Yearly Archives: 2016

The Brothers Brick “Create-a-calendar” Contest [News]

The holiday season is underway, and for many LEGO fans that means it’s time to crack open the first door on their official LEGO Advent calendars. This year LEGO once again offers the choice of three calendar themes: Town, Friends, and Star Wars. The Brothers Brick will even be joining in the fun, as each day we reveal the daily mini-models from all three sets.

If you could wish for any LEGO Advent calendar theme, what would it be? Ninjago? Space? Wild West? Well, we’d like to know. But we don’t want to you just tell us, we want you to show us in The Brothers Brick “Create-a-calendar” Contest. Simply choose your dream theme for an Advent calendar, and build some example mini-models to illustrate it. The contest runs from now through December 17th, and we’ll announce the winners on Christmas Day.

Click here to learn more about the contest

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Are you just going to leave it there to bleed out?

Someone call an ambulance, there’s been a murder! I find Steven Reid‘s latest scene a little disturbing. Why aren’t the yellow bricks helping? Are they really just going to stand there and watch?

I don’t often post digital LEGO creations, but this one caught my eye, and it doesn’t seem to feature any of the “cheating” which digital builders can succumb to — no impossible connections or parts/color combos that don’t exist.

The church by the old oak tree

simply bricking it makes excellent use of a proper old-school LEGO element in this microscale church model. That tree piece dates from the late-60s, and coupled with imaginative parts usage for the church’s knave and gable-end, it all makes for a lovely little scene.

LEGO Batman 70905 The Batmobile [Review]

Following our review of 70906 The Joker Notorious Lowrider yesterday, our stream of reviews of LEGO Batman sets from the forthcoming The LEGO Batman Movie continues with 70905 The Batmobile, available now.

The set includes 581 pieces and 5 minifigs, and retails for $59.99. Find out what we think in our in-depth review.

Click through for the full bat-review

More 2017 LEGO Star Wars Classic Trilogy sets revealed [News]

More high-quality 2017 LEGO news continues to emerge as we near the end of the year. Today’s reveals are all based on vehicles and events in the Classic Trilogy, and are expected to hit stores in January. While all of these are redesigns of previously released material, over this past year as I’ve gotten back into Star Wars LEGO, I’ve come to appreciate the significant improvements that LEGO designers have been making. And of course, each re-release or redesign gives a new generation of LEGO fans an opportunity to add a new vehicle to their collection.

The new 75175 A-Wing Starfighter appears not to be a mere recolor of the Rebels version of the A-wing in 75150 Vader’s TIE Advanced vs. A-wing Starfighter. It includes 358 pieces and three minifigs, including Lando Calrissian in his Rebel General outfit.

Check out our coverage of other brand new 2017 sets in the links below, and see the rest of the new Star Wars sets after the jump.

2017 LEGO Star Wars Rogue One sets
2017 LEGO Star Wars Rebels sets
The LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures
2017 Ford Le Mans Victories set
2017 LEGO Disney Frozen sets
2017 LEGO Disney Moana sets
2017 LEGO Architecture sets
2017 LEGO Batman Movie sets
2017 LEGO City sets
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 1
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 2
2017 LEGO Elves sets
2017 LEGO Friends sets
2017 LEGO Nexo Knights sets
2017 LEGO Ninjago sets
2017 LEGO Technic sets, part 1
2017 LEGO Technic sets, part 2
LEGO Technic BMW R 1200 GS set

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Shhh, this weapon is secret

This model originally started off as a new Secret Weapon of the Luftwaffe — the latest in a series of LEGO models I’ve been building for years. However, it was one of those creations which took quite a different turn as the build progressed, and ended up quite definitely a ground vehicle — bizarre seeing as it started out as a chunky dieselpunk helicopter! Sometimes things not proceeding as planned can be frustrating, but in this case I was quite happy with the result. Besides, I figured the Wehrmacht probably deserved to have some secret weapons of its own…

I couldn’t resist having a play around after the model photography was complete. Turns out the blueprints for this mechanical marvel fell into Allied hands at the end of the war…

Red panda, standing by

They’re not really red, nor strictly pandas. But what these little cat-bear-fox-racoons are is totally adorable. And this LEGO version by German builder Felix Jaensch captures that in spades. The beautifully curled up tail and body are constructed using simple bricks, which somehow convey a sense of furriness, while more complex parts and techniques are employed to provide detail and expression to the creature’s face. OMG SO MUCH CUTENESS! ಥ‿ಥ

Designing on the fly

W. Navarre has fun with some red plates and tiles. The result is an incredibly smart yet utterly simple fly swatter. Some may say that this build isn’t practical, but I will disagree. Of course you can swat a fly with it–but probably only one.

LEGO, Ford announce new set celebrating 50 years of Le Mans victories [News]

LEGO and Ford have announced a new set in their ongoing partnership that celebrates Ford’s historic Le Mans victories. The first win came in 1966 with the iconic Ford GT40, as Ford’s cars swept the board with a 1-2-3 win and cemented the company’s place on the stage as a world-class racecar manufacturer. Exactly 50 years later the Ford GT, the descendant of the GT40, placed first in the GTE Pro class at Le Mans. The new LEGO Speed Champions set contains both the Ford GT40 and the Ford GT to celebrate these wins. The new set will be available March 1 for €34.99 (£29.99). Read the full press release below, and watch a video with the set’s designer.

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Epitome of the Swedish idyll

We all know what Swedish houses look inside like (thank you, Ikea), but what about the exterior? Emil Lidé hones his microscale building skills with this lovely traditional Swedish cottage. We’ve already seen these brilliant trees in his previous set of sketches, however this house steals the show. Actually, there’s not much to describe besides the particular Scandinavian style, which the diorama is full of. And some huge boulders in the garden complete this land property especially well!

LEGO Batman Movie 70906 The Joker Notorious Lowrider [Review]

When I reviewed The LEGO Movie nearly three years ago, I wrote, “Forget Ben Affleck, I want Will Arnett as the next Batman.” With The LEGO Batman Movie hitting theaters on February 10, 2017, I’ll finally be getting my wish. Our friends at LEGO HQ sent us all of the new LEGO Batman sets, and we’ll be bringing you reviews of as many as we can over the coming days. Several of the sets have already hit stores ahead of the holidays, so we’ll start with those.

First up, 70906 The Joker Notorious Lowrider includes 433 pieces and 3 minifigures for $49.99.

While it remains to be seen whether Joker’s Lowrider will ultimately be considered “notorious,” read our full review for our thoughts on this new set.

Click through for the full review

Peace comes from within, do not seek it without

When people ask my why I build with LEGO, I often say sifting through a brick bin is my version of raking the Zen garden. Jonas Obermaier must understand something of the “LEGO building as meditation” feeling to have put together such a beautiful little Buddhist shrine.

The shrine itself, nestled in against the rock, is nicely-done. But it’s the bunting strung from the tree which does it for me — a lovely touch which elevate this simple model into something special.