Although they are toys, Legos inspire amazing creations. LEGO artists make use of tiny plastic bricks to create everything from robots and architecture. Even the engineers from the company design new elements that enable builders to build more complicated models. Erik Varszegi is a Master Builder at the Lego Group, Billund, Denmark. He has designed a brand new element for this year’s model, the curving slope. It allows Lego users create more slanted forms while staying within the company’s strict color palette. The slopes can be used to create more dynamic shapes, for example, a curving staircase.
Certain Lego sets are the result of the work of professional designers while others are the product of the wildly popular Lego Ideas program. The Ideas line gives anyone the chance to create a set and then have it made, offering fame and 1 percent of sales to any designer who can convince 10,000 other designers that their design deserves to go into production. It’s no surprise that most elaborate and impressive sets typically garner the most support especially when they include iconic scenes or characters from movies, TV shows or from real life.
Some of the best Lego designs are two space-themed icons which include the NASA spaceship Discovery and an image of the Hubble Telescope. Each model comes with plaques of display and a small Lego model of the scientist who designed the telescope. Other impressive models include a framed Rainbow, a Steampunk Dragon, and a model of Westminster Palace.