Mini-beasts spark creative streak
Friday 8th March 2013
Slug by Jim Lawrence (4) from Bedfordshire
Model mini-beasts are creating a buzz with animals created for The Wildlife Trusts’ LEGO competition.
A terrific tortoiseshell butterfly, wonderful wasp-spider, delightful dragonfly and precious pondskater each win their young creators a prize!
Seven year old Ted Epps from Buckinghamshire rose to the challenge of building a LEGO model of a UK invertebrate, producing a marvellous tortoiseshell butterfly. Ted will receive a Vampyre Castle and Ghost Train, courtesy of LEGO.
Judge Sadie McGlone, said:
"We could instantly tell which type of butterfly it is and think the use of the different coloured bricks to create the wing pattern is really clever. Ted did all this without using any special pieces too, which we thought was in keeping with the spirit of a LEGO challenge!”
It is so encouraging to see nature inspiring such creativity
Six year old Ben Rumsby’s wasp-spider, seven year old Tom Haynes’s southern hawker dragonfly and seven year old Angus Thorpe’s pondskater are all runners-up. Ben, Tom and Angus from Essex, Yorkshire and Staffordshire respectively, will each receive a LEGO Vampyre Hearse and Mummy set.
Readers of Wildlife Watch, The Wildlife Trusts’ magazine for junior members, and users of the Wildlife Watch website were challenged to build a LEGO model of a UK invertebrate, whether a spider, an insect or a mollusc.
The judges reviewed nearly 300 entries ranging from bumblebees to stag beetles to slugs. Winners were chosen on the grounds of creative expertise and closely following the brief. Most importantly, the models had to truly resemble their mini-beast counterparts.
“We were really impressed with the high standard of the models and delighted with the number of entries too, said Sadie McGlone, one of The Wildlife Trusts’ judges.
“It was extremely difficult to pick a winner. Plenty of effort and thought had gone into each and every entry. We all had our favourites! It is so encouraging to see nature inspiring such creativity.”
A few of the judges’ favourites:
Contenders for the main prize included Joshua Beesley from Kent (bumble bee), Joe Lewis from Co Londonderry (common snail), Ben Robertson (grasshopper), Luke Mervyn from Middlesex (house spider), Sam Hughes from Nottingham (ladybird), Ben Greatholder from Stafford (house spider), Mikey Scudamore from London (damselfly), William Marriage from Hertfordshire (nit), Sophie Chalkley from Derbyshire (red admiral butterfly), Jim Lawrence from Bedfordshire (slug), Jakob Bauer from Lancashire (spider), James Buffoni from Surrey (stag beetle), Andrew (ichneumon), Hayden Mcloughlin (water boatman), Chloe & Jessica Powling from Clackmannanshire (grove snail).
Some of the entries are published in the Spring 2013 issue of Wildlife Watch magazine. All are now featured in a slideshow on the Wildlife Watch website: www.wildlifewatch.org.uk/lego-minibeasts.
Wildlife Watch www.wildlifewatch.org.uk
Wildlife Watch is the junior branch of The Wildlife Trusts and the UK’s leading environmental action club for kids. There are 150,000 Wildlife Watch members around the UK (and the Isle of Man and Alderney too) and hundreds of local Watch groups where young people get stuck into environmental activities.
Tagged with: Wildlife Watch