Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Iain Heath is better known on the internet as Ochre Jelly. Under that name, he astounds us on a regular basis with his recreations of real-life events rendered in LEGO bricks. His turnaround on memes is getting faster. I thought about displaying his works here just this morning, and he's already got an extremely-recognizable meme born less than a week ago enshrined in his medium of choice.
LEST WE FORGET. Everyone in America will forever remember where they were as they learned of the traumatic events that unfolded in Brooklyn on the evening of August 25th. For those unfortunate enough to witness them in person, we can only pray for their families and hope that they are eventually able to wash off the stink. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of this hideous debacle are still at large. Authorities are looking for a short uncoordinated woman dressed in an outfit described as "totally f***-witted". Her accomplises are described as an unconvincing Beetlejuice cosplayer and a troop of insane oversided teddy bears from hell. The remaining shreds of Western culture are reported missing, presumed in tatters.
Heath has an eye for figuring out the exact sizes, shapes, and angles to make the bulky and limited LEGO pieces look exactly as they should for the project at hand. Let's look at some more of Heath's versions of pop culture memes.
Shark Riding a Roomba
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
A few months ago, the internet was charmed by Max-Arthur, the Roomba-riding cat. The video of Max-Arthur riding while wearing a shark costume with a duckling (which also featured a costumed dog) went viral because it was so …unusual. And hilarious. Heath knew it needed the LEGO treatment. This sculpture actually moves -like the original!
Royal Baby
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Heath was ready when the news was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed a new prince to the British royal family on July 22nd. When you put a little LEGO diaper on a baby, it doesn't matter if you know ahead of time whether it's a boy or a girl. The pacifier is the icing on the cake.
Sharknado
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Heath couldn't resist turning the SyFy monster/disaster movie Sharknado into a LEGO work, which we featured about a month ago in a roundup of Sharknado Tribute Art.
Grumpy Cat
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Well, you know it was well within Heath's talents to recreate the adorable face of Grumpy Cat, but it's not complete without some Impact text to go with it.
Y U No
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Y U NO Guy is the rage face that launched a thousand jokes. He looks the same in LEGO, thanks to Heath's diligence and free time.
Trololo Guy
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Heath was inspired to make a LEGO tribute to Russian singer Eduard Khil on the event of his death in 2012. He had achieved internet stardom as Mr. Trololo in 2010 when a clip of him performing on Russian television in 1976 went viral.
Epic Meal Time
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Epic Meal Time is a YouTube cooking show in which guys make extreme food with plenty of bacon. This sculpture is modeled after the episode in which they make Whisky Syrup Bacon Pancakes. There's an entire Flickr set of the sculpture, so you can see it from different angles.
Wil Wheaton Signing Autographs
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
The photograph of Wil Wheaton wearing that sweater is probably more widely known, but he does sign a LOT of autographs. Heath built this while attending the 2012 Emerald City ComicCon in Seattle.
The idea came about when I learned that some guy goes to each con and makes Mr Wheaton sign a picture of himself from the previous con - that project is about 7 deep at this point! SeaLUG was displaying at ECCC which is how I found myself there. Total build time for this model was about 5 hours (the last 2 of which occurred as I started trying to figure out how to attach the drinks, I ended up having to completely rebuild the table as a result!). To get the model as accurate as possible (for full 'meta' effect) I studied photos taken of the signing session from the day before.
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Heath managed to get his LEGO sculpture autographed at the Emerald City ComicCon. It's possible Wheaton was shamed into signing it when he saw this Ochre Jelly interpretation of Star Trek: The Next Generation on display at the Comic Con. Notice where Wheaton's character, Wesley Crusher, is.
Photograph by Ochre Jelly.
Maybe next, I'll show you how good Heath is at illustrating TV shows in LEGO. See more of Ochre Jelly's work in the previous post Real People in LEGO, and in his Flickr photo stream.