Legos are toys, but they also inspire amazing designs. LEGO artists use the small plastic bricks to produce everything from robots to architecture. Even the engineers of the company design new elements that enable builders to create more intricate models. Erik Varszegi, a Master Builder who works for the Lego Group in Billund, Denmark, designed one such new component this year: the curving slope. It allows Lego users to create more slanted forms, while adhering to the strict color palette of the company. The slopes can also be used to create more dynamic shapes such as the curving staircase.

Some Lego sets are the result of the work of professional designers and some are the product of the wildly popular Lego Ideas program. The Ideas line lets anyone create a set, and then get it manufactured, and offers fame and 1 percent of sales to designers who can convince 10,000 peers that their design is worthy of being be made into a production. It’s no surprise that the most extravagant and impressive sets tend to get the most attention, particularly when they are based on iconic characters or scenes from films and television shows or in real life.

Two space icons are among the top Lego models of the space shuttle Discovery and Hubble Telescope. NASA shuttle Discovery and the Hubble Telescope model. Each telescope comes with a plaque for display and an exact Lego version of its inventor. Other impressive models include a frame Rainbow, a Steampunk Dragon, and a model of the Westminster Palace.

he said