Yearly Archives: 2018

Maersk Pier is a majestic port that is sure to marvel all

LEGO and storytelling are a match made in heaven. As much as I enjoy building for the sake of building, I also enjoy LEGO as a medium for producing a narrative. Markus Ronge had me hooked last month when he shared a teaser poster for an upcoming series of story-driven steampunk builds. A few days ago, Marcus revealed the first part of his conceptualized world in the form of Maersk Pier, owned and operated by fourth-generation shipping mogul, Herman van de Maersk.

Bored with the shipping industry, Herman decided to build this majestic port to serve luxury airships and their wealthy clientele. As a steampunk model, Maersk Pier is breathtakingly beautiful and does a great job of blending Victorian-style architecture with steampunk fantasy. The extensive use of white works well and reminds me of marble, which witnessed a resurgence in use as a building material during the 19th Century Greek Revival period. Speaking of history, the model’s name is a clever nod to LEGO’s lengthy relationship with the Maersk shipping company, which has included a number of Maersk co-branded LEGO sets over the years.

See lots more photos of this amazing LEGO steampunk diorama

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Talented Italian LEGO builder Luca Di Lazzaro dies far too young [News]

The Brothers Brick is a website dedicated to sharing amazing LEGO builds, news, and reviews. We generally write about things that make us happy. But it is with deep sadness that we must share the passing of an incredibly talented builder, Luca Di Lazzaro. The Italian native was a Deputy Commander for the Carabinieri station in Remanzacco, and an avid bicyclist. Unfortunately, it was a bicycling accident that ended his life at the young age of only 45.

We know Luca (pictured center) because of his presence in the Adult Fan of LEGO community. We have written many articles about his charming and wonderful creations, but we’d like to honor his memory by re-sharing a few of our favorites. You can click the links below to read those articles.

Cycling the Paris-Roubaix

Mamma mia! Che bella città!

Cast a coin into The Well of Desires

Udine, Italy’s Piazza San Giacomo in LEGO

If you don’t speak Italian, you can still read outside articles about Luca by pasting web addresses into Google Translate. If you’d just like to see more fantastic pictures of his work, check out his Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr. Our sincere condolences to his family and friends. In the LEGO community he will be sorely missed.

Captain, I think we’ve struck something!

When I first saw this build I did a double take. There are lots of pirate shipwrecks out there, and lots of medieval-looking structures. There are also plenty of creations featuring pirate ships attacking those structures. But there most definitely aren’t many shipwrecks running through the center of a village, sitting on a floating sky-rock, splitting it in two. The level of engineering involved in such a creation deserves major kudos, and those kudos belong to John Snyder.

We’ve featured other creations by John, but were particularly struck by the interesting setting for this one. Every angle shows masterful attention to detail.

LEGO Friends, Elves, Star Wars and more on sale at Amazon [News]

Every now and then, certain LEGO themes go on sale at Amazon, and today it appears to be Elves and Friends coming in at between 30% to 40% off retail. We’ve assembled a list of the sales below, along with a few Star Wars, City and Creator sets as well, so happy shopping!

Friends

Time to go for a snow vacation with these discounted sets from last year, plus a few houses and bedroom sets have some fantastic parts.

Elves

If interesting parts and colors is your thing, then these sets are for you. These sets have great decorative pieces and foliage.

Star Wars

The Y-wing is on sale, along with sets from Jakku as well as some awesome buildable figures.

Creator, City & Superheroes

Looking at everything else, we have a spaceship, bus stop, and even the classic “Go Brick Me” all on sale.

As always, a tiny portion of these sales goes to support the reviews, event sponsorship, contests, and more that The Brothers Brick gives back to the LEGO building community.

Welcome to a temple with a “killer” view

No matter how strange or limiting a LEGO part may appear to be, there is no such thing as a useless piece. With a little thinking outside the box, it’s sometimes surprising what you’re able to accomplish. Case in point, David Zambito’s microscale “Temple of Tarrasque” takes the LEGO Batman Movie’s Killer Croc minifigure and literally turns him on his side. Killer Croc’s body has been cleverly placed within the model to form a major portion of the mountainside, and the figure’s printed dark green spots are reminiscent of shrubbery. It accentuates an already beautiful landscape filled with a variety of fun angles, and the tiny temple is equally impressive.

LEGO unveils 41631 Newt Scamander and Gellert Grindelwald BrickHeadz from Fantastic Beasts [News]

LEGO just unveiled two new characters to add on to the BrickHeadz family from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Newt Scamander and Gellert Grindelwald, numbered 76 and 77 respectively, are featured in a two-pack set of 247 pieces and retail price of $19.99 USD. These are the first two characters to be featured from the Fantastic Beasts theme and will be released for sale on October 1.

Click here to read the full press release…

We’re building the new LEGO Star Wars 75220 Sandcrawler [Video Review]

It’s been four years since LEGO released the last Star Wars Sandcrawler, the massive Ultimate Collector Series Sandcrawler. Now LEGO has returned with a set that’s a bit smaller, but still has 1,239 pieces, 75220 Sandcrawler. It’s available now, and retails for $139.99 USD. Today we’re building the set in this video review to see exactly how this giant mobile Jawa fortress stacks up.

75220 Sandcrawler includes 1,239 pieces with 6 minifigs. The set is available now from the LEGO Shop (USD 139.99 | CDN 159.99 | GBP 109.99), Amazon.com, eBay, BrickLink, and elsewhere.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick a copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

If you give a House Elf an article of clothing...

One of the sweetest moments in the Harry Potter series is when the young wizard gives Dobby a sock at the end of Chamber of Secrets. It is at that moment that the loveable House Elf becomes free from the Malfoys. This tribute to that moment, built by Chung-Heng Cheng, is an exceptional work of art. The body shaping is really nice and it’s immediately recognizable as the little hero.

Can’t get enough of all things Wizarding World? Check out our Minifigure Feel Guide (which includes Dobby) as well as our review of the new 71043 Hogwarts Castle (which includes scenes from the Chamber of Secrets).

Like and subscribe for more LEGO YouTuber caricatures

One can expect outstanding LEGO caricatures from builder SuckMyBrick. Their latest series captures the likeness and personalities of several popular YouTubers well with the bricks. From left to right, we have: Rhett and Link of Good Mythical Morning; well-known vlogger Casey Neistat; Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect; infamous vlogger Logan Paul; silly singer Miranda Sings; Internet meme legend Techno Viking; and our friend at BrickNerd, Tommy Williamson.

Each build here is recognizable to those who enjoy the YouTube creator community, but my personal favorite here is their build of Casey Neistat.

BrickCon 2018 LEGO convention in Seattle is now just one month away [News]

We’re now just one month from BrickCon 2018, the country’s longest-running LEGO convention. Each year LEGO fans flock to Seattle the first weekend in October to view more than 30,000 square feet of custom LEGO models, along with vendors featuring everything from custom-engraved bricks to vintage sets. The event is open to the public Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 6-7, and tickets can be purchased online, with prices ranging from $11-$17 depending on entry time. Last year tickets sold out in advance, so don’t wait to get yours.

Adult fans who wish to get the all-access treatment can sign up for the full four-day experience, which includes the ability to display their own custom LEGO models, along with workshops, prizes, games, drafts, access to the friends-and-family night, and more. Signups for the full adult fan convention, which runs Oct. 4-7, can be found on the BrickCon builder site. Tickets for the full event are $75 if purchased before Sept. 18. After that, you’ll need to pay the late registration price of $100 or sign up at the door if any space is available (though that will cost even more).

The Brothers Brick is sponsoring a Ninjago City collaborative build at this year’s BrickCon, featuring creations from our staff and readers like you. Click the image below to learn more about how you can get involved.

The Brothers Brick is an official sponsor of BrickCon.

From parts car to restored racing legend, this garage has it all.

Over the past few weeks, I have been following Pixeljunkie’s progress on an exciting series of photographs that seemingly depict the restoration of a classic 1950s Mercedes race car. Time and time again, Pixeljunkie has demonstrated an impeccable talent in building minifigure-scale vehicles and setting the scene (like his Bugatti we featured back in July). His latest image depicts a gritty but gorgeous-looking garage, along with his partially stripped down Mercedes race car. Pixeljunkie opted to leave the engine exposed, and it sports a fair amount of detail for being confined within such a small space.

With the extensive repairs out of the way, it’s time to load the car up for transport. The fully restored racer looks simply stunning, and the small team of restorers is just as charming as the car itself. Out of the entire lot, the middle-aged motorhead with cigarette in hand is my favorite (the cigarette itself is an interesting use of three Nanoblock pieces). Several other fun details can be found in Pixeljunkie’s garage, such as a loft area with a drafting table and sink. Meanwhile, shelves are filled with a wide variety of tiny tools.

See the vintage Mercedes racing car in its restored glory

How to build a Grumman E-1 Tracer early warning aircraft from LEGO: Part 1 [Feature]

Question: “How did you build this?” Answer: “By making a plan and sticking to it.” The question is one that many LEGO builders will have had. The answer, in my case, is completely true, but also wholly inadequate. So, in an attempt to give a more fulfilling answer, in the next few weeks I’ll occasionally write a piece detailing the progress on my latest project: a scale model of a Grumman E-1 Tracer aircaft.

Some builders start by experimenting with a few pieces until they find a combination they like. They then build the rest of the model from there. I’m not one of those people. I plan my builds. “Doesn’t that kill spontaneity?”, you may wonder. Well yes, it does, but if I wanted to build a scale model of a complex object such as an aircraft spontaneously, it simply wouldn’t happen. My brain doesn’t work like that. Furthermore, I enjoy looking at pictures of aircraft, reading about them and thinking about which to build and how to build it. To me this is half the fun. If If I am spontaneous, I’ll build car.