Yearly Archives: 2019

Hands-on with 21052 LEGO Architecture Dubai [Review]

The LEGO Architecture sets have recently taken us to London, Paris, Shanghai, and New York, amongst other famous world cities, but the latest places to receive the LEGO skyline treatment are Tokyo and Dubai. 21052 Dubai depicts five famous landmarks of the United Arab Emirates’ most populous city, contains 740 pieces, and will be available in January 2020. It will retail for US $59.99 | EU €59.99 | UK £54.99.

Join us as we take a detailed look at this new stop-off on LEGO Architecture’s world tour…

Read our full review of 21052 LEGO Architecture Dubai

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LEGO Exclusives Star Wars 20th Anniversary Obi Wan and Mini Gingerbread House now available with Double VIP points [News]

This weekend (Dec 6 – Dec 9) a Double VIP Points for LEGO shoppers and features two special exclusive gifts with purchases. First up is the second holiday exclusive, the LEGO Mini Gingerbread House (40337) (free with purchases from) $99 and the LEGO Star Wars 20th Anniversary Obi-Wan Kenobi (30624) polybag (free with Star Wars purchases from $40),

Both will be available until supplies run out, though double points is only this weekend and will likely be the last double VIP points of 2019.

Click to see the specific dates and global spend amount for the exclusives

LEGO Creator Expert Modular for 2020 revealed as 10270 Bookshop [News]

LEGO has revealed the upcoming Creator Expert Modular for 2020 as the 10270 Bookshop. The set comes with 2,504 pieces which create a pair of three-story buildings similar to 10218 Pet Shop from 2011. The model features the “Birch Books” bookstore and an accompanying Townhouse. The Bookshop comes with five minifigures and two animals including a chameleon and a blue bird.

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

Click to take a closer look at the new LEGO modular Bookshop

2019 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 6

Welcome to Day 6 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. What bricks will we get for Day 6?

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

World’s first AI-powered LEGO sorting machine built with 10,000 LEGO bricks [Exclusive Feature]

There are some individuals who find sorting LEGO pieces therapeutic, but most of us loathe the task. And there are entirely non-LEGO machines that could do it, although what fun is that? Some people have tried to use LEGO to build sorting machines, yet their limitations have been quickly apparent. Enter Daniel West and his incredible Universal LEGO Sorting Machine! This baby uses Artificial Intelligence, with the most extensive index to date, to sort parts at a speedy one brick every 2 seconds!

Watch a video of the sorting machine in action!

LEGO popcorn (the one that got away)

We don’t see many creations from real LEGO designers. I mean…yes we do, but they end up being featured in The Brothers Brick news sections when they launch as official sets. Since LEGO designers are so busy designing actual sets, it is rare to see what they build for fun. Former LEGO Designer Tiago Catarino tells us that this is “one of the first MOCs (My Own Creation) I did while working for LEGO in Denmark, and one of the few that ever got to see the light of day, since 99% of the building I did there was, after all, confidential.” There we have it, the 1% he did for fun.

So what does Tiago do when not having fun with LEGO popcorn and gets locked down to conduct some serious business? Well, perhaps you might recognize this one or this other one. Serious business, indeed!

Keeping track of the Cuthbertson Land Rover 2A.

Here’s something you don’t see every day. That is precisely how John O’Shea started his write-up, which is fortuitous for me as it offers a neat segue into the rest of this article. Lazy writing? No, call it “opportunistic”. This model is based on the Cuthbertson tracked Land Rover created by J.Cuthbertson in Scotland. Here we see it employs tank tracks bolted onto an extra frame beneath the vehicle. This setup allowed Scottish farmers to navigate through uneven boggy terrain as they tended to their farms. The idea was so popular that it eventually became a factory option.

This particular Land Rover is equipped with spotlights on the roof as well as a snorkel just in case the farmer gets into some deep doo-doo. Topping out at a little over 20 mph (32 kph) this wouldn’t make an ideal getaway car but if the aforementioned deep doo-doo is in your cards, then the snorkel shall accommodate nicely.

Real rebels recycle and reuse

The grungy aesthetic of the Star Wars original trilogy showed a worn-down, lived-in universe where a scrappy Rebellion used whatever they could find to fight the mighty Empire. It’s clear that the iconic ships like the X-wings, Y-wings, and especially the Millennium Falcon are all hand-me-downs. But surely the Rebellion would have used whatever they could lay their hands on, even if it was 30-year-old tech like this Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter. LEGO builder Hypolite Bricks has crafted this detailed diorama of the Rebel’s Yavin 4 base as they as they attempt to return the classic fighter to flying shape. Look closely at the ship, as it’s not merely the official set but an impressive custom model with lots of details, including missing panels.

The builder notes that they were inspired by the N-1’s appearance in the recent trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, where it appears fleetingly along with seemingly every other ship in the Star Wars canon.

2019 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 5

Welcome to Day 5 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!

Trio of triangular mechs

What is better than a well-armed hard suit? How about three of them? Moko has put together a hard-hitting squad of brightly colored power armor mechs, each one sharing certain design elements, while sporting very different weapons and other capabilities.

First off, that heavy assault mech, with what looks like a laser-guided rocket launcher, and a shoulder-mounted machine gun. Next, a sniper model complete with some sort of sensor package, and lastly, if you can’t shoot ’em, you can pummel them with punches with the brawler on the right.

The Bugatti Centodieci is a nod to its own legacy

Do you like the LEGO automotive work of Firas Abu-Jaber? Do you enjoy everything Bugatti has to offer? Do you have $8.9 million burning a hole in your pocket? Well, two out of three isn’t bad. Only ten of youse with deep pockets would have already placed your order for the 2020 Bugatti Centodieci, the rest of us average schlubs will just have to settle for drooling over Firas’ stunning LEGO rendition. I’m particularly fond of the turntable plates that comprises sort of a “cheese grater” vent at the B-pillar, which is an obvious nod to the Bugatti EB110SS supercar of the 90’s but the larger iconic horseshoe grille is reminiscent of the more modern Veyron and Chiron. Complex and subtle curves is what gives all of Firas’s work his signature style.

The 2020 Centodieci is so new and so rare that Firas had to guess how the doors and engine lid opened as there are no photographs online yet showing how it all works. He made an educated guess that it would go something like this.

No matter how the doors open in real life, the 2020 Bugatti Centodieci is a nod to its own legacy and is one of many, many reasons our hearts go pitter-patter whenever we see Firas’ work.

Take a glance at the fancy ant

Around my house, especially in the summertime, killing ants becomes a hobby. There are lots of different sizes and colors coming in and trying to eat the piles of food that my kids drop on the floor during meals — big, small, red, brown, and black. But I smush them all. R 194 appears to have a different view on ants, one that is decidedly more pleasant and whimsical. Instead of a voracious intruder, we get a curious explorer, lighting up its way with a lantern, ready to dig with a shovel and pick, and investigating with the magnifying glass. The mandibles look spot on with the tooth elements, and the antennae are perfect made with paint rollers. The shaping on the head and the articulation of the joints looks great, and I love the delightful yellow boots on the hindmost feet. But I still don’t like ants in my house.