For nearly fifteen years The Brothers Brick has been highlighting the best LEGO creations, and 2019 has seen builders across the world put together some incredible models. To celebrate a year of great building, The Brothers Brick team has looked back over everything we’ve featured, and pulled together a selection of the finest LEGO creations of 2019.

Take a look at the fantastic models we’ve shortlisted, and stay tuned for the announcement of our LEGO Creation of the Year 2019 on New Year’s Eve!

Be sure to check out the LEGO Creation of the Year 2018, LEGO Creation of the Year 2017 and LEGO Creation of the Year 2016 to see what honourable company this year’s nominations are keeping.

First up, let’s take a cycle around the block on Mel Finelli‘s fantastic LEGO Chopper. While we’re riding we can listen to home-made mixtapes packed full of the latest tunes courtesy of that 80s-styled boombox. The bike’s shaping is spot-on, creating a nostalgic treat for anyone who had one of these rides as a kid, but also proving bang on-trend thanks to Stranger Things and the retro vogue for all things 80s. Mel posted this model on 1st January 2019, and it proved a great start to the LEGO year.

If a bike isn’t your favoured mode of transport then perhaps a sports car might be more your sort of thing? Well petrol heads, you can rejoice — here’s LEGO car master Firas Abu-Jaber with his Ferrari Testarossa. Firas captured the car’s iconic styling perfectly, from the pop-up headlights through to the signature air intakes on its flanks. And beyond those lovely external lines, the vehicle also boasted a detailed interior. A beautiful car, and fabulous photographic presentation.

Of course, the problem with a ride like that is luggage space. There’s no way a Ferrari would have enough carrying capacity for our next nomination — an entire Moonbase. Chris Yu‘s Classic Space creation was a nice model in its own right, but in a fabulous imaginative twist, came cleverly packed within a brick-built suitcase. Many builders plan out their creations in advance, but the amount of thought which must have gone into the various unfolding and transforming elements in this model takes build-planning to a whole new level. It’s fantastic to see such creativity coupled with the nostalgic appeal of one of our favourite LEGO building themes.

Talking of advance planning of a space-themed model, let’s pause for a moment to boggle at the thinking which must have gone into Adrian Drake‘s two-year construction of the Deep Space 9 station from Star Trek. Eight feet in diameter, the model uses over 75,000 bricks. But importantly, it’s not just BIG, it’s also insanely detailed — and in a final touch of brilliance, is packed with internal lighting. We see a lot of models inspired by the big sci-fi franchises — this one boldly goes above and beyond.

An altogether different kind of LEGO space awaits us in the next creation to make the shortlist. Crimso Giger‘s collection of abstract spaces took us to a fabulous new world of LEGO art, a million miles from any of the regular building themes. We loved the way these abstract scenes were open to interpretation, reminding us of futuristic cityscapes, computer circuits, and videogame graphics — all at the same time. The scenes were a stunning example of LEGO’s versatility as a creative medium, and the perfect riposte to anyone who ever says “Well, isn’t LEGO all licensed sets and specialist parts nowadays?”

When it came to creativity with a limited selection of parts, one model in particular stood out for us this year. Josephine Monterosso‘s lightbulb is comprised of only seven parts, but it’s a great example of how some builders see pieces in a totally different way. The overall shaping is fantastic, and the ribbed hose for a screw thread and the rubber stud for the base are excellent choices. Sometimes the simplest models are the most impressive.

Talking of lighting, there was one creation this year which stood out particularly for its fantastic use of lights. Hyungmin Park‘s astonishing LEGO version of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was impressive enough to begin with, but the atmospheric lighting transformed it into something truly magical. The school buildings might have been built in microscale, but the model was still enormous — providing a stunning backdrop to famous scenes from the movies depicted in minifigure-scale. Normally such a mixture of building scales can be a little odd, but Hyungmin managed to pull it off here, and the bold choice resulted in some truly epic Harry Potter scenes.

Sticking with the most famous location in the Harry Potter universe, we took a stroll inside at Hogwarts with Jonas Kramm to take a look at the school’s magical moving staircases. The picture-filled walls of Hogwarts’ halls were perfectly captured, and not content with having a staircase that moved, Jonas managed to include animation for the paintings too! This would have been a good model without the added mechanical motion effects, but with them, it became a highlight of the LEGO year.

When it came to mechanisms and motorisation, one creation stood head and shoulders above everything else (and very nearly head and shoulders above its creator). Beat Felber put together an enormous Coal Shovel, featuring a bucket beam of 1.6m, packed full with no fewer than 16 motors, and 44 LED lights. This model was so large Beat had to build his own custom tracks for it — none of the LEGO ones were big enough! The sheer ambition to attempt such a construction should be applauded. That it worked out so well, and that the finished creation was such high quality, is a significant achievement.

Shorter in stature perhaps, but just as is impressive in its own way, was Ian Hoy‘s World Of Warcraft figure. Ian built a fabulous version of Chen Stormstout — brewer, monk, and warrior — a character from the game’s 2012 Mists Of Pandaria expansion. The figure’s face captured the combination of cute-yet-scary that the Pandas possessed in the game, but it was the shaping and trim of the pyjama-style clothing which made this stand out as one of the finest “character models” of the year.

Character was the key to our final model in 2019’s shortlist — a bust of Batman’s greatest enemy, The Joker, put together by George Panteleon. The Crown Prince of Crime is wonderfully-done, a spot-on re-creation of his appearance in Batman: The Animated Series. The pointed nose, the two-tone hair, the maniac stare, and that terrifying signature grin — all perfect. If this list of the best LEGO creations of 2019 didn’t have you smiling by now, I’m pretty sure Joker will have something to say about it…

We hope you agree this is a fine selection of models, all deserving of being shortlisted as the best of 2019. Look out for the announcement of our LEGO Creation of the Year 2019 on New Year’s Eve!