Penguin Sculpture

Name of Model: LEGO Penguin

Created by: Robert VH

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/galaxy53281/tags/penguin/

Details: This adorable and slightly cartoonish penguin looks like something straight out of a Disney movie (I'm half-expecting someone to tell me it is actually from a Disney movie about an hour after this post shows up on the web). At 34 cm (13.4 inches) tall, this is a little short for a penguin, but a believable height nonetheless. The anthropomorphized features work exceptionally well - especially the suitcase. In an interesting twist (from a builder's perspective, anyway), this model is a odd number of studs wide. While most bird-builders decide to use bills that overly wide or use offset plates (those little 1x2 pieces with one stud centered on top) to make the bill fit, this builder decided to do the entire model in such a way that the face can be thin without changing the width at an offset (coincidentally, this also solved the tail problem). This makes construction much more difficult, since ordinary symmetrical building would leave gaps in the body - it's completely doable, but extra effort is required to make something sturdy when building this way. As if that didn't show enough dedication to the craft, he went ahead and made the head swivel as well, making it hard to even spot the unusual construction if you're not looking for it. Update September 7th, 2009: It turns out that this character is based on the penguins in the movie Madagascar.

Charming Emperor Penguins

Name of Model: A Happy New Year 2005

Created by: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=junlego

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=110490

Details: This charming pair of sculpted emperor penguins appears to have been made as a holiday surprise a few years back. The sculpting is fairly well done, although the elder penguin does look a little plump. Look closely for the hinged wings on both penguins. The beak of the larger penguin makes use of hard-to-find orange plates, while the smaller penguin uses studs-not-on-top effects to make tiny eyes.