Taxidermy for the Sophisticated AFOL
/Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published April 12, 2021.
When browsing through your Flickr feed or checking whatever social media platform you have as your go-to source for LEGO MOCs, there is a good chance you’ll see quite a few builds each week (if not each day) that make you go “WOW!“ As someone who has been browsing the community for quite some time now, I have however noticed that there are substantially fewer times I start laughing out loud (LOL as the kids would say) when looking at a build.
One builder that does manage to elicit that response quite frequently from me is Rickard Stensby. His builds always seem to capture a lot of character which is why I guess he spends most of his time with LEGO building… well… characters! Rickard is a Swedish builder so I may be a little biased in my opinion about his work, but I should probably mention that he also happens to be one of the winners from the first season of LEGO Masters Sweden—so I’m not entirely alone in thinking he’s pretty good at this whole LEGO-building-thing.
For the last couple of months he has been building something that I haven’t seen much in the AFOL community: LEGO taxidermy builds. What could possibly make someone laugh out loud when looking at taxidermy you might ask?
Well, as mentioned above, Rickard is a master at building characters so the animals (and people) that end up on his wall are packed with just that. He builds in a very cartoonish style with a lot of focus on facial expressions and often with very expressive and slightly exaggerated facial features. But enough rambling, let’s have a look at the builds!
I’m not even sure where to start with this one—it looks like something from a Dr. Seuss book. I really love the somewhat sad expression (pretty fitting if you’re hanging on a wall I suppose) with the large eyebrows and layered, chubby cheeks.
Next, there is a video game-looking fox with a pretty surprised expression on his face. The small whiskers made using levers attached to grill tiles are a nice touch, but for me, it is the unevenly sized eyes that really draw you in and adds a lot of character to the whole build.
As some type of poetic justice, Rickard made sure to add a hunter as well to the collection and yes, this one really made me laugh out loud when I first saw it. The contrast itself is hilarious and the build is really well executed with a moustache most people can only dream of.
Moving on we learn that magical creatures are in no way excluded as this unicorn found out the hard way. Again there is a lot of personality in this build with the slightly yellowed teeth and tiny tilt of the eyebrows.
Saving the best for last, at least in my own humble opinion, we have a majestic sheep. This build is packed with (say it with me now) character! The bulky look of the wool fits perfectly and the angry look with the eyebrows combined with the slight tilt of the mouth conveys a real feeling of “How did I end up here!?“—which is just hilarious!
I reached out to the builder to get some additional info about these lovely creations and got some great insights. Turns out Rickard is a big fan of the goofy Dr. Seuss unorthodox taxidermy creations (I had to Google it as well). Unfortunately, they are hard to come by and cost a pretty penny—a bit pricey even for a LEGO Masters winner—so Rickard decided to build some out of LEGO instead.
He started with the blue reindeer (so that’s what that thing was) and went from there. Instead of just copying the artworks that existed from Dr. Seuss, he decided to build some of his own pets. I assume that means that he is one of the few people in the world that owns a unicorn, which I think is pretty darn cool. Rickard shared some of his own thoughts about the series below:
“Personally, I think they make for perfect decorating details. They are pretty pleasing to look at, but more importantly, they invite some great discussions about imagination. And they fit just as well in a child’s room as in the living room.
I initially had some challenges with mounting the heads on the plank but I have found a good SNOT technique that makes them stable enough to hang on the wall. Before that, there were some… unfortunate crashes… haha!
Rickard’s latest creation is the iconic Davy Jones and he has plans to make even more of these amazing models so be on the lookout for more pirates in the future. Another idea he has been playing around with is taking famous politicians and royalties and mounting them as well, something I’m sure quite a few of us would find pretty hilarious.
I really appreciate Rickard taking the time to share some of his thoughts about these builds, and if you somehow missed his previous work, I highly recommend taking the time to browse through it on either Flickr or on Instagram. He has made a bunch more builds with stunning character and humour which I guarantee will put a smile on your face!
What crazy LEGO character would you want to be mounted on your wall? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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