Hot Air Balloon
Tong Xin Jun, Selangor, Malaysia — @exesandbox
There’s something instantly recognizable about this balloon — the kind of object that exists more vividly in illustration than in life. Xin Jun drew from the visual language of children’s storybooks, and it shows: the rainbow-paneled envelope swells with the uncomplicated joy of a primary-color palette, each segment a clean stripe of the spectrum against open sky.
True Friends
Giorgio D’Albano, Bologna, Italy — @cubettaro
A kitten and a puppy — creatures cast as opposites — caught in a moment of unselfconscious embrace. Giorgio D’Albano conceived the piece as a study in unlikely harmony, working first in freehand sketches before translating the composition into brick: searching, across multiple drawn versions, for the angle and posture that could carry a universal message in a single glance. The result is deceptively compact — the interconnecting parts carefully hidden so the sculpture reads as a true pairing.
Italia — 3D Poster
Claudio Nozza, Bergamo, Italy — @7.studs
A love letter rendered in layered brick. Claudio Nozza set out to make a map into a decorative object — the kind of wall piece typically printed or carved from wood, reinterpreted here in mint, tan, and gold. The coastlines are painstakingly accurate, the color palette chosen to sit comfortably in a real home, and four minifigures stand in the corner as ambassadors of Italian art, food, culture, and design. The result: a geographic act of pride: Italy’s familiar silhouette given depth, warmth, and a place on the wall.
Life-Size LEGO® Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Helmets
Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught & The Brickman Team, Melbourne, Australia — @brickmanexhibitions
Built to celebrate the launch of the official Scuderia Ferrari HP Helmet sets, these life-size replicas reconstruct Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 race designs, each featuring over 3,500 elements — complex curves, sponsor liveries, and all. The real test was structural: each helmet needed to be strong and comfortable enough to actually wear. Both drivers did, in the paddock. Leclerc asked if he could keep his.
Excitebike Arcade
Dave McClelland, Idaho Falls, Idaho — @arcadebricker
Fully playable, Dave McClelland’s tribute to the 1984 Nintendo motocross game recreates the look and feel of an arcade machine: a motorized mechanism lets players control a brick-built motorcycle along a scrolling track, performing stunts, navigating jumps, and changing lanes. LED lighting, a customizable course, and a counterbalance system to simulate realistic physics complete the illusion.
Kookaburra
Dylan Mercer, Melbourne, Australia — @digi_brick
Perched on a branch of warm tan and gnarled texture, Dylan Mercer’s kookaburra carries the stillness of a bird mid-watch — patient and alert. A self-imposed challenge to stretch beyond spaceships and buildings, the design was refined within the constraints of a piece-count limit into a model chosen as the official 2026 Brickvention exclusive — available only at the event — built around the theme of Australia, with focus on display potential and creating something worth keeping.
Childhood Memories at Legoland California
Serena Hinton, California, USA — @themocmaker
A map built from memory as much as satellite imagery. In a microscale recreation of Legoland California — rendered at roughly 1:630 across 11,800 pieces — Serena Hinton captures the park across multiple eras. The scale was chosen deliberately, just large enough for the driving school track to run one plate wide, with roller skate pieces standing in for cars. Over 900 trees populate the grounds. Eight months of design, three weeks of building — and the whole thing reads, from above, like a place someone loved.
The Moon: One Giant Leap for Mankind
Marc Sloan, London, UK — @sharkybricks
With Artemis II having carried humans around the Moon and back for the first time in half a century, the familiar face of it feels newly charged. Marc Sloan translated a high-resolution reference image, stud-by-stud, moving beyond flat mosaic into layered relief: slopes and texture giving the surface its topography, its craters catching light the way the real thing does on a clear night.
Hexagonal Cogs Mosaic
Dana Meyrow & Jeff Sanders, Virginia / Oregon, USA — @virginia_bricks / @brickbending
A collaboration rooted in a shared obsession: the 2×2 corner plate. Jeff Sanders built the original Hexagonal Cogs as an exploration of interlocking geometry; Dana Meyrow reconstructed the design and recast it in the colors of spring flowers coming into bloom, everything connected by greenery. The result is a mandala-like lattice that rewards sustained looking, each hexagonal ring shifting in hue as the eye moves outward from the center.
