Yearly Archives: 2021

LEGO Star Wars 40557 Hoth Rebels & 40558 Clone Troopers Minifigure Accessory Packs [Review]

LEGO Star Wars has been around for more than 20 years, and for the first time LEGO is producing Star Wars accessory packs. They’re effectively the same as the boxed Battle Pack sets, but packaged in the minifigure-shaped clamshells that are used on a variety of other themes. 40557 Hoth Rebels Minifigure Accessory Pack contains 64 pieces and includes three Rebel troops in Hoth outfits plus some defenses, and will retail for US $14.99 | CAN $19.99 | UK £12.99. 40558 Clone Troopers Minifigure Accessory Pack has 66 pieces (a foreboding number) and includes three Clone Troopers and a few bits of gear, and should retail for the same  US $14.99 | CAN $19.99 | UK £12.99. Both sets will be available starting Jan. 1.

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.

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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 Modular Buildings Collection 10297 Boutique Hotel – Building on 15 years of nostalgia [Review]

2022 will mark the 15th anniversary of the LEGO Modular Buildings Collection. The theme was introduced in 2007 with 10182 Café Corner, and has since added fifteen other sets including 2017’s 10255 Assembly Square and 2021’s 10278 Police Station. The 17th installment is a 3066 piece set that features a hotel and art gallery – and a ton of callbacks to just about every building on the block.  LEGO Modular Buildings Collection 10297 Boutique Hotel will be available starting January 1st, 2022 from the LEGO Shop Online for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £179.99. Come along as we explore this new corner of the neighborhood!

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

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.

2021 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 we hope will provide insight and hilarity to your holiday season!

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

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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.

Locked up in Tower #7

Continuing his series of architecture inspired designs, builder F@bz adds this futuristic tower. Suitable for a scene from a superhero movie, the multiple levels are created with the clever use of Minifigure handcuff pieces. Layered on top of each other and overlapping between levels around the structure, the cuffs are nestled as close together as they can. This repetition leads to a satisfying result, especially when contrasted with the colorful, picturesque landscape of the base. The well-manicured hedges and trees line either side of a pink and gold road leading right up to the ground floor of the tower.

Architecture#7 by F@bz (01)

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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 love putting the gin in gingerbread

There are a few things that really get me in the Christmas mood. One of them is a LEGO gingerbread house. Over the years, LEGO has produced more specialized LEGO parts, and they often come in white. It never stops to amaze me to see how fans use these pieces in their gingerbread houses. This however is not the case for John Snyder. They have been getting creative with the toy winder key for a seed part challenge. If this build is completely symmetrical, which gingerbread houses often are, more than 50 winder keys are used in this build. But it’s not just the use of the winder keys that is very creative. The inclusion of the old window is very nice and makes it look like there is no physical door; it’s just outlines piped on with icing. The house comes with candy canes, gifts, pine trees covered in snow, and lollipops that use a dish that to me at first was unfamiliar. At first, I thought it was from a Belville fairy set, but it turns out to be a Friends part.

Gingerbread House

Check out more LEGO gingerbread houses here.

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.

2021 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 we hope will provide insight and hilarity to your holiday season!
This year we have new Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, City and Friends advent calendars to open. We will be sharing images of the new calendars every day through Christmas, and hope that you’ll join us! 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.

LEGO 40524 Sunflowers expand the botanical collection [Review]

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since LEGO added the Botanical Collection to their lineup but here we are. After the initial success of the 10280 Flower Bouquet and 10281 Bonsai Tree, as well as the 10289 Birds of Paradise that came later in the year, it was clear that LEGO would keep watering this prospering garden. Joining the ranks of the “botanical boosters” 40460 Roses and 40461 Tulips, LEGO has announced the upcoming 40524 Sunflowers (US $12.99 | CAN $16.99 | UK £11.99) to be release on January 1st, 2022.

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.

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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.

Paint the world as you see fit

Being an artist has some perks. If you can imagine a world that doesn’t exist, simply invent it through art. As Bob Ross advised, just paint in those happy little trees! That is, in a sense, what First Order Lego has done here in LEGO. With a paint palette and brush in the composition, we see just a hint of color with a Mediterranean-style village at the base of a massive tree. It is just enough to clue us in that this builder is pretty good with color but the real star of the show here is what is not “painted”. Monochrome is notoriously difficult to draw or paint. It relies heavily on texture for great effect and that is what is done here in spades. Hundreds of mini wheels make up the leaves of the tree which creates breathtaking visual effects.

Painting The World - front overview

There are even more little houses going up the slope of the trunk that are just like the other ones except “unpainted”. He tells us it was all built-in under two weeks and had won the top prize at Bricking Bavaria, a LEGO convention in Germany. A well-deserved win, in my opinion. Here we see the artist “painting” his world with beautiful happy colors. The closeup makes it clear that the entire sculpture stands on Death Star halves. What brilliant details!

Painting The World - me painting detail

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.

Mysterious shapes swirl in the mask of Rorschach from Watchmen

“Rorschach’s Journal. December 3rd 2021. There is a foul stench in the city tonight. Crime oozes out of shady alleyways. But I take comfort in one thing. Pistash has built me in LEGO form. Gives me hope. Now I have to go eat some beans.”

Rorschach (Watchmen)

In Watchmen, the patterns of Rorschach’s mask change due to the application of an ink which reacts to heat, causing the style to alter. Pistash has accurately created these strange shapes by using of circular quarter tiles. Rounded angled pieces portray the details of the coat, such as the turned out collar. But the ultimate question is, what do you see in the peculiar patterns of Rorschach’s mask?

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 4, 2021

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of December 2021.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS The LEGO product assortment for 2022 is shaping up to be as big as ever, with reveals coming fast and furious via LEGO.com, retailer websites, and LEGO’s own instructions app. Check out City, Architecture, and Collectible Minifigure news below. Plus, we’ve got reviews of Ninjago 71754 Water Dragon and Monkie Kid 80036 City of Lanterns!

Click through to read more LEGO news from around the world

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.

2021 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 we hope will provide insight and hilarity to your holiday season!


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

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.

LEGO Architecture 21057 Singapore Skyline [Review]

The official LEGO Architecture series since its launch in 2008 with a total of at least 54 sets continues to delight us after over a decade. The latest showcase is the continuation of the skyline series and a revisit to representing the Republic of Singapore with an expanded view of the city since the release of the Marina Bay Sands landmark building showcase. The set was built by Senior Designer Rok Zgalin Kobe and features prominent locations in Singapore from the iconic Marina Bay Sands, OCBC Centre, One Raffles Place, Lau Pa Sat, Gardens by the Bay, Boat Quay and The Fullerton Hotel. With a landmass area of only 710 Km2 (270 sq. miles) and one of the most densely populated countries in the world, Singapore hosts and a wide variety of unique architectures that reflect a spectrum of modern and century-old buildings. The LEGO Architecture 21057 Singapore skyline set comes with 827 pieces and will be available on January 1st 2022 for US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99.

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. 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.