Monthly Archives: April 2024

Send out an exploratory party like it’s 1999

Before there was Star Wars, there was Space: 1999, which told the story of the residents of a moon base blown into the unknown (along with the moon itself) by a thermonuclear explosion. The vehicle of choice for those unlucky explorers was the Eagle, rendered here in LEGO by builder klaupacius. Unlike a certain well-known Corellian freighter named after a different bird (which appeared on big screens in 1977, two years after Space: 1999), the Eagle was inspired by actual Earth-built exploratory spacecraft. This build accurately conveys the transporter’s utilitarian nature from those nuclear fusion rockets all the way to its sleek nose cone.

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Our princess is in this castle, Mario!

We’ve seen some amazing LEGO microscale builds this month thanks to the Marchitecture contest. Matthias Bartsch jumps into the game with a delightful and instantly recognizable recreation of Peach’s Castle from Super Mario 64. A version of the castle appears in the official Super Mario 64 Question Block set, but Matthias’ take greatly expands on the homage with gorgeous landscaping, a larger interior and careful fidelity to the beloved in-game design. Mathias leverages the printed tiles from the official LEGO set but finds clever solutions of his own for details like the micro warp pipe, here represented with a technic pin, and poofy trees made from ice cream toppers.

The roof lifts off to reveal the castle’s interior, with a tiled floor and tiny staircase.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 6th, 2024

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 April, 2024.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS This weeks news includes Dispicable Me 4 sets, and a companion adventure for the LEGO Ideas Dungeons & Dragons set. Goth fans are weeping over our April Fools fake news, and LEGO announced initiatives to support neurodivergent individuals in their stores.

[NEWS] LEGO, Illumination, and Universal partner to launch Despicable Me 4 sets this spring — A new wave of sets featureing those wacky banana-loving minions and their human overlords.
[NEWS] LEGO announces initiatives to support neurodivergent individuals in stores — LEGO retail experiences are getting even more inclusive with special consideration for neurodivergent customers.
[NEWS] Bela Lugosi is dead but the LEGO Art Legends of Goth mosaic set is very much alive — An April Fools day set announcement that some of us wish was real.
[NEWS] New LEGO sets for April 2024 now available for purchase — All the latest sets now available from LEGO.
[REVIEW] LEGO Dungeons & Dragons 6510864 Mimic GWP and Red Dragon’s Tale campaign — Kyle delved deep into the adventure to see if it passes a critical hit.

Architectural grandeur infused into a Great Ball Contraption

Another impressive creation from TBB regular Andreas Lenander, this LEGO build of what appears to be an aqueduct offers more depth than its striking foliage and eye-catching architectural design might suggest at first glance. This build marks Andreas’ debut in the realm of Great Ball Contraptions, a term commonly abbreviated “GBC” in LEGO enthusiast circles.

In this GBC module, the LEGO ball follows a pathway mimicking the flow of water from start to finish. Be sure to check out the video below of this GBC module in action, and explore some of the other LEGO Great Ball Contraption models that have been featured here on TBB.

Check out the model in action as well.

Building Scrabble words with tile-built tiles

Squint and you might think the only thing LEGO about this elegant build from Galarie d’Antha is the word spelled across the tile rack. Antha created these giant-sized scrabble tiles for a typography challenge at the BrickPirate forum (a venerable haven for francophone builders). As a Scrabble player with no less than four sets in my collection, I appreciate the classic wooden tray design with the little lip for holding the tiles upright, and the tiles look so real I can practically feel my hand rummaging through a bag of them. Of course, my Scrabble brain looks at those sets of letters and screams that brand names are not legal plays, and HOLE or HOG would both be worth more points. And even if you could play LEGO legally, my AFOL brain bristles at the idea of someone trying to pluralize it with an S. You know what’s a great Scrabble word? BRICK. 13 points, or 36 points on your first play.

Storm the beaches of Kashyyyk with this faithfully recreated tank droid

Whatever your feelings toward the Star Wars prequels, it’s hard to deny the quality of their production design. This LEGO incarnation of the NR-N99 Persuader-class tank droid by builder Matt (from Revenge of the Sith) is just one example of the many instantly iconic vehicles the prequels bestowed upon us. The build does its on-screen counterpart justice—from the fencing foils used for the antennae to the “I” typewriter keys cleverly repurposed as the droid’s photoreceptors. You can almost hear the pew-pew-pew of those heavy repeating blasters.

We need to go bigger with our digger!

When it comes to enormous LEGO machinery, there are few modelers out there better than Dennis Bosman. So when he turns his hand to an excavator that’s already pretty hefty by industrial plant standards, you know it’s going to be great. And when he combines it with a truck that was impressive enough to be featured on its own a few months ago, that results are downright spectacular. Not to mention enormous – this whole thing is some 1.75m (5’10) long. On a good day, that’s almost as long as I am tall!

When we first featured the lorry, it had a skip on the back rather than a flatbed trailer. But make no mistake, this whole convoy was designed as a unit! Dennis tells us that the trailer is used by H.C. Wilson – which is a real company – in the UK. So it’s feasible that this could be seen trundling up and down the motorways and highways, transporting the Liebherr 964 to its next big job. Speaking of which – here’s a closer look at it! If you want a clue as to how big this colossus is, that guard on the windscreen is a 9×13 lattice piece. Yeah, this is big!

Taking the micro out of microscale

This here is a microscale LEGO CN Tower, as built by Flickr user q_159. Now microscale builds are usually small, right? It is in the name after all. And this is built to a miniscule 1:400 scale, which makes the cars at its base barely two studs long. But the thing you need to remember about the CN Tower is that it’s really frickin’ tall – over half a kilometre. And as a result, this tiny LEGO model is not that tiny at all, clocking in at 3,000 pieces and nearly 1.4 m (four-and-a-half feet)! Small but mighty, indeed.

The grass is sand greener at the Black Raven Inn

When Black Falcon knights need room and board between tracking down bounties on Wolfpack hooligans, where better to stay than Ben Cossy‘s beautiful Black Raven Inn? Ben’s latest medieval LEGO build innovates on classic half-timbered designs. I especially apprecaite the mix of white bricks with tan and sun-yellowed white to give the plastered walls a weathered look, constrasted with the dark brown timbers. For the foundation, Ben plays with a new technique of offset stacks of 1×1 tiles clipped to tubes. While the building is striking on its own, the sand green landscaping and voluminous trees really sell the scene.

For details how how he pulled off that unique foundation and to hear what inspired this amazing build, watch and listen as Ben guides you through the process.

If you, like us, give this inn a ten, then consider revisiting Ben’s past models featured on TBB.

The Castle of the Sword stands at the ready

Despite being named Castle of LEGO Sword, most of the knights defending this fortress are armed with literally anything else. Luckily for them, this build by Yujie Jiang is instead named after the giant stone sword mounted inside the keep. This build has character as big as its gigantic sword. For starters, said giant sword is an outstanding up-sized replica of the classic LEGO sword that was produced in multiple forms between 1978 – 2016. This sword makes excellent use of 4×4 round bricks and is studded with neat little gems. The tower’s design is effective as well, with a door made of tiles mounted inside a 1×6 arch, and the general structure using 1×2 profile bricks, chisled pentagonal shields, and the extra touch of the carved lion head above the door.

That sword, though, is a thing of beauty. It’s approximately human-sized and can be pulled out by any friendly giants passing by that would be willing to offer a hand to defend the kingdom. Would you be worthy of pulling the sword from the stone tower?

This owl won’t ruffle any feathers!

Occasionally, an excellent example of great parts usage shows up online. One of the most recent such examples is this Colorful Owl by Nikita Filatov! This artist has done a splendid job of repurposing parts from the Wildflower Bouquet to create this adorable little friend of an owl. The dark purple bicorn hats make up the fluffy plumage of the owl’s wings, while the belly feathers are made of magenta paddles, and the eyebrows, which add so much character to the little bird, are made of wavy swords. If you, like me, didn’t recognize the disks that make up the whites of its eyes, have no fear; in that tan color, they are from the Wildflower Bouquet – and the part was made originally for the wheels of the James Bond Aston Martin. I’m looking forward to seeing more builds from NikiFilik. This one has been a (wait for it…) hoot!

LEGO, Illumination, and Universal partner to launch Despicable Me 4 sets this spring [NEWS]

The LEGO Group, Illumination, and Universal Products & Experiences have officially confirmed their partnership on a new venture. Contrary to recent speculation sparked by an April Fools’ Day prank on social media, this collaboration does not involve a giant Minion. Instead, the trio is gearing up for the release of Illumination’s highly anticipated film, Despicable Me 4, hitting theaters on July 3. To mark the occasion, the partnership is introducing an exclusive line of LEGO Despicable Me 4 sets, sure to delight fans of the animated franchise. This range features four products, two of which were unveiled today: 75583 Minions and Gru’s Family Mansion and 75582 Brick-Built Gru and Minions. These sets will be available starting May 1st.

Check out these new DM4 sets below!