Yearly Archives: 2016

The art of masking out a good building solution

LEGO Bionicle pieces are among the most hard-to-use parts, but it doesn’t mean they’re useless. They usually end up as table scraps after another huge project, so you definitely need a fresh look to find an application for them — just like Dead Frog inc. did. Bionicle masks are a vast range of pieces available in dozens of colors, and thanks to their curvy shapes they fit amazingly well as armoured parts of mechs.

Meanwhile Olga Rodionova takes advantage of the complex coloring of mask pieces to give a pair of Protector Masks of Ice a second life as incredibly beautiful insect wings. This is the best illustration of the idea that the more useless the piece seems to be, the more amazing it looks when used properly.

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Attending LEGO fan conventions, Part 1 [Editorial]

Congratulations! You’re thinking about going to your first LEGO fan convention. So, now what?

That’s a great question. Making the decision to attend is the hard part; the rest is just details. But the details are where things can get awfully bogged down. We here at TBB have collectively attended nearly a hundred conventions across the world, so we have a thing or two to say about attending LEGO Fan conventions. Each event has its own unique flavor, so even seasoned convention-goers attending a new event for the first time feel the same excitement of the unknown. This guide will benefit newcomers and old-hats alike.

We’ve boiled down the convention-going experience into three segments: Pre-Convention, During Convention, and Post Convention. We’ll be publishing guides on these for you over the course of the next two weeks. We’re going into a new year of conventions and want to help everyone be prepared!

Click to get the fun started!

3D golden-tail piranha

Actually, I have no idea what kind of fish this toothed-beastie is supposed to be. Regardless, this 3D mosaic by anries shop is offishally awesome. Those golden wings make great fish fins and the way Anries made colorful scales out of 1 x 1 round plates is stunning. My favorite detail is that poor worm made from two different types of LEGO snakes. It really looks like one piece suspended in water. Perhaps Anries’ next build will feature this fish mounted on the proud fisherman’s wall. Unless, of course, our fishy friend gets away with a full belly.

Summer 2016 LEGO Star Wars, Spider-Man, Batman, City, & Friends photos revealed [News]

A LEGO store in the Netherlands has released high-res photos of a bunch of sets scheduled for release later this year, including sets from Star Wars, Marvel, DC, the new Volcano Explorers sub-theme from LEGO City, and Friends. (Via Brickset.)

75157 Captain Rex’s AT-TE from Star Wars: Rebels appears to include the ever-popular clone trooper in retirement.

Spider-Man may be joining the Avengers with Captain America: Civil War, but he still gets his own, separate line of LEGO sets. The largest is 76057 Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle.

Click through to see more summer 2016 LEGO set photos

Baikinman the bacteria man

Anpanman was a popular Japanese children book series that ran from the early seventies until 2013, and among its record-holding 1,768-character roster was the main series antagonist, Baikinman. A devious bacteria man from the Germ Planet, he fought the title character in endless battles. Depicted here in a more serious (and deadly) manner by builder Moko, Baikiniman is clearly a monster you don’t want to mess with. That is, unless you have his one weakness on hand, soap, which causes him to shrink down to the size of a fly.

There are many LEGO chess sets, and here’s another excellent one

At this point, chess sets made of LEGO are old hat. Heck, there’s many official sets too, so it’s not limited to custom models. But there’s something elegant in this version by Bartosz Sasiński. Not only are the designs of each piece worth taking a look at, but the white faction pulls off a faux wood effects by incorporating brown into the white and tan.

Cuda Dragster is a slick LEGO car

ER0L has brought us some fantastic vehicles in the past, like a police tumbler and the famous submarine Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me, but today’s model may be my favourite. It’s a dragster version of the classic Plymouth Barracuda. Althought the real car is known for its curves, this models seems to pull them off with long tiles. It truly is majestic.

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway

Our very own Elspeth has combined her passion for LEGO and Broadway theater to create iconic scenes from the stage. She’s picked four classic productions and created scenes of one of the climactic moments.

To start us off, let us journey beneath the Opera Populaire with the Phantom of the Opera. I absolutely love the candelabra. The build wonderfully matches the iconic scene of the Phantom taking Christine to his lair for the first time.

Click for admission to your favorite production!

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a boat?

Here we go with a couple more brilliant vehicles inspired by the concept art of Ian McQue. I think there are two great reasons builders seem to love McQue’s work. First, it looks “dirty,” like something you could find in the industrial zones of any city — near the water or not. Industrial spaces are functionally the opposite of luxury spaces. And second, McQue’s hovering boats represent a kind of palpable halfway point between now and later. It’s obviously the future in his paintings, but it doesn’t look too much different than now. It’s easy to get a feel for what belongs in that world and what doesn’t.

British builder redfern1950s has captured the airship feel very well with his two latest models. The orange one fits the industrial style very well, featuring plenty of lights, sirens, and other safety devices protecting simple hooks and pulleys. The red one is more of a throwback to a previous generation, more steampunk than dieselpunk. But both have the flaps and chains and lamps that make the skies seem a little more weird than they used to.

There goes the neighborhood

Have you ever seen abject poverty up close, where it lives? The brain almost doesn’t want to accept it: you literally cannot believe it. People can’t possibly live like this: but they do. And ironically, there is a kind of beauty there: colors that a designer would never choose, patterns that leave the eye wanting. The humanity of it cannot be contained. Shannon Sproule perfectly captures the heartbreaking chaos and vitality of economics gone horribly wrong in this wonderful vignette. And the presentation, spoofing the classist bias of the LEGO Architecture line, really hits home. Don’t expect to see this set in the next catalog.

A lineup of well-known Simpsons characters

The characters from America’s longest running animated series The Simpsons have been immortalised by LEGO already with two series of collectible minifigures. Now SuckMyBrick has brought them to life once more in brick-built form. Naturally, the main Simpson family members are all here along with a few key characters from the show such as Mr. Burns, Krusty the Clown and Groundskeeper Willie. The 1×1 round eye tile and the larger 2×2 round eye tile equivalent are perfect for the cartoon features depicted in the tv series.

You can see close up views of each individual character on SuckMyBrick’s The Simpson’s album. Brick-built characters from The Simpsons have also been featured before on The Brothers Brick, as you can see in previous posts like The Simpsons made from LEGO bricks.

A rather less scary terrarium

Terrariums are a big thing recently, but are not always suitable for the faint hearted. Imagine all those monstrous insects crawling out of their housing and eating your nose while you sleep. That’s definitely a no-go for me! Luckily soccersnyderi found a comforting way to own a terrarium without any risk of major heart attacks. Everything is much cuter in LEGO form, so this terrarium can host a beetle, two ants, a millipede, a butterfly, a ladybug, and a stick bug in your living room. I personally guarantee the safety of your nose!