Every scene can teach a lesson, and this scene has taught me not to wonder into deep caves. According to Tkytko, that is where Raus’zod has the Weeping Skull Mausoleum. The scene is full of clever details with great building techniques. And all those details come together to create a rather scary lair.
Take some time to look over the entirety of this entry to the Summer Joust competition.
This build by dicken liu is exactly what I love about the LEGO community. In theater, they call it the “yes, and” principle; you take what you were given and go further. Dicken took the Lego 76968 Tyrannosaurus Rex set and went further…all the way to Godzilla! To look at it, you’d think Dicken had made a career of studying fossilized kaiju. But, of course, Godzilla will never die, so we will never know if the skeleton is accurate.
Over the years, we’ve seen builders use all kinds of non-standard LEGO products; brick separators, the sprues that various minifigure accessories come attached to, even empty stick sheets. But Trevor Pearson-Jones is breaking new ground by using this actual LEGO box to create a, well…a box turtle. Trevor has captured the spirit of the LEGO Freestyle sets by crafting a delightfully mismatched creature that still retains plenty of detailed anatomy that calls to mind the real thing. And, just like a real turtle, we’re pretty sure this one can hide in its shell. We just wonder how much disassembly is required to get him in there.
When Slovakian builder brianbrickster first started sharing medieval LEGO creations, the stonework and siege weapons were impressive. Over the years, with skills honed in the trials of Brickscalibur and the Summer Joust, Brian has become a true artist of castle creations. His latest is a breathtaking display of forced perspective. The transition from minifig to microscale is miraculous. The brick-built sky gives the immersive scene the air of a painting.
Speaking of paintings, Brian has played with perspective before. Created for 2024’s Summer Joust, here the builder creates a whole world inside the ornate picture frame.
Click to explore more of Brian’s majestic yet playful medieval LEGO creations
Polish AFOL Szymon Perz has created impressive builds in themes ranging from Pirates to Neo-Classic Space to the Old West, and of course, Castle. After a prolific run of MOCs, the builder disappeared two years ago and has been sorely missed. This week Szymon returns with a new castle creation that he calls a tribute to the Castle Era.
During his time away, Szymon has been brushing up on newer castle techniques, taking a page from Rivendell’s intricate roof tiling, but also experimenting with SNOT techniques for walls and rockwork. Welcome back, Szymon – we can’t wait to see where your building will lead you next!
Today, we take a look at a newcomer in the world of custom capes and cloth accessories: Minifig Realms. In addition to the capes and skirts found in official LEGO offerings, Minifig Realms adds sheaths and straps to the minifig wardrobe, as well as new materials, like faux-leather. While unofficial accessories aren’t for all LEGO fans, Minifig Realms has been making waves since their debut this July, so we brought in an expert in custom minifigs, beyondb0nes, to see how these new products measure up.
Join us for a fantasy fashion show of the Minifig Realms accessories
September is one of my favorite times of year… not just as the start to cooler weather, leading to the best season of all, Fall; but also for the month-long LEGO building challenge known as SHIPtember. The goal is to build a spaceship that measures at least 100 studs in any dimension: length, width, or height. Or even diagonally (like a Borg cube). The only other constraint is that you must complete your ship within one month. The SHIP in SHIPtember stands for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts, and it shows in the final ships, which can stretch beyond the minimum into the 200-300 stud range. Having participated in SHIPtember for the last 10+ years, I can personally attest to both the challenge and the satisfaction in pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone as a LEGO builder, not to mention the incredibly supportive and collaborative community of SHIP builders around the world.
This year, the Brothers Brick will be taking a closer look at SHIPtember in the coming weeks, checking in with builders and sharing starships in progress before rounding up the SHIPs that launch for the stars at the end of the month.
Before we start our week one coverage, I should mention that some SHIPs are already done, as some builders, like college students, may not have full access to their collections during September, and start their SHIPs in August. As long as the builds stick to the 1-month requirement, they are every bit as eligible as those under construction now. I will also be sharing my own SHIPtember progress each week, at the end of each feature. With that out of the way, let’s jump into SHIPtember 2025 week 1!
Launch into our week 1 coverage
If you’ve been lucky enough to visit LEGO House over the past year, then you probably saw the incredible Belville-scale dioramas of Victoria Worsley on display at the Masterpiece Gallery. Victoria’s latest doll-scale creation is a bustling library where young readers busy themselves among the stacks.
As much as I love minifgs, there’s something charming about LEGO’s larger family of Belville figures that were produced between 1994 and 2009. These days, the accessories and textiles from the line show up in MOCs from builders looking to push the envelope with creative parts use, but very few builders base their creations around the dolls themselves. It’s magical to see the dolls transported into immersive LEGO scenes the way that “Bricktoria” does.
The library is such a cozy, innocent place. And yet there’s something familiar about the U-shaped design, the crimson stairs… and that print of a counting… vampire?
Guitar lick. It’s Buffy time, after the jump!
Isn’t it weird how trains and Christmas seem to have such a close association? Whether that’s down to unwrapping a train set on the big day, or Santa Claus becoming a railway magnate to help distribute presents, we couldn’t say. Either way – festive trains have also been a regular feature of LEGO’s product lineup over the years, including two at minifigure scale. This October 4th, you’ll be able to add a third engine to the Winter Village train shed, for the princely sum of US $129.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £109.99. In some ways, it’s the same old story – but at the same time, there are big changes afoot among this set’s 956 pieces. Got your tickets ready? We’re travelling first class on the TBB Review Special of 10361 Holiday Express Train!
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
All aboard to read our full review!
From reimagined Classic Space sets to a prize machine full of retro tributes, LEGO offers no shortage of nostalgic tributes and easter eggs to minifig-scale themes from the past. Bionicle, despite being the line that saved LEGO from bankruptcy, only received an odd GWP. Among AFOLs, however, Bionicle inspires a growing wave of creativity as the generation that collected those capsules, mastered the flash web games, and pored over the lore of Spherus Magna and beyond come into their own. One of the builders at the forefront of the Bionicle MOC renaissance is Dan V, whose latest project is a reimagining of 2009’s Glatorian line of characters. Dan blends System bricks, modern Constraction elements, classic Bionicle parts to update the figures with an adult fan’s eye for detail.
The Skrall are a warrior species who battled the Glatorians and later sets would give names to some of the faction, but this guy was just “Skrall.” He introduced the maze-patterned shield that is easily one of my favorite elements in any Bionicle set. Dan expends on the shield’s saw-blades and adds an extra pair of Skrull sword arms, evoking an evil spin on Marvel’s Iron-Spider suit.
Strakk is a Prime Glatorian of the Ice Tribe. Dan gives his axe an upgrade and replaces the Thornax launcher with a freezing cannon.
See the rest of Dan’s Glatorian warriors, reimagined with modern parts and technqiues
Castle has been on a wonderful resurgence of late, and Goran Maksimovic adds some great personality to the mix. A wonderful little tower is being scaled as one of the culprits falls. Each of the four faces seen on the minifigs tells a great story of the action scene. It can take some effort going through minifig face designs, but Goran shows us the effort pays off in the enjoyment of the scene.
Designed with collaboration in mind, the festive LEGO 41843 Family Christmas Tree invites families and friends to build together. With split instruction booklets, modular sub-builds, and clever engineering, the set allows for simultaneous progress, turning construction into a shared experience. In our house, that meant an all-hands-on-deck build session with both kids and grown-ups chipping in for a bricktacular afternoon of holiday fun. Packed with whimsical minifigures, hidden play features, and a finished design that’s perfect for display or imaginative play, this is a set that brings holiday magic to the table in more ways than one.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Come along as we unwrap LEGO’s biggest holiday set together