Beautiful Lego by Mike Doyle

Ok- I admit it; I didn’t check out this book from the library for the articles. I got Beautiful Lego for its vast array of impressive Lego art. Actually, when I checked this book out, I thought it was only pictures anyways.

The ‘articles’ are a series of Q&A type interviews with some of the artists featured in this coffee table tribute to the iconic plastic building block. Each interview is basically the same with the artist explaining their roots and their love for Legos. I wasn’t interested in that. I wanted pictures.

While there are hundreds of impressive photos of sculptures made of plastic blocks ranging from Freddie Mercury to imaginary castles in the sky, I feel like a lot of this book was wasted on text and not the real reason anyone would want to own this book- photos of Lego art.

I’m not going to blast the art in this book. Personally, I like the works that are made to represent something real or iconic; such as models of DC Comics characters or Battlestar Galactica vehicles. There’s a lot of fanciful stuff in here too like robots and geometric shapes. But those works while impressive are not my cup of tea. Some other Lego artworks of note are the ones that are made to look like flames and human anatomy.

Beautiful Lego is just that- absolutely beautiful. But I think too much of this book is spent on artist profiles. I obtained the book for the artwork and with ¼ of the book devoted to something other than Lego art; I don’t think it’s worth the $29.95 cover price. Once again, I am glad that I got this book from my library and didn’t shell out my hard earned money for something that I wasn’t expecting.

Worth Consuming- for the artwork alone.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.