The 1-on-1 duels that we see between LEGO builders in the Iron Builder contest are the stuff of legend; titanic tussles between often well-regarded names in the community. But being open to everyone, the qualifying Iron Forge phase of the competition is a fantastic way for up-and-coming builders to cut their teeth. That makes it a great place in turn to find new building talent, and so it proves with Jonas Ens (AKA Beta Brick). This was a builder new to us as of last year’s Iron Forge, and they are once again making an impression in 2026! Let’s round up their journey so far, beginning with a photo-within-a-photo – making nice use of the engine intake that was the third round’s seed part. It’s not the only time this mind-bending builder will innovate with the format.
As we’ll see, nature forms a great source of inspiration for Jonas. In the second round, he went below the waves to put the eggshell part to good use!
Jonas’ builds popped up in our second- and first-round coverage, but we’d be remiss not to remind ourselves of some more of those builds. You can’t go wrong with a bit of meta, such as the use of chairs for, well, chairs. Check out that forced perspective window scene, too!
Diving through said window into the garden might reveal some of these little beasties. Aren’t these snails adorable?!
Their adorableness is only matched by this frog with its eggshell feet. Who doesn’t love a frog?
We get a callback to this very photo in the third round. Not to be outdone by Xiheng Hu’s USB stick, Jonas turns the tables and re-purposes the intake as a USB port (complete with entirely brick-built laptop). I wonder if they’re compatible? I bet even with LEGO ones, you still need to turn it over twice before inserting it the right way up.
Lighters up! I’m pretty sure that’s a LEGO paper bag that’s been set aflame here too. Purists, let us know in the comments if this counts as modifying/defacing/destroying LEGO elements.
Realistic though that lighter looks, it doesn’t look like it actually works. But this ballerina does actually dance! While the eggshells are most obvious in the tutu and box decorations, their most critical use for this build is as gears, allowing the ballerina to pirouette as the crank is turned.
To round out the latest salvo of builds (and this spotlight), Jonas engages in some friendly banter typical of Iron Forge. Both Grant Davis and Margits_MOCs made builds centred around a pond, which this fisherman looks all set to empty…
You can catch up with all of our Iron Forge 2026 coverage here.
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