Pitchfork

Image via Format Mag

Ah, the magic of LEGO. Once merely a children's toy, the little Danish bricks have gone on to inspire all manner of wonder and wackiness, from theme parks to that landmark White Stripes video to a sprawling recreation of the Holy Bible in lurid detail (no, seriously). Musically inclined types of the "You" epoch have done their part as well, creating video clips and-- like that one Japanese guy does with his food-- album covers.

The album covers thing has really taken off: it even has its own Flickr group, and a rundown of blah-to-hysterical offerings surfaced on the web earlier this year. What prompted us to address this phenomenon today, however, is Format Mag's recent list of "20 Classic Hip Hop Album Covers Recreated in LEGO" [via Prefix].

LEGO has made strides in adding personality to their iconic minifigs in recent years, something Format capitalizes on in their hilarious attempts to match "tough guy" plastic characters with the real life tough guys and characters who grace a lot of these covers. The results range from the silly...



...to the goofy...



...to the adorable:



Props to the Format folks for taking a purist approach to their pastiche: as far as this LEGO nerd can tell-- and unlike some of the Flickr group submissions-- none of the minifigs and pieces used in this project were altered in any way.

And while we're on the topic, here are some more fun offerings from outside the realm of hip-hop [via Flickr and The Toy Zone]. People of the internet, we salute you. (Also: OMG, "Windowlicker", WTF.)