In an age where original LEGO action/adventure themes seem increasingly rare in an IP-dominated market, DreamZzz has felt like a breath of fresh air. The inherent playfulness and creativity that serve as the core of the theme are a perfect match for the LEGO medium. So when LEGO offered BrickNerd the new 2026 wave of DreamZzz sets, I was excited by the opportunity. In true BrickNerd fashion, we decided to distribute the sets to several local builders across my home state of Iowa and let the recipients’ creativity run free!

With the sets in hand, it was time to assemble my dream(zzz) team. Luckily, Iowa has its own LUG, IowaLUG, full of incredible builders (shameless plug, if you’re in Iowa, definitely check the group out). I reached out to several members who I thought would be a good fit, delivered the sets to them, and let them get to work! And boy did they deliver! I’ll introduce a few of the builders then let them take over.

Turning Over a New Leaf

Starting out our all-star lineup of builders is Tigon Woline. As a lover of all things fantasy, I’m slightly saddened by the more vehicle-oriented direction that DreamZzz has gone in with its last few waves. Tigon is a fellow fantasy enthusiast, so when she proposed using 71513 Scorpion Digger as inspiration for a fantastical deadly plant, I was intrigued by the potential to return to the theme’s fantasy roots. Here is what she had to say:

Tigon: I love the fantastical builds that are the hallmark of the LEGO DreamZzz sets. When I saw the nightmare Scorpion Digger set with the scoops, translucent pink gems, and energy effects, the first thing that came to mind was a vicious carnivorous plant that might be nightmare material!

After opening all the bags and exploring the various parts included, I knew a few pieces would be key to whatever plant I came up with. The half gems, energy effects, scoops, and the bent horn pieces were very botanical types of parts I wanted to make sure to use. The bright pink and pale green set off nicely against the black. I also wanted to try to use only parts included in the set.

I began experimenting with the various connecting elements. There are several copies of a few different types of ball and socket parts, so I started by seeing how many plant stems I could create. I am drawn to odd numbers in flower arrangements, usually threes. Making three flowers with stems meant they would all be about the same height, which didn’t work for me. Also, that first try didn’t include the digger scoop!

I decided to make a single, taller flower with a smaller bloom opening at the base. I was inspired by lady-slipper flowers, which have a bucket-like structure that sits below a fan of petals that attract insects. With that in mind, I began building again. It was a challenge to figure out how to attach the bucket so that I could put the fan of “petals” above it. I am very pleased with the outcome, even though I did end up needing a few parts that weren’t in the set, but only a few.

The build is rather fragile, but it certainly feels like this carnivorous plant could fit into a nightmare from the DreamZzz world.

Shooting For The Stars

Next up, we have Carter Witz, our lone contributor who is not from IowaLUG. He’s no stranger to BrickNerd, though with his work featured here on several occasions. Carter is well-known for his love of the LEGO color bright green, so I suspected that he’d gravitate toward set 715078 Fox Guardian Mech, and I was right.

Carter: When I first saw the new lineup of DreamZzz sets coming in 2026, the Fox Guardian Mech was my favorite right away. The awesome mech shaping and fantastic colors were very eye-catching (though as someone who enjoys building landscapes, almost any part in a shade of green is enough to catch my eye). Getting the chance to build and play with the set early was a huge honor and pleasure.

I initially had the idea to create a fantasy landscape as a display for the mech, but quickly changed my mind once I started messing around with all the cool pieces in the set! As I mentioned before, I’m primarily a landscape builder, so I was a little surprised when I found myself inspired to attempt an alt build of a *gasp* spaceship. I thought using the transparent crystal piece framed by the large golden wedges (22390) as a cockpit would be a really fun challenge, so that was my starting point.

The new, large trans-bright green “claws” might be the coolest new part in this set, so I knew I had to take advantage of the shaping and color. My original plans for the claws were some sort of foliage or alien palm tree, but I later realized how nicely they would make a “swoosh” effect for the spaceship. This ended up being one of my favorite details in the model.

As a big fan of the color bright green, I was very excited to see the 2x2 technic elbow included in that color. While this set isn’t the first time the elbow has appeared in bright green, it’s still a quite new part (previously only in set 72042). I used these to help give the ship its shape, and they also doubled as a way to attach the cockpit windscreens.

The spaceship was built as a few separate sections, which I then did my best to combine into a semi-cohesive model. Some of the modules are a bit more polished than others, but I’m overall pretty happy with the finished product!

You can check out more of Carter’s work on Flickr.

Going Off the Rails

Our third builder is Caleb Gibson. I had to include Caleb for two reasons. First off, his name is Caleb. My name is also Caleb. And we Calebs look out for each other. Second, and more relevantly, Caleb is known in IowaLUG as THE train guy. It’s a running joke that he can make anything into a train. So, naturally, I just had to get his take on a DreamZzz train using set 71512 Crocodile Submarine.

Caleb G.: I have always had a soft spot for the DreamZzz line. I have built many of the sets with my kids and watched some of the show. I like working in fun colors and the DreamZzz line is full of energetic combinations. When I was given 71512 Crocodile Submarine to build in my style, I think all involved knew what it would become: a locomotive.

The parts that really stood out to me were the bright light orange wedge curves, 5093 and 5095. I also appreciated the amount of SNOT brackets and bricks provided. The submarine propellers inspired me to make some sort of turbine-driven locomotive. I started with the yellow in the front, curving into various lines of blue down the body.

Eventually, the side began to remind me of a mouth, so given how many teeth/claw components I had, I made it one! I started adding more animal components to the side until it started resembling the Mesoamerican feathered serpent god Quetzalcōātl. I really leaned into that by adding a tuft of feathers using the fern leaves from the treasure animal side build.

I finished making the set into a working locomotive by borrowing some wheel boggies and a base plate from set 60197 Passenger Train. The pallets of the two sets really worked with each other.

You can check out more of Caleb’s work on Facebook.

A Shark Out of Water

Our next set of builders is the father and son duo Chris and Adrian Weishaar. Both LEGO fans since childhood, they now frequently collaborate on MOCs together and enjoy attending regional LEGO shows. Another set of skilled fantasy aficionados, 71515 Tiger Shark Tank seemed like a perfect match for their sensibilities.

Chris & Adrian: When first launched, the LEGO DreamZzz line was – pardon the pun – a dream come true for us. Each release has had interesting new molds, great new recolors, and most importantly, a wealth of design ideas and inspiration. We have gotten several sets from each release, frequently incorporating pieces, minifigures, and building techniques from the theme into our own builds.

When we were given the opportunity to check out the new 71515 Tiger Shark Tank, we were very excited to see what was inside the box and what we could do with it. We started with building the main tank model, as inspiration had already hit for a future MOC, and we were excited to incorporate the tank aspect into our own build.

The first half of the build itself was a lot of fun, focusing on the tiger shark itself, which is an excellent, sturdy model. It breaks apart in the middle and has additional attachment points for whichever of the two builds you decide to follow up with, but it’s a great play piece on its own. The rest of the build has a lot of variety, with many great play features, consisting of several smaller modules that snap onto the shark to make the larger model.

Next, we were eager to dig into the pieces and see where our creativity would take us. We were immediately drawn to several of the new elements, especially since the main focus of most of our own MOCs is fantasy- and sci-fi-themed.

The standout elements for us (and I’m sure many others) are the new treasure creatures (7581 - not listed on BrickLink yet). These cute little critters are perfect for many fantasy-inspired builds and will become mainstays in our MOCs. We immediately grabbed the two in the box and gave a druid some companions for an adventure.

Another standout piece is the new crystal dome (7591). We knew we’d incorporate these into our build with the set, and can’t wait to get our hands on the trans-dark pink versions as well. These will be handy in many future builds, such as crystal caverns and other similar ideas.

There’s a lot to love in the minifigs and accessories as well. The new swords (7602) are comically large, in the best way, and the neck pieces (7902) are a great addition for magical armor. We look forward to using both with custom minifigures and in other unique ways.

And while we love the new Mr. Oz, Izzy and Mateo, it’s the villains in the set that have caught our attention: Arika and Nightmare Emperor. Our Arika build is a centipede form, which is great nightmare fuel for any number of fantasy builds. After some modifications, he already has a home in one of our MOCs in progress…

And as soon as I saw the Nightmare Emperor’s new headpiece, I knew it would become a baby beholder in our MOCs. Now I just need a few more to make a small army for our heroes to fight in future MOCs!

Overall, the set is a solid parts pack, and we saw we had a lot to work with to dream up something new, including a lot of warm gold elements, which we were sure we could use. Our main idea became clear, and we set out to build a fantasy battle tank from just the parts in the set, using the orange of the shark to make it rusted and beat-up, like something goblins might use.

However, as we got building, we quickly transitioned away from using the pieces from the shark at all, as there was plenty to work with from just the tank/ship build bags, including all of that warm gold that caught our attention. Don’t worry, though, the tiger shark was still put to good use as an upgrade for set 71472 Izzie’s Narwhal Hot-Air Balloon!

With our initial design locked in, we were constantly finding little ways to tweak it with the parts we had access to (as I said, this set has a lot to work with). And the availability of elements like energy effects just helped us take the model to that small, extra place we wanted. The final result was a steampunk DreamZzz tank fit for any dreamling to battle the Night Emperor and his minions.

Getting to build the new Tiger Shark Tank and using the set to build a MOC was a really fun and inspiring process. This set has convinced me to pick up the rest of the lineup, and with all the new parts we discovered during our build process, we’ve definitely added a few new ideas to our list of future MOCs!

You can check out more of Chris and Adrian’s work on Instagram.

Dino Yet To Come

So there you have it: four out-of-this-world MOCs, from fantastical plants to colorful spaceships, inspired by the latest wave of DreamZzz sets. While I do wish there were some smaller sets in the wave (Rambling Brick published a great article about this), the sets we got are all a lot of fun with tons of customization potential.

“But wait!” you may be saying. “There’s a set missing!” And you would be correct. We’ve got a separate article for our look at 71514 Dino Jet coming soon…

You can check out BrickNerd’s looks at previous LEGO DreamZzz waves below:

DISCLAIMER: These sets were provided to BrickNerd by The LEGO Group. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors.

What is your favorite LEGO DreamZzzz set? Let us know in the comments below.

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Lukas Kurth from StoneWars, Wayne Tyler, Dan Church, and Roxanne Baxter to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.