Last modified: 1/15/07

Legos are not just for kids. These toy bricks offer unlimited possibilities, and are also great stress relievers. With a few simple steps, you can dust off your lego storage and construct a Link, Mario, or even Lucky Lucy- all in colorful blocky goodness.

Step #1: Capture a screen shot from an emulator

It is wise to start off with a simple character that has a distinguished color scheme. Of course, having the same color legos is something to look out for as well. Link is a great start for a beginner.

Step #2: Make a sprite

I use an advanced paint program, Paint Shop Pro 6, but I will use the basic Windows Paint program for my tutorial (since it is so widely available and should already be on your PC).

Open up the screen shot, click on the select option (found on the top right hand bar), and square off Link's body as shown below.

Now right click inside the new square. A new window should pop up showing more options. Left click the 'Cut' selection. Link is now saved to the clipboard.

Go up to the File tab and select 'New'. A blank image will replace the screen shot. Now right click anywhere on the blank white and choose 'Paste'.

Link will show up on the top left corner of the blank image. At the bottom right of the blank image is a small blue square. Hold and left click this to resize the image to only include Link's body. Your Paint screen should look like this:

Next, select the paint bucket, which is directly below the select button. Choose a solid color, e.g. white, and fill in that color around Link's remaining background. Most of the color around Link will turn white (or whichever color you chose). Fill in the other colors with the bucket or paintbrush so that Link is surrounded by only one color.

(You may want to enlarge the image by going up to the View tab and then Zoom.)

You are now left with a blank background and our man Link. We are now going to resize the image again. Drag the blue square resizer to a good, much larger size. When you are satisfied with the size, select Link's body again. Using the same technique as you did with making the background larger, drag out the blue resizer to jumbo-size Link. Make sure Link looks proportional. Your screen should now look something like this:

Left click picture to enlarge

Can you see where I'm going with this? This is now your basic lego layout. You may choose to print out this image.

Step #3: Building

You are on your own with the building, but I do have a couple of tips.

Do not attempt to build the body altogether!!

Segment off the parts of Link's body. It would be a shame, and very frustrating, if after building a great Link the whole thing breaks a part at the end. Breaking off sections of the figure is your insurance if anything goes wrong.

More fragile parts, such as Link's shield and nose, should be isolated from the bigger sections- like its head.

(Body)

(Head)

(Arms)

(Shield/Nose)

Step #4: Completion

Carefully combine the parts into one figure.

I love legos. Now onto my next Lego project: constructing Picasso's L'Accordéoniste.

Uiibaa, a visitor of NES Player, shares another practical idea to build NES characters out of LEGO:

I just ran across your site, and wanted to share with you some of my lego mosaics I've made...

Anyways, they were done with a very different method than yours... I took little flat square mats that were exactly NES sprite friendly dimensions =) they're kinda like those streets you could get a while back for logos... some of them were done with alot of flat pieces on the back, and more flat pieces keeping those together...

Also, when I did the screenshots, I enlarged them in ms paint, turned on grid, took a screencap, and drew black lines where the grey dotted lines were...

Amazon.com sells these "baseplate mats" (15.0 x 0.15 x 15.0) for $12.99!

Another site visitor, Ritchie Marion, shares his creations.

Capybara554321 was inspired by this section and decided to make some of his own. He says the Duck model caused him the most trouble. I would say!

Jason Hogan wants the world to see his personal NES shrine topped off with his Raccoon LEGO Mario in the center.

Simon Johnson presents "Leg Fu."

Here's a whole gang of NES legends beautifully Legofied by Mode7.

After finding out about this page, Richard Talbot from the U.K. went a little Lego crazy! He built Mario, Goomba, Link, and Toad.

Metaleggman built himself a 2' 1" Samus Aran little sister and a 1' 8" Raccoon Mario younger brother, among other creations, to place himself in the middle of a happy Nintendo family made of toy brick. Yes, the boy is a little off.

(Additional photographs: Class Picture, Big Samus, Toad, Excitebike, X-Mas Legos)

Now it's your turn! Below is the layout I used to make the above Link figure. I also included an extra Mario layout. Have fun building and send me pics of your masterpieces in an e-mail!