Yearly Archives: 2019

Star Wars X-Wing squared

Do you love the X-Wing but think those round engines have a bit too much sass for your parochial, straight-laced sensibilities? Do you fancy yourself as a square peg trying to fit in an increasingly round world? Then consider yourself and my odd premise vindicated, Jeb! Your day of reckoning has come because Sam K Bricks has answered your prayers and outfitted this X-Wing with honest to goodness squared-off engines a Shaker could have designed. In the Star Wars universe many ships, Rebel ones in particular, were pieced together from whatever they could find so it would make sense someone would customize their X-Wing in this manner. I bet the pilot is a real straight-shooter with a name like Rusty or Dwight who loves his mama and apple pie but probably wouldn’t try anything weird like focaccia bread. Even the Astromech droid has a head as straight and flat as an Illinois wheat field.

I really like the flashes of sand green and marigold yellow but I am someone who stays up past sundown listening to that rock and/or roll the kids like so much so you should probably take my opinions with a grain of salt.

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2019 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 8

Welcome to Day 8 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the four mini-builds from the LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Friends, and LEGO City 2019 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. Will Day 8 be great?

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for December 8, 2019 [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 2019.

The newest LEGO modular building returns to European-style architecture with the newly announced 10270 Bookshop. Read on to find out more.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: The next modular has been revealed, we took a look at an upcoming Architecture set, and we are lusting after this automatic sorting machine!

LEGO Creator Expert Modular for 2020 revealed as 10270 Bookshop – The newest LEGO modular building is a bookshop and townhouse and will be available January 1st.
Video: Learn the secrets of 10270 Bookshop from LEGO designer Wes Talbott – What’s the meaning of the street number of the new modular? Watch this video to find out.
Review of LEGO Architecture 21052 Dubai – Take a trip to the skyline of Dubai with our hands-on review of 21052 LEGO Architecture Dubai, coming to LEGO stores soon.
Feature: World’s first AI-powered LEGO sorting machine built with 10,000 LEGO bricks – Daniel West decided to create a solution to his LEGO sorting burdens with an AI-powered Universal LEGO Sorting Machine, and now we all need one.

MORE TBB NEWS: There is a new batch of DC minifigures on their way as well as a few good weekend LEGO deals and exclusives.

First pictures of 71026 LEGO DC Comics Collectible Minifigures – Here is your first look at the entire crew of LEGO DC Comics Collectible Minifigures, available in January 2020.
LEGO BrickHeadz 75232 Kylo Ren & Sith Trooper now available for purchase – This BrickHeadz duo from Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker features Kylo Ren and a red Sith Trooper.
LEGO Exclusives Star Wars 20th Anniversary Obi Wan and Mini Gingerbread House now available with Double VIP points – It is the last double LEGO VIP points promotion of the year along with the second holiday exclusive for 2019.
Instructions to build your own Pokemon Magnemite – Poke Bricks has built a Pokemon Magnemite, and you can too.

Swoosh swiftly across the stars

Every year in November, talented builders turn out spaceships with a very particular style as a friendly themed challenge. Unlike SHIPtember, when the goal is to build a huge spaceship, Novvember is all about the Vic Viper, a style of racing spaceship made popular in several video games. Tino Poutiainen brings a lovely addition to the fleet of Vipers with this clean and elegant model. It is microscale, with some Apollo astronauts at the helm, which is surprising but cool, and I can count all of four visible studs on the whole darn thing. That’s impressive given the angles involved. And the color blocking is perfect. The black stand gives it a display presence that sets it apart from the pack, too.

Looking at the ship, there are two pieces that jump out to me right away. The first is the old Blacktron II jet pack, one of my favorite childhood accessories, tucked seamlessly between the cockpit and the tail. The second is the cockpit itself, a Ninjago spinner dome; that’s a part that I’ve always wanted to use but have yet to find a good way to integrate it. The rest is just so smooth and refined that nothing leaps out. It makes me wonder how it all holds together, which is a great puzzle to have when looking at a build. Novvember might be come and gone, but we can still enjoy spaceships.

LEGO showcases the first worldwide public reveal of the Creator Expert Modular Bookshop at Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) 2019 [News]

Earlier today, LEGO Singapore revealed for the first time to the worldwide public at the Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) 2019. The announcement was revealed together by Kevin Ahn (the Asia Pacific Market Integration & Community Engagement Manager) and Rohan Mathur (Marketing Director for Emerging Asia). Rohan says “The LEGO business has grown very strongly for the last couple of years and Asia is leading the growth” which is one of the many factors that led to the decision of having the global unveiling here.

Click to see more from SGCC

Where’s your mother, little one?

This piece by Tino Poutiainen is titled “where’s your mother, little one?” Little one’s mother, as it turns out, is right behind our protagonist. She’s the size of a St. Bernard and has razor sharp tentacles, but let’s not spoil that little surprise. I’m not sure if that’s malicious intent or motherly pride in her giant bugged-out eyes, but I, for one, would like to see how it all turns out. Despite how this debacle may unfold, what we are witnessing here is an endearing act of kindness. Tino is participating in sort of a Secret Santa creation exchange in which he has built something for Aaron Van Cleave who tends to hide little frogs into much of his work. We’ve done our research and the story pans out.

But can we have square lily pads? You betcha! Bob Ross, who was the very personification of endearing acts of kindness, says so. In your world you can have anything you want. There are no mistakes in your world, only happy little accidents. Let’s go crazy and build some happy square lily pads right in there, shall we? Yeah, that’s great!

Santa’s got a new kind of sleigh

Santa is going to give the reindeer the day off this year because his sweet new ride is horse-powered instead! Sylon-tw, an excellent ship builder, decided to use his skills this holiday season to give Santa something slick to deliver presents with. His new sleigh is complete with a sleek body shape, thrusters, and plenty of cargo space. He’s even got his own chauffer, the builder’s sig-fig!

While you’re in the spirit, take a look at a Santa macro-figure as well as this year’s advent calendar!

2019 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 7

Welcome to Day 7 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the four mini-builds from the LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Friends, and LEGO City 2019 advent calendars along with commentary from The Brothers Brick team.

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

Slower than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive

I was recently at the Caterpillar Visitors Center in Peoria, looking at the big construction vehicles made for shaping the Earth in a profound way, from the gigantic mining dump trucks to the tiny little excavators. Somewhere in between are the bulldozers, offered in nearly a dozen sizes. The biggest Caterpillar, the D11, is one huge rig, but shockingly it isn’t the biggest dozer around. That title belongs to the Komatsu D575A-3 Super Dozer, weighing in at 336,400 pounds and measuring 38+ feet long, 24+ feet wide at the blade, and 16 feet high. While Beat Felber‘s LEGO model is not quite so large, it is not small, either. The builder has a whole series of 1:28.5 scale machines, from dump trucks to mining shovels, and the Super Dozer is a super addition to the lineup. The little kid inside of me is drooling all over the keyboard as I look at this beast, because this is the bulldozer every kid imagines driving as a construction worker.

Click to see more, including a video of the dozer at work

Magic keeps Hogsmeade Village together

The Harry Potter universe’s village of Hogsmeade continues to be a great source of inspiration for LEGO builders. I don’t know if it’s the lure of crafting medievalesque buildings in a non-castle creation or the fact that it’s a winter-themed town that isn’t decked out in red and green, but I know it works. The latest one to catch my eye is Roanoke Handybuck’s Hogsmeade Village. The two buildings pushed against each other, bookended by three happy little trees, and blanketed in snow, really captures the feeling of cozy wizarding town. Looking deeper into the scene, you’ll notice a few amazing parts usages that make these cottages look old and ramshackle. Maybe magic is the only thing keeping them standing. The first thing to notice is the lantern made from a pair of brown Witch-king crowns. Most interesting to me though, are the windows framed with neck brackets. Well a relatively stable connection of LEGO parts, it gives an especially rickety look for the windows’ muntins.

Even with a pair of ears, one can never have too many sets of headphones

Even though I’m not an audiophile, I am a headphone freak. I have one just for watching movies, another for doing conference calls, and another for listening to music without noise cancelling, and yet another one with it if I need the silence. I guess each one works the best for what it was designed for. Having said that, though I have no idea what I’d do with these LEGO headphones made by Andreas Lenander. Perhaps I’d just have them for a showcase accessory. I wonder if replacing that head parabolic reflector with a speaker would make a nice mod. One thing for sure is that it would make an excellent addition to my collection.

Learn the secrets of 10270 Bookshop from LEGO designer Wes Talbott [Video]

LEGO Master Designer Wes Talbott and LEGO Graphic Designer Tore Harmark-Alexandersen sat down to give a tour of the new Creator Expert 10270 Bookshop. In the video, they show off the set, play features, minifigures and give some insight on some nifty details hidden inside.

Some of the revelations include that two of the minifigures are based on Wes’ parents, and that the street address of the Townhouse is actually the internal number indicator for the color Teal which Wes lobbied to have return to the LEGO color palette after a long absence.

10270 Bookshop will be available from LEGO beginning January 1st for US $179.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £149.99.