Monthly Archives: January 2018

Little church perfect for your little ant friends

LEGO builders can sometimes overcomplicate things, perhaps ignoring simple techniques because they feel obvious, regardless of how effective they might be. However, this microscale Lego church by Jens Ohrndorf goes to show you don’t need a thousand pieces and complex techniques to create something excellent. We’ve seen it before, but the minifigure hairpieces make for perfect treetops, and then there’s the use of the 1×2 brick with groove as the side windows — a simple yet effective parts choice.

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Stand back or you’ll get burned

The creation of LEGO Mech models is in intricate process whose complexity is often under-appreciated. While most LEGO creations are static and fixed in place, a well-built mech often has multiple points of articulation, and requires sufficient balance along with flexible poseability. The play factor is something that you can’t really feel from a photo, but only appreciate its looks from a design perspective. I’ve been lucky enough to hold this creation by Benjamin Cheh in my own two hands, allowing me to see in detail how the parts provide maximum articulation of shoulders, arms, and wrists, and how it all fits into place in a modular fashion.

Hit more to have a closer look at this fire beast in detail

Livin’ in the wild

A LEGO creation doesn’t have to be themed around the post-apocalypse to feature individuals surviving in the wild using repurposed scrap and salvage. Travis Brickle presents a vignette featuring a makeshift shelter made from the hull of an old bus. There are outstanding details that rewards those who zoom in on the photo for a closer look. Can you find the custom built gramophone, easel, and rake? For a dwelling so removed from civilization, there’s certainly no shortage of household items to live comfortably!

A fireteam needs a Guardian to lead the pack

Destiny 2’s equal parts science fiction and fantasy allowed its artists to imagine some unique designs for its exotic gear. One such design is the sidearm Rat King, which has a relief of a pack of rats on the slide and a rat skull surrounding the hammer. Bryce Dempsey replicated this exotic pistol in LEGO, creating its slide and grip texture without sacrificing function.

Bryce’s Rat King features a moving slide, spring-loaded trigger, and removable magazine, all demonstrated in this video.

The empire strikes back to the 1980s

The Empire Strikes Back was released back in 1980 and is still one of the most popular Star Wars films to date. Josephine Monterosso has captured the likeness of two of the main characters from the movie, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, as BrickHeadz. Each character has some great little details to enjoy that are a step beyond the official Brickheadz style, but there are no rules when it comes to building your own characters. Luke’s flak vest with its tubing is a lovely touch and, along with the helmet and visor, really makes this character recognisable.

Han Solo’s fur-lined hood works well with simply some studs on show to give texture. I love the use of a palisade brick to give the clinched-in appearance to his parka waist — it really adds some flair.

See more 1980s movie characters built in this style

Al-Danah, a fortress above the clouds

John Snyder takes a fantasy spin on Islamic architecture with Al-Danah, a fantasy fortress. His fabled fortress is exceptional in several aspects: lovely choices of color, simplified cartoony textures, and a unique cloud technique that makes its elevated location convincing.

The Empire marches on

When The Empire Strikes Back first premiered in 1980, Star Wars fans of every age had their collective minds blown when the AT-AT first marched across the snowy battlefield of Hoth. Since that day, the AT-AT has surely become one of the most referenced vehicles in Star Wars, with the possible exception of the Millenium Falcon. Tim Goddard has put together a LEGO creation intended to show the AT-AT in relation to the new AT-M6 featured in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and in doing so, has achieved a highly detailed, accurate depiction that stands out very nicely. I especially like the use of tiles of many sizes to achieve a paneled look, including a few headlight bricks to pop some tiles out.

Looking at the underside and leg assembly shows a particular attention to detail and captures the complicated mechanical nature of this unique vehicle.

Check out these other awesome LEGO AT-ATs previously featured on The Brothers Brick:

Easily lift up to 10 tons with the Raptor Mobile Crane powersuit

Dutch builder Pico van Grootveld has been building a series of “Raptor” powersuits over the past few weeks, but his latest is definitely my favorite. The mobile crane variant looks great in yellow with the red crane boom, complemented by warning labels and a whole bunch of gears and other exposed machinery.

See more of Pico’s great powersuits in classic LEGO themes

A cuckoo clock so good it will drive you mad [Instructions]

If you’ve ever wanted for a masterfully crafted LEGO timepiece, Sven Franic has you covered with this immaculate cuckoo clock created for an exhibition contest. Sven will be displaying this in the LEGO House as part of the celebration of the 60th birthday of the LEGO brick. The hands point to the exact time when the patent for the LEGO brick was registered.

Click to see more

A Castle in drought

Most LEGO castles appear to lie in the grassy woodlands of Northern Europe, the sun-baked sands of the Sahara, or in a dizzyingly vibrant fantasy land. Brick Monkeys, however, is ready to take us somewhere new. This castle is set in what appears to be a drought-stricken clime where you can almost feel the dry leaves crackling as they fall from the trees.

The extensive use of earth tones blends well in this arid scene. The castle itself features many great details also, from the stained glass windows of the great hall to the ramshackle upper roof of the round turret, where plates have been layered haphazardly for a unique texture.

10260 Downtown Diner brings 1950’s flair to Creator Expert modular buildings [Review]

Each January, LEGO releases a new Creator Expert modular building. Last year’s 10255 Assembly Square looked to the past and celebrated the 10th anniversary of the line, beginning with 10182 Café Corner. With 10 years full of European-style architecture, replete with curlicues and fluted columns, the line heads in a new direction this year with 10260 Downtown Diner, taking obvious inspiration from the American West of the 1930’s through 1950’s rather than pre-crash Paris or London (or even New York or Boston). 10260 Downtown Diner includes 2,480 pieces with six minifigs and retails for $169.99 in the US (with the usual regional price differences elsewhere).

What does this change in direction bode for the theme, and what do we think of the new design aesthetic?

Read our hands-on review of 10260 Downtown Diner

Say it with a huge bunch of flowers

People have been conveying messages of happiness, love and sorrow with flowers for centuries. Bigger is not always better when it comes to your favourite bouquet, but when it comes to LEGO flora, there’s something special about big flowers. Chungpo Cheng has built a much larger version of the 1×1 Plant with 3 Stems. In fact, the flower is upscaled about ten-fold — a LEGO version is 1.5 cm tall and the upscaled version is 15 cm tall.

Other builders loved Chungpo’s design so much that they decided to build one too. Miro Dudas‘s version has been spotted growing in the wild.