Yearly Archives: 2016

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it

Not all LEGO creations are built with the goal of becoming world-famous masterpieces. Some models are created simply to share a couple of neat building techniques. This is one special category where you can come across some particularly brilliant exhibits, which have nothing to do with huge dioramas or horribly complicated mechanisms, but which still demand your attention. And Jonas Wide‘s Oleander house is exactly that kind of build.

Oleander house

I imagine most of us have tried building a shabby brick wall at least once. About 10 years ago it was a fairly difficult task. But with the arrival of dark red plates and bricks with masonry patterns, even a beginner can now manage some authentic-looking walls for their town or fortress. But Jonas throws some multi-layered techniques into the mix, to make it look as if the wall gradually deteriorated over the years. Simply beautiful, isn’t it?

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A brick-built home: incredible LEGO modern kitchen

Tim Schwalfenberg is trying to fool us with this kitchen photograph, which appears to be a gorgeous modern kitchen in an upscale home decor magazine. Look closely, though, and you’ll notice that it is completely LEGO. There are lots of great details here, but I like the train wheels for barstool cushions, and the tiled backsplash, which just looks perfectly realistic.

What's Cooking?

And if you enjoy large-scale modern home interiors made of LEGO, then you’ll definitely want to check out Littlehaulic’s builds:

Modern kitchen and dining room
Modern bedroom and den
Full beach house interior

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The most dangerous hunt: Cretaceous trophies

When building a LEGO collection, one often accumulates many special pieces – unique trinkets destined for greatness, or the closest special parts bin. What you may not know however is that these pieces are special to your minifigures too – special enough to hang in some short of ghoulish trophy room to be stared at with smokey-depressed-retirement eyes:

Adventures End

TBB mainstay Paddy Bricksplitter knows this, as does ‘Old Johnny’; together they created one viciously intriguing trophy room overflowing with story potential. And oh what a story it was! Clearly this time, it was the T-Rex who should have run!

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HispaBrick issue 24 now available [News]

Another issue of online LEGO fan magazine HispaBrick is now available for download. In this edition, the Arvo brothers present their stunning ALIEN building project book. There are interviews with epic diorama builder Michał Kazmierczak and Kevin Hinkle, Community Manager for LEGO’s Community Engagement division. Set reviews include the Brick Bank and Imperial Star Destroyer. Building guides covering such diverse topics as trees, modular landscaping, and WeBo robotics. There’s also a peek inside the new LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Osaka, and a whole lot more. So download it today!

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Even in LEGO, Mr. Bean travels in comfort

Brothers Brick contributor Elspeth De Montes puts the new Series 15 Collectible Minifigures mop to great use in this iconic scene from the quintessential British comedy show, Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean can’t fit all his new purchases into his adorable green Mini, so he jury-rigs a device to drive his car from the supple luxury of his rooftop recliner.

Mr Bean & his Mini

If you’ve missed the sketch before, check it out:

And if you’d like to try your hand at building your own Mr. Bean Mini, Elspeth has kindly provided instructions:

Mr Bean's Mini Instructions

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Porsche 911 GT3 has never looked so good

Building iconic sport cars is especially challenging due to a limited number or ways one can use to make the model recognizable. Moreover, eventually thousands of versions from different builders simply start to repeat one another. But Malte Dorowski sets the bar with the first photo of his album devoted to the new model of Porsche 911 GT3.

LEGO Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0

I think I would have left Malte’s car unnoticed if it wasn’t for an astonishing picture of the detailed inside. Detailed brake calipers, engine and red roll cage are truly outstanding and look a lot like those in collectible scaled models of cars.

LEGO Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0

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Blacktron II: Combat Evolved

It’s rare that I find LEGO Halo builds which deliberately stray from an exact replica of the source material. That’s one reason why I like what Stephan Niehoff created with his mash-up of Halo’s iconic Scorpion tank and LEGO’s own Blacktron II theme. Another reason: the mash-up works beautifully.

Scorpion II

Stephan has also been working other Blacktron II creations, such as this great spaceship landing pad. See his Blacktron II series and more pictures of Scorpion II in this album.

Part 1

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Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release

New York based musician and LEGO builder Andy Grobengieser recently began creating miniature versions of iconic music synthesizer keyboards, starting with the classic Mini Moog, and his latest collection showcases four models that any synth geek should immediately recognize: the Korg MS-20, Roland Jupiter-8, Yamaha DX7, and Nord Stage.

The MS-20 holds particularly fond memories for me as it was one of the first synths I ever owned. It first went into production in 1978, but like many vintage synths it remains popular and is still used by electronic musicians to this day (although good luck finding one at a reasonable price!). It’s crazy patch bay was inspired by the Moog Modular, which Andy has also lovingly recreated in LEGO:

Most of these instruments herald from a “golden age” of synthesizers, and each had it’s own unique sound. Of course, no two synth enthusiasts would ever completely agree on which models had the greatest influence on the sound of 70s and 80s music. But I felt that Andy’s collection was missing one significant entry, a device that brought the term “sampling” into everyday use, and was central to work of cutting-edge artists like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. I present to you… the Fairlight CMI!

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An SUV for everyone

As builder Andrew Somers mentioned, he had fun building multiple variant models of the same SUV frame. I have to say, it’s fun to see how many variations he can crank out. Check out his police, civilian, off-roading, and military versions in this fantastic lineup. Which one is your style?

4 wheeled line up

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LEGO coat of arms of Austria

Let uncle Clinton tell you a story: In fourth grade my school put on a play focused around traveling the world, and my input was drawing and painting the flags and insignia of the various countries. Do you know how difficult it is to create an accurate, full size Indian flag with fourth grade art supplies and no artistic talent?

Anyway, I now have a deep appreciation for symbols like that, and it’s why I appreciate this build from “kofi” even more. From Vorarlberg to Burgenland, the builder has created the coat of arms for each of the nine states in the federation of Austria. Zoom right in on this one and appreciate all the detailing pulled off at this small scale.

Die 9 Bundesländer

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Big-headed racers streak into the lead

Monsterbrick has posted a whole series of lovable big-headed racers using parts from the latest large-scale “constraction figures“. First-up we have a cracking Jango Fett who could have driven straight out of a new Mario Kart-style Star Wars racer (now there’s a game I’d snap up tomorrow)…

El Ego Racers Jango Fett

Other than the big-headed bounty hunter, my favorite of the lot is probably this supercute creation. Cap has never looked so adorable…

El Ego Racers Capeetan America

There’s not a whole load of complicated building techniques going on here, these are just pure good fun. I highly recommend you check out Monsterbrick’s Flickr stream to see the entire series.

This isn’t the first time someone has mixed the constraction heads with regular LEGO System scale bricks. Check out this Jangbricks video on YouTube.

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A quartet of LEGO F1 cars

LEGO has been creating official versions of F1 cars for years now, but none of them have even come close to the elegance of these four from builder Noah_L.

Formula 1 Collection | 2/1/16

From left to right you’ll find: Maserati 250F Tipo 2, McLaren MP4/6, Ferrari F2007 and finally a Ferrari SF15-T. If you need any more F1 beauty, Noah_L is in the process of building “at least one F1 car from each decade since the first F1 season (1950)”. I can’t wait.

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.