Yearly Archives: 2019

Landscape and trees tell a story

While not depicting any particular scene I can remember, Mountain Hobbit’s Fishing Docks is clearly set in Middle Earth. The colour palette is consistent with the official sets, and Gollum lurking behind one of the trees on the hill is a dead giveaway. Let’s talk about those trees and hill though. The shaping of both is superb. Everything is basically sculpted using slopes and wedges. I really like the heavy use of pieces that are one brick wide on the hillside, giving it the appearance of being quite weathered. The curve on the rightmost tree is particularly well done, as it tells a story about how that tree grew: when it started growing, it wasn’t so close to the edge, but over time, its trunk grew thicker and the hillside eroded. Because of geotropism, the tree grew to point upward though, giving it the curved trunk we see today.

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One horseman of the apocalypse

Who needs the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse when you have this Kumamoto Castle Samurai, who can do more ass-kicking and raise more holy hell than four horseman combined. Or, at the very least, he would ruin your 日本の宴会. DanielBrickSon is a master of building with Bionicle and this is some amazing feat. To give some perspective to the massive scale of this, the flag is a sail from the 70618 Destiny’s Bounty set. The flag topper is a minifig-scale horse battle helmet. So just imagine your minifig horse wearing it next to this beast and you’ll get a feel for what it might be like to do battle with this awe-inspiring samurai. While masterful build techniques abound, the 2×4 plates facing studs-out along the base are an excellent touch. This would look to be right at home as a centerpiece sculpture in any Asian art museum.

LEGO unveils massive Batmobile set based on Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, available on Black Friday [News]

LEGO has officially unveiled its newest collector’s set, 76139 1989 Batmobile, a massive 3,306-piece model based on the Caped Crusader’s vehicle from Tim Burton’s iconic Batman film. Perhaps one of LEGO’s worst-kept secrets of the past year, this set features a slide-open cockpit with a new windshield, two pop-up machine guns and a rotating display stand. The model also comes with three new minifigures: Batman, The Joker and Vicki Vale.

The 1989 Batmobile will be available from LEGO beginning on November 29 for Black Friday. The set will retail for US $249.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £219.99.

In addition to other LEGO Black Friday deals, those who purchase the 1989 Batmobile between November 29th and December 5th will receive an exclusive mini replica of the original model as a free gift-with-purchase while supplies last. The “not-so-mini” 40433 1989 Batmobile – Limited Edition comes with 366 pieces and a rotating base as well.

Click to see up-close photos and videos of the new 1989 Batmobile model and the upcoming mini gift with purchase version

Jedi found

After a decade of seeking solace and peace, the silence is broken by the sound of blaster fire and lightsaber slashing. The Empire has found another Jedi fugitive. Created by Hypolite Bricks, this apocalyptic Star Wars display features what might have been a scene from the upcoming Jedi: Fallen Order video game.

The level of detail here is incredible. The tree growing out of the gunship cockpit is genius, truly giving the image that the fugitive has been in hiding at this location for many years. Adding to that image is the disassembled gun turret and cloth covers, as well as the growing maize. The small green hut reminds me of Luke Skywalker’s hut on Ahch-To.

I hope we see more creations like this, since this is what Star Wars is all about: dirty, grubby, worn, and full of meaning. Hypolite Bricks’ Gunship Hideout is the definition of what a LEGO Star Wars diorama should be.

Bring the future home with the Sky Rider Special

Scientists, writers, and other visionaries of the past imagined we’d all have flying cars and bikes by now. What happened? What they were expecting was a revolution of energy but what happened instead was a revolution of data. The result means that the average person carries far more computing power in their pocket than what it took to put men on the moon but we, as of yet, have no efficient or affordable means to fly to work on the daily. Still, a boy can dream and Vince Toulouse has such a dream with this Sky Rider Special. Dark blue and tan make for a handsome color combination while a ball socket acts as a terrific headlight encasing. The pièce de résistance however involves the use of two Bionicle airpumps in the engine area to emulate some brilliant hover-bike wizardry.

Someday Vince’s vision may still come true but for now I’ll have to appease myself with entire libraries worth of data at my fingertips in order to watch dachshund videos on Youtube.

A glowing write-up of a glowing build

When it comes to making superb creatures out of buildable figure parts, no builder is better than Jayfa. From dragons to dinosaurs, monsters to men, Jayfa can build them all and make them look amazing. This latest creation is no exception. Called the Oracle Dragon, it has glow-in-the-dark antlers, spines, and eyes, along with the coolest mustache since Lando Calrissian. It was inspired by a stop-motion puppet, and does a great job of capturing the look. With the posability of the joints, one could feasibly use the LEGO model for stop-motion movies, as well. That’d be cool.

The wing elements from Legends of Chima look great as the tufts on the tail, and I love the translucent pieces on the underbelly of the beast. In fact, the whole color scheme is fantastic, including the splash of red on the back of the head. The antlers make interesting use of minifigure hands and flex tube for their unique shape (but don’t tell the purists, because I think the flex tube has been cut!). The best part of it all, though, is that face. I’m going to have to study the face to copy it for a dragon of my own down the line, because it is incredible, so simple yet so expressive. Curious what the eyes and antlers look like glowing? Here it is:

A Gotham City like no other

Imagine building a LEGO creation for the sole purpose of making stop-motion animation. That is precisely what TheBrickDen has done and the end result offers some surprising yet practical solutions. You are looking at his interpretation of Batman’s Gotham City, a fictional place that we all feel we know from comic books, TV shows, or hit movies. This Gotham City is, first off, more colorful than we usually imagine it and secondly is situated vertically in what the builder calls three separate districts; a dilapidated and seedy lower level, a bustling middle area and a sort of elite business district atop of it all. In this regard it is more akin to the 70620 Nijago City set than what we know of Gotham. If this were a sprawling layout, I would imagine it to be difficult to position a camera in the middle of it to do stop-motion photography work but in this configuration, dozens of passageways, cubicles and nooks are all easily accessible to the camera. Each new angle would offer a different vignette into the action taking place within.

Click to discover more of Gotham City.

Darkness rises and light to meet it

We’re currently a month and half away from the final installment in the Skywalker saga, (not that anyone at The Brothers Brick is counting). At this point, everything we know about it is from the toys, trailers and promotional images, but that can’t stop eager LEGO builders from making creations based on the movie. Following some brilliant recreations of scenes in other recent Star Wars movies, KevFett2011 has recreated what I’m sure will be a memorable and iconic scene from the next film. Potential spoilers ahead if you’re avoiding the trailers and/or our speculation turns out to be correct.

Click here to learn more

It’s not always about the spaceship.

Don’t get me wrong; I love LEGO space ships. The more swooshable a build, the happier I am. Sometimes though, it’s not about the ship, but the people who keep them flying. In Repair Yard, builder Inthert shows us a slice of life from the mechanics who keep things moving. (And, apparently, the cat that helps out, too.) This model was created for a contest focused on the creative use of grill tiles, and there’s certainly several great examples of that here. Note how they are used with crossbows in the radar array on the right, as texture for the crates, and the steps in the stairs on the gantry. Look even closer, and you’ll see them as part of the engine detailing (coupled via minifigure handcuffs, no less) and the work stations in the background.

The rest of the build is fun, too. I like the crack in the paved area created by keeping a slight gap between sloped elements, and the choice of lilac for the plant stems gives the whole thing a nice extraterrestrial vibe. I do wonder, however, if I’m reading the story of this vignette correctly. It sure looks like the mechanic on the ladder pushed that shiny red button, giving the other tech a face full of soot from the engine. Surely Inthert would be nicer to these characters, right?

The Shrieking Shack is still screaming

Even though Halloween has ended, this Shrieking Shack will frighten any young witch or wizard no matter what day of the year it is. Created by builder Thorsten Bonsch, the Shrieking Shack was a notable location in the novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Thorsten is magnificent at capturing the demented style of the Shack as it was depicted in the movie version of the book, making the diamond-shaped framing the stuff of nightmares for any architect.

Looking past the building itself, you can view the equally impressive snowdrifts on the roofing, shingles and grounds surrounding the Shack. It’s clear that the setting of this build is in winter. However, you can bet that no one would want to get inside to stay warm. Perhaps freezing to death would be a less frightening alternative to the horrors that allegedly dwelt within.

We’ve covered several of Thorsten’s LEGO creations on our site before, so be sure to check them out too.

The Star Wars MTT brings the boys (and battle droids) to the yard

With stiff acting, boring political lectures and that abomination known as Jar Jar Binks, there was plenty wrong with the Star Wars prequels. Even as an adult I found myself glazing over when the senators and all the other grown-ups were talking about trade route tariff disputes but then perked up when there were explosions and laser battles. One thing that went well — in my opinion anyway, though yours may vary — is the films’ spaceship and vehicle design. I was not overly disappointed with the look and feel of everything and was in the camp that was impressed by the imposing Federation MTT (Multi Troop Transport). A builder by the name of Just Bricking seems to agree. Reminiscent of a charging bison, this creation expertly captures the complex angles of this unique design.

While the builder didn’t provide a video of this in action or even an interior photo, we’re told that this creation comprises 3,250 pieces and took two years to build. It is a massive 72 studs long, 32 high, and 22 wide. I can only imagine that this has a feature that would unfurl some complex rotisserie to deploy a battalion of battle droids into action like a hi-tech Trojan Horse.

LEGO reveals two new Chinese New Year sets for 2020 that combine into one gigantic festival [News]

LEGO has revealed two new sets to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year: 80104 Lion Dance and 80105 Chinese New Year Temple Fair. Both sets feature an incredible amount of new prints, recoloring of pieces and a significant amount of minifigures which all combine into a large festival setting. So today we have your first look at the sets and minifigures along with a video for each.

Honoring LEGO’s commitment to offer regional exclusives sets worldwide, the two new LEGO Chinese Traditional Festival models will launch in China and the Asia Pacific region starting December 26, 2019 with global availability beginning January 10, 2020.

Click to see all the details about the new Chinese Traditional Festivals sets