How to Make 15 LEGO Animals!

Hey guys,

After an entire year, I finally opened my box of LEGO's to let my imagination run wild. While thinking of many ideas, I thought to make LEGO animals, and here there are! I hope you like them and you make them too!

Please vote for me in the Toy Building Blocks Contest as well!

Continue and begin your entry into the world of LEGO Animals!

Read the fun facts in bold while you go on creating!

Step 1: The Dragon

A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures. I know that this isn't a real animal, but I just thought of it and made it, cause it looks really cool!

Fun Fact: There are nine major types of Chinese dragons!

Step 2: The Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species) but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.

Fun Fact: Most male ducks are silent and very few ducks actually "quack." Instead, their calls may include squeaks, grunts, groans, chirps, whistles, brays and growls.

Step 3: The Elephant

Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae. All elephants have several distinctive features the most notable of which is a long trunk or proboscis, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water and grasping objects.

Fun Fact:Elephants are some of the most intelligent animals on Earth. Their brains weigh 5kg, much more than the brain of any other land animal. An elephant in Korea surprised its zoo keepers by independently learning to mimic the commands they gave it by verbalizing on the end of its trunk, successfully learning 8 words and their context.

Step 4: The Fish

The term "fish" most precisely describes any non-tetrapod craniate (i.e. an animal with a skull and in most cases a backbone) that has gills throughout life and whose limbs, if any, are in the shape of fins. A typical fish is ectothermic, has a streamlined body for rapid swimming, extracts oxygen from water using gills or uses an accessory breathing organ to breathe atmospheric oxygen, has two sets of paired fins, usually one or two (rarely three) dorsal fins, an anal fin, and a tail fin, has jaws, has skin that is usually covered with scales, and lays eggs.

Fun Fact: Fishes are cold-blooded (ectothermic) animals.Their internal body temperature is therefore the same as the surrounding water.

Step 5: The Giraffe

The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant. Its species name refers to its camel-like appearance and the patches of color on its fur. Its chief distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones, and its distinctive coat patterns. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. The nine subspecies are distinguished by their coat patterns.

Fun Fact: Giraffes have longer forelegs than hind legs. When viewed in profile, a giraffe's shoulders are noticeably higher than their hips and their back forms a downward slope as it approaches the tail.

Step 6: The Horse

The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. Horses' anatomy enables them to make use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.

Fun Fact: Arabian Horses Have One Less Vertebrae Than Other Breeds. The Arabian Horse is the foundation of many other light horse breed. They also possess some unique characteristics. Arabian horses have one fewer vertebrae, rib and tail bone than other horses.

Step 7: The Lion

The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia (where an endangered remnant population resides in Gir Forest National Park in India) while other types of lions have disappeared from North Africa and Southwest Asia in historic times.

Fun Fact: Fully grown males reach the height of 4 feet!

Step 8: The Penguin

Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have evolved into flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.

Fun Fact: The yellow-eyed penguin is believed to be the rarest penguin species, with only approximately 5,000 birds surviving in the wild, though population numbers fluctuate. They can only be found along the southeastern coast of New Zealand and smaller nearby islands.

Step 9: The Roadrunner

The roadrunner, also known as a chaparral bird and a chaparral cock, is a fast-running ground cuckoo that has a long tail and a crest. It is found in the southwestern United States and Mexico, usually in the desert. Some have been clocked at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h).

Fun Fact: The female constructs a nest in a bush or small tree. The nest is a shallow cup lined with sticks, feathers, and other soft objects. The female lays up to 12 eggs over 3 days, so the nestlings hatch at different times. Both parents take turns incubating, which lasts about 20 days.

Step 10: The Shark

Sharks are a group of fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorpha (or Selachii) and are the sister group to the rays. Since then, sharks have diversified into over 470 species. They range in size from the small dwarf lanternshark (Etmopterus perryi), a deep sea species of only 17 centimetres (6.7 in) in length, to the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the largest fish in the world, which reaches approximately 12 metres (39 ft) in length.

Fun Fact: Sharks do not have scales like fish. A shark has tough skin that is covered by dermal denticles, which are small plates covered with enamel, similar to that found on our teeth.

Step 11: The Black Sheep

Sheep (Ovis aries) are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Domestic sheep are relatively small ruminants, usually with a crimped hair called wool and often with horns forming a lateral spiral. Domestic sheep differ from their wild relatives and ancestors in several respects, having become uniquely neotenic as a result of selective breeding by humans. A few primitive breeds of sheep retain some of the characteristics of their wild cousins, such as short tails.

Fun Fact: There are more than 200 breeds of sheep!

Step 12: The White Sheep

The white equivalent of the black sheep!

Step 13: The Squid

Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles. Squid are strong swimmers and certain species can "fly" for short distances out of the water.

Fun Fact: Every squid features three hearts! They also move through the water tail first instead of head first.

Step 14: The Swan

Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus Cygnus. The swans' close relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae.

Fun Fact: Swans are non-migratory birds with species on nearly every continent, and they are one of the largest flying birds on the planet.

Step 15: The Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Chelonii or Testudines characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs and acting as a shield. Turtle may refer to the chelonian order as a whole (American English) or to fresh-water and sea-dwelling chelonians (British English).The order Chelonii or Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. The earliest known turtles date from 220 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards, snakes or crocodiles. Of the many species alive today, some are highly endangered.

Fun Fact: In some species of turtle the temperature determines if the egg will develop into a male or female, lower temperatures lead to a male while higher temperatures lead to a female.

Step 16: You're All Done!

Congratulations! You have created 15 LEGO Animals!

Please comment on your favourite animal and please, please vote for me in the contest! Make sure that you post your photos in the comment section so that I can see your awesome creation(s)!

I hope you liked it!