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How to Build a LEGO Vampire Squid

A vampire squid is an unusual creature but not outside the realm of creations in the Lego universe. With its thousands of unique pieces, you can make nearly anything with Lego, including a vampire squid. Although there is a squid-themed Lego set, called Gateway of the Squid, it uses many specialty parts that are only available in that set. But you can make your own squid with more common pieces while still giving it a vampire look. Expect the build to take about 15 minutes.

Instructions

- 1
  Connect a black 2-by-1 hinged plate to another black 2-by-1 hinged plate. Each hinged plate is actually a pair of plates with little teeth on the end that fit together to form a hinge. Repeat the process of connecting hinged plates until you have a chain of them 5 hinges long. Repeat this process until you have eight chains. Each chain represents a tentacle of your vampire squid. Make the chains longer or shorter for a bigger or smaller squid.
- 2
  Attach a holder plate on either end of each chain. The holder plate is a 1-by-1 square with what looks like two pinching fingers extending from one side.
- 3
  Connect two black handle-bar plates to the bottom of a 2-by-2 black plate. Handle-bar plates are 2-by-1 plates with a bar extending from one side. Connect another two black handle-bar plates to the top of the 2-by-2 plate. Connect this latter pair of handle-bar plates at a right angle to the other handle bars.
- 4
  Snap the pinched fingers of each tentacle to the bars of the handle-bar plates. The other end of the tentacles also have menacing pincers at the end.
- 5
  Connect four black 2-by-2 upward tapering bricks to the bottom of the 2-by-2 plate. The upward tapering brick has one stud on top and four depressions on bottom, and angles upward and outward.
- 6
  Connect a 2-by-1 red brick to the outer studs of two upward-tapering bricks to reinforce their connection. Connect another 2-by-1 red brick to two upward-tapering bricks on the opposite side of the first bricks. This creates two red eyes of the vampire squid. Connect two black 1-by-4 bricks at right angles to the red bricks to fill in the eye level of the squid's body.
- 7
  Connect four black downward tapering bricks to the eye level of the squid's body. The downward tapering brick has four studs on top and one depression on bottom; the opposite of the downward tapering brick. This creates a squid body that tapers outward to the eyes, then inward after them.
- 8
  Return to the bottom of the squid, or the mouth. The bottom of the squid is actually the top of the original 2-by-2 black plate with which you started the body. Connect 2 jumper tiles to the top of the black plate. Jumper tiles have two depressions and one stud on top. Connect a red top-holder plate to each stud. The top-holder plate looks like a square with two pincher fingers coming straight out of the top. These act as the vampiric teeth of the squid.

Construction Toys