As part of the Attraction’s partnership with Zoo New England, I was frequently tasked with replicating animals based on events happening at the local zoo.
Madagascar Sunset Moth
The Franklin Park Zoo had a giant bug exhibit that showcased large metal sculptures of bugs. We were invited to the Zoo for a day to provide LEGO building classes for kids, while I worked on this model “live”. The intricate color patterns of the wings were built ahead of the event. I created the body, head, and legs of the moth onsite and attached them so guests could see the completed model by the end of the day.
With animal builds, I typically do not design them on the computer first. I go through photos of the animal until I decide on a pose. Once I have that photo, I make up the build as I go while visualizing the model in my mind. With a more intricate animal, like the moth, I used Bricksaic to design the layout of the wings.
Azize, the Gorilla
This model was built for a baby gorilla’s first birthday event at the Franklin Park Zoo. The challenging part of this build was making the model as lifelike as possible. Making the eyes look off to the side instead of straight ahead was a big success. I also decided to build Azize in a forward leaning/walking pose to capture her wide-eyed and constant curiosity.
Flamingo
The flamingo exhibit at the Stone Zoo was relocated with an event planned for the opening of this new exhibit. The flamingo build was unveiled to serve as a centerpiece and to provide inspiration for kids to build animals of their own during the event.
Choosing the position of the animal is important because it needs to be structurally sound. Since a flamingo has very skinny legs, building them using LEGO bricks would not provide enough support for the body. I chose a position where the flamingo was seated to eliminate that obstacle.
Red Panda
The Franklin Park Zoo was having an event for the opening of their new red panda exhibit. This model was designed as a live build, to be constructed on site by me during this event. As with many of my live builds, I pre-built the more intricate sections, in this case his face, tail, and feet, so they could be combined with the rest of the body that I was building at the event.
Two Toed Sloth
The sloth was designed as a live build to be done at the Stone Zoo. I built a basic frame of the body and then the limbs and head separately. I designed it so that I could attach them one by one throughout the day, while building out the curves of the actual body.
