Woah, wait a minute! We’re already nearly a week into 2026? How did that happen? While we figure that out where those days went, it’s about time we announced the winner of our annual Creation of the Year prize. This year’s shortlist was one of the toughest to judge in the ten years we’ve been doing so. A baker’s dozen of incredible builds, from creators new and known to us alike, across a wide range of media and subject matter. And indeed, it’s a new builder who’s taking the crown this year! Despite only starting to share their builds in 2025, they quickly established themselves as something of a castle specialist. Which makes sense – they are known as cathedralofbricks, after all!
And the cream of the crop for us was this superbly furnished Moroccan palace. So congratulations to Luke (cathedralofbricks) and his Delights of Marrakech build, which we are declaring the Brothers Brick’s LEGO Creation of the Year 2025!
We did a full rundown of this delightful slice of life in Marrakech barely a month ago. So we’ll just cover the highlights here – if we can whittle them down! First, let’s get in a bit closer. From here we can appreciate the glorious stonework all around, from the shapely window frames to the attractive tiling across the floor. That fountain is pretty rad, too.
And that speaks to the beauty of Luke’s builds. While they are often massive in scale, they are still chock full of fun details. No nook or cranny has been left to waste here! My favourite is this one, with plenty of clever parts use. The lamp has a train wheel and window grates, the vaulted arches are actually skateboard ramps. And that’s to say nothing of the minifigures that pepper this palace! The chap smoking a hookah pipe seems to be enjoying being serenaded by the oud player.
This creation was built with a contest in mind: the “Arabian Knights” category of the Brickscalibur contest. It’s already a winner in our eyes, but we’ll need to wait until January 15th to see if the Brickscalibur folks agree with us! In the meantime, Luke really took the Arabian Nights pun to heart, and kitted out his MOC with custom lights. Some light photo editing, and you have one of the most atmospheric shots you’ll ever see of a LEGO castle!
Congratulations once again to Luke, and also to the other builders who made the shortlist. This really was a tough year to pick just one worthy winner! To see what other creations have made it to our winners’ pantheon, take a look through our Creation of the Year archives.