 A Nintendo version of the Adventure Time Ideas set would be nice, or just some Zelda sets… the last Wind Waker Ideas project was pretty good.
And after seeing Peter’s close-up pic: http://brickset.com/sets/71012-15/Peter-Pan , his hat has a red feather molded onto it, so he’s Link no more. Then again, Link never grins like that. 😉
Oh, yeah, I missed that red feather. Depending if it is a moulded in color or painted on, perhaps it could be removed or covered over. Hm… I would really like to have Link, but it doesn’t seem we will ever get him.
A slouching feather? Why won’t they use the standard feather mold?
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=4502a&colorID=5&in=A
(Apparently the old feather sprue has been taken out of production…)
Either because Peter Pan’s feather doesn’t stick up in the movie, that feather piece is too big, or LEGO couldn’t get a good place to make a hole for a separate piece on his hat mold. I think the last is most likely.
It does stick up in the movie… You could just do a quick Google image search…
Doesn’t seem too hard to make a hole in the mold, but maybe it was a budget issue… =/
Absolutely astonishing creations. Spring was my favorite for what I am pretty sure are hot air balloon pieces and the brown arches for the hair. Who looks at a batarang and thinks of using them for eyes? Very inspirational.
This one of the most impressive combinations of the two system that I’ve see in a while.
Winter is my favorite.