Yearly Archives: 2020

Negative space is still space.

I love it when builders take their creations in unique directions. That’s exactly what Théo has done with The Chord. The wings and twin forks of this craft are built from negative space and a very unusual LEGO element- string. Light grey and lime elements combine with the transparent neon-yellow canopy in perfect harmony. The result is music to my ears and a very different take on the whole Vic Viper concept. Who knew that was even possible in this day and age?

The Chord (2)

To see even more interesting variations on the Vic Viper theme, check out some other featured creations!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 6

Happy holidays to all of our fellow LEGO builders! As is tradition, we at The Brothers Brick will be opening our advent calendars as we count down to Christmas. We’ll also be sharing commentary on each one, which will be both insightful and hilarious!

LEGO Advent Calendar

This year we have new Harry Potter, Star Wars, City and Friends advent calendars to open. We will be sharing images of the new calendars every day through Christmas. Let’s see what there is to open on Day 6!

Continue reading

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

I’ll fix your (Little Red) Wagon

LEGO car builder Tim Henderson tells us that awhile ago he had built a version of the Little Red Wagon. It must have been met with very little fanfare because our archives don’t even reveal a blip. But now he has reworked the old build using newer parts and techniques and not only is this iconic 1964 Dodge A100 wheelie-stander on our radars but you’re digging it now too. That’s the power of The Brothers Brick. We find cool stuff. We share it with you. You get excited. Shampoo, rinse, repeat. After rinsing off there you might want to check out a few other vehicles we went totally gaga for.

Little Red Wagon

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Top Secret: Roswell 1947

Aliens get a bad rap, don’t they? They’re scary, mysterious, and they’re the bane of midwestern farmers and cattle everywhere. They’re also seemingly responsible for a slew of uncanny and sometimes hilarious crop circles and plus they’ve got that whole probing thing which some folks have mixed feelings about. Andreas Lenander calls this LEGO diorama Roswell 1947. The depiction of the UFO scorching the earth does nothing to squelch the alien’s reputation but it is admittedly cool. The large saucer dishes go way back to the X-Pod line from ’04-’05. The light brick built into the landscape gives this piece that extra helping of awesomesauce. You may (ahem) probe deeper into our archives to see just how fascinated we are with Andreas’ stuff and aliens in general.

Roswell 1947...

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for December 5, 2020

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 2020.

We take the new Technic 42122 Jeep Wrangler for a spin. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.


TBB NEWS: This week we reviewed two new Star Wars sets, got a look at the new series of Collectable Minifigures, took a peek inside the Modular Police Station, started our annual review of LEGO Advent Calendars and more!

TBB ADVENT CALENDAR REVIEWS: Happy holidays to all of our fellow LEGO builders! As is tradition, we at The Brothers Brick will be opening our advent calendars as we count down to Christmas. We’ll also be sharing commentary on each one, which will be both insightful and hilarious!

LEGO Advent Calendar

  • 2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 1
  • 2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 2
  • 2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 3
  • 2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 4

  • OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

    2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 5

    Happy holidays to all of our fellow LEGO builders! As is tradition, we at The Brothers Brick will be opening our advent calendars as we count down to Christmas. We’ll also be sharing commentary on each one, which will be both insightful and hilarious!

    LEGO Advent Calendars

    This year we have new Harry Potter, Star Wars, City and Friends advent calendars to open. We will be sharing images of the new calendars every day through Christmas. Let’s see what there is to open on Day 5!

    Continue reading

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

    Holy St. Peter! This insanely detailed LEGO version of Vatican City took over 800 hours to design and build.

    Yes, over 800 hours! That’s a long time, for sure, but not as long as the Vatican has been around, and less time than Michelangelo spent painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, too; yet this is no less a piece of art. This huge and detailed build by Rocco Buttliere is the first to depict an entire country in a single LEGO build, which is quite the accomplishment. It helps that Vatican City is the world’s smallest country, but still, everything is here, from the enormous St. Peter’s to the Vatican Gardens, along with every other building inside Vatican City, like the local supermarket and post office.

    Vatican City

    Now, I’ve seen Rocco’s huge and detailed version of Ancient Rome (huge and detailed seems to be a running theme with Rocco, like his Forbidden City and even a shopping mall), but I’ve never been to Rome. However, I have seen many pictures of St. Peter’s Basilica and the famous square in front of it, and everyone has seen pictures of the Sistine Chapel’s interior. But this LEGO version includes so much detail, it’s like I’ve been there now. In his typical style, Rocco also gives copious information with each picture, evidence of the amount of time spent meticulously researching his subject matter.

    Click to see more details of the world’s smallest country in small plastic bricks

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

    The Photon Chaser pays tribute to LEGO legends

    You may have heard us throw around the term Vic Viper before. For those not in the know, the name was taken from a ship in the Gradius video game series and it describes a spacecraft that has two forward-sweeping wings that widen toward the rear, a centralized cockpit, and a central fin. The LEGO building trend was pioneered by adult builder Nate Neilson who had tragically passed away in 2010. A full ten years later many prominent builders still honor Nate’s tradition by building Vic Vipers usually in November…or NoVVember. Blake Foster is no stranger to our archives but surprisingly this is his first Vic Viper. It’s called the Photon Chaser High-Performance Tactical Viper…or PCHPTV. OK, I made up the acronym, and admittedly Photon Chaser is far better. While this may be Blake’s first rodeo with a Vic Viper he’s brought his usual A-game and stellar build techniques.

    Photon Chaser High Performance Tactical Viper

    Care to stay awhile? Check out our extensive Vic Viper archives from a slew of some of the world’s most talented builders.

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

    LEGO Technic 42122 Jeep Wrangler: the ultimate 4×4 to fit your wallet [Review]

    The most iconic offroader of all time has now joined the LEGO pantheon. The LEGO Technic 42122 Jeep Wrangler is the first time in decades LEGO has licensed the classic brand whose name is nearly synonymous with 4×4. (A few old very old sets bear the Jeep name, but are so rudimentary the resemblance is weak at best.) When I first heard about the new Jeep set, I assumed it would be the American counterpart to last year’s excellent Technic 42110 Land Rover Defender, a massive 2,500-piece set. However, the Jeep has more modest aims, coming in at just 665 pieces. It features functional steering, suspension, and a winch. It will be available starting January 1, 2021, for US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99.

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

    Click to read the full, hands-on review of the LEGO Technic Jeep Wrangler

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

    Designer Video of the LEGO Modular Police featuring Chris McVeigh and Ashwin Visser [News]

    The annual anticipation of LEGO Modulars was unveiled last week with the showcase of a Police Station. We get the rare insights from designer Chris McVeigh and Ashwin Visser on the play features and fun easter eggs in the set.

    Click to see the Designer Video

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

    2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 4

    Happy holidays to all of our fellow LEGO builders! As is tradition, we at The Brothers Brick will be opening our advent calendars as we count down to Christmas. We’ll also be sharing commentary on each one, which will be both insightful and hilarious!

    LEGO Advent Calendar

    This year we have new Harry Potter, Star Wars, City and Friends advent calendars to open. We will be sharing images of the new calendars every day through Christmas. Let’s see what there is to open on Day 4!

    Click to see the LEGO Advent Calendars Day 4

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

    LEGO Star Wars 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter & 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter [Review]

    With Ultimate Collector Series and recent 4+ sets for younger builders aside, LEGO Star Wars starfighters like X-wings and TIE fighters have maintained a consistent trajectory of higher and higher part counts (with correspondingly greater levels of detail) over the past 20 years. The latest LEGO Star Wars sets move the part count in the opposite direction, with 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter including 474 pieces with four minifigs (US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99) and 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter including 432 plus three figures (US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99). We’ll compare these January 2021 starfighters with the 2018 LEGO X-wing and 2018 TIE Fighter.

    The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with early copies of these sets for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

    Read our hands-on review of LEGO Star Wars 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter & 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter

    The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.