Grantmasters' MOCs using new LEGO® elements: The Master's Return

Justin Cook (aka Grantmasters) has previously wowed us with his Parts Fest contributions and his MOCs with parts from LEGO® Trolls World Tour sets – but it is 5 years since we last featured his work! His Flickr and Instagram feeds have also been notably quiet on the LEGO front recently, so we sent him some new LEGO parts to inspire him.

We sent Justin two sets from the LEGO® One Piece theme – 75637 Buggy the Clown's Circus Tent and 75638 Battle at Arlong Park – as well as 77058 Goldie's Cosy House from LEGO® Animal Crossing. He also used elements from a couple of other recent sets to create these fun MOCs to inspire you.  

Some products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

Wild Safari Animals on LEGO.com
Beautiful Horse on LEGO.com
Buggy's Circus Tent on LEGO.com
Battle at Arlong Park on LEGO.com
Goldie's Cosy House on LEGO.com

Medium Giraffe

Justin tells us that he had initially wanted to use wands and minifigure hands to make this creature but ultimately chose to replace them in favour of some newer elements.

"I've built very little in the last few years, so most of these parts I'm using for the first time. Having so many modified bar parts and new colours makes for some interesting potential combinations," he says. 

A number of the parts came from 31150 Wild Safari Animals from the LEGO® Creator 3in1 theme, which also features a giraffe. He found that the relatively new 2x2 half circle tile (5520), 1x1 quarter tile (25269) and 1x2x2 bricks with studs on both sides (80796) were particularly useful elements. 

We also spot a novel (and brilliant) use of the snail (7443, from the LEGO One Piece and LEGO Animal Crossing sets) as the giraffe's ossicones!

Small Giraffe

With the elements left over from the Wild Safari Animals, Justin made a baby giraffe to accompany his previous MOC. Justin says the white 2L bars (78258) and the inverted 1x1-1x2 bracket in dark orange (73825) were the elements that inspired this cute little build, but we are mesmerised by the tan microfigures (85863, from LEGO® Games) used in the legs. 

Gremlins

We recently posted Eero's review of set 21361 Gremlins which may have inspired Justin to revisit one of his most memorable MOCs: his teeny-tiny version of the Mogwai.

Justin explains that the plant with 3 leaves (32607), the 2L bar (78258),  round 1x1 with bar (20482, 31561), D-SNOT brick (3386) and Thing / large hand in white (5786) all helped improved the stability of his original Gremlins build. 

He even provided us with a breakdown, should you want to build your own!

Dhalsim

This brick-built version of the Street Fighter character, Dhalsim is a companion to the Chun-Li character Justin made a few years ago. Both are in the same scale as Jada Toys action figures.

The set 31166 Beautiful Horse provided a good deal of the medium nougat elements for this build, notably the 2x2 half round extended tile (5520), 1x1 quarter tile (25269) and 1x2 plate with clip (44861), notes Justin. 

He supplemented the bricks in the set with some from his own collection, like the .LEGO® Friends mini-doll heads used in the muscular arms and the geode (49656) as hands. The red marking in Dhalsim's head is a minifigure hand. 

Pig

Justin relied mainly on the parts in the sets we sent him for this minimalist build, with only a few elements from his existing collection. "The Rancor fingers (11329) seemed like a good option for a fence," he says. The eye stalks of the snail (7443) make fantastic little trotters on this micro pig.

Castle

This picturesque castle is based on Justin's memories of a holiday to Japan. 

Along with some of the newer elements found in the sets he received, Justin used the long-retired book element (33009) as the roof of this scaled-down citadel.

Justin provided a view of the back of the model to show you how the model stays together.

Birds

The new pear element (5822) was the inspiration behind this pair of pelicans.

Justin says it was interesting part, but difficult to build with. We think he did a great job incorporating this unusual element into a build which looks anything but pear-shaped. We took a closer look at the pear element in our coverage of the LEGO One Piece sets. 

The Trolls minifigures that Justin received from his previous New Elementary LEGO Trolls venture also had a hand (or rather, head!) in these feathered friends.

Rhino

When Justin saw the trigger piece (69755), he immediately thought of it being used as a lower limb.

"Anyone who has ever seen my work knows I'm OK with illegal connections. The Rhino's legs would fall into this category. They are secure enough... as long as you don't move them!"

The rhino also contains the dagger (44658), 1x1 bracket (36841) and ingot (99563), all in dark bluish grey. 

"While many of the parts used were not new to the sets that arrived, they were new or rare for me – so I tried to incorporate as many parts as appropriate." 

Akira-inspired MOCs

Justin also provided us with a brand new MOC which features a very unexpected use of the long-armed Monkie D. Luffy figure from 75638 Battle at Arlong Park.

Included in the mess of elements making up Tetsuo's mutated arm (what interesting parts can you spot?) are a pair of snails (7443).

Along with the Gremlins-inspired builds above, Justin also revisited another of his old MOCs while building the Testuo figure:

He originally built a version of Kaneda's bike way back in 2017. This upgraded version makes good use of  a number of post-2017 elements including the 1x1 round plate with handle (79194), and 'D-Snots' (3386); both game-changing elements which any builder can't imagine being without, nowadays. He's also managed to incorporate some classic elements like the frying pans (4528) as wheels. 

"It essentially looks the same on the other side except it has a neck bracket on the front wheel and a red flower for the back wheel," explains Justin. "The rest of the parts are seen in the image, I think,"... which sounds like a reverse-engineering challenge to us!

Set 31150 on LEGO.com
 Set 31166 on LEGO.com
 Set 75637 on LEGO.com
 Set 75638 on LEGO.com
 Set 77058 on LEGO.com

READ MORE: LEGO® Pick a Brick: new elements added in October 2025 for Europe, Australia and New Zealand

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