Making Waves: The Soothing Moves of LEGO Waves

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Okay, BrickNerd fans, better pop a couple of Dramamines and slip on your swim floaties because today we’re checking out some crafty LEGO wave action MOCs!

We’ll jump right in (feet first of course) with Grant Davis’ lovely seaside scene, complete with lighthouse, sand castle, and surfing bear. The video shows all those nifty Technic innards that create the wavy action as well as the aesthetic details that make the set such a splash.

Paddeling back in time a few years, we’ve got Deborah Higdon’s Copenhagen Nyhavn scene from 2014. Since this is an urban setting, the watery action appears more sloshy than wavy. Thus the absence of surfing bears.

Now for our third iteration of LEGO wave action, we’ve got Brian William’s World of Lights award-winning display at BrickWorld 2019, captured by BrickNerd’s own Ted Andes. Using a similar plates-over-netting technique as the other builds, Brian creates a higher amplitude undulation to mimic the setting for an ocean-going vessel. The scale works quite well. I don’t think it needs a bigger boat.

We end with Jason Allemann’s (aka JK Brickworks) no-net technique using rotating circles with plates resting on them to achieve the undulating waves of the ocean. This is probably the least part-intensive technique so far but probably the technique I’d most likely get my finger caught in.

So there you have it, gang! We hope you enjoyed our little retrospective in LEGO wave action (and that the rest of your day goes swimmingly)!

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published March 29, 2022

Will this inspire you to create your own LEGO wave action MOC? What movie do you prefer: Splash or Point Break? Let us know in the comments below.

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