Fan designer CDBuilder (also known on LEGO Ideas as CreativeDynamicBuilder) has earned a spot in the final five of the LEGO Ideas Pokémon Trading Card Game Challenge: Build Your Card! with Gyarados: Sunset Splash, a 1,262-piece brick-built full-art trading card. Selected by LEGO’s Review Board in Billund, Denmark, from 754 global entries, the model is now under consideration as an official retail LEGO Ideas set, with the final winner scheduled to be announced on 4 February 2027.
The challenge invited builders to design an original full-art Pokémon card rather than copying existing printed artwork from Tokyo’s The Pokémon Company. To qualify, each entry had to sit between 400 and 2,500 pieces, exclude minifigures, and fit within a strict 37-by-26-stud frame measuring roughly 30cm by 21.5cm. While the public fan vote closed on 11 June 2026, LEGO’s rules specify that community votes only inform the Review Board rather than guaranteeing the Grand Prize.
Forced perspective without moving parts
Rather than relying on gears, cranks, or hinges to animate the sea serpent, CDBuilder builds motion directly into the depth of the card. At the bottom of the frame, Gyarados’s body lies flat against the brick-built water like a traditional two-dimensional card illustration. As the serpent rises toward the top of the frame, the layers step outward, transitioning into rounded cream belly plates and a fully sculpted three-dimensional head leaning past the border.
CDBuilder said in their submission notes,
The head of Gyarados took me an entire week to make because I wanted it to look as accurate and detailed as possible. Gyarados is partially 2D and 3D, with his head being 3D, and his neck slowly transitions to 2D to give off the impression that he’s coming out of the card.”
That head accounts for a third of the entire three-week build time. It captures Gyarados’s open jaws, white fangs, fanned crest, and blue whiskers jutting out in front of a pastel sunset sky layered with brick-built clouds and distant birds.
Solving the full-art card frame
Full-art Pokémon cards remove the traditional text box border so the artwork fills the entire card face, which creates a structural problem when translated into ABS plastic. CDBuilder keeps the card’s tabletop identity intact by building custom card text directly into the composition, listing Gyarados as a Stage 1 Water Pokémon with 180 HP, a ×2 Lightning weakness, and a four-energy retreat cost.
Below the serpent, overlapping curved tiles in dark green, blue, and teal mimic painted brushstrokes. CDBuilder also turned a visual flourish into structural engineering by letting the wave elements spill over the bottom edge of the frame.
I worked really hard to make the water as beautiful and realistic as possible while also giving it a painted feel to make it look like a piece of art, which was not easy to do. I experimented with many different pieces and techniques until I finally landed on a design that I liked. I also made some water spill over the border of the card to provide some stability for the build.”
That overhanging splash acts as a built-in display foot, allowing the vertical card to stand upright without an external easel.
Five finalists and an eight-month wait
Gyarados: Sunset Splash competes against four other finalists selected from the 754 submissions: The Mythical Arceus by livetobuild, A Mew Soaring High by IsleOh, Rowlet Razor Leaf by DMWM, and Joltik Charges Up! by Chrixeleon. All five builds sit within the challenge’s piece limits and showcase different approaches to framing a single active Pokémon without minifigures.
Whether LEGO’s designers keep CDBuilder‘s exact card stats, piece count, or overhanging base if Gyarados: Sunset Splash wins remains open until the 4 February 2027 reveal. Finalists often undergo structural adjustments during Billund’s product development phase to meet stability standards and licensing approvals.
Collectors interested in official brick sets or the full finalist lineup can view Gyarados: Sunset Splash on LEGO Ideas or browse current builds on LEGO. For builders who prefer wall-mounting or dust-proofing completed display sets, UK specialist BrickZoneHub also produces third-party display frames and cases for LEGO collections.
