LEGO reconstructions of famous structures, while certainly impressive, are nothing new. Japanese LEGO artisan Talapz, however, brings his miniature brick models to a whole new level by turning them into fantastic colorful pop-up books.

Check out a video of his latest creation, the famous Japanese Buddhist temple complex, Todai-ji, below.

Be sure to also take note of the giant Buddha statue inside the temple at around 1:23.

Here’s a picture of the real Todai-ji and Buddha statue for comparison:

Talapz even provides detailed instructions on how to build the structure at the end. If LEGO put together a kit for this I know I would add it to my Christmas list in a heartbeat, if not just to use as a home for my new plastic mini-me.

Talapz’s first LEGO pop-up was another famous Japanese Buddhist structure, Kinkaku-ji, which you can see below.

And to think I used to be content with just snapping LEGO Darth Vader’s head on a knight’s body…

Source: Kotaku JP
Inset images: Wikipedia

▼ Talapz also made a clever little Rube Goldberg Machine