Tag Archives: Town

Towns in the world of LEGO have everything cities in the real world do — police stations, fire engines, trains, hairdressers and veterinarians. Check out all the beautiful buildings and vehicles we’ve featured here on The Brothers Brick.

The heart of a good home

Amidst a slew of spaceships and post-apocalyptic scenes, it’s always good to take a break and enjoy some food for the soul. Miro Dudas‘ latest LEGO model employs a larger-than-minifigure scale to depict a wonderful domestic kitchen. The styling here is excellent — from the panels of the kitchen cabinets through to the Belfast sink set into the worktop. I particularly like the neat stacks of crockery, the roller blind above the window, and the smooth tiling on the walls, which offers more texture than a blank background but doesn’t distract attention. There are a couple of small details worth a closer look — don’t miss the “cheesegrater slope” used as a knife block, and the hammers providing the rings for the gas stove. Overall, this kitchen wouldn’t look out of place in an IKEA catalog. Great stuff.

Farm House Kitchen

Here’s the skinny on this barber shop

Some people shave their heads and then shed a tear while gazing in the mirror because the option of having cool Johnny Depp hair has long since expired. Allegedly. Shut up, don’t judge. Other people, like Maxim Baybakov have better experiences with haircuts and visit the same barbershop for twenty years. He liked his local barbershop so much he has recreated it in LEGO. He tells us the balcony still haunts him to this day. Why? He doesn’t provide the answer but I can only presume it was an incident that involved a freshly coiffed haircut and someone dumping hot oil or a pot of soup or something. No matter why the balcony haunts him, admittedly, the build techniques are pretty stellar. The inset tan storefront, the roof, and the round window are also quite charming.

Barbershop

It’s not quite instructions, but this shot offers sort of an exploded view that illustrates some of the more clever techniques for this build. With a little time and patience, this balcony can haunt you as well.

Barbershop. Technique.

A city balancing light and dark

Malaysian Sit Tat Wai is a newcomer to the pages of The Brothers Brick, with a debut that’s equally inspiring by day or night.

Night scene Sitropolis, added 2 new building side

Click here to continue reading…

Room 101

I never had bunk beds as a kid. There was plenty of space in my bedroom for friends to sleep over on a camp bed, but somehow bunks always seemed more fun. Guess I’ll have to suage my nostalgic regret with Markus Rollbühler‘s LEGO-built version instead. The bunks sit at the heart of a charming little model — a child’s bedroom, packed full of furniture and belongings. The scene was created as part of a challenge to build something with no more than 101 pieces, and the restriction lies at the heart of some creative parts use. Don’t miss the swivel chair with its backrest made from an old-school minifigure cape, and the little bulldozer on the floor. I also love the Belville shoe used as a computer mouse and the anglepoise lamp on the nightstand. This is one of those LEGO models which manages to be both cute and clever at the same time.

LEGO room house

A slick Sanctum for Stephen Strange

I’m a sucker for superhero movies. I love the superpowers, the epic explosions, the over-the-top bad guys, and even the mysterious hideouts that shelter the heroes. One such hideout is Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum (Latin for Holy of Holies), a building on Bleeker Street in New York City that serves as both a storehouse for mystic artifacts and a node for protecting the Earth from enemy attacks. Anders Horvath has built a beautiful rendition of the Sorcerer Supreme’s lair, in the style and scale of LEGO’s Creator Expert modular buildings. In fact, it would fit right into your collection at home. It is based on official LEGO set 76108 Sanctum Sanctorum Showdown but upscaled to a point where it is a whole new thing. The interior is lovely, too, so you should check out the album on Flickr. I love the appearance of a microscale Disney Castle, as well as the different weapons on racks. Based on the residents, I’m not positive the Masters of the Mystic Arts still use the place (though they left behind an Infinity Stone), but at least you can get a sandwich or slice of pizza next door!

The Hills Sanctum Sanctorum Corner

Really, it’s just a classic invasion scenario

It seems like the old ways aren’t quite forgotten yet, and they’re not about to go quietly, either. In this diorama by Carter Witz, an alliance of Lion Knights, Royal Knights, and Forestmen are invading a modern City hamlet. It looks like the classic army has embraced some new tech, though, as one of the Forestmen rides a new-style horse, and both sides of the clash are built with excellent modern techniques.

Attack of the Classics!

In fact, don’t let the amusing storyline cause you to overlook the details in this build, which is rife with complex approaches to achieve its polished look. From the carrot tops embedded in the building’s wall to the upside-down teeth above the windows, Carter spared no expense to make the scene come to life.

Attack of the Classics!

The most Rapid of metro buses

I have a confession to make: I have never taken a metro bus. Honestly, I don’t know the first thing about taking a city bus, and I have so many questions! And even though the Seattle bus drivers seem to drive a little crazy, it takes our buses twice as long to get somewhere than if I drive myself. They don’t seem very “rapid” to me, but according to The Eleventh Bricks, the real-life version this LEGO bus is.

Rapid KL Bus

I’m skeptical, but I’ll have to take their word for it. Joking aside, this is an excellent replica of a metro bus, and it even includes lights, which is always a winner in my book.

Rapid KL Bus

Want to see a bus with some impressive mechanics? Check out this custom Technic RC model!

Terminally pretty

Hot on the heels of a 1930s downtown street scene, LEGO builder Andrew Tate has now put together this fabulously retro airport arrivals hall. The tiled and patterned floor is a key element in lending this a smooth and shiny look, and the colors create something of a 70s vibe, but the other details are also spot-on. I like the little luggage carousel, but don’t miss the shop with its postcard rack and extensive selection of LEGO newspapers, the information desk and its pigeonhole wall, and most importantly, the well-signposted toilets. Throughout the model, there’s excellent used of official LEGO stickers and printed tiles, which add interest and detail without contributing too much visual clutter. The best bit of all? The map on the wall — fantastic use of quarter-tiles to make for a stylized yet immediately recognizable Mercator projection depiction of the world.

LEGO airport arrivals hall terminal

A meme has fallen into art in LEGO City!

We have featured artistic builds by the enigmatic builder why.not? on the Brothers Brick before. Her builds tend to focus on horror and mystery with an emotional sub-theme. The latest one mostly falls into these categories, but… A man has fallen into the river in LEGO City! Now I know it might be a coincidence, but this meme is huge right now. If this is a commentary on how powerless and alone a single person feels in the city, it makes for a great art piece. But if this is a full-effort build dedicated to a LEGO meme, I respect it too. Because memes are the purest form of contemporary art.

untitled

The build is presented to be open to interpretation and is in its essence a full LEGO scene of a minifig falling off a bridge. The focus seems to be on the aforementioned bridge, as it is the only element that is not monochromatic. The forced perspective is achieved with different scales of buildings, a small bridge in the background and a tapering curved river bank. I like the cold colours used that evoke a depressing and suffocating city atmosphere, but I wonder if it would not look better with a vivid coloured minifig, directing the attention immediately to itself.

A rural office location for a different kind of paperwork

Brick or human, when you need to go, you need to go. We humans have a place to go around every corner (the less hygienic take “every corner” a bit too literally though), but the plastic brick people have a much harder time to find an outhouse. Or at least they would, if SuckMyBrick had not built this outstanding LEGO outhouse.

Outhouse 1

The build is visually simple, well photographed and composed. The ramshackle style is captured perfectly with tiles pointing in angles just odd enough to not be 90 degrees and the front door uses a few closely related colours to give a fading impression – but according to the builder, the creation is not as fragile as it looks. The base completes the build with details like fragrant flowers in the back and curved slopes that really add to the cartoony style.

London children’s hospital built in 60,000 LEGO bricks

Hospitals have been a mainstay of the LEGO City theme since its very beginnings, but there’s never been an official set on the scale of Gary Davis‘ huge model of the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London. Gary knows the real building well, having visited it many times as a volunteer with Fairy Bricks — the charity which provides LEGO sets for children in hospital. He and Kev Gascoigne (‘Chief Fairy’ at Fairy Bricks) came up with the idea to build the model to celebrate the Evelina’s 150th anniversary.

The model took two months to design, a process which saw Gary poring over photographs and architects’ drawings, and given tours by staff of back-of-house areas to ensure the details would be correct. It took 60,000 bricks, and three months worth of building to put the model together — and somehow Gary also managed to move house during this time! The model is quite an achievement, managing to capture the distinctive shape of the real-world building, and stuff a detailed interior with minifigure action spread across examination rooms, offices, intensive care units, staff rest areas, and the atrium coffee shop and play area.

Take a look at more photos of this wonderful model

Fill it up at the LEGO 60257 Filling Station [Review]

No self-respecting LEGO City is complete without its fair share of vehicles cruising the streets. But this prompts important questions: Where do these cars get their fuel? Where do the drivers grab a hot dog and coffee? And what’s to be done about all those emissions? LEGO’s new Filling Station — set number 60257 — provides some of the answers. Read on, and see what we think of this new addition to the LEGO townscape.

60257 Filling Station has 354 parts, and features 2 vehicles and 4 minifigures along with the filling station’s buildings. The set will be available from 26th December in the UK and EU, and 1st January in the US and Canada US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99

Click to read our hands-on review of this new LEGO set