Yearly Archives: 2013

Discover buried treasure in Mekorig’s Mine

Michal Herbolt makes his triumphant return to The Brothers Brick with an outstanding Castle-themed diorama that is sure to catch and hold even your diminished attention span, constant reader. I was drawn in by the architecture and fancy rock formations, but I stayed for the fine details like the mine entrance and gate house. Perhaps my favorite detail is the classic blue wizard’s cap, used by the builder to simulate pouring water. Michal is no stranger to the subject of mining, and he uses just the right amount of minifigs to provide a sense of action without overwhelming the scene.

Little scenes are sprinkled throughout the large-scale diorama.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Caught on Camera: A True Account of the Haunting of the Abraham Family.

Grab some candy-corn and your hockey mask; it’s time for some spooky action to get you psyched for All Hallows’ Eve. These eye popping scenes were designed by Kiwi Millie McKenzie (Leda Kat) who has a real talent (even without the ghosts) for taking the mundane and turning it into something spectacular. Although the photos will lead you to the collection of scenes on Flickr, you can only get the full sequence with its accompanying story over on MOCpages.

Cock of the Walk

This majestic rooster can often be seen sitting on fence posts, hay bales or other objects, where he crows to proclaim his territory. Hen Peril is the responsible party, and I have the feeling we haven’t seen the last of him.

This one’s for the history books

My latest creation, which I hastily whipped together last night, is a rendition of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. The book and water base I already had from a previous creation, which I hope to eventually photograph. It was great fun matching the figures to the painting, though now in the light of day with a more critical eye I see that I made a few mistakes, such as Washington being positioned too far back in the boat. The trickiest bit of the endeavor was figuring out the flag–I don’t think my poor white capes will ever be the same again.

“She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”

Chris Maddison brings you a slice of Iowa farm life for your Saturday viewing pleasure replete with tractor, microscale barn, trees and a very clever furrowed field. Although the rolling hills in lime and sand-green are very simple in construction, they really add depth and style to this forced perspective scene. The sexy-time tractor is a fine example of the species, complete with rototiller and detailed engine. Chris has only been back from his dark-age for about a year now but he sure is making up for lost time.

Friday Night Fights (Round 25)

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another punch-drunk edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout features two heavyweight builders, former friends turned rivals putting it all on the line with the honor of HUB 14 up for grabs. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:

Fighting out of the red corner, from the throbbing engine room of the Brothership…Chris “The Mauler” Malloy and his “Dragonfly”

And fighting out of the blue corner, from the Paris of the West…Nick “The Terror” Trotta and his “Syzygy“.

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the battle of pink slips ended with the Roadkill rat-rod destroying it’s broken down opponent by a score of 7-2. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

LEGO Record Store

This scene, by Ryan Howerter (AKA eldeeem) perfectly captures the look and feel of music stores all over the country and perhaps all over the world. The use of 2×2 printed tiles as LP jackets is spot-on and the eclectic nature of album art is such that just about any tile would make a good jacket. I also love the speaker up in the corner, as it really anchors the shot. I also like the use of 1×1 tiles as CDs. I have to say I’m impressed. It is not often that a builder completely captures the essence of scene like this. Ryan did so well, I feel like I’ve bought music there. In fact, I think I recognize some of those customers.

This creature totally rocks

Bad puns aside, Dave Foreman has proven that a sufficiently talented builder can make a fantastic-looking creature out of almost any pieces. Using the notoriously disliked BURPs (Big Ugly Rock Pieces) and LURPs (Little Ugly Rock Pieces), Dave creates this astounding rock monster that is what we all wish the Rock Raider’s Rock Monster or this set had looked like. The best part is that Dave says this is only a practice run before he builds a better version with a full scene.

Collaborative displays rock

As nice as the individual models that we blog are, I think there’s often something really special about collaborative builds. The collaborative display by Pennlug at Brickfair, for instance, was one of my favourite things on show and Bricksboro Beach, built by members of Brickish, was probably the nicest display I have ever personally been involved with.

Last weekend, Legoworld took place in Utrecht in the Netherlands. Even though it is the public event closest to where I live and the largest LEGO-event in the Netherlands, I could not make it there myself. This is unfortunate for a variety of reasons, including because I would have loved to see the collaborative city display by lowlug-members Erik Smit (عʈ¡ – ʇıɯs ıʇə ʞıɹə), Tijger-San, Thomassio, Mockingbird, Arjan Oude Kotte (Konajra), Neverroads, Ruben Ras (workfromtheheart) and JeroenD (in random order).

The individual elements, such as the cafe-corner compatible buildings (such as the ones by Tijger-San pictured above) are nice, but the whole display is one of those ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ kind of things. You could walk around this and would keep noticing new things. If you want to get an impression of what it must looked like to members of the audience, check out Erik’s video.

I used to be an adventurer like you

It’s likely not what builder Paul (Disco86) had in mind, but this scene reminds me of all the random encounters in the Elder Scrolls games (or the vastly under-rated Two Worlds games). It’s really a great little diorama, and I like the stonework ground under the orc camp. The blackened patch around the firepit is a nice touch, and the barricade looks convincingly ramshackle.

UPDATE: Mechabrick Kickstarter reached funding

In just over one week, the Mechabrick Kickstarter that Ralph had previously featured has successfully reached its funding goal. That means that Dubreq Ltd. has enough funding to get the game to market, and it also means that there are still 20 days left for funding in order to reach some of the stretch goals.

So head on over to the Kickstarter page and check out the project if you haven’t already. Because it isn’t a question of whether the game will be able to reach the required funding any longer, it is now just a question of which bonus features will be achieved in the stretch goals.

Congrats to Ben Jarvis and the Mechabrick Team from The Brothers Brick.

A couple of gems

Contrary to what some people think, building good minifigs and getting decent pictures of them is quite difficult. Telling a story in one picture is even harder. Here are two lovely shots of minifigs that have all of that and more.

DS‘s Winter has Begun

Andhe‘s New Horizons #2