Monthly Archives: March 2021

A stroll along ancient streets

Many a great LEGO model has been inspired by a real life place and builder Qian Yj‘s latest build is definitely among them. This beautiful scene is based on the real life Yuehe Street, a popular tourist destination in Jiaxing, China. The small greebling work on the walls in a limited color palette is lovely and really captures the crumbling look of many of the street’s buildings. I love the decorative touches and window treatments utilizing grills and 2×2 turntable bases on the building’s faces and the small cafe on the side. I’m also particularly enamored with the sweeping white supports between buildings. A perfect street to while away the afternoon, sipping tea at the waterside as the boats float by.

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I’ll take mine on the rocks, please

There are some LEGO builders that I would just love to hate, since they seem to be living the perfect LEGO life, and Markus Rollbühler would be at the top of my list; he’s one of the most talented builders out there with about a billion social followers, he has an enormous and perfectly organized collection, and he even works as a set designer for LEGO, the (pipe) dream job of every aspiring LEGO talent. But Markus is impossible to hate, because he is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, super humble, always offering advice and help when asked, and available to even the most rookie builder. How could I hate a guy like that? I can’t. Instead, I admit that he’s one of my personal favorite builders, regardless of what genre he tries his hand at. In this case, it is a delightful little lighthouse.

Markus shows of his skills by building a compactly small round tower out of tiles, pairing that with a ramshackle hut with a teal roof (got to love teal, right?). Markus is famous for his cheese slope roofs, and really his ability to make a roof out of virtually any piece (see Ninjago City Gardens, a set he designed, if you doubt the truth of the statement). He is also well known for his foliage, and this tree made from yellow feathers does not disappoint. The color scheme is just about perfect, as is the composition, and the building techniques are on point…in short, it’s enough to make one green (or even teal) with envy, except that the builder is just too darn nice.

LEGO Technic 42121 Heavy-Duty Excavator [Review]

There’s no such thing as a boring outside activity; there are only boring machines that make things dull and tedious. And for proper digging, you need a proper excavator, preferably a heavy-duty one. It’s been a while since we got a great LEGO Technic excavator set, but here comes the new 42121 Heavy-Duty Excavator. This 569-piece set brings back mini-scaled construction machines and uses a bunch of newly-introduced pieces for its neat design. The set is available for US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99.

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

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The puddle jumper

I have a fondness for tiny LEGO spaceships that have every piece neatly in place, and this micro “space-catamaran” by Christopher Hoffmann fits the bill perfectly. Christopher says he built it several years ago but is just now getting around to photographing it (a delay I empathize with on a deep level) but I’m glad he’s decided to show it off now. While he says the design focused around the then-new X-wing canopy, the part that sticks out to me the most are the large white Technic panels that form the wings, which are a cool-shaped piece that’s surprisingly difficult to integrate into minifigure-scale ships, though it blends in smoothly here.

Stop, hammerhead shark time?

Certainly, if anyone saw a real hammerhead shark, they would stop whatever they were doing out of fear, but imagine seeing this guy? Dylan Mievis’s hammerhead shark figural LEGO build is surely fear and nightmare-inducing.

Mievis mainly utilizes LEGO Technic elements from the Bionicle, Hero Factory, and Star Wars buildable figure lines to shape this muscular anthropomorphic hammerhead shark. Ball and joint elements allow for articulation, while various armor pieces including the shoulder plate serving as the shark’s midriff create a heavily shielded aesthetic. Some small elements more commonly found, such as claw pieces and the printed voodoo ball elements used for the eyes, are also featured in this build. Shark week isn’t for a while, but this model gives us enough of a scare to hold us over.

A medieval winter wonder-castle

Winter wonderlands are a fairly common theme with LEGO builders, and not just houses and villages, but castles as well, like this cozy castle by W. Navarre. I hope they have plenty of tiny logs to burn in their tiny fireplaces. The model features a nice mix of newer and older gray parts for the perfect weathered look and speaking of weather, the scene includes several patches of snow on the roofs and the surrounding grounds. One of my favorite details is the little tower near the left side, which is attached using 1×1 rounded tiles on their side, stuck into the underside of the larger 2×2 rounded plate.

The month is March and Easter is among us

I haven’t actually played the popular game Among Us, but the little people in colorful spacesuits featured in the game sure are iconic. While those guys may not be the inspiration behind this lovely Astro-bunny LEGO build by Joffre Zheng, it certainly looks like a cute mashup to my little eye.

This silly rabbit’s carrot-colored spacesuit is crafted out of orange bricks, slopes, tiles, cones, and cylinder pieces in various sizes. A trans-clear hinged half dome serves as the visor of the helmet, which protects the furry little critter from the space elements. Small light grey pieces such as cheese slopes, round-bottomed 2x2s, tiles, and bricks make up the face, whose eyes are rendered with the signature 1×1 round tiles featured in BrickHeadz sets. This bunny sure is ready for Easter and beyond!

A rustic cottage just in time for spring

We’ve had a couple of warm days here in New York already, which means the time for long drives on scenic country routes is here. Eero Okkonen’s LEGO cottage model is just the type of home one would encounter on such excursions.

What I love most about this brick-built dwelling is its imagined silo incorporated into the home’s build; you can find such a design in the real world. Okkonen utilizes many 1×2 plates in the formation of the dome topping his silo, while the house as a whole utilizes various bricks and differing slope pieces in varying configurations. The stone foundation of the home is rendered with ingots, slopes, bricks, and round-bottomed 2x2s in light grey, which complement the popping green evergreen trees Okkonen primarily fashions out of flower stem elements. Overall this is a timely model for the shifting of seasons.

I am the robot walrus

When I first heard about Mitsuru Nikaido‘s LEGO mecha walrus, I pictured a cyberpunk Beatles nightmare. But when I looked at how well-built and detailed it was, I was only impressed.

What really sells this as a mecha walrus are the green eyes. They give off a ghostly computer-like glow that is creepy and makes the rest of the build look metallic. The tubing also helps, but without the eyes, I would have thought it was just a LEGO Technic-style sea mammal.

The skin even looks like armor plating! Well done, Mitsuru!

Off to an adventure with Calvin and Hobbes

Talented TBB alum Simon Liu brings us the iconic duo Calvin and Hobbes. Simon is no stranger to Calvin and Hobbes LEGO creations. This time he decided to challenge himself by using only 101 pieces. 101 pieces doesn’t sound like a lot, but the figures are quite small so to me it still is astonishing that these two figures consist of 101 parts. Most of the parts used are smaller than a 1×1 brick. Even though their faces are featureless the figures look instantly recognizable — Hobbes’ face is especially well made. I am quite curious how Hobbes’ ears are connected. My guess is through friction and I am perfectly fine with that as long as he doesn’t lose them when they speed of a steep hill in Calvin’s red wagon.

Want more LEGO Calvin and Hobbes creations? Check them out in our archives!

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for March 13, 2021

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 second week of March 2021.

The latest Marvel bust has been revealed and it’s none other than Carnage! Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: This week we reviewed some cute Brickheadz Pandas and the new Easter GWP, checked out an interview with the designers of the new Winnie the Pooh set, examined the new DOTS extras and more!

Designers of LEGO Ideas 21326 Winnie the Pooh come together and share behind the scenes details – Designers of LEGO Ideas 21326 Winnie the Pooh come together and share behind the scenes details
Marvel’s symbiote Carnage 76199 LEGO bust revealed with Target pre-order – LEGO’s latest bust themed set reveals Carnage, the archenemy of Venom from the Spider-Man universe and is available as a pre-order from retailer Target
The LEGO Group reports double-digit growth in both sales and revenue in 2020 – The LEGO Group reported earnings for the full year 2020.
LEGO Gift With Purchase – 40449 Easter Bunny’s Carrot House [Review] – Easter is just around the corner, and that means it’s time for LEGO’s yearly Easter-themed Gift with purchase.

LEGO BrickHeadz 40466 Panda and cubs [Review] – We get an up-close look at the first BrickHeadz wild animal family set, a panda bear and two cubs.
LEGO DOTS 41931 Extra DOTS – Series 4: Making Faces [Review] – LEGO has gone rapid-release on DOTS, and there’s a whole new set of unique printed tiles and rare colored elements to check out.
The making of LEGO ASMR White Noise and the 12 streaming services available for access – We provide links to 12 locations from where you can listen to the LEGO ASMR White Noise soundtrack and also a behind the scenes look at how the audio tracks were created.

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:

Your Child Can Apply To Be The First Ever Kid Creative Director At LEGO, And Receive $10K, Forbes – The pandemic has been hard on everyone, and pushed us all to pivot and adapt to this new world.
The Countries that Pay the Most and Least for LEGO, TheToyZone – But LEGO tells a tiny tale about world economics.
No More Plastic Fantastic as Lego Toy Packaging Goes Green, Bloomberg – After decades of relying on fossil fuels to make its plastic bricks, LEGO is taking a small step toward a greener future earlier than planned.

Fifi the Warrior Princess

Dan Ko had me searching the internet for the reference to their creation for a couple of minutes. I can’t find it so my guess is Fifi the Warrior Princess and Tatsu the Magic Whale are figures of his imagination. Which is troubling because I want more Fifi and Tatsu adventures! Tatsu looks so sweet and friendly with its big eyes and sand green fins made out of surfboards. The mudguard and shoulder pad make for a great face. But the best part has to be the round plate used as a single tooth.