Yearly Archives: 2021

Harry’s Pottery shop accident

Someone just had to make a LEGO pottery shop called Harry’s Pottery. It just had to be done! It somehow surprised me it took this long, but it is here! And it looks lovely. This building by Maxim Baybakov features a lot of grey walls. Thanks to the architectural details added the walls do not look dull at all. This LEGO building reminds me of some of the stores in older European cities that have glass façades with elaborate wooden frames. From the first floor up, the building style changes and the house from that floor up looks completely different.

Making round bay windows to accommodate the corner round window part looks like it was quite the challenge, and I would love a breakdown of that part of the build — it is either made with interesting building techniques, or it is full of cleverly used parts and the build is actually quite simple. Speaking of cleverly used pieces, the quarter round tile for roof shingles works perfectly. What really makes this build special is the little humoristic scene in front of the window. Although the minifigure in question might disagree with me on that.

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An ominous oasis in the desert is full of charm

This Egyptian temple at the edge of an oasis is more than just a stack of tan bricks. Sebeus I makes good use of stickers from the Pharaoh’s Quest LEGO theme for the tall pinnacle in the foreground, but the star of this build is the large hieroglyphics across the front of the temple, constructed using slopes and some clever sideways-facing plates and tiles. The entrance uses some simple textures to create visual interest, and those statues of Anubis flanking the doorway are very accurate.

The military mech with the gleaming eye

Armed and ready for combat, this mech has a menacing stare with its single prominent eye. Created by Keith Espinoza, the build looks as though it can strike some dynamic poses with its articulated joints. The mech comes equipped with a rifle and jetpack, perfect for blasting off into the battle. Curved tube pieces form around the eye, creating a smooth robotic look around the head. There are also some sharp angles at the chest, which contrasts nicely against the rounded sections of armour on the mech.

If the mech needs a quick speed boost, it can hop onto a hover unit, most likely used for covering long distances. Seeing an army of these flying towards you would make for quite an intimidating scene!

2021 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 3

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 3.

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Santa’s home away from home.

If you follow The Brothers Brick on social media, you might have noticed we just updated our cover photo to Santa’s house, a cozy A-frame cabin built by Andrea Lattanzio. But don’t be fooled by his jolly demeanor, Santa’s a big celebrity. And he’s living a life with all the perks, which includes multiple houses. This asymmetrical cabin, also by Andrea, is a little more stylish than the A-frame. No doubt this house is for when Santa’s feeling a little posher. That four-wheel-drive vehicle might not be able to travel as far as magic reindeer, but I bet it’s more expensive. And the brickwork on the deck couldn’t have come cheap. After all, it’s actually made from dozens of Mjolners.

Get away from it all at the Arrow Peak Shrine

Everyone needs an escape at some point. For Marius Herrmann it’s the game “Ghost of Tsushima”. Inspired by the beautiful world of Tsushima, Marius created the Arrow Peak Shrine in LEGO. There is a lot to love about this build. Making this creation took its fair share of time due to there being so many rocks that had to be built. There are a lot of fun little details hidden in this creation. Let’s look at a couple of them. The Wizarding World wand is one of the parts that LEGO fans have been getting very creative with. The same goes for Marius. In this creation, the wand is used as a fence in the temple. The pathway towards the temple has to be created with a LEGO net, I do not know how you would otherwise manage to create such an organic-shaped pathway. The shrine next to the pathway uses a minifigure shortbeard and there is a gingerbread skirt hidden in the torii gate. The tree in this build really is something else. It features almost everything except the kitchen sink. There is a Gallimimus body hidden in the trunk and one or two big giants lost their muscles. Quite worth it if you ask me.

The shadows of Shadar Logoth

The eerie city of Shadar Logoth stands in magnificent ruin in this large diorama by Brick Ninja. They’ve been slowly working their way through scenes from Robert Jordan’s monumental Wheel of Time series, presenting each snapshot completely immersively. Brick Ninja doesn’t show us the full build–or even if the structure is more than a facade. Instead, it’s built for the camera, to be seen from this angle, and it’s beautiful, with architectural details sculpted throughout. The detailing at the top of the large central doorway is especially nice, as is the huge domed roof.

Huge LEGO City 2022 lineup revealed with 21 new sets, bringing Fire, Police, NASA, and more [News]

Today LEGO has revealed a huge swath of new LEGO City sets for 2022, taking the wraps off 21 new sets. The sets span the usual City subjects with a heavy emphasis on emergency services with a new police station, fire station, and hospital, but also bring some less common subjects like a school, city park, and even a sardine factory. LEGO also revealed a pair of new City space sets that are a collaboration with NASA and are loosely based on NASA’s real-life Artemis project to return to the moon. While LEGO only revealed two of these NASA-inspired sets, we know there are more in the works since the back of the boxes point to there being additional sets in the space lineup. All of the new sets will be available Jan. 1, 2022.

Click to see all the new LEGO City 2022 sets

LEGO reveals Collectible Minifigures Series 22 (71032) featuring a Chile Suit Girl, Raccoon Girl, Snow Warrior and more [News]

German LEGO retailer JB Spielwaren revealed today the upcoming LEGO Collectible Minifigure Series 22 (71032). The minifigures will be released in blind packs consisting of 12 characters to collect. Based on the pricing of the previous series the minifigures will be priced at USD $4.99 and CAN $4.99. With reference to the online listing, the blind packs will be available on 1st January 2022.

Click to see the characters up close

2021 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 2

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Send the Republic Frigate...and also the entire Republic fleet

The star of the show here is clearly Fuku Saku’s 1:250 microscale LEGO Charger c70 Republic Frigate. It has all the right shaping and as much detail as a model twice or three times its size. However, let’s not discount the awesomeness of his Jedi Starfighters, Republic Gunships, and the LAAT/c Assault Carrier. In fact, I’m personally more enthralled with the smaller models. The new UCS Republic Gunship set is huge, even impressive. I voted for it but LEGO may be disappointed to learn that I may not get the set as it…I don’t know…just doesn’t have any more detail or playability than prior smaller Gunship sets. These microscale models, however, have as much detail and accuracy as they need and at just a fraction of the size. I can see myself hanging out with Fuku for a day, building several copies of these Republic Gunships and LAAT/c’s to pad out his Republic fleet over a couple of beers. It’s the kind of thing that makes us adult builders rather excited. What do you think of these microscale models?

Fuku is no stranger to making little things seem pretty awesome. Check out what I mean in our archives: Fuku Saku LEGO.

Reinventing the printing press, LEGO style

One of the most influential inventions of all time is the printing press. First created in Germany circa 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg, it revolutionized communication. The ability to quickly produce copies of literature made information dramatically more accessible and shaped the future of society. And in honor of that original machine, LEGO builder Mate Szabo (fan designer of LEGO Ideas 21317 Steamboat Willie) has recreated the press in minifigure scale. The build shows the early process of creating print.

What’s even better is that this little guy actually works! Load up the tile “dies” and press them to a plate to create words! Clever, right?!

These days, while printed newspapers and books still certainly exist, those machines are a lot more automated. We also obviously get most information digitally. But we continue to call news outlets “the press” and perhaps always will — a small nod to the birth of modern, widespread communication. While you’re here, enjoy the fruits of Gutenberg’s efforts by taking a look at some of the recent LEGO “press releases” and other news we have to offer.