Yearly Archives: 2018

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

LEGO castle scenes are generally static pieces of landscape with some kinds of structures or a little sprinkle of life in the form of a handful of minifigs. This is a tested formula that works best in most examples, but the latest scene by h2brick is not one of them. The builder faithfully recreates a piece of the battle of Minas Tirith from the third Lord of the Rings movie.

The landscaping is nice to look at with flowing layers and colours, as well as some well built yet subtle rocks. One would expect the LEGO horse to start feeling repetitive, but the variation between colours, mold types and posing keeps it fresh. The touches of clutter on both sides give a feeling of an anxious anticipation of battle.

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Hell yes: the fearsome Lucifer-class Vic Viper drone

Marcin Grabowski is back with another angular starship- his latest creation looks like a scrapheap reject ready to take on the world.

Marcin’s starkly yellow and gray tubular creation was a contribution to the annual “Novvember” celebration of all things Vic Viper-related from the old Gradius series of video games (something of a rite of passage for LEGO space builders that just celebrated its 10th year). Up close this model looks like a gigantic mess, but when you zoom out and take in the whole drone fighter, the cobbled-together bits mesh together into a terrifying machine. I like the engine thrusters pointed off haphazardly in the shot below. I don’t know why Marcin named it Lucifer, but I’d be flying like hell away from it.

This starship is another in an impressive series of aggressive, spiny sci-fi models that Marcin has shared online. One of my favorites is his Naga-class light starfighter.

2018 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the three mini-builds from the LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Friends, and LEGO City 2018 advent calendars along with commentary from The Brothers Brick team.

If you’re opening one (or more) of these advent calendars along with us, we’ve made sure the pictures and commentary on each day’s models will be behind a jump so we don’t accidentally ruin the surprise. What is in store from Advent Day 4?

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

When two warriors meet

2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the LEGO minifigure, and its chunky proportions are beloved the world over. However, as excellent as the minifigure is, it remains stiff and able to strike only a handful of poses. Some builders like √erde’ have turned to sculpting their own characters out of small elements, employing minifigure headgear to give them a lifelike appearance. This pair of warriors, representing brute force on the left, and speed and agility on the right, are magnificent examples. Plus, the photography makes them really seem like they’re on a battlefield.

One seriously funky starfighter

Like real-world automobiles, it is to be assumed that spaceship design will go through eras where particular colours and shapes go in and out of fashion. Well, according to Cole Blaq‘s latest LEGO starfighter, brown will definitely be cool again in the future. The rich chocolate tones of this creation offer the perfect contrast to the trans-yellow canopy, and the stripes at the rear add a nice little splash of brightness. Couple the striking colour scheme with some sweet curves and effective greebly details at the front and you’ve got a wonderful design which manages to look both futuristic and retro at the same time.

Mixing the Christmas spirit with a dose of the peculiar

When a model blends a host of tropes in the way Delayice does in this Xmas build, it sometimes ends up subverting the original theme. Maybe it’s me, but this snowman dressed as Santa has a weirdly uncanny quality–in fact, it’s almost creepy.

Maybe it’s his double whips, clutched in each hand, or then again it might be his glazed eyes, or even the mechanical looking reindeer pulling his tiny sleigh. There’s a thin line between the cute and the strange, and this unique creation brilliantly drives down that line.

LEGO Star Wars 75251 Darth Vader’s Castle [Review]

The LEGO Star Wars sets from Rogue One, released in late 2016 and early 2017 to support the movie, include several of my favorite LEGO Star Wars sets of the past few years, like the fantastic 75172 Y-wing Starfighter and 75155 Rebel U-wing Starfighter. I’ve hoped that LEGO would return to world of Rogue One, and with the recently released 75251 Darth Vader’s Castle LEGO returns to the first Star Wars Anthology film.

The set has had mixed reactions from LEGO builders and collectors since it was first announced several weeks ago, but how does it actually stack up?

Read our hands on review of LEGO Star Wars 75251 Darth Vader’s Castle

2018 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the three mini-builds from the LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Friends, and LEGO City 2018 advent calendars along with commentary from The Brothers Brick team.

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

10264 Corner Garage revealed as 2019 LEGO Creator Expert Modular Building [News]

LEGO has revealed the latest entry in their popular Creator Expert Modular Building series, the 10264 Corner Garage. The three-story building is a 1950s-style car workshop and gas station along with an animal clinic and top-floor apartment.

The set comes with 2,569 pieces including six minifigures, five animals, a tow-truck and a scooter. The Corner Garage will retail for $199.99 USD from LEGO when it goes on sale January 1, 2019.

UPDATE: Read our hands-on review of 10264 Corner Garage.

Click to get a closer look at the Corner Garage.

TBB cover photo for December 2018: The quickest way to the top

For December’s TBB social media cover image, alanboar is taking us back to the turn of the last century in Hong Kong, where the Taikoo Ropeway spans the mountainside in Hong Kong. In use from 1891-1932, the aerial ropeway (also called the Mount Parker Cable Car) provided quick transportation from the docks and sugar refinery to apartments on the mountain’s slopes. Alanboar’s rendition is an artistic representation all decked out in the white of snow, backed by the apartments and elegant steep-pinnacled peaks with clouds punctuating the sky.

Want to see your own LEGO creation featured across TBB social media for a month? Then read the submission guidelines and send us your photo today. Photos that do not meet the submission guidelines will not be considered, and will be removed from the group.

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TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for December 2, 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 December 2018.

TBB NEWS: From vehicles to castles and cars, there are a lot of new sets on the horizon.

LEGO Speed Champions 2019 sets revealed; includes Mini Coopers and more – From muscle cars to supercars, the next wave of LEGO Speed Champions arrives next year.
First half of 2019 LEGO City lineup revealed – LEGO’s #1 line is going to feature firefighters in the air, police planes, and a couple of vehicles straight from the farm.
LEGO Star Wars Darth Vader’s Castle now available with exclusive Christmas Carousel gift with purchase – The iconic tower sells for for $129.99 in the US.
LEGO auctions on Catawiki include 928 Galaxy Explorer, 7755 Diesel Locomotive, and other rare LEGO – Current auctions include some rare LEGO sets from the 70’s and 80’s.

TBB REVIEWS: The next holiday exclusive gift with purchase set is here along with a LEGO book.

Review of 40293 Christmas Carousel, LEGO’s latest free gift with purchase – The set contains 251 pieces and is available with LEGO orders of $99 or more.
Review of The LEGO Book by Daniel Lipkowitz – This book features pictures of almost every theme in LEGO history and is currently on sale at Amazon.

TBB FEATURES & INSTRUCTIONS: The Black Friday and Cyber Monday buying frenzy continues with more LEGO sets on sale and discounts to be had.

Instructions to build the red 1958 Plymouth Fury from the movie Christine – Builder hachiroku24 nailed the look of this classic car.
Feature: Brilliant custom handcrafted wooden LEGO builds by Craig Daniel – What happens when you cross a skilled wood craftsman with a pinch of LEGO love?

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:
Check out the other LEGO news of the week

Star trucking, across the universe

It’s always great to see a LEGO sci-fi model which looks vaguely “realistic” — ie. a projection of current tech or business activities into the near-future. With his latest creation Robert Heim tackles everyday interplanetary transport, and manages to do it in style. This Mack-branded space truck is a cracking model — all smooth white curves and engine grunt up-front, followed by a long train of cargo containers. The curve transitions around the cab are beautifully smooth — the sort of end-result that looks effortless but probably took hours of careful piece selection. Nice integration of the airplane cab and cement mixer parts — they look like they were designed to go together like this.