Yearly Archives: 2023

New LEGO sets for January 2024 now available for purchase [News]

The east coast of the US is celebrating the calendar change over to 2024, and LEGO fans are celebrating the release of new sets at the beginning of another month. And with about 150 new sets hitting virtual store shelves, there’s certainly plenty to celebrate. This latest wave of new sets includes an interesting concept: a space-based cross-theme concept showing up in Technic, City, Creator, and Friends. Of course we won’t be able to cover everything, but check out a smattering of the highlights on this New Year’s Release Day below. And if you want to see everything in the new catalog, head on over to the LEGO website (US | CAN | UK).

Check out our favorite sets in the January wave below!

Ace Parts Usage: TBB’s favorite LEGO build techniques of the second half of 2023 [Feature]

It’s been nearly six months since our first “Ace Parts Usage” article. In it, we sifted through hundreds of LEGO creations to determine our top 10 favorite build techniques from January through June of this year. If you’re unfamiliar, builds that feature particularly cool techniques are said to have NPU (Nice Parts Usage). We’ve seen everything, but occasionally we’re extra impressed by something new and unique – an “ace” parts usage. Although we’re about to announce our overall favorite builds (using several criteria) in the running for the TBB Creation of the Year , we want to honor some ace parts usage right here, right now. There were too many awesome considerations over the past 6 months, so we decided to give you our favorite 15 instead of our favorite 10. Join us as we count down the best of the second half of 2023!

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LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals [Review]

We continue our look at 2024’s Creator 3-in-1 sets with the largest one announced so far, LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals. Realistic animal models are a Creator tradition, even going back to the precursor Designer Sets – that’s 20 years! Let’s tour this 780-piece set, which will be available January 1st and retail for US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £59.99. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the flamingo.

Read on for our full review

Rudolph the red-nosed nightmare fuel

Christmas is now, for better or worse, behind us. You know what that means? Hallowe’en is only 44 weeks away! The reason I bring that up is because of Patrick Biggs‘ latest LEGO build. It may seem like a festive build at first – but don’t let that fool you. This isn’t Rudolph; it’s a being known only as R̵̂͠u̶͐͠d̵̈̀o̷͛̈l̴̀̓p̶̅͘h̵̎. And I’ll be honest, it gives me a touch of the heebie-jeebies. The spindly legs, the tentacle-like antlers, the piercing white eyes… Yep, that wreath is not throwing me off: this is definitely an early spooky season build.

R̵̂͠u̶͐͠d̵̈̀o̷͛̈l̴̀̓p̶̅͘h̵̎

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for December 30, 2023 [News]

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 4th week of December, 2023.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS As we reach the end of another great year in LEGO news and reviews, we covered new sets from the Creator theme, LEGO Icons, Sonic the Hedgehog, Collectible Minifigures, and Jurassic Park. We also shared the first in our end of the year articles for your favorite LEGO moments of 2023. Fortnite and LEGO collaborated to launch a new game mode perfect for squading up with your friends for a LEGO-building survival mode. If you want even more news and reviews, be sure to check out our last Brick Report.

Click through to read more LEGO news from around the world

Fresh from the oven, it’s the ginger-brick man

We’re all familiar with the loveable LEGO minifigure, right? And some recent sets and creations have also brought us the big-fig, whether from Harry Potter, Castle, or even a generic theme. But what about the minifigure representation on a medium scale? Donny Chen introduces us to a fresh-baked midi-scale LEGO figure with his delicious gingerbread man. In these post-holiday times, I must admit there’s such a thing as too much sugar. So thanks, Donny, for tempering the size of this cookie-fied fig to something more diet-friendly.

LEGO Creator 31156: Tropical Ukulele [REVIEW]

The LEGO Creator 3-in-1 theme has been expanding its line-up to include display models like the Retro Roller Skate and smaller plant-based sets from last year. If you’ve been dreaming of a tropical vacation during these darker winter months (unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere, that is) then maybe this tropical ukulele or the alternate surfboard model is the perfect display set for you. LEGO Creator 31156: Tropical Ukulele includes 387 pieces and will be available on January 1st for US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £24.99

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.

Read on for our full review

Life-size LEGO Ghostbusters gear is ready to take on Gozer the Gozerian

In case you were wondering, this collection of ghostbusting gear is actually made of LEGO, and not the movie props they appear to be. Centuri Chan has done one heck of a job recreating the Ghostbusters logo, ECTO-1 license plate, proton pack, and ghost trap out of our favorite plastic bricks. This smorgasbord of paranormal paraphernalia was on display earlier this year at the Christchurch Brick Show back in July, but was only recently uploaded to Flickr for all of us not able to make the trip to New Zealand. Now we know exactly who we’re going to call…

LEGO Ghostbusters Ensemble

Check out more pictures below, but don’t cross the streams…

LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog 76996: Knuckles’ Guardian Mech [Review]

The new LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog theme (launched earlier this year) has the potential to give Mario a run for his money when it comes to video game-inspired LEGO sets. With lots of unique molded minifigures and brightly-colored scenes and vehicles, fans of the franchise have a lot to get excited about. Knuckles’ Guardian Mech joins the line-up in January. The set features a mech for Knuckles, including his iconic pointed boxing gloves, as well as another character: Rouge. The latter is a bat-girl with a fancy flier intent on stealing the giant green gem that Knuckles is defending. LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog 76996: Knuckles’ Guardian Mech comes with 276 pieces, and will be available on January 1st from the LEGO website for US $34.99 | CAN $44.99 | UK £29.99

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.

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Reeks and Nexus and Acklays, oh my!

Despite being on the brink of its 25th birthday, somehow there are still locations and sets that haven’t been made into LEGO Star Wars sets. One that I’ve seen a lot of requests for recently is the Geonosian arena from Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Well, The Minikit Guy has had enough of waiting! He’s taken matters into his own hands and crafted a small section of this enormous arena. The stadium architecture is nice enough on its own, broken up with some nice texturing, and I like the way the balcony has been made with curved slopes. But the monsters are well worth a look too! You’ve got the cat-like Nexus; the rhinoceros-inspired Reek; and my personal favourite, the spidery Acklay. And look closely behind the Acklay – you might spot The Minikit Guy’s namesake hidden away in the walls!

UCS Petranaki / Geonosian Arena (Minifigure Scale)

LEGO Icons 40681 Retro Food Truck Gift with Purchase: Bold bonus flavor? [Review]

Over the past decade or so of modular buildings, there has frequently been a gift with purchase available early in the year to accompany it, sometimes with a thematic link. The Detective’s Office launch was accompanied by the 40140 Flower Cart bonus polybag that included a hidden barrel of cookies to tie into that modular’s cookie-smuggling story. More recently LEGO 40586 Icons Moving Truck, which includes furniture to be delivered to LEGO Icons 10312 Jazz Club, came out a few months after that modular. This year, LEGO 10326 Natural History Museum broke tradition by coming out a month early, and now for the turn of the year, LEGO Icons 40681 Retro Food Truck contains 310 pieces and 2 minifigures and will be available with some purchases in the new year at LEGO.com and your local LEGO retail store. An obvious note: it’s really hard to give a thumbs up or down on a gift-with-purchase without knowing what you’ll need to spend to get it. So we’re taking a look at the build and will update the review with our recommendation once the threshold is announced.

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 our full review!

May the SNOT connections be ever in your favor

This build by Ian (aka bricktacular_builds) caught my eye not because of the mockingjay pin but because of the brick-built LEGO flower that is oddly out of focus. I mean, why would you share a poor image of your creation? And who would put a metal pin by a LEGO build, right? And then I took a closer look…

You see, SNOT is a specific way of connecting LEGO pieces. It stands for “studs not on top” and features all kids of sideway connections. And this is exactly what is happening here. The intricate structure of the pin became possible only thanks to a very neat choice of plates and bars with clips. Wing elements fit this ornament wonderfully, making the bird instantly recognizable. I mean, it’s way too similar to a real piece of the Hunger Games merch!