Lego art: 35 designs that will blow your mind!

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Whilst most of us pack away our beloved bricks by the time we reach adulthood, some designers have carried on their love affair with design toys and have created the most spectacular sculptures that truly deserve the title Lego art. Here, we take a look at the best Lego art from both the likes of Certified Lego Professionals and some amateurs with real flair. It certainly had us reaching for those bricks again!

01. A futuristic Japan

Project 'Build Up Japan' was sponsored and curated by the legendary toy brick makers and encouraged school children to build imaginary structures - with the result of a Japan that they wanted to see.

With a little help from their parents and a few Lego officials, children across Japan were able to create their country the way they wanted it. The total number of Lego bricks used was a jaw-dropping 1.8 million!

02. Life-size LEGO forest

How cool is this? This isn’t a child-sized toy set: it’s actually a life-sized LEGO forest in the Australian Outback! It’s made up of 15 pine trees, and 15 flower sets, all 66 times bigger than their design toys counterpart – making the trees a whopping 4m high.

The iconic toy brick company built this amazing creation in Living Desert State Park, a 2400ha reserve more than 700 miles west of Sydney, as part of its 50-year anniversary celebration.

03. LEGO advent

Last year, the UK's only certified LEGO technician Duncan Titchmarsh built this huge advent calendar sculpture. Made up of approximately 600,000 bricks, the installation was unveiled in central London's Covent Garden shopping area.

Each door was opened at 4pm every day in the lead up to Xmas day. The presents behind each were also cool Lego creations. An awesome way to celebrate the festive season. 

04. Sea Monster

Take a trip to Disney World in Florida and you'll find this awesome Lego sea monster, Brickley. The cool character is made out of 170,000 LEGO bricks, stretches a whopping 30 feet and weighs half a ton!

The brilliant sculpture is one of many found in Downtown Disney at the LEGO Imagination centre. Other models include a Transformer, giant models of Woody and Buzz Lightyear and the Seven Dwarves.

05. Sandstone block

The ability to print in 3D has opened up avenues for many design disciplines - and Greg Petchkovsky has utilised 3D printing to create an amazing piece of LEGO art-related sculpture.

Petchkovsky combined 3D scanning, 3D digital modelling, and 3D printing to achieve a dramatic effect. He chose a sandstone block with a chipped off corner, so that the 3D print could fit into the remaining space.

06. Poseidon

Paul Hetherington - known in the Lego world as BrickBaron - had already given a sneak peek to this incredible creation, by showing off the lower structure full of mermaids, oceans and ships. Little did we know that it would actually play as part of a much larger sculpture featuring the God of the sea.

Poseidon was built for the Vancouver Lego Club's Mythology exhibit at the Surrey Museum; taking place from July until September 15th. The attention to detail is astonishing: we don't know if we'd have the patience to build something as impressive as this! You can see more photos of Poseidon, as well as Paul's other work on his Flickr page.

07. Woman

This stunning sculpture was created by Bram Lambrecht using LSculpt - a program which converts a triangle mesh into an LDraw file. Like the sphere generator, the generated model consists of a surface of 1×1 plates oriented in whichever direction provides the best detail.

We love that Bram has taken the time to create not only the body and branch but the shadow too. It's these details that make certain Lego sculptures stand out from the rest. You can see more of Bram's work on his official website.

08. Biggest ever Mario

Although created in 2009, this huge Mario sculpture still deserves a mention. Crafted by brick layer Dirk Van Haesbroeck, it took him just over two weeks to finalise the plumber. Mario is comprised of 30,000 LEGO bricks with the pedestal containing another 12,000. This video showcases the 160 hours of work in just over a minute.

Once the sculpture was finished, it was auctioned off on eBay in aid of Ronald McDonald, a Dutch organisation that arranges proper housing for relatives of hospitalised children in the vicinity of clinics. It sold for an impressive $5100. You can see more of Dirk's Lego art on his Facebook page. 

09. Lego bridge

In October of last year street artist Megx converted a bridge in Wuppertal, Germany into a giant Lego structure using coloured panels that create the illusion of being the underside of Lego bricks. Although the panels aren't actually Lego bricks, this is an impressive piece of artwork that we think would fool anyone!

The bridge itself is part of the Wuppertal Bewegung e.V., an old train line that has been converted to a pedestrian and cycle path. What a lovely thing to witness on your ride to work. You can see more of Megx Lego art on his website.

• Also read: 20 inspirational examples of street art

10. Serenity

Despite its short run on television almost ten years ago, fans of Firefly and film Serenity still express an intense love and passion for the Joss Whedon series. One such fan decided to build the ultimate homage to the sci-fi show with a replica of the ship Serenity.

Adrian Drake used around 70,000 Lego pieces and the project took 475 hours over the course of 21 months. The ship itself weighs an incredible 135 pounds due to the intricate details Adrian has included. You can more of Adrian's stunning Lego art on his website.

11. Princess Mononoke

Professional Lego artist Eric Hashburger says that qualities for a project must use bright, primary colours and be something that is part of pop culture - something that is easily recognised by most people, whether constructed from LEGO bricks or not.

Here, he realised that characters from Japanese anime were prime subjects. This model of San from Princess Mononoke is just over 5ft tall and weighs around 80 pounds. Adrian is also quick to add that the sculpture is completey glue free. We can't wait to see what he does next! To see more of his work, visit his Lego art website.

12. London Olympic Stadium

Warren Elsmore is a Lego artist as well as a consultant, reviewer and analyst. He's currently writing a book too. To celebrate the Olympics, Warren decided to build a homage to the stadium in Lego art.

The extraordinary work consists of approximately 250,000 standard Lego bricks and took Warren and his wife over 300 hours to construct. The model was put on show during the Visit Denmark 'Imagination' exhibition which was held between 27 July-12 August. You can see more of Warren's Lego art on his website.

13. Batman to Joker mosaic

Arthur has already created a number of impressive mosaics, including the Afghan Girl and Anakin morphing into Darth Vadar. However, we were most impressed by this incredible Batman and Joker creation. From one angle the picture is Batman and then from the other angle it slowly turns into the Joker.

Arthur believes that this is the fourth lenticular mosaic, with the first being Chris Doyle's mosaic Dorian Bley. You can see more of Arthur Gugick's incredible Lego art on his website.

14. Lost Worlds Dinosaur

Brickville DesignWorks is a commercial venture, begun in the spring of 2004, with the goal of using Lego bricks and products to produce sculptures for events, displays, and exhibits. The team is headed by Robin Sather, Canada's only certified Lego art professional.

This dinosaur sculpture was created for the Telus World of Science and is one of the company's largest creations. You can see more of Brickville DesignWork's Lego art on their website.

15. 3D Lego street painting

Ok, ok, we know it's not technically made out of Lego, but the talent and incredible design of this street art persuaded us to feature it. Designed by Leon Keer, the video above showcases the development of the project, including the initial drawings and perspectives.

The Lego art piece was inspired by the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. The final painting was created by Leon Keer, Peter Westerink, Ruben Poncia and Remko van Schaik. You can see more 3D street art on their website.