Monthly Archives: January 2018

Hazardous river crossing ahead

The Oregon Trail is a classic videogame, originally released way back in 1974, and designed as an educational tool to teach American kids about the hazards faced by the pioneer settlers of the 1840s. It is notoriously tough to complete, featuring many unpleasant ways for your brave settlers to meet their end. Brickwebster has built a great little LEGO version of the wagon approaching a river — one of the obstacles faced in the game. The brick-built canopy on the wagon is nicely-done, but the river water spilling over the side of the base which caught my eye. It injects a real sense of dynamism and movement into the scene. Here’s hoping these cute minifigure settlers make it across safely. I’m just glad the builder didn’t attempt to depict the infamous “You have died of dysentery” ending…

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.

Spacesuit! Spacesuit! SPACESUIT!

Well, okay, strictly-speaking it’s an Exo-Suit, but I’m sure Benny the Spaceman would still love this Neo Classic Space-styled exoskeleton by Devid VII. There’s an obvious nod to the Pete Reid’s original LEGO Ideas Exo-Suit set, but the frame is much tighter and more compact, and the mechanical-looking greebley detailing is altogether different. Normally I’m not a fan of models set against broader backdrops of the same colour, however the photography and image processing here is excellent, using depth of focus to ensure the central model doesn’t get lost. And all that work allows the use of the detailed space hangar backdrop — lovely sci-fi goodness.

Sagrada Familia completed at last

The Sagrada Familia is a famous Catholic church located in Barcelona. It was designed by a Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi. Sagrada Familia is a huge architectural project with colourful, mathematical design elements, and Gaudi knew it would not be completed within his lifetime. Construction began in 1882 and it is anticipated that completion will actually be around 2026! Koen has built a microscale LEGO model of the completed Sagrada Familia that looks like an official LEGO Architecture series model. The use of inverted ice-cream cones is inspired.

A view from another angle shows another feature I particularly like, Koen uses the scroll brick as a nice decorative component of the doorway. Koen has cleverly managed to balance the simplicity required in microscale with the hugely complex design of this particular structure.

Log houses never looked this good

In the LEGO creations of today, it seems as though technique is being emphasized more than ever before, especially within the castle genre. It seems as though not a day goes by when I don’t see an innovative way of making an everyday texture. This build by alego alego features a wonderfully designed blacksmith shop, primarily made using various Technic connector parts as individual logs. While I have used one or two of these parts as a single log in my own builds, I never would have conceived of making a whole building out of them, and the result is fantastic.

Check out these posts below for more amazing landscaping techniques:

Maserati’s first mid-engined road car, the Bora

If there’s one thing Jonathan Elliott is good at, it’s replicating beautifully detailed, lifelike versions of real-life cars. You may remember his Renault 5 or Volkswagen Westfalia and noticed his incredible eye for detail. This time he has created a 1971 Maserati Bora in LEGO. With a top speed of 171 miles per hour, this was an important build for Jonathan as the Bora is his favourite mid-engined supercar so he wanted this to be perfect.

The Bora combines jaw-droppingly elegant style with both technology and power. I love how he has recreated the distinct stainless steel roof and Giorgetto Giugiaro’s beautiful hubcaps.

Welcome to the deadliest entertainment of the Outer rim

Definitely there are not many reasons to visit Tatooine, but watching a beautiful podracer like this one by Inthert in action is totally worth booking a seat at Mos Espa Grand Arena. My favorite piece of the pod’s design would be multiple use of yellow minifig snowshoes, which are used to create front winglets. And, of course, a very simple piece of Tatooine’s landscape beneath the pod is an amazing way to make a still model look very dynamic.

Collectible Minifigures: 71020 The LEGO Batman Movie Series 2 [Review]

It’s been nearly a year since The LEGO Batman Movie hit theaters, but LEGO is continuing to create tie-in items for the moderately popular film. In November, we got the excellent 70922 Joker Manor, which impressed us with its complex techniques and new roller coaster system. Now the latest series of Collectible Minifigures is revisiting the world of LEGO Batman with 20 all-new minifigures. 71020 The LEGO Batman Movie Series 2 minifigures retail for $3.99 and are available now from Amazon, the LEGO Shop Online, BrickLink, and eBay.

Continue reading →

A conversation with Matthew Hocker – a LEGO ephemera collector [Interview]

Matthew Hocker has been on the LEGO scene for quite a while now and has had his builds featured right here on TBB. What you may not know is that he has an extended love and appreciation of collecting LEGO ephemera. The term is derived from the Greek word ephemeros, which means “lasting only one day, short-lived.” An ephemera collection consists of the paper materials that frequently get thrown away or lost because of their short-term usefulness or popularity, such as letters of correspondence, sales literature (brochures, pamphlets, catalogues, etc), postcards, ticket stubs, etc. Matt’s love for his LEGO collection enhances his appreciation of the hobby and its vast history.

Matt in 2014 together with the wooden duck in Idea House

Matthew has contributed digitized literature and write-ups to Brick Model Railroader and digital contributions to the library section of Brickset. His research skills and appreciation for a collection of this nature stems from his day-to-day role as a librarian.

Our curiosity got the better of us, and we ended up having a long conversation with Matthew, learning a lot about what he does and why he does it. Here’s an insight into Matthew and his collection.

A portion of Matt’s collection of Brochures

Read our full interview with LEGO collector Matthew Hocker

Final seven new projects from 2017 qualify for LEGO Ideas Review [News]

LEGO Ideas have just announced that 7 projects have achieved the required 10K votes to qualify for the third 2017 LEGO Ideas Review. In no particular order, here are the 7 that go into the next phase to be considered for selection as an official LEGO Ideas set.

Click to see the qualifying submissions

Cloud dragon rules the skies

Dragons are the quintessential fantastical creature, common in myths from cultures around the globe, and a muse for artists and sculptors for centuries. LEGO builders are no exception — and here it’s John Cheng who has succumbed to the dragon’s call. This striking dragon bust is lovingly assembled from a well-chosen selection of curved and sloped parts, creating a great impression of musculature beneath scaled skin. Further, the blue and purple colour scheme is bold without being garish, and allows the lightning-flavoured horns on the dragon’s head to really pop from the image. The cloud-styled base of the model works nicely too.

TIE’d for first place

The iconic Star Wars TIE Fighter is a frequent subject for LEGO creations — both in official sets and fan-built models. Each iteration and interpretation is unique, but this TIE by Jerac may be one of the most detailed renditions I’ve seen. Familiar with the craft from countless hours of enjoying Star Wars films and games, it appears to me that no detail on Jerac’s model is out of place. Even little touches weren’t overlooked, such as the red dots and hexagonal hole in the rear of the cockpit.

Jerac also presents an equally stunning, screen-accurate model of the TIE Interceptor…

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for January 7, 2018 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of January 2018.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: A new year brings a new wave of LEGO sets, as well as the first LEGO events of the year.

10260 Downtown Diner brings 1950’s flair to Creator Expert Modular Buildings – The latest Modular Building heads in a new design direction and resurrects the color teal. What do we think about this new LEGO set?
853663 LEGO Iconic Holiday Magnet – The 2017 holiday magnet set is on sale at the end of the season. Is it worth picking up?
Bricks LA, Southern California’s premier LEGO convention, happening this weekend – See LEGO creations from builders all over the world at the Pasadena Convention Center right now.
Happy 2018 + the best LEGO of 2017 – Check out our roundup of roundups to see what we thought of 2017 as we rang in 2018.
2018 LEGO sets available now, including Downtown Diner, Shanghai and more – The January assortment of LEGO sets has hit stores, including the new Modular Building 10260 Downtown Diner, LEGO Star Wars sets, City, and more.

TBB INSTRUCTIONS: Creative builders around the world share how they’ve designed their custom LEGO models, and LEGO provides a way to build sets even without buying them.

Build your own LEGO cuckoo bird – While you’ll have to engineer your own working LEGO cuckoo clock, Sven Franic has provided instructions for his lovely LEGO bird.
Instruction Guide for the Promotional 60th Anniversary Special (40290) now available from LEGO – LEGO has released instructions for the forthcoming 60th anniversary promotional set so you can build it ahead of its release.

OTHER NEWS: There’s always plenty of other news about LEGO from around the web, even if we’re not able to cover every story here on The Brothers Brick.

Note: Like many of you, we’ve also seen the leaked images of LEGO sets from the upcoming Han Solo movie and rumored set lists from a resurrected Harry Potter line. We’ll be sure to bring our readers all the details about those sets once we have better-quality information from more-reliable sources. As always, TBB is committed to bringing our readers trustworthy news rather than just rumors and speculation.

Bricks (and mortar) to help make everything awesome for Lego in Hong Kong, South China Morning Post – LEGO is opening a retail store in Hong Kong, which has the largest LEGO fan community per capita in the world.
Lego’s just the job for Dan, Keighley News – A home for special needs people in the UK is collaborating with a local LEGO shop to provide valuable experience for its residents.
Houston artist makes Jose Altuve portrait with LEGO, KHOU.com – Houston, Texas resident Joseph Kraham spent about 200 hours building a portrait of Houston Astros baseball player Jose Altuve from nearly 44,000 LEGO bricks.

KHOU.com