Hasta La Gadget!

Mar 21

Salvador Dali’s elephants get the steampunk Lego treatment

It's a Lego elephant on stilts.

(Credit: Jin Kei)

Korean Lego artist Jin Kei looked at Salvador Dali’s surrealist masterpiece “The Elephants” and imagined it in plastic brick form. Then, he went even further, and translated it through the lens of steampunk. The result is an embodiment of the toothpick-legged elephant from the painting, except it is full of complex gears and mechanical joints that capture both aesthetics perfectly.

The most prominent feature of Dali’s work is the elephants’ impossibly tiny legs that look more like an insect’s than a pachyderm’s. The Lego version re-creates these, but with what look like hydraulic joints. The fun really starts when you dive into the details of the build, from the hatch wheel on the elephant’s side to the oil-derrick-like top piece.