Life-size Lego man with realistic skin is horrifying beyond words See all Editor's Picks Screengrab via Tested / Youtube Greetings from the bottom of the uncanny valley. Here is a face. It is a human face. It is a nice face. Photo via chairit imjaroen/Flickr Here is another face. It is a Lego face. It is a cute face. And here is a thing that should never be. Oh, are you not completely traumitized? No problem, because here come the giant creepy hands. The mask and hands were created by Frank Ippolito, who last year constructed a somehow less terrifying full-size Rancor costume—something that George Lucas couldn’t even pull off in Return of the Jedi. Ippolito wore his disturbing Mini-Fig costume around Comic-Con and, surprisingly, didn’t cause a bunch of children to wet themselves. The kids actually seem super into it—and can’t stop touching him. Although maybe they wouldn’t have been so eager if they knew how much sweat was stewing in there.
Let this be a lesson to all Lego fans. Not everything is awesome. Some stuff is just super creepy. Up next after the break:Lego Artist Nathan Sawaya-one of the only six certified Lego professionals in the world, three in the US-will do a full-size scale Lego replica of yourself for $60,000. You just have to order it from Neiman Marcus, send some photographs, and Nathan will build your natural-size 8-bit version. Given his rates, that amount is quite reasonable and, coincidentally, our remaining budget for the rest of the year. Now I just have to come with an excuse to order one of myself and get another $60,000 to buy one of Uma Thurman. Update: Nathan came to us with some specifics about this work. Jesús Díaz: On average, how many pieces would it take to do one of these? Nathan Sawaya: I don't keep track of how many pieces I use in a sculpture because it would get a bit tedious. But I am guessing around 15,000-25,000 individual bricks. JD: As you are an sculptor, you work straight from reality, no digitizing process needed.
How many photos do you need to do your work? NS: Ideally, I would like 16 photos: Eight full body photos from 360 degrees, and eight of the face and head from 360 degrees. JD: Have you done one of these already? NS: I did myself, does that count? Seriously, the only other full body adult that I have done so far happens to be Stephen Colbert. Acclaimed artist Nathan Sawaya is obsessed with LEGO® bricks. Uh, trust us, he is. He fills his New York studio with more than 1.5 million of the interlocking toy building blocks, and he can sculpt anything out of them - a full-size Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton or a 7-foot-long scale replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, for example. Given the skill and depth of his devotion to his art, it makes perfect sense to immortalize your own magnificent self with our 2008 His & Hers gifts. Send in detailed photos and measurements, then Nathan gets to snapping and BOOM! One-of-a-kind, life-size sculptures of yourselves in LEGO bricks. We priced our exclusive gift individually, so Nathan can "brickalize" you and the S.O., the kids, Granny and/or anyone else you obsess about.
(Just make sure you have the rights to their likenesses; we're not here to judge.) And by the way, if you don't have $60,000, then you should consider entering our Go Miniman Go Lego contest. The vintage shrink-wrapped Lego sets will get you a nice chunk of that money in eBay. But hurry up because the end of the month deadline is quickly approaching. If you want to participate, check the contest rules here and send your video now. The life-sized figure of a man made of Lego pieces was found washed up on a Florida beach, and people are scratching their heads as they try to figure out where it came from and what it could possibly mean. Jeff Hindman reportedly found the bright red, yellow and green “man” as he walked on the Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota County around 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to a report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The fiberglass figure measures about 8 feet tall, and weighs about 100 pounds, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. In a light-hearted press release, the department said it had taken the giant Lego man “into protective custody.”
The front of the figure’s bright green “torso” bore the cryptic message: “NO REAL THAN YOU ARE.” On the back appear the numeral “8? and the words “Ego Leonard.” Just who is Ego Leonard, you ask? It’s apparently the alter ego of a Dutch artist. A visit to the website, “Prescription Art,” shows a gallery of paintings for sale that all feature the Lego figure alongside pithy messages such as “I Love You,” “Play by the Rules” and, coincidentally, “No Real Than You Are.” Converting the currency from the prices listed in British pounds, the paintings range in price from $3,407.19 to $4,238.90. There’s also an Ego Leonard book — “No Real Than You Are” — that you can snag for just $11.18. A message on the site, purportedly from the mysterious Ego, reads: “My name is Ego Leonard and according to you I come from the virtual world. A world that for me represents happiness, solidarity, all green and blossoming, with no rules or limitations.
Lately however, my world has been flooded with fortune-hunters and people drunk with power. And many new encounters in the virtual world have triggered my curiosity about your way of life. I am here to discover and learn about your world and thoughts …” Other large Lego figures have previously washed up on beaches in England and Holland. The Siesta Key Beach figure drew many stares before authorities removed it. “Mr. Leonard is being kept in a secure environment until his owner comes forward,” the police statement added. The makers of LEGO, the popular plastic toy bricks and plastic figures, have disavowed any knowledge of, or involvement with, the figure. Legoland Florida, a theme park, opened earlier this month in Winter Haven, Fla. In a statement to the Sheriff’s office, the LEGO Group said: “This activity is in no way sponsored or endorsed by The LEGO Group or Merlin Entertainments, who run LEGOLAND attractions.”Because children, given the opportunity, will ruin everything, these are before and after shots of the Nick Wilde Zootopia LEGO statue built by LEGO builder Zhao (pictured) for a mall in Ningbo, China that was destroyed less than an hour after going on display.