Amazing designs and so much fun to create! You will want to pick this one up at your local library and try to recreate all the animals!
Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Sophie and her eight-year-old son took a look at two LEGO ideas books together. Beasts from Bricks by Ekow Nimako and How to Build Brick Cars by Peter Blackert provide step-by-step instructions to build a wide variety of cars and creatures without needing to buy an official boxed kit. Both books provide a full parts list for each build, lots of full-color photographs of each step, and plenty of interesting background information on all the different animals and vehicles you can build.

The difficulty level for each model is about the same all the way through Beasts from Bricks, but increases as you move through the How to Build Brick Cars with simpler creations such as the V-8 Coupe and Roadster (155 pieces) at the beginning, progressing to the Bugatti Veyron (593 pieces) at the end. Even the easiest builds in both books are more complex than a lot of simple LEGO kits, so younger children are likely to need adult help to complete the models.

Of course, unlike buying a premade boxed kit, you will need to go out and purchase the bricks you need to build any of the models in the book unless you are very lucky and happen to have all the pieces required. Despite having a toy chest brimming with many decades worth of accumulated LEGO blocks, Sophie wasn’t even close to having everything she needed to complete even the simplest of models from these books. Purchasing them would easily set her back the cost of simply buying an existing kit, and that’s before the cost of the book itself is factored in. Parents who consider these books need to bear this in mind as they may end up spending a lot of money on new blocks in order for their children to be able to use them.

Sophie and her son enjoyed looking through these books and seeing how the models were put together. It also inspired her son to try out some new ideas on his own with his LEGO building. However, when it came to actually building anything, Sophie’s son opted to spend his money on other LEGO rather than the pieces he would need to complete any of the designs in the books, and Sophie imagines most kids would do the same. These are great books for serious adult LEGO fans looking to work on new projects, but are probably best avoided for kids.

well explained with illustrations to make beast from bricks........

This book is excellent for any LEGO fans out there - it has some great idea, brilliant images and it is easy to follow - great book!!

This is more "LEGO as art" than models kids will actually be able to build. The animals are just too complex. The figures are easily recognized and there is a guide to the exact pieces you need. A patient person could replicate the models, though the directions rely entirely on visual charts which aren't always the clearest. A great book to leaf through and admire, though.

An interesting set of animals to be created from basic lego blocks. An easily understood collection with nicely imaged instructions. An excellent way for parents and children to connect while building these animals.

Now this is an epic Lego blocks book! Fascinating, definitive and reproducible. Comprehensive block guide and step by step images with completed model to inspire you and serve as a reference point. Who could ask for anything more. Recommended.

Cool brick built animals with instructions so you can build your own. The end of the book features a gallery of additional artwork. The owl, entitled Silent Knight, uses 50,000 LEGO elements and looks mighty nice. Going to try my hand at a few of his animals. I might start with the hippo because it has him swimming and not just standing there. I also really like that each project gives a nice explanation of each animal in real life that inspired the LEGO animal.

First of all I'm going to praise Nimako's art. The pieces in this book are fantastic sculptures in a "non-traditional" material, which manage to capture life-like aspects of the creatures he's depicting. The gracefully-swimming walrus and gleeful elephant in particular made me smile, followed swiftly by admiration at coaxing out expression in Lego.

Creating organic forms in Lego is very challenging due to the brickiness of the bricks, but with clever techniques Nimako manages to overcome that and bring some truly lovely pieces. This is most noticeable in the brief Gallery at the back of the book, where we see spectacular owls and flying horses, part of his body of artistic work. I only wish we could have seen more of them!

For me, the main value in this book is being shown the unusual techniques employed by Nimako--SNOT (studs not on top) is used extensively--which are helpful for inspiring my own designs. I'm unlikely to head to Bricklink and purchase the parts for these models, and it's highly unlikely that I have all the pieces in my collection already. As such, this isn't much more than a coffee table book for me as it is largely building instructions. I imagine an adult fan of Lego with some disposable income and a love of animals might go the extra mile and have great fun building these.

I have a couple of criticisms. The blurb says 'all ages', but this is certainly not for younger fans of Lego. These models use advanced building techniques, and while the instructions themselves are very clear, they often require turning the model about and doing odd things I suspect are far beyond the average child. I think if these were official Lego sets, they'd be marketed at adults, which makes the basic animal facts included before each model just a little out of place.

Secondly, the instructions, while clear, aren't always consistent in their layout. Many of the pages have up to six steps on them, and sometimes they're organised with steps 1-3 on the left hand side, while others have steps 1, 3, and 5 on the left hand side. You'd definitely need to pay attention when building or it could get confusing fast! That said, I'm still pretty impressed with the instructions. The program Nimako used to make them is fiddly at best.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and think AFOLs could get a lot out of it, but it might have been better with more pictures of Nimako's Lego art (instructionless) to give it more value as something to pick up over and over to check out the incredible details of his larger work.

Apparently my brain does not comprehend the Lego world for creativity. My 5-year-old niece is obsessed with Legos, and this book helped me at least look like I knew what I was doing! I have the inability to stare at Legos and have my brain come up with new and creative designs -- I need step-by-step instructions, and this book does have it. I'm curious to know what other Lego books there are that could help me; this was the first book I came across.

This book is amazing for Lego lovers! I love that there is a blurb about why the animal was chosen for a creation in addition to random facts about the animal. The step by step instructions to build the creation with a list of necessary parts is sure to entertain for hours. This is a must have for the young (and old) Lego lover in your life.

Beasts from Bricks is a nice Lego tutorial collection from Ekow Nimako and Quarto publishing. The projects are complex, but the tutorials are really well illustrated and with some patience, can be followed by most of us.

The 15 animals included are arranged by continent and there's a complete brick list for each one.
Most of them are articulated and move in some way. My only caveat is that you need a LOT of single color bricks and a lot of the really obscure pieces as you can see from the cover (rhino).

They're really beautiful and I appreciated that each section included the Latin name along with some geographical and background/conservation info.

My favorite part was the gallery at the end. Truly breathtaking sculpures. I'm in awe!

The book also includes a resources section as well as a short bio of the artist creator.

Beautifully made, with meticulously illustrated step by step tutorials.

Four stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.