About: This is the official Instructables profile of Baron Julius Alexander von Brunk, an eccentric multimedia artist in New York City! Baron von Brunk is widely known as a master LEGO craftsman whose work has been p…

These nutcracker models are made from 100% LEGO, and can open/close their mouths with the pull of a lever! Built just in time for Christmas 2015, I present to you an intermediate project that you can build yourself. Within this tutorial you'll find the LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) files in addition to parts resources, and design notes of the construction.

Although these models use the same leverage functionality to open/close their jaws like real nutcrackers, these particular models are meant for decorative purposes, and not intended to attempt to crack larger nuts. In fact, authentic wooden nutcrackers are essentially the same, and are meant for holiday decorations, as they can get damaged from cracking larger nuts. Therefore, if you want a practical tool to break open the shell of a walnut, but a metal nutcracking tool -- but if you want a quirky, festive decoration to put on your shelf or cabinet, then build one of these bad boys!

Like all of my previous LEGO tutorials, you're absolutely free to deviate from the color schemes, and swap out the colors/parts with your own design, so long as you follow my basic construction pattern. In fact, the second nutcracker (the green one) was based on the design template of the red model, only slightly retooled and given a different hat.