Yearly Archives: 2016

LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure [Review]

Last summer, British publisher DK added to its extensive collection of LEGO books with the Build Your Own Adventure series, starting with a pair of Ninjago and Friends themed adventures. This summer, the series continues with two new volumes that explore the themes of City and Star Wars.

LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure is an 80-page hard cover book that comes with an exclusive 73 piece LEGO set and minifgure. It follows the exploits of Rebel pilot Zin Evalon as he journeys through familiar locations from the Star Wars universe, on a mission to recover a set of lost data cubes.

Following the established BYOA format, the book’s pictoral story is spread over several chapters, each covering a different location including Hoth, Tatooine, and Endor. The environments and vehicles in the story are illustrated using over 50 ‘inspirational’ LEGO models that were the work of fan builder (and Brothers Brick editor) Rod Gilles.

Read the rest of the review

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Soaring towers are the pinnacle of LEGO castle-building

Fresh from wowing us with his banana-roofed treehouse, alego alego has been building a range of microscale castles. This one is my favorite — a wonderful fantasy castle with soaring spires, surrounded by a crystal clear moat and a pleasant greenwood. This fortress wouldn’t look out of place in Hyrule, or the Magic Kingdom for that matter. Very nice use of the new “weapon spear tip with fins” part from Nexo Knights for the tower roofs too…

I’d recommend checking out alego alego’s photostream for more microscale castle goodness, like this one fit for any prince or princess.

Brick-built Star Trek phaser is set to “stunning”

hachiroku24 is bound to set Trekkie hearts a-flutter with this lovely rendition of a LEGO phaser from the original TV series. The colors and shaping on this model are just spot-on, with some fabulous greeble touches that give it a real old-school sci-fi vibe. This makes me want to seek out new life and new civilizations and then shoot them.

Crow Warrior custom minifig is a thing of nightmares

Customizing minifigure is a skill unto itself. We do occasionally feature particularly lovely specimens, and this fantastically creepy Crow Warrior from Ser Eathan is an excellent example.

The customized headpiece reminds me an awful lot of the masks worn by doctors treating plague victims, which adds another level of creepy to the minifig. I don’t know what he’s doing with the axe, but I don’t think he’s doling out medical advice.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and the final Agni Kai

I am a big Avatar: The Last Airbender fan. Of the three glorious seasons, it’s the final Agni Kai between Zuko and Azula that sticks with me the most. I feel it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of animation I’ve seen, and the music gives me chills. NeverEnoughLEGO built a mini-land scale version of Zuko and Azula, locked in their final battle.

Click through to see more photos of this LEGO Avatar: The Last Airbender model

Looking beyond the veil in the Department of Mysteries

I still remember reading the action-packed and intensely emotional scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix where Harry and his friends battle the Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries in front of the unsettling archway known as the veil. This fantastic little build by Wookieewarrior brought all of those emotions back to the surface for me. The archway design here is quite lovely and I love the asymmetry of the build. Best of all, Wookiee was able to create a stunning shimmery effect of the veil using nothing other than a LEGO plastic bag. That’s LEGO purism and innovation at it’s finest.

Tiny nuclear cooling towers look less ominous in LEGO

Admittedly power plants are not a common subject for LEGO builders, so seeing one is always fun. WHBRICKS gives us this adorable tiny nuclear plant, which is lovely in its simplicity. It’s highly recognizable and barely 12 studs long. The billowing steam is particularly nice and adds to the overall look and feel of the tiny build. This would be an excellent addition to any microscale layout!

Need a lift? This steampunk airship will get you there in style!

Alexis Dos Santos has you and your cargo covered with his steampunk skyboat to ferry it all across the skies. This multi-layered blimp is the first of its kind that I’ve seen that’s also excellently crafted and presented. The sand-green cabin is a nice touch to break the earth-toned colors.

It’s easy to get lost in the vastness of space

This LEGO Star Trek bridge by Guy Smiley is remarkable. Just look at all those panels, screens, lights, and switches! Guy managed to capture the tense emotion of the opening scene of the newest movie in the franchise, Star Trek Beyond, and at the same time, he also captured some of the swanky 70s-style pizzaz of the original series. Seriously, is that a Chris Pine minifig or a William Shatner one?

BrickUniverse Columbus 2016 happening this weekend [News]

The BrickUniverse LEGO Fan Convention is coming to the Greater Columbus Convention Center this weekend, August 20-21, 2016. You can purchase tickets for the exhibit on the BrickUniverse website, where you can learn more about its attractions including LEGO displays, games, presentations and more.

Incredible 5,000 piece LEGO Star Wars AT-AT is properly scaled to minifigures

We’ve seen a number of official LEGO Star Wars AT-ATs over the years, but they’ve all shared one fatal flaw: They’re just not as enormous as the menacing, walking beasts that first strode across the screen in The Empire Strikes Back. Mechanical engineering student Noah has built a properly scaled, 5,000-piece LEGO AT-AT that — at 2 feet tall — towers over minifig Snowtroopers and Hoth Rebel troops alike.

Noah tells The Brothers Brick that it took him about a year to build his AT-AT — a bit longer than it might have taken if he hadn’t been at school.

You can see a walk-around video that Noah posted on his YouTube channel, where he also has in-progress videos showing the internal structure.

We asked Noah whether his schooling in mechanical engineering helped him build such a large model. He tells us that the AT-AT’s head is particularly heavy, causing a moment of force, with the head extending far out from the AT-AT’s main body and affecting its center of gravity, which he solved by integrating Technic beams into the neck.

Click through to see more photos of this huge LEGO AT-AT

Bricks by the Bay 2016 happening this weekend in Santa Clara, CA

The 7th annual Bricks by the Bay LEGO convention is taking place this weekend from August 18-21, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California. You can visit the public expo on Sunday to check out the over 33,000 square foot ballroom space filled with LEGO creations and vendors. For more info and to purchase tickets, visit Bricks by the Bay’s website.