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.
Yearly Archives: 2018
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
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.
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.
