Amazing LEGO insects and arthropods

Sean and Steph Mayo created an exquisite series of LEGO bugs for the "Creepy Crawly" category in the 2013 MocAthalon building competition. See them all in this Flickr set. (Thanks, Jake Dunagan!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

MORE: bugs • insects • lego

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Beautiful Lego creations…

And all that I can think of is Zorak from Space Ghost/Coast to Coast…
Nash Rambler

Wow. Skin-crawlingly realistic.
http://profiles.google.com/mmorowitz Michael Morowitz

When does it cross the line from “LEGO” to just a snap-together model? It seems like the pieces that comprise these kinds of thing bear very little resemblance to a LEGO.
- xzzy
  
  What do you mean? Every piece in that mantis is a legit lego piece. Yes, lego has a lot more “special purpose” bricks than they did 30 years ago, but this has also opened new avenues for creativity and problem solving.
  
  It’s just a lump of plastic. Any issues with finding creative uses for it is a user problem, not a toy problem.
  - http://profiles.google.com/mmorowitz Michael Morowitz
    
    More directly, my question is: what defines a piece being “LEGO”? Is it simply the brand designation?
Luther Blissett

David, this has been jumping up and down my feedreader for days now. But YOU posted the first reblog with the correct notion: arthropods. Not only insects. This has been really bugging me. Thank you!
- Dan Fuchs
  
  Hah. “bugging” you. Cute.
ohbejoyful

And which aisle of the toy store will these be stocked in? The regular aisle, or the pink ghetto?