Despite being toys, Legos inspire amazing creations. LEGO artists use small plastic bricks to build everything from robots to architectural models. Even the company’s engineers create new elements that enable builders to construct more complicated models. Erik Varszegi is a Master Builder at the Lego Group, Billund, Denmark. He came up with the new element to be used this year, the curving slope. It lets Lego users create more slanted shapes, while staying within the company’s strict color palette. The slopes can also be used to create a more dynamic shape, like a curving staircase.
While certain Lego designs are the work of professional designers, others are the result of the wildly popular Lego Ideas set-design program. The Ideas line lets anyone design a set and it’s also possible to produce. It grants fame and 1% of sales for any designer who convinces a crowd of 10,000 people that their work is check out here worthy of being be made. It’s no surprise that the most elaborate and impressive sets usually garner the most support particularly when they feature iconic scenes or characters from television shows, films or even real life.
Some of the best Lego designs are two space-age icons: the NASA spaceship Discovery and an exact replica of the Hubble Telescope. Each telescope comes with a display plaque and miniature Lego version of its inventor. Other impressive models include a frame Rainbow and a Steampunk dragon, and a replica of Westminster Palace.