Yearly Archives: 2015

HELP! The Brothers Brick needs a new cover photo

I knew hiring primates as interns would come back to bite us – literally. After following a bizarre trail of blue droppings through the Brothers Brick compound this morning, I discovered the Lemur had gone and eaten our Facebook cover photo! I checked our other websites too, and they’re all gone. At least he got a tummy ache, so hopefully this will be a learning experience for the pesky little fellow.

So this seems like a great time to revive the TBB Cover Photo Contest. We’re asking you, dear readers, to submit photos of your original LEGO creations to be featured across all Brothers Brick social media. At the start of each month we will pick one new image to use across our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google+ and YouTube pages.

Find out how to enter →

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LEGO movie theme tune performance generates some of the most memorable Oscar images [News]

Despite being snubbed for a nomination in the Best Animated Feature category, the creators of The LEGO Movie seized the day with an on-stage performance of the movie’s theme Everything Is Awesome – a performance that can only be described as totally bananas.

Highlights of the segment included a troupe of breakdancing Emmets, cameos by Will Arnett (as Batman) and Mark Mothersbaugh (from Devo), “visually illustrated” rapping, and the handing out of brick-built LEGO Oscar trophies to random celebrity guests.

The trophies (which are now the talk of the town) were the work of LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya, who also created Mothersbaugh’s signature Devo hat. Everything about this performance was awesome! If you missed it, watch it now:

Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with?

Neill Blomkamp’s new movie CHAPPiE looks to contain the same gritty hi-tech dystopian fare he delivered in Elysium and District 9. I cannot wait! Although we still have a few more weeks before it hits theaters, Taiwanese builder Eric Tsai wasted no time LEGO-izing the central character:

I want to lie, shipwrecked and comatose...

Fans of classic British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf will recognize these nifty micro creations by Elspeth De Montes as the titular mining vessel and it’s diminutive companion Starbug. Note: Any readers that complain about the absence of the Blue Midget risk being branded as a… smeeeeee-HEEEEED!

Slowly fermented over a thousand years

It’s always fun when Star Wars fans augment the official canon with back stories of their own – and even more so when they illustrate them with LEGO. In the hefty build shown below, Daniel Stoeffler explains the origins of Sarlacc’s Nectar – the original Jawa juice – which is apparently extracted from [SPOILER ALERT!] the innards of Tattoine’s infamous Sarlacc.

Daniel even claims that [SPOILER ALERT!] Boba Fett used this futuristic moonshining operation as a way to escape from his close encounter with the Sarlacc. Read the whole story over at Eurobricks, or check out many detailed photos of this creation in the Flickr album (which at 66 photos may be a new record for a single MOC).

A perfect pond plane

This great seaplane by Сергей Антохин reminds me of the models I loved to build as a kid, except that this one is considerably better. This model has a distinct charm about it, almost looking like something LEGO could release as an official set. I mean, if this were an official set, I’d probably buy one.

Chinese New Year

Today is Chinese New Year, and Andy Hung from Hong Kong celebrates with these Lego creations of iconic items you may see around Chinese homes such as a candy platter, a paper door decor with the “fortune” character, a bowl of narcissus, and a string of firecrackers. You can see more photos on Flickr.

Countdown to MocAthalon: 2015

With just over a week and a half left in February, builders from around the world are gearing up for the annual MocAthalon competition, where teams of 5 attempt to tackle 30 different build categories in a span of the month of March.

I competed in this contest in 2013 and it was certainly one of the more fun and challenging events I’ve done – there was a lot of great comradery among my team and animosity towards other teams that still exists to this day, and I would recommend people try it to flex their so called building muscles and build in some zany categories.

You can find out more details here and there’s still plenty of time to form a team, just head over to here if you’re looking for a few teammates.

On the remote isle of Brick-tiki

On the remote island of Brick-tiki, there lives a group of people who venerate giant stone bricks. This is surely something we civilized people can’t understand at all. Dark-Alamez has brought us a rare glimpse of this incomprehensible people.

The town of Pompeii in LEGO

If you find yourself in Sydney (Australia) at all during 2015, then head over to the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney and check out this amazing recreation of the Roman town of Pompeii, created by Lego Certified Professional Ryan McNaught.

The diorama represents Pompeii as it was at the time of its destruction in 79 AD, and even contains a little foreshadowing of the volcanic eruption that buried it.

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The Wait of the Warrior

According to his creator, this samurai warrior by MSP! is waiting for something. And given that it was built for the ongoing Symphony of Construction contest, maybe he’s waiting for some competition! The field is still wide open, but the contest ends March 1st. The Brothers Brick are providing $50 LEGO shop-at-home gift certificates for the winners, so listen to the theme music and see what it inspires you to build.

Competition entries should be submitted to the contest’s Flickr group.

70728 Battle for Ninjago City [Review]

LEGO has kindly provided The Brothers Brick with a review copy of this set. It is available on Shop At Home and retails for $119.99, and is currently on sale on Amazon for $97.97. The set comes with eight minifigs.

After my experience with Emmett’s Construct-o-Mech, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one. The mech in that set looked so cool but I was disappointed by the lack of playability with the legs that didn’t move. I am pleased to say that was not my experience with the Battle of Ninjago City. It looks cool, and the playability features–while nothing new–work for the most part, and I enjoyed the build.

Let’s begin.
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