Category Archives: LEGO

You’d probably expect a lot of the posts on a LEGO blog 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 Scooby-Doo sets announced, Mystery Machine revealed [News]

[Updated] LEGO is officially picking up the Scooby-Doo license. First announced at the London Toy Fair, we’ve now got an official image of the most iconic Scooby-Doo set, 76902 Mystery Machine. The set will include 301 pieces, and retail for USD $29.99, and features a new mold for Scooby. The new line will hit stores this August, along with a 22-minute special cartoon in which Scooby and the gang will be LEGO-ized.

75900 Mummy Museum Mystery – $14.99
75901 Mystery Plane Adventures – TBA
75902 Mystery Machine – $29.99
75903 Haunted Lighthouse – TBA
75904 Mystery Mansion – $89.99

76902 Mystery Machine
[via USA Today]

UPDATE: We’ve received the official press release from LEGO, which you can read after the jump.

Continue reading →

Hawker Sea Fury roams the skies

Put into service with the RAF in 1947, just after the close of WWII, the Hawker Sea Fury isn’t quite as well known as its older sibling, the Hawker Hurricane, but it went on to see service as a carrier-based fighter in the Korean War. Building good minifig-scale fighter aircraft is a notoriously tricky thing, particularly sculpting a decent looking cockpit. Maelven has done an admirable bit of work here, though, and this plane looks ready for action.

Hawker Sea Fury T.20

Wacky birds

For about four years I have been living next to a canal inhabited by crested grebes, gulls, coots and ducks and visited regularly by swans, herons and cormorants. The coots, in particular, are immensely funny. They are reluctant flyers that tend to run across the surface of the water, whilst flapping their seemingly too small wings, instead of actually taking to the air. They are also fiercely territorial and are constantly chasing ducks and other coots away. Their shenanigans put a smile to my face every time.

Pelican

It will come as no surprise then that I also had to smile at the wonderful pelican built by vir-a-cocha. It was built using only twenty pieces, which goes to show that you don’t need an awful lot of parts to build something that has character, as long as two of them are tiles with eyes printed on them.

Penguin Time!

The penguins from Madagascar, built by Peter Dornbach (dornbi), also make good use of said tiles and, inevitably, also made me smile. You can support these on Lego Ideas. Penguins may all seem indistinguishable, but one of the neat things about this wacky foursome is how Peter managed to make each unique and recognisable.

TBB Chibi Micro Contest Winners!

The TBB Chibi Micro-Fighter Contest wrapped up with a bang with 242 entries. WOW. Nothing micro about that!

Thanks so much for everyone that entered. It was incredible seeing what everyone came with chibi-ing some of our favorite vehicles and LEGO sets.

Our first place winner, and the soon to be recipient of the exclusive Fan Expo Ghost Starship with Kannan Jarrus #460 and full set of Star Wars microfighters: Letranger Absurde (Vitreolum) with his Chibi Serenity:
Chibi Serenity

In Second place, and winner of 4 Star Wars MicroFighter sets: Kyler Wilson and his Chibi Ecto 1:
LEGO minikits
And lastly Third place, and winner of 2 Star Wars MicroFighter sets: John Kupitz (Phuonom) with his Chibi Earth Defense HQ 1:

We had a hard time choosing from so many that we had to do several rounds of judging to narrow down the eventual winners… And there were so many that we really liked and deserve special mentioning (in no particular order):
Rod Gillies’ Jurassic Park
Letranger Absurde’s Chibi Mutt Cutts (again!)
Bentbricks’s Borg Cube
Jacob Unterreiner Now This is Chibi racing

Thanks again to all the builders and stay tuned for our next contest!

Teslord Chase

Does this look a bit familiar to you? I knew there was something about it when I saw it, like I’ve seen this build before. That’s when I realized Dead Frog inc built a steam punk version of Inferno Interception:

Teslord Chase

There’s some really great techniques in here and there’s just enough great steampunk conversion while paying tribute to the original source material. And you might notice a few other steampunk builds floating around this month, that’s because when Rod Gillies isn’t off building an amazing steampunk metropolis, he’s running the Agents of the Imperial Crown – Steampunk Competition.

Smaug in Dwarven runes

Smaug! Using some pretty great techniques, Finn Tegotash has recreated the head of everyone’s favorite gold hoarder: Smaug the Magnificent.
The Hobbit: Smaug!

I particularly love the use of seats for scales, the horse saddle for the nose and a window for the lower jaw. But what really impressed me was the the Dwarven runes he created using LEGO string:

Spoiler alert! The above translates to the first word in this post.

Ask a Lemur – Brick Separators, Mold Variants and Twerking Squidbots

Gidro aho, Dearest Readers!

lemur face & tail

As you know, I am the intern for The Brothers Brick. Yes, I am a lemur and I’m here to answer your questions regarding LEGO, the fan community and inner workings of The Brothers Brick. Talking to you all is truly a highlight for me. I look forward to it all week long! I have finally gotten caught up on my backlog of lemur loot. I just put the last pile on Simon’s desk and will ask him to mail it out tomorrow on his way to the airport. He is heading out to get ready for his weekend with the lucky winner of our “Win a Weekend with Simon” promotion. It was one of our most popular events yet. We had to set aside the conference room for entry overflow because the mail room couldn’t handle the flood.

Remember to post your questions in the comments. Each week I will be sending some loot out to the people who ask my favorite questions!

Now on to the good stuff.

Are you aware of any plans for a new brick separator tool?

I am not aware of any plans for a new official brick separator. LEGO upgraded their separator recently and I doubt they would change it again so soon. But, really, you never know. The new version is interesting. It feels a bit more flimsy than the old one but it has new features, such as being able to use the end of the handle to remove tiles and having a short technic axle on the back so you can push pins out.

I recently found out about a third party brick tool called The Brick Popper. I haven’t gotten my paws on one yet but it looks like it could be rather useful, especially for removing plates. Anyone out there have one? I’d like to hear if it is any good. I’ve been using my teeth to remove really troublesome plates and the contributors are getting irritated by the teeth marks.

Continue reading →

UCS Red Five X-Wing improved

Released in 2013, LEGO’s Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) Red Five X-Wing was much better than the original from about fifteen years ago. It is a fantastic set, but a set nonetheless, with all the limitations in terms of construction and parts usage that this entails. The engine nacelles are too small, the fuselage sides aren’t angled properly and while the nose on the model gets narrower towards the front, it should also be tapered when seen from the sides.

XWing 3

As a fan, James Cherry (crash_cramer) does not suffer from the same constrains as the set designers. His UCS X-Wing took him two years of intermittent tinkering, but the result is a massive improvement. “— Red Five standing by.”

Some days, all you need is a swing.

Sometimes the best things are the simple pleasures. Swinging on a swing set is definitely one of those. You get to feel the wind in your hair, and work up the courage to leap off when the swing reaches the perfect height.

Alexander Safarik’s (Malydilnar) brick-built version is ready for anyone who’s willing to come and swing for a while!

Swing