Yearly Archives: 2020

A submarine with a screen door

I like cutaway models that let you explore the interior mechanics and design of a vehicle. There’s something cool to know a builder went beyond thinking about the exterior shaping of a vessel to consider how it could really operate. And when you combine a quality cutaway of a submarine with a lively undersea diorama like General Tensai has, you get something extra special. Even if, just for a moment, I had to wonder about the lack of a tight water-seal. The Nokirian Battle Submarine feels like it could have been lifted from a scene from Das Boot. There’s a lot of slice-of-undersea life happening from the cots and galley to the more functional touches like the brick-built engine and periscope station. I also like how the somber reds and greys of the sub contrast with the vibrant aquatic life on the seafloor.

Maybe there’s a link between this sub and the General’s oil rig. If there isn’t, there should be.

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Fantasy palace is an oasis for the weary, whatever their species

No matter what kind of creature you are, if you live in a desert environment, chances are you would enjoy a visit to this fantasy oasis by Peter Z for a chance to enjoy fresh fruit, and to sit by the fountain to let the cool breeze wash over you. Gold and teal accents provide a lovely contrast to the tan structure, and the walls are peppered with little irregularities caused by the cutting wind and sand.

Bustling cargo port on a massive scale

Living in Seattle, or in any major port town, for that matter, this scene by ExeSandbox is a familiar sight. What is much more unexpected about this model is the massive scale. Notice the “small” rolling cranes in the foreground are this crane base, which is 16 studs high! Even though this model is a digital render, this in no way diminishes the amount of effort involved in putting this together.

The builder includes a nice surprise detail in the cargo ship’s name, Leg Godt, the Danish phrase “Play Well”, from which LEGO derives its name.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for July 25, 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 last week of July 2020.

Let the music play with the new LEGO Ideas Grand Piano. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS: This week we reviewed two new Star Wars sets, learned to make a tiny T-Rex, saw the cancellation of a controversial set, got a sneak peek at the upcoming Harry Potter advent calendar and more!

Four new LEGO Monkie Kid sets revealed including Monkey King BrickHeadz – LEGO has revealed the second wave of Monkie Kid sets including new villains and vehicles and a Monkey King BrickHeadz.
LEGO cancels release of Technic 42113 Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey – LEGO canceled the release of an upcoming Technic set after outcry against the depiction of a military aircraft.
LEGO wants you to choose its next history book about bricks – LEGO Publishing is letting fans choose the topic of their next book about the LEGO brick.

MORE TBB NEWS:

LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano makes music starting Aug. 1st – The Grand Piano is the biggest LEGO Ideas set ever with 3,662 pieces which is music to our ears! (Plus an exclusive interview with the set’s designers!)
LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano designer shows off inner workings of the musical model – See how the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano is put together in this video tour from designer Chee Woon Tze.
LEGO Harry Potter 2020 Advent Calendar revealed – First official images of the new LEGO Harry Potter Advent Calendar are already here. Be careful not to spoil the surprise!
Celebrate Christmas in July with a free LEGO mini-gingerbread house with purchase – LEGO is celebrating Christmas in July by bringing back the Mini Gingerbread House free with orders of $100 or more.

TBB REVIEWS AND INSTRUCTIONS:

LEGO Star Wars 75283 Armored Assault Tank (AAT) from The Clone Wars Season 7 includes Ahsoka Tano and Ahsoka Trooper [Review] – We take a closer look at the much-anticipated LEGO Star Wars 75283 Armored Assault Tank.
LEGO Star Wars 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers with AT-RT & BARC speeder [Review] – LEGO Star Wars 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers adds front-line infantry for General Anakin Skywalker to lead into battle.
Build your very own Tyrannosaurus Rex BrickHeadz [Instructions] – If you are a fan of BrickHeadz, and dinosaurs, you can now build your very own T-Rex, designed by Daniel Fortine.

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 LEGO Group launches new initiative to help parents talk to their kids about online safety and digital citizenship, LEGO – The ‘Build & Talk’ approach encourages learning through play.
LEGO Hits Over 10 Billion Views on YouTube, Making It the Most Popular Brand Channel on the Site, People.com – Popular YouTube channel Vat19 came in second place with 5.84 billion views followed by IDJVideos.TV at 4.49 billion
How Can LEGO Help With Technical Skills for Medical Training?, The Science Times – LEGO can be used for medical training, specifically for technical skills in the field of anesthesia.
LEGO-inspired bone and soft tissue repair with tiny, 3D-printed bricks, Medical Xpress – Tiny, 3-D-printed, LEGO-like bricks have been designed to heal broken bones—and could one day lead to lab-made organs for human transplant.

Epic LEGO Forbidden City uses over 80,000 bricks and took over 700 hours to design & build!

Yes, you read the title correctly. Rocco Buttliere has used around 84,000 LEGO bricks, to be more precise. In addition to 300+ hours of building to recreate the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, Rocco also spent 400+ hours designing it first. If that doesn’t blow your mind, it should. That is one giant build of one of the world’s most spectacular architectural sites. Like his earlier LEGO diorama of Ancient Rome, Rocco built this one for a commission for a museum, and boy, does it belong there. The overview picture hardly does it justice, as it all blends together into a blur of flame orange, dark red, and grey, but zoom in and there are as many marvels as in the real deal. Fancy a tour? It’s not forbidden to look at this one, even for a commoner like me.

Check out the details of this incredible build

Don’t LOL at this VTOL

M:Tron was a classic space line of LEGO sets back in the day, best recognized by the red color scheme on its vehicles. Though the line ended decades ago, builder Blake Foster resurrects this spacecraft in true M:Tron fashion.

This Heavy VTOL, which stands for Vertical Take Off and Landing, is a masterpiece in imagination. Blake Foster ingeniously combined bricks that you usually don’t see together, using large rounded red bricks with harsh green fluorescent wings jutting out. His explanation for this creative decision was that the M:Tron Corporation secretly implemented stolen alien technology into their vehicle.

I can’t get enough of the tiny details, like the power plant work around the gun or the vents on engines. See the magnetic drop pods on the bottom of the VTOL? What a great idea! The vehicle can easily transfer cargo at a moment’s notice. Perhaps it would make a great addition to his M:Tron magnet factory.

He’s definitely compensating for something

What’s the point of a limousine? It has none, except to make the person riding in it seem important, whether that be a bride and groom on the way to the reception or a diplomat going to a complex negotiation. It’s the same with motorcades and bodyguards; their real purpose is to lend clout to the image of the one with them. So, what if the limo has armor and hidden weapons? It’s the same, just with more bang. And if a Humvee can become a luxury vehicle, why not a HEMTT? That was my (Benjamin Stenlund) thought, at least, for my latest LEGO creation. Add in a sporty car and a motorcycle, as well as a triumphal arch and statue, and you have the scene set for inflating someone’s ego.

Tasked with building an armored limo, I was inspired by the heavy military truck with 8 wheels. I added some gull-wing doors, because nothing says luxury like gull wing doors. And some retractable steps to descend from the passenger compartment, too, ready to step right onto the red carpet. The angles at the front of the cab were the hardest part of the build to get right, and honestly, that’s why I went with gull wings, since it did not require hinges on the front and the doors had to open. There are lots of complicated angles on the sides, too, but they weren’t as difficult to figure out as the front. The only problem is that despite it being armored, it is too fragile for my kids to play with.

LEGO wants you to choose its next history book about bricks [News]

LEGO Publishing has announced a fan vote that will determine the direction of the next book they will publish. Fans can vote on LEGO Ideas to choose one of three following titles: “The LEGO Brick Museum,” “The Secret Life of Bricks,” and “LEGO History in 100 Bricks.”

The winning book will be written by Daniel Konstanski, editor of the Blocks magazine. Voting ends on Sunday, August 9th at 7 am PT. More information is included in the press release below.

Learn more about the next LEGO book.

Celebrate Christmas in July with a free LEGO mini-gingerbread house with purchase [News]

If you missed out on the 2019 holiday gift with purchase last year, have no fear–Christmas in July is here! 40337 Mini Gingerbread House set is a 499-piece microscale version of the 10267 Winter Village Gingerbread House and is available with any order of $100 or more in the US or Canada through 8:59pm PT on July 26th or while supplies last.

As always, clicking through the links in the article above helps The Brothers Brick continue to provide the quality LEGO content you’ve come to expect from us. Thanks for the support!

I hope they get here before the fruit rots

I really like LEGO creations that tell a story, and Road to the Fruit Festival by Jonas Kramm has enough self-contained world-building to inspire the imagination. These tiny fruit merchants offer next day delivery, provided you live very, very close. Are these tiny people with human-sized mounts and wares? Or are we looking at some seriously up-scaled produce?

Each build has clever building techniques and part usage to discover. The road-marking statues have Rancor claws for legs. There are minifigure neck ruffles as parts of flowers, and large figure shoulder armor in the wheelbarrow.

But I’m also a sucker for well built LEGO snails, and this one is a beauty. It was the first build in this set, and was apparently so much fun to make that the rest of the scene came to life around it. Those minifigure hairpieces make for perfect berries, and the dark red dome brick make for a tempting pair of cherries. And that snail is darn spiffy, too. I like the cupcake eyes and muted color choices. The Clikitis leaf for the slime trail is a nice visual touch, too. And the Minifigure shark arms for petals in the flower…the closer you look, there more there is to enjoy here.

This isn’t the first amazing creation of Jonas’ we’ve featured, and it’s a good bet that it won’t be the last. I just hope the future includes even more snails.

Short in stature but long in hair? Per Wilkinsson to the rescue!

What do you do when you’re under five feet tall and your voluminous tresses are getting wild and wooly? Why you would pay a visit to Per Wilkinsson’s Dwarven Barber Shop, of course. LEGO builder Aurore presents this amazing little shop complete with Celtic ornamentation, colorful awning, Viking-style roof and a sign adorned with scissors. Plenty of animals perch on or near the shop while a patron outside haggles for a beard trim. If it turns out Per was just a bit too feisty with the trimmers, you can cover your new botched hairdo with an assortment of bronze and silver helmets at the stand outside.

The whole shebang was inspired by the Friends Heartlake City Hair Salon set. Brilliant!

LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano designer shows off inner workings of the musical model [News]

LEGO has released a video showing off the new LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano. In the video, LEGO Designer Chee Woon Tze tickles the ivory, so to speak, to show off how the piano is constructed and how it plays music. The video has constant piano music in the background but unfortunately does not include what the piano music created by the app will sound like. However, seeing the completed set next to the designer shows how massive the model is in context.

LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano comes with 3,662 pieces to build the playable piano for US $349.99 | CA $449.99 | UK £319.99 with global availability beginning August 1st. Make sure to read our announcement and interview with the LEGO Ideas design team about the design effort that went into it.

Click to watch the LEGO Grand Piano designer video