The most oddly satisfying LEGO® brick creations

Sometimes it’s the little things that bring us the most joy. Like getting an entire un-popped roll of bubble wrap in your mail package. Or like stepping on a puddle with just the right amount of ice over it.

Or like getting to run your hands through thousands of LEGO® elements…

We don’t know why it feels so good… but it does. There’s a similar mystery behind the attraction of building LEGO sets. What exactly is it about stacking little plastic bricks together that is so enjoyable, meditative and satisfying?

We’re not sure. But we know we aren’t the only ones who find oddly satisfying ways of using LEGO bricks.

So, we decided to dig a bit deeper into how (and why) LEGO building can be so satisfying.

And yes, don’t worry. We’ve gathered lots of examples of the most oddly satisfying LEGO creations out there.<br>

STOP MOTION

People use LEGO bricks to produce amazing stop-motion videos, all around the world.

A huge part of what makes these videos so satisfying is their sound editing, which tap into the huge (but seldom studied) trend of ASMR, utilizing the timeless sounds of LEGO bricks in the process.

In his video Building Black, Master LEGO artist Ekow Nimako talked about the LEGO ‘snap’, and how that sound of “something fitting into something else in the way it was designed to fit” provides such huge levels of satisfaction, and that’s why those sounds are so prominently featured in LEGO stop-motion videos.

Now it’s time to look at some...

From Korea comes the YouTuber Bebop, who ‘cooks’ with LEGO bricks. Now before you look at their work we have to say: DON’T EAT LEGO BRICKS.

You might think we’re stating the obvious but… trust us. Bebop will try their best to test your resolve.

We have to give a shout-out to the Brick Bros too, who currently have four videos in their LEGO stop-motion series. All are superb, but our favorite is set in a woodworking shop, where they remake one of the first toys the LEGO Group ever made! By the way, we recommend listening with sound ON.

Visually, there’s a certain joy in seeing smoothness applied to the typically stop-start activity that is LEGO building.

That’s why the best LEGO stop-motion filmmakers take advantage of that paradox by introducing fluidity in their works as much as possible, which they achieve through a high frame rate (pictures per second).

MESMERIC

Now onto our next theme… mesmerizing LEGO creations.

If you’ve ever tried meditation, you’ll know all about the importance of the breath as an anchor for the mind. Your breath in and of itself isn’t especially important other than something continual to focus on, to block out the chatter of your inner dialogue.

LEGO builds provide a similar purpose. They are repetitive, but not boring. They stimulate the mind just enough, without overloading it.

To start us off, check out Yoshihito Isogawa, a YouTuber specialising in LEGO Technic satisfaction. As a warning, don’t get into Yoshihito’s YouTube page if you have stuff to do. You might find yourself wondering where the last five hours just went.

Here are some more examples of mesmerizing LEGO brick builds...

Incidentally, meditation provides a clue as to why building LEGO creations yourself can be so relaxing. It all goes back to getting the mind into a fully immersed ‘flow state’, which meditation experts Headspace describe as “a sense of fluidity between your body and mind, where you are totally absorbed by and deeply focused on something, beyond the point of distraction.”

In a 2004 Ted Talk, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly even suggests that you can feel “a sense of ecstasy” from flow state, a result of knowing “exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other, [with] immediate feedback.”

That immersion in an engaging task, such as LEGO building, can filter out other concerns, preoccupations or even physical ailments. There’s even been a book written about it: “Build Yourself Happy”, which links mindfulness to the practice of LEGO building!

Knolling is another way you can use LEGO bricks to fully engage in a task. It’s the process of arranging different objects together at 90-degree angles from each other (or in a parallel format) and then taking a photo from above. The result? Well, see for yourself. Here are some oddly satisfying examples of knolling (using LEGO bricks), courtesy of some talented Adult Fans of LEGO...

And finally, we think it’s appropriate to end with arguably the oddest, oddly satisfying use of LEGO structures there is…

SMASHING THEM

Now, as a rule, we prefer LEGO structures that are intact. But in some instances, we can turn a blind eye. Like for science. Which is kind of what this is… right?

And besides, an entire third of our LEGO philosophy of Rebuilding The World is unbuilding, which comes between the building and rebuilding. Here’s an example of an extreme form of unbuilding (or at least, that’s how we’re justifying it).

Ahhhh. Is it weird that the sheer amount of effort that went into making it… somehow makes watching it get smashed even more satisfying?

Maybe. Could it be that it taps into the same spirituality that Buddhist monks invoke when they spend days and weeks painstakingly creating beautiful, intricate mandalas out of sand, only to ritualistically destroy them upon completion?

Nah.

Sometimes it’s just fun to see LEGO bricks flying all about the place.