A Brick-Built Hamlet Skull Just Hit 10,000 Supporters on LEGO® Ideas

To brick or not to brick? For fans of the Hamlet's Skull project on LEGO® Ideas, that question already has an answer. Designer ElBidou reached the full 10,000 supporters, and this 2,150-piece tribute to Shakespeare's most famous stage prop now sits in official review. Poor Yorick has never looked so studdy.

The build recreates the skull of Yorick, the king's jester that Hamlet cradles in Act V, Scene 1 while pondering life and death. The proportions hug those of a real human skull, and here's the clever part: ElBidou built the whole thing using only pieces in existing LEGO® colors. The lower jaw rotates by hand so the skull can open and close (go on, make it recite the soliloquy, you know you want to). Want to know the neatest trick? The accompanying candle splits into two parts to double as a display stand.

Crack the skull open and you find the graveyard scene hidden inside. Hamlet reflects among the tombstones, a gravedigger merrily digs away, Ophelia appears as a statue, and Hamlet's late father, the former King of Denmark, haunts the scene as a ghost framed by theatrical curtains. That is a lot of tragedy packed into one cranium, and it all folds up neatly for display.

ElBidou actually built the physical skull to test it, reporting that everything held together and matched the BrickLink Studio renders (though it turned out heavier than expected, as large plastic skulls tend to do). The designer even imagines you reworking the model into pirate scenes, Day of the Dead builds, or your own graveyard MOCs. Could a brick skull become the next great display piece on your shelf?

With 10,000 supporters gathered and the LEGO® review underway, the fate of this melancholy Dane now rests with the reviewers. Whether it becomes a real set or not, ElBidou has proven that a skull can hold a whole play, and quite a story besides.