Category Archives: LEGO

You’d probably expect a lot of the posts on a LEGO website like The Brothers Brick to be about LEGO, and you’d be right. If you’re browsing this page, you might want to consider narrowing what you’re looking for by checking out categories like “Space” and “Castle.” We’re sure there’s something here that’ll fascinate and amaze you.

LEGO Knights of the Square Table

I’m sure every one of us has an unusual LEGO part that they remember from their childhood. Perhaps it’s some of the original buildable LEGO figures, or something from the barely-LEGO Scala theme. What really activates my nostalgia is these fold-out racetracks from LEGO Racers sets. A racetrack that doubles as a box?! How cool is that! The flip-side of such unusual parts is that they can be difficult to incorporate into MOCs. Such trivialities don’t scare Mattia Careddu, though. Even then, of all the things to turn it into, I never would’ve thought of a rectangular knight!

But wait! It’s not just a knight and its minions. Mattia has stayed true to the unfolding nature of the racetrack, and this knight turns into a base of operations for the smaller ones! Weapons storage, siege lessons, tools and repairs – it’s all here. It harkens back to a different style of toy entirely. It’s even got its own superbly edited TV commercial!

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Lumbering LEGO Sentinel mech is ready for action

While nimble humanoid mecha tend to steal the spotlight, I’ve always had a soft spot for clunky walkers, like this armored beast from Japanese LEGO builder Kattho. Built from a mix of sand green and gunmetal grey, the S05-A Sentinel is practically a one-vehicle army with its heavy complement of arms.

The builder makes great use of printed elements, like the forest design from last year’s Off Road Mountain Truck. Ingots, grilles, and turntable tops give the mostly studless build industrial texture.

While this mech is a quadruped for mobility, it also sports manipulator arms for precision jobs like defusing mines. The single stud lens also serves to give the mech a face so it’s not just a walking tank.

Kattho has shared many other equally impressive mecha of both the four and two-legged variety, that you can enjoy on their feed.

LEGO reveals first wave of Pokémon sets, eyeing adult collectors who’ve gotta build ’em all

Ever since LEGO first announced its multi-year partnership with The Pokémon Company, fans have been wondering how the beloved pocket monsters would stack up as official sets. Today we get a look at the first three sets debuting on February 27th.

While Pokémon is very much a kid-friendly brand, it’s also 30-years old with a massive adult fanbase, so this initial wave of sets is all branded for 18+ and priced accordingly. The smallest set, Eevee, contains 587 pieces and focuses on just the fan favorite Pokémon for $69.99. The 2050-piece Pikachu comes with a lightning bolt stand and Poké Ball for a dynamic display at $199.99. Clocking in at 6838 pieces, Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise celebrate the evolved form of the Kanto starters dramatically posed on a round base for a hefty $649.99.

During the first week of release, while supplies last, a 312-piece Kanto Region Badge Collection is included with purchase of the Kanto starters, letting fans show off their trainer mastery in brick form. While this free set looks wonderful, we’re a bit disappointed to see it locked behind such a hefty price threshold.

LEGO promises many more Pokémon sets to follow for a range of ages. As excited as we are to see this partnership come to life, the high prices of these first sets have tempered our enthusiasm. Much of Pokémon’s appeal is around collecting a broad range of monsters, and with over 1,000 to choose from in the franchise, one hopes that LEGO will make collecting accessible to kids and adults alike. What are your thoughts on the first wave of Pokémon sets? Will you be catching them all next month?

See the new sets below

Take a seat! The 2026 Iron Forge heats up

If you follow TBB regularly, you’ve no doubt encountered many articles spotlighting the Iron Builder competition, like our interview last month with the participants in the most recent battle. You might be wondering, how does one get to challenge Iron Builder? One path is to prove your skills in the Iron Forge, a January tradition now in its 7th year. As with the Iron Builder contests, a seed part is chosen that must be used in multiple builds. Only for the Forge, builders only have one week per part before a new seed element is chosen. There is no prize for winning beyond the chance to compete against an Iron Builder, but several Iron Forge champions went on to become LEGO set designers, including Maxx Davidson and last year’s winner Dominique Boeynaems. Glory aside, it’s an amazing showcase of creativity and inspired parts use.

The first round, open to all, just concluded, which featured the minifig chair as the seed part. Here are the to-scoring creations from the 20 builders advancing to the next round.

Grant Davis integrates the seed part in multiple ways into this elegant cafe scene. The obvious spot is for the diner stools that flip the chairs on their back, but chairs are also used for the espresso machine and door panel. The biggest flex of all, however, is the sign which uses LEGO rubber bands and string to form the lettering and lines.

See the top-scoring builds from the other 18 advancing builders below

Nothing beats a good cup of tea... Except maybe a great LEGO build

At the risk of sounding excessively British: there is no problem that can’t be solved over a good cup of tea. My preference is for English Breakfast (strong, milk, two sugars), but that maxim doesn’t need to be restricted to certain types of tea! For Taj: Brick Minstrel‘s slice of Arabian life, chai is the drink of choice. And now we know what the tea is, we need to know what the tea is. (I gather that’s what the kids are calling gossip these days.) Are these three discussing matters of science, or economics, or politics, or philosophy? Or are they discussing more serious matters, such as how far you could walk barefoot on LEGO bricks?i

Jumpei Mitsui pushes artistic boundaries with bricks

The life of a LEGO Certified Professional is a glamorous one – at least when you’re Jumpei Mitsui and your latest client is gaming auteur Hideo Kojima. But as impressed as we are by the builder’s life-size Ludens model, it’s the builder’s latest non-commercial work that I find most exciting.

Last year, we reported that Jumpei was returning to higher education to study artistic expression at Tokyo University of the Arts. It turns out that where Jumpei goes, LEGO follows, as the artist’s first academic project is all about the brick.

See Jumpei’s first academic LEGO project after the break

I Spy a LEGO puzzle, discovered two years too late

Better late than never. But does it depend on how late? Looking at this photo, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s nearly 30 years late – especially if you grew up with the I SPY book series. But in actual fact, we’re only a couple of years late for this one. The photo is not taken by Walter Wick, but by John Reily. We’ve only just come across his series of photos made as on homage to the original Wick and Jean Marzollo books. This is our favourite of the bunch, with its mix of scales and reflections! Can you find everything mentioned in the rhyme?

Making mecha the Mischief way

The aptly-named builder mischiefmecha has a knack for creating playful bots from surprising pieces. After a brief building hiatus, Mischief is back with a pair of fresh mechs with personality and NPU to spare. First up is Gahlok Stiil, looking good in light bright blue plating and grey greebles. Galidor limbs blend with car hoods to make a Transformers-adjacent bot who’s ready for action.

Next comes TOUNG, a bot with a dumpy body who looks like a very good boy with that lolling tongue and three wagging tails. Mischief deploys brilliant parts usage again, especially with those Bionicle masks as knees.

NPU’s better down where it’s wetter, take it from this Tidepool Princess

From jellyfish to deep sea monsters, underwater settings have long been a favorite subject for NPU flexes. LEGO’s recent Tropical Aquarium boasts one of the most colorful and eclectic mix of parts ever found in an official set, but this Tidepool Princess from nu_montag says “Hold my Beerracuda.” Some of the amazingly diverse elements on display – a DUPLO skirt, a Bionicle Barraki headpiece, and, most impressively, a gaggle of legs from a McDonald’s Galidor Happy Meal toy.

More Galidor and Bionicle elements are visible on the back side of the moc. These weird and organic-looking elements feel alien and out of place in today’s LEGO lineup of parts, so it’s always a treat to see them integrated into modern builds.

LEGO Skeksis extracts essence from Galidor parts

I’ll always be partial to Labyrinth when it comes to Jim Henson fantasy worlds, but the creatures of The Dark Crystal, especially the deliciously wicked Skeksis, are undeniably rad. Margit (one of the talented builders to make our shortlist for Builder of the Year) consulted her LEGO orrery and found a great conjunction of elements to make this spot-on take on the simpering Chamberlain. The head comes from the unhinged Nepol and Shimmel set and perfectly captures the Chamberlain’s totally trustworthy smile. He’s just here to help! The staff was snatched from Euripides and complements the Skeksis aesthetic like a dream.

Mini Tirith, City of Mini Kings

Just last month we posted a roundup of some of the incredible creations from Joe (jnj_bricks), including a Minas Tirith build that cleverly uses force perspective akin to the Peter Jackson films. Apparently not content with wow-ing us with just one Minas Tirith build, Joe is back again with a smaller but equally impressive build of the White City. He shared that everything here is fully connected, and we think the smooth lineup of the cheese slopes used predominantly throughout the shaping of this build give it a very polished look.

An aerial view reveals the Court of the Fountain, which cleverly uses a turntable base atop a green plate to nearly identically recreate the courtyard’s appearance in the films and art from Alan Lee.

Construction comes alive with these epic CityCore bots

Creating a badass mech in LEGO takes skill. Instilling that build with personality is the work of a master builder. Doing so while working in DUPLO elements, now that is next level! Redverse first introduced the “CityCore” theme, blending kid-friendly construction with sophisticated mechh design, with the orange MK series. Now the builder is back with the RW series:

Before any road is paved, before any path is cleared, the CityCore RW-Series is on the job… Whether it’s pushing debris, digging deep, or hauling heavy loads, these machines know the value of getting things right the first time – no shortcuts, no hesitation.

First up is Rumblejack, a Quattroid on the smaller side who pounds the ground flat before paving. Not only does Redverse brilliantly employ oversized Quateo blocks for the tamping tool, Fabuland arches also make an appearance in the bot’s feet.

Next we have Duplon bruiser PushWell, an anthropomorphic dozer. The expressive face clinches this bot as a winner, thanks in large part to the DUPLO antennae element used for the grille mouth and nose.

Finally, there’s Grubjaw, a gruff and hard-working digger. The jutting dozer jaw and sunken eyes sell the bot’s silent resolve in such a fun way.

Redverse’s bots seem like they rolled straight out of a cartoon and leave me wondering what other DUPLO parts are waiting for new purpose in tomorrow’s mechs?