Yearly Archives: 2020

Star Wars Republic Gunship inbound!

In the most chaotic battles of the Clone Wars, soldiers for the Republic knew victory was imminent when they could hear the overhead rumbling of gunships flying through the sky. Just looking at this fantastic LEGO model built by Spencer Hubert makes me, too, cheer for the Republic.

First seen in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, this gunship was a staple of the Grand Army of the Republic. Hubert’s model here continues the traditional red and white paint scheme of most of the gunships seen in that movie, as well as the wing-mounted bubble turrets and front ball turrets.

What’s new about this version are the fully closing doors instead of a side turret. These doors allowed pilots to fly their gunships through the void of space so carrier ships wouldn’t have to get too close to the battlefield.

I always find it useful to reuse printed bricks from sets that I don’t have built anymore. Hubert has done that by utilizing the large printed sloped bricks from the original Obi-wan Kenobi Jedi Starfighter set as detail on the back of the gunship wings. Very clever!

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A nomad’s life for me

LEGO has produced a lot of castle sets, but in my honest opinion there always has been a lack of travel carts! Markus Rollbühler is here to fill that gap for us. One of the best things about this creation is that the walls of the cart are positioned at an angle. The only straight wall, where the door is located, uses 2×1 cheese slopes to fill up the gap created by the slight angle of the other walls. But that’s not the only thing. This creation is filled with original details! One of the best used pieces has to be the blaster trigger. The blaster adds great playability to the set for kids, but as an adult fan of LEGO, I do not tend to use them. Markus used the trigger piece as table and chair legs and it looks stunning. Have you noticed the candle holder using the scuba breathing regulator. And don’t even get me started on that cute brick-built snail!

Just add butter and a good movie

Things are getting a little ridiculous here. The level of Grant Davis‘ genius LEGO skills lately is making me want to be better at life. Making a popcorn machine is neat, but what’s really cool is that it functions. Yup, the “popcorn” pieces come out of it just like the real thing, using a motorized piston at the top. It’s an excellent idea that I wish I would have thought of myself. But on top of that, we have to address the font. Can you imagine a better way to replicate that old school cartoony movie theater style?

If you look closely, you can see the piston moving up and down. It “pop” out just the right amount at the right timing to mimic the real thing.

You can see all of Grant’s LEGO builds (including many with a common parts theme) in our archives.

LEGO teases a colourful collaboration with Levi’s [News]

Today, a new, unexpected partnership got teased on the LEGO’s Twitter feed, and it looks like your next pair of jeans from Levi’s might be compatible with your collections of plastic bricks.

Judging by the hashtag #dotyourworld, which accompanied the marketing campaign for the LEGO DOTS products, companies might reveal new apparel collection with customizable elements. No other information is available at the moment.

Coming soon: Two iconic names, one colorful collaboration… ???? #DotYourWorld pic.twitter.com/MoykMZMmDd

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) September 1, 2020

In their attempt to attract new customers, especially the adult audience who might not be interested in toys, but recognize and like the brand, the LEGO Group has been very active venturing into new collaborations. Over the last two year, the Danish toymaker announced themed mobile games with Augmented Reality supported by Apple devices, started a partnership with Universal Music Group to create a new lineup of music-based sets, and most recently revealed a series of new storage products developed together with IKEA.

LEGO reveals new Universal Monsters license with BrickHeadz 40422 Frankenstein [Review]

Is it too early to be thinking about Halloween? Not at all! And LEGO is here to help us get into the (ahem) spirit of things with a new BrickHeadz set. But is this a seasonal offering or a hint of something more substantial to come? Say hello to 40422 BrickHeadz: Frankenstein, number 111 in the BrickHeadz collection. This 108-piece set has yet to get an official price or release date, but will likely match the $9.99 US pricing from the rest of the line. What secrets does this set have in store? Read on and see!

Click to read the full hands-on review

Watch James and Oliver Phelps (aka Weasley twins) taking the first look at the new LEGO Harry Potter exclusive Diagon Alley set [News]

For the promotion of the new Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley set, LEGO invited two very special guests to take us on a walk by the magic stores of the most famous shopping venue of the whole city of London. James and Oliver Phelps, the actors who play the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter films, share their impressions of the new set as well as a couple of funny stories from the filming location.

The new 5,544-piece exclusive Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley set is available today for US $399.99 | CAN $499.99 | UK £369.99.

Your guide to the new LEGO sets now available for September 2020: Advent Calendars, Star Wars, Harry Potter & more [News]

September is here and LEGO has released a number of sets that you may have been eyeing. The Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley is one that we predict will be a favourite for the month and also includes the highly anticipated 75292 The Razor Crest that was first revealed back in February. The Advent Calendar sets for Star Wars, City and Friends are available. This is a good time to grab them, if you want to prepare early for Christmas, especially since the Advent Calendars tend to sell out early.

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The Doofenshmirtz-inator!!!

“Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated” – if you’ve watched the legendary Disney channel cartoon Phineas and Ferb, in your head you probably heard the little jingle that goes along with this quote. Paul brings the lovable and goofy villain from the show – Dr. Doofenshmirtz to life with his LEGO version of the character.

The white lab coat and black turtle neck – the signature look of Dr. Doofenshmirtz is brick-built using various sized tiles, slopes, and bricks by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique. The rest of good ol’ Doof is also composed of bricks and other pieces, my favorite parts usage being Paul’s use of the small claw pieces in black as tiny eyebrows and a couple reddish brown tooth shafts to render some spiky tufts of mad scientist hair. Of course I am a fan of the classic 2×2 round tile eye pieces which work perfectly for Doofenshmirtz’s cartoony face. It is always great to see pop culture subjects rendered in LEGO, and Paul did an excellent job with this character build.

Travel back in time inside this retro TARDIS

Doctor Who is a British sci-fi television series about the titular character who travels through space and time. Since it first aired in 1963, it has been a staple of pop-culture and has even gotten an official Doctor Who LEGO set. Fan builders also built many iterations of the time-traveling spaceship TARDIS, many large and complex on the inside. However, Librarian-Bot created a console room of a different TARDIS operated by a different Time Lord. This one is not unlike the hero’s TARDIS from the late 1970s, still recognisable and iconic. While more recent console rooms are grey and greebly, Librarian-Bot adds a splash of colour with white and blues. But my favourite section has to be the usage of computer and button tiles in the middle. Despite being LEGO’s generic decorative elements from old space and town sets, they fit right into this scene.

See more Doctor Who LEGO builds here on The Brothers Brick.

LEGO City 60271 Main Square – exclusive set inspired by LEGO City Adventures [Review]

Do you watch LEGO City Adventures? Apparently it’s quite popular. And LEGO announced recently that they’re celebrating that success with an exclusive set: 60271 Main Square. This 1518 piece offering is based on the locations and characters from the show, and will be available September 1st. Featuring over a dozen minifigures, there are also builds ranging from limousines to tram cars to City Hall itself. That’s a whole lot of stuff packed into a US $199.99 | CAN $229.99 | UK £169.99 package. But is this City adventure worth the price of admission? Read on and judge for yourself!

Click to read the full hands-on review

Get all your wizard supplies in the stores of the new LEGO Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley set [News]

Today, LEGO reveals the next Harry Potter exclusive set, 75978 Diagon Alley. The new version of the iconic shopping venue consists of four buildings and includes 5,544 pieces, which makes it the 5th biggest LEGO set released so far. The models are accompanied by 14 minifigures, including two characters that have never appeared in any other LEGO Harry Potter set. The set will retail for US $399.99 | 399.99EUR | UK £369.99 beginning September 1st.

Take a closer look at the new LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley set

Operation space-goat teleportation

Space is the place for ground-breaking science like figuring out how to teleport rare pieces of your LEGO collection from one place to another. Andreas Leander is here conducting the research in his latest diorama. It follows the everyday lives of Sven and his crew at Epsilon IV as a part of Andreas’ ongoing series of cinematic Classic Space builds. This time, the crew is trying out a new contraption to teleport a space-goat, but rest assured, none have been harmed in the process.

The teleportation device is made with a variety of tubes running along a simple frame. The tubes feed into a stack of different-sized radars and a Harley Davidson wheel that hovers ominously over the test subject. Alternating long wedge plates and 1×2 rounded plates surround a single space-goat, totally oblivious of what’s to come. The platform construction is super captivating to look at and the blue lighting at its center creates a gorgeous atmospheric glow throughout the build. I’m also loving the details scattered around the scene. An old mech makes an appearance in the background, which we assume is used for transporting the space-goat from pod to platform. If you look even closer, you might see that the pods each have a single plant piece for the space-goats to munch on as they wait for their turn. All this talk of space-goat teleportation has many of us wondering when these space-goats will start arriving into our LEGO rooms. We can’t guarantee any goats, but do keep an eye out!

In the meantime, check out some more Neo-Classic Space creations from our archives!