This is a “behind the scenes” of one of my fave builds: Forest Guardian

This project flexed a LOT of my building skills and workflows in general.
The broad strokes of the workflow are generally the same from one project to another, incorporating more digital work was my very new for me for this project

First and foremost: INSPIRATION

I am someone who can be very inspired by anything. However, making something into a physical build brings with it some challenges that sometimes put me off.
This was something that I saw in the wild and INSTANTLY knew it was something I wanted to build.

I went to the local renaissance fair with a friend group. Among the vendors this one dragon caught my eye. Amongst the sea of 3D printed dragons that every vendor was stocking, this dragon was as is. Painted and Weathered.
I instantly became infatuated. A dragon with a story.

This is a rare and wonderful “seed” of an idea. I saw a fragment of a story and wanted to expand on it. Why is a dragon overgrown? Is it friendly? What is its home?

Soon enough I was daydreaming a bit and had to draw out what I wanted *MY* Dragon to be like. As with a lot of my ideas, the best sketchpad is the one at hand so a post-it note was my canvas.

Basic Shapes, vague ideas of what I wanted limbs to be, a set of wings I never seemed to make work made up the backbone of what I wanted from a forest dragon.

However, I knew I wanted LOTS of organic life to be involved. Mushrooms, ferns, roots, moss, etc. Namely I knew I wanted the dragon reddish brown.
My brown part collection was (and still kinda is) a HUGE limiting factor. So I could not just “play with my collection” as I find myself doing. I had to plan out my build.

Before I could begin to build I had to ask:
“What is a Dragon”?
The nerdy pedantic part of me would love to give a lecture on dragon/wrm/wyvren nomenclature, I know that not really helpful for THIS build, and honestly I am not that into the differences.

The real question is:”What dragons could I study to draft my own”?
A much more relevant question.
I cite LEGO sets as my foundation for this build.
The D&D Dragon (21348)
Ninjago Jungle Dragon (71746)
and Ninjago Skull Sorcerer Bone Dragon (71721)

Combining my own forest-y ideas AND the above inspiration, I started to synthesize my idea in Stud.io

Early Drafts

I used white as an easy way to shape out my initial ideas. This first take was literately a “duct-taping” of the ninjago/D&D dragons and some forest parts.
A VERY rough draft. However this pushed me to want to do more. I drowned myself in EVEN more Lego dragons and throwing things at the wall to see what I liked. One AFOL I was very inspired by was “bb-2236549” on bricklink, studying their techniques for the organic skeleton.

This second draft became the shaping I wanted. Beefy, muscular, proud, and a real beast elements were the foundation to the dragon part. The horns like tree branches, the toes blending in like roots, the bark like back and tail all blended the organic look I was going for.

The Ninjago dragon “DNA” is still very present in the feet, arms and face. Part of me wishes I would have done more; the other part of me knows re-inventing the wheel is not always necessary.
I was pleased at my own work, despite my influence showing, I wanted to see my dragon fleshed out.
I do consult my friends along each step and they gave a BIG thumbs up to the V2 Dragons

A coat of paint and some accessories and it POPS
I used mostly reddish brown with lots of dark brown for the foundation. The grey was unavoidable but given it can be interpreted as stone, not the worst outcome. The Dark tan was a nice accent color to break up the spines on its back, I had my heart set in that particular piece, so some contrast helped out a lot. I also was very selective about my greens. As much as I love classic lego green, I wanted the earthy and rich tones. the olive and dark greens top of my list. I dabbed on some red-capped mushrooms for color, to call back to my inspiration toy, and to age the dragon.
I took my original inspiration and developed it with lots of my lego research and synthesized it into this beast (im using the term lovingly).
But the “story” part of my brain wanted more.
“If this is a king of a forest, where is his throne?”
(I don’t actually know the dragon’s gender, but a gentle but strong king of the forest felt right).
So I set to work creating a throne for Wald (its the German word for forest, mostly tired of calling him my dragon)

I researched a bunch of lego landscape guides and tried to make a true mountain top for the king to rule upon. MILS plates and modular mountains all came to mind.

It then dawned on me: “scope creep”
I was trying to do WAY TOO MUCH
Wald (the dragon) was already big for me.
I knew he needed a forest but after getting lost in the landscape and realizing what pieces I had on hand, I had to stop and evaluate the best logistics.
I wanted Wald to be seen in his habitat, but still make him the FOCUS of it.
I went back to the drawing board and decided to start by seeing how SMALL I could get.

This footprint was MUCH more doable.
I then re-landscaped the manageable habitat, followed by adding in the rest of the environment. The tress are from Tips n Bricks foliage book, another “re-invent the wheel problems”.

At this point, I was both blown away at my own build coming to life AND getting frustrated at the little bits in Stud.io of fine detailing and posing. This is where I leaped into MAKING Wald and his throne.

I also very much leaned into a build technique *I* really like, but is an “acquired taste”
Camouflage
Wald is supposed to blend in as if he wasn’t there, over looking his kingdom with quiet benevolence.
My “design” brain HATES this. I am not the best with colors I will admit, but this part of me wanted contrast for Wald to stand out and be seen.
My “art” brain completely disagreed. Wald blending in IS the point. My ecology brain also chimed in and doubled down on the blending in. If the dragon is supposed to peacefully look over his kingdom, he needs to be peaceful and unseen.

The camouflage won over for better or worse.


I did an audit of my own collection and ordered the rest of the missing parts and got to work.

Final Product

COMPLETE!
I used a lot of the flex brown pieces for the trees and Wald adding a bunch of detail. I had more mushrooms to add in for variety; squirrels, and birds populated as well; butterflies and other foliage filling out where felt appropriate.

I also wanted the deer and minifigure up front for 2 reasons.
1) Scale. I wanted Wald to be larger than life, a true gentle GIANT. The minifigure and deer are great anchors for the human perspective on size. The average person can conceptualize a minifig is “human sized”. By using that basis, the TRUE size of the dragon becomes understood. How small both the human and deer are, the tress, river, etc. Wald is BIG

2) Peace. I love the original Jurassic Park so much. The t-rex and the jeeps were a cinematic master piece. This is the OPPOSITE of that. Dragons have a reputation of being big, violent, flame breathing monsters. Wald is NOT that. The hiker and deer are either unaware or totally at peace with such a large mythical creature. Wald is a GENTLE giant. The MOST important piece to sell this idea is the blue butterfly on his head. The landscape around him also implies he is at peace with the world. Lots of growth around him, no claw marks, mushrooms and flowers blossom over Wald.

Gentle Giant, Guarding over the forest to maintain peace.
This is the story I wanted for Wald.
My own experiences of exploring nature heavily inspired me.
The life and beauty found all around. The peace in the simple walk. The security that mother nature can provide.

Wald is an extension of those thoughts taken to another level. Its NOT just a dragon, its NOT just a nature scene. It is both, like how Wald is both gentle AND a giant.

(I need to remind the reader my current day job is science and numbers, so if its a bit mushy, you know why)

Capturing Wald

I am a novice photographer. So I tried a combo of backgrounds before landing on grey.

It was at this time IRL I was laid off work.
Such is life.
Getting unexpectedly let go from work was difficult, but I knew I had to persevere if for nothing else, to show I could still be creative even under stress.

Wald brought me joy in a rough spot. I wanted to share him, so I made sure to take real pictures while job hunting.

Full pics on Flickr/IG

I took Wald to Brick convention 2024 and Actualy got some love!
Best Fantasy (lug award)
Arc Brick Fave
77Bricks fave

With Walt in the wild, I noticed several people look confused then instantly “AHA!” followed by “do you see it?”
Wald is an optical illusion! (A camouflaged creature in his element is probably the right term)
I do not think everyone saw Wald. He blends right in for better or for worse. But it was delightful to see the “wow” of the families that did see him.

Ideas?

Forest Guardian IS on Lego ideas!
as much as I love Wald, he probably wont make 10k

https://beta.ideas.lego.com/product-ideas/d3674807-3c94-4c4a-b3bb-d6eed9d942f3

This does mean I DID go back to Stud.io and REALLY had to work at it. I had to work Wald to “sit” better on his throne. I updated the foliage and added in the wildlife to match better. I also rendered everything as a png and learned how to add in a soft gradient background to show off Wald (it may be un-impressive for you, however this was NEW to me, an actual render and using a separate graphics software)

What a peaceful king.
Despite a Staff choice award, Wald probably is not going to make it to 5k let alone 10k.
And I think that’s FINE.
If you read this far, you know Wald is a labor of love and whimsy.
He is important to me for a serious lego project and also a confidence boost. Wald is one of the few builds I impressed myself with.

As for future builds/plans?

I don’t typically think that far ahead
A shrimp frying rice took over my 2025 and DID get 10k on LEGO idea
Because of the above reasons I like to “be flexible” however there are LOTS of ideas in the tank

(thank you if you did actually read this far)