Beasts  From Bricks is mid to upper-level LEGO animal magnetism

As LEGO pieces go, I’ve seen all of the individual things needed to make up the creatures in Beasts From Brick. I’ve seen them, but the end result is that the sum is more than their parts and that this book is as much ‘art’ as it is LEGO bricks. That makes sense, at their core; a LEGO brick acts no differently where it is. It’s only different when being used by a person that can really build LEGO projects and while the projects from Beasts From Bricks, by Ekow Nimako are beautiful; they’re also approachable for mid-level LEGO builders.

Beasts From Bricks features 15 creations that mid- level LEGO builders will be able to tackle. Each animal is created using almost exclusively a monochromatic scheme with subtle and very few shade variations. All of the LEGO creations have a base that the animals are standing on or sitting in. Nimako’s creations have roughly less than 300 pieces at most, but they’re small LEGO blocks that are intricately placed to create things that should be much larger.

The animals in Beasts From Bricks are arranged according to continent and they’re all represented. Europe checks in with the Suffolk Sheep and European Bison. Every creation has a parts list and illustration of the LEGO brick that’s required to build each beast. Again, it’s quite probable that the majority of casual LEGO builders have the pieces, but they’d need to break down all of their Land Speeders, Bat-Planes and any specialty sets to make these. The larger assorted sets will also have all of the pieces, but won’t have them in the monochromatic color scheme as you’ll see in the book.

The instructions are simple and laid out exactly as you’re used to seeing them in any standard LEGO building kit. To an extent these instructions are even easier because only one or two colors are used in each model, so there’s no color confusion.

The beasts do look fun to build. It’s a skill level that’s higher than our 8 year old for sure, but he loves looking at the illustrations and using his imagination. Ages 10 and up, who are mid-level LEGO builders and have a wide selection of bricks will really enjoy and receive inspiration from Beasts From Bricks. It’s priced at $24.99, so that should also let people know that this is more of a project that LEGO fans will have to work up to.