About Rod

Rod likes building stuff, particularly steampunk and microscale. He's built for a number of the Dorling Kindersley LEGO books, including LEGO Play and the Awesome Ideas book. When he's not building, he writes, and has published a trilogy of old-fashioned adventure stories. To pay the bills he works in innovation and marketing for one of the world's biggest brewers, inventing new beers and ciders. This is clearly the best job in the world.

Posts by Rod

Massive LEGO Taj Mahal goes above and beyond the official sets

The Taj Mahal, the world-famous mausoleum built by Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan, has seen three official LEGO versions — one in 2008, re-released in 2017, with a new Taj Mahal set unveiled in 2021. Although the newest set is smaller, the original and its re-release are famous for being amongst the largest LEGO sets ever produced. So it should give some idea of the complexity and scale of Rocco Buttliere‘s latest architectural creation when you understand the piece count of around 17.5k parts is considerably higher than all 3 of the official sets combined. Rocco is no stranger to being featured on The Brothers Brick, being an undisputed master of microscale LEGO building. However, this model is something special, depicting not just the famous mausoleum building itself, but also the surrounding gardens and compound.

LEGO Taj Mahal diorama

Click to see more pictures of this stunning model

We’re digging the gold on this retro register

While the modern world hurtles inexorably towards a cashless society, Mehdi Rustamov offers us a glimpse of the glorious past of retail payments with this wonderful vintage cash register built out of LEGO bricks. I love that Mehdi has used digital rendering to depict such an unashamed celebration of the design styles of the past. This model is spot-on with its detailing — the wooden till drawer with its golden inlays, the buttons, the ornate detailing, and that crank handle. Lovely stuff.

LEGO shop till

Build a mobile home, and make it snappy

When building LEGO models I’ve always struggled to effectively combine Bionicle and regular System bricks, so I’m in awe of those builders who regularly do so and make it appear effortless. I’m sure this brilliant model by Patrick Biggs was anything but — it bears the hallmarks of a painstaking attention to detail in the shaping and placing of every piece. The crab alone is a smart piece of building, but the addition of a fantastical castle as the hermit’s home is a well-built stroke of genius. The colour contrasts are excellent too, popping against that grey-blue backdrop. Lovely stuff.

LEGO Hermit Crab Castle

The most stylish furniture on the block

The designer Rena Dumas apparently applied the same rigour and standards to every project she tackled, from coffee cups through to luxury apartment stores. LEGO builder Deborah Higdon has adopted the same approach in her recreation of two of Dumas’ furniture designs — just take a look at the intricate brickwork involved in these two pieces…

LEGO furniture

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He’s a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of LEGO

Phineas & Ferb was a work of genius. And for me, a central element of its appeal was the espionage adventures of Agent P — Perry the Platypus. In the immortal words of his theme tune, he’s got more than just mad skill, he’s got a beaver tail and a bill — and both of those are on display in PaulvilleMOCs‘ excellent LEGO version of the character. Sometimes I think those big Mixel tile eyes can be a little basic, and would prefer to see brick-built alternatives. However, the use of them here is a perfect choice, nicely reflecting the animation style of the model’s inspiration. Nice hat too.

LEGO Perry Platypus

Paul has previously built some of the other Phineas & Ferb characters in this style, including this brilliant rendition of Perry’s nemesis, Doctor Doofenshmirtz…

LEGO Doofenshmirtz

Fiendishly fearsome fantasy figure

Beyond Japan, Yōkai are often assumed to be demons, but the word actually translates as “strange apparition” and these mystical spirits are not always malevolent. Having said that, Rockmonster2000‘s LEGO yōkai figure looks pretty mean! The stance, the stare, that weapon — they all strongly suggest this beastie is about to unleash some diabolical mayhem. There’s quite the mix of parts involved in this character — I spy regular System bricks, Technic panels, and Bionicle and Knights Kingdom pieces. That braided piece of clothing around the midriff looks like a shoelace to me — I do hope it’s an official LEGO one from 10282! My favourite detail though, that has to be use of the bucket-handles as clasps on the sandal buckles. Lovely stuff.

Oni

They see me rolling, and they be laughing

The Clown Prince of Crime has his own distinctive colour scheme, and it’s used to great effect by Tony Bovkoon in this striking LEGO hot rod. This would be a cracking car model in its own right, but the colours and the fun additions like the bugle-hooters make it the perfect drive for everyone’s favourite villain. I can just imagine Joker and Harley rolling down the boulevards of Gotham in this bad boy, on their way to create some mayhem.
Joker’s hot rod
And you’ve got to love that Joker ponied-up for the zebra-skin seats and the custom gear stick…

Joker’s hot rod

A modern-day Great Wonder recreated in 9,000 LEGO bricks

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt is a contemporary complex of museums and archives, a planetarium, and of course, a library. This modern tribute to the Great Library of antiquity has been recreated from over 9,000 LEGO bricks by that master of microscale LEGO architecture Rocco Buttliere. Measuring nearly 2′ square, the model took around 60 hours to design, and 30 more to build. All Rocco’s effort was definitely worthwhile, as this creation captures the complex shapes of its inspiration perfectly. And it’s not just the central subject which provides a showcase of building skill — don’t miss the beautiful sweeping curve of that seafront road.

LEGO Library Alexandria

As with all of Rocco’s amazing LEGO microscale models it’s worth zooming in for a closer look at the detailing and depth of texture he manages to cram into a tight footprint. I spy some printed window panels from Dr Who’s Tardis deployed as solar panels…

LEGO Library Alexandria

Roll out the barrel with this medieval cooper’s workshop

Back in “the olden days”, if a town had a brewery or distillery, chances are it also had its own cooperage. The craft of barrel-making is now much less prevalent — even in a place like Scotland, which boasts hundreds of whisky distilleries, there are only a small handful of cooperages left. seb71‘s LEGO version of a medieval cooper’s workshop was always going to capture my attention for its subject matter, but the building techniques and styling mean it’s also a lovely model. The wooden beams are nicely done, and the jagged stonework of the walls and arched doorway create an eye-catching depth of texture. However it’s the smaller touches of additional detail which make all the difference — don’t miss the weathered effect created by the dark tan plates used for the wall under the eaves, and the wonderful shaping of the base.

medieval house : the cooper

Even better, this medieval model includes a detailed interior, visible from the open-sided rear. The ground floor is the cooper’s workshop, including the scorching of a barrel, and the family’s accommodation above…

medieval house : the cooper

Cloudstone Castle welcomes visitors – bring a sword

Sometimes it’s about the design, sometimes it’s the techniques, sometimes it’s the colour scheme, and then very occasionally there’s a LEGO castle that has it all. Cloudstone Castle is a collaborative build between Joel Tyer and Spartan Bricks, and it’s an excellent addition to the ranks of the larger LEGO castle creations. The texture and detail in the fortifications are nicely done, and a couple of off-grid angled sections prevent the structure from feeling too formulaic. I like the repeated motif of quarter-circle tiles used as decoration on the buildings. The island’s rockwork is detailed without being too busy, framing the castle and providing context rather than distracting the eye from the central subject, and the watery base is very pretty. Tying it all together, the overall colour scheme is well chosen, muted without being miserable, evoking the feel of an overcast day — clouds and stone indeed.

Cloudstone Castle

The longest-lasting love affair in showbiz

Here’s a supercute version of animation’s First Couple, put together in LEGO bricks by Zio Chao. They’re a little smaller than the official LEGO set versions of Mickey and Minnie, but Minnie’s dress makes good use of the printed wedges from that set. The rest of Minnie’s outfit is a masterclass in shaping — don’t miss those puffball shoulders! The faces are just as well built, expressive and immediately recognisable, despite being packed into a tight design. There’s also a clever use of the relatively new Ninjago dice spinner as the wrapper for the bouquet. (Although if Minnie takes a closer look I’m not sure she’ll be impressed with Mickey’s choice of wrapping paper — that spinner design is bedecked with skulls!)

Mickey and Minnie

We eat ham and jam and Spam a lot

Camelot — it is a silly place. At least it is if you pay any attention to Monty Python. But there’s nothing daft about TheRoyalBrick‘s LEGO microscale version of Arthur’s mythical castle. This creation accomplishes the magic trick of all the best microscale — providing enough structure and detail for the viewer’s imagination to fill in the rest, making the model initially appear much larger than it really is. Those two tone grey walls offer a smart contrast to the chilly winter landscaping and the tower roofs provide a wonderful pop of colour.

Camelot