The Brothers Brick

Unless the plural of mecha is mechas, I’m really not sure. Anyways, I recently came across some creations that I enjoy by two builders that I wasn’t previously familiar with.

The first is the Wolverine (below) by Lord Dane. It’s based on a Command and Conquer game, which already gives it a step up in my book. It’s also tan, which I’m widely known to be a fan of. Anyways, I really dig the boxy shape and the eye slit in front. It looks like it’s a lumbering early-technology mecha. Check out his QuickStep to see that he can do stuff that’s not boxy too.

In the meantime, Zeessi has built a clean little walker for the USMC. While I’ve seen most of the techniques used elsewhere before, the overall design of the mecha is nice, and looks good, and that’s what matters. The mixing of old and new grays looks quite purposeful, and works really well. I would like it if he cropped his photos a little tighter, though.

Uspez Morbo gives the Republic Gunship design a seriously awesome upgrade with his Blackhawk.

Naturally, Clone Jedi Elite Captain Glorious has a cool swoop bike to jaunt around planets in the Outer Rim.

Read all about Clone Jedi Elite Captain Glorious on MOCpages.

The Landing Craft the Allies used to storm the beaches of Normandy were definitely not this adorable.

Nevertheless, this tiny diorama by Nick D.M. (DarthNick) includes plenty of action. The splash of cannon and the *piff* of machine gun fire on the sand are excellent touches.

Larry Lars has been posting a series of cool little figures he calls “Larryfigs”. Somewhere between tiny mecha and hardsuits, Larry demonstrates that these offer a wide range of possibility.

Chris P. (chrispockster) captures the moment when enigmatic inventor Nikola Tesla demonstrates powerfully arcing electricity generated from his magnifying transmitter

Sometimes, the best way to illustrate a complicated technical concept is through LEGO bricks. I spent my workday today shifting capacity around for a pair of virtual servers I manage (Hyper-V rocks), so this video about server virtualization in “the cloud” really hit home.

Ignore the “Lego’s” in the text, and Yes, it’s an ad for bluelock, but the video makes virtualization a bit easier to understand, and features engraved LEGO bricks by Tommy Armstrong, the Brick Engraver. Thanks for the link, Tommy!

Rod Gillies proves that old adage true, with this comical scene.

Of course, those soldiers are planning to give the old captain a real bad case of heartbreak…but, hey, they’re soldiers!

After a couple weekends of PHP and CSS coding, I’m pleased to announce the launch of the new look and feel for The Brothers Brick!

This new design has a brighter header graphic and more room for cool widgets to either side of our posts — like a scannable list of the most recent comments — along with smaller tweaks like better-organized categories and collapsible archives.

For those of you on the RSS feed, be sure to click through to see what you’re missing.

Troubleshooting

We’ve tested our changes on Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer on both PC and Mac, but let us know if you have any issues.

One of the most common issues appears when you load the new version of Brothers-Brick.com for the first time. You’ll know it when you see it (right).

Just clear your browser’s cache and it should appear normally.

This is time-sensitive enough that I figured it was worth a reminder. The free LEGO Star Wars minifig poster promotion ends at midnight Eastern tomorrow, along with your chance to win a free Falcon.

It’s not clear how long the $125 discount on 10179 Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon™ will last either.

Again, this is unfortunately limited to the US and Canada, but those of you elsewhere can download the high-res LEGO Star Wars minifig poster from Flickr.

Matt S. (Plasticmatt) has built a cool robot. It’s quite different than anything else out there. I really like the innovative part usage for the head, as well as the transparent stomach.

A couple of months ago, Andrew Lee (onosendai2600) challenged TBB’s own Nannan Zhang (Nannan) to a building contest.

This was to be an epic challenge of skill, with only two limitations. The first limitation was the deadline, which was the end of April. The second, each builder had to use all of the parts supplied and chosen by a third party.

Derek Schin (dbol39) volunteered to provide the mystery part, and sent each builder EIGHT of the printed radar dishes from the UCS Millennium Falcon. A panel of judges was selected, and the guys were off to the build-tables.

Each builder has now unveiled their creation. Epic is certainly the name of the game with these guys. It’s also remarkable how similar the uses that each builder made of the mystery part are. Both efforts have both pros and cons, and I don’t envy the judges their decision.

Nannan put together a battle (above) involving a massive flying saucer, several small saucers, and a huge-nosed mecha. I appreciate the effort he put in to illustrating an instant caught in time. The energy beam blasting a hole through through the mecha is really cool, although I hate the way the beam abruptly ends. I’m a bit confused by the tile floor at what looks like an out-door facility. It’s amazing what a couple of talented and dedicated builders can manage to put together in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, Andrew built a bustling asteroid spaceport/city. I can’t help but appreciate that there’s a building in the city dedicated to a theme of my own creation. I’m also generally a big fan of bases built into asteroids. I do wish that there was a bit more detail in some of the buildings and space ships, though.

Click through either of Andrew’s photos to see more on Flickr. Nannan assures us he’ll be posting a full gallery and write-up once he’s through final exams later this week.

Guy Himber (V&A Steamworks) recently began applying his special effects artistry to his LEGO hobby by producing custom stovepipe hats.

The hats are like hilariously exaggerated versions of the official LEGO top hats, and are absolutely perfect for steampunk and Victorian fantasy minifigs.

Guy was kind enough to send along a couple of the hats for us to review, and they’re made extremely well. I put one on a minifig and couldn’t stop laughing for five minutes.

The hats are beautifully machined from Delrin plastic and have that perfect “LEGO fit” — they slide onto the minifig’s head without effort, hold well, and come off easily with that satisfying “pop!” you expect from official LEGO headgear.

The V&A Steamworks Stovepipe Hat is currently available in brown, black, and white. Click the lineup photo above for pricing info and how to order.

(The Brothers Brick has a small backlog of custom accessories to review, including all the new BrickArms items, HAZEL’s accessories from CustomMinifig.co.uk, minifig stands from Minifig World, new accessories from Arealight, and more. Please bear with us as we get caught up.)

Joris Blok (joris.blok) recreated his house in The Netherlands. I’ve seen some nice brickwork, but Joris’s LEGO brick wall is outstanding.

While we’re at it, here are some of Joris’s very cool LEGO Pokemon, Oddish and Magnemite.

Oh, what the heck — here’s Joris’s Nintendo DS, too.

Dave and John Xandegar have built a LEGO sculpture of the classic SEGA character Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic us even posable — he can move his head, feet, left arm, and left hand.

Hippotam has built this snazzy rendition of the famous Polish observatory.

Also, it’s built with only 100 pieces….