LEGO Technic 42228 McLaren F1 Team MCL39: winning streak or F1 fatigue? [Review]

Here’s a fun stat for you: of the 107 Technic sets released in the last 5 years, 40 have been cars. Several of those have been racing cars, and this year, LEGO Technic 42228 McLaren F1 Team MCL39 becomes the sixth set in that timespan to depict a Formula One car specifically. It joins Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari F1 cars on the shelves, at similar price and piece points of US $229.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £189.99 and 1,675 parts respectively. You can pre-order it now, or wait until it shows up on sites like eBay or Amazon after March 1. With the glut of automotive options available to Technic fans, how does this latest open-wheel racer stack up?

LEGO Technic 42228 McLaren F1 Team MCL39 | 1,675 Pieces | Available March 1; Pre-orders open now | US $229.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £189.99

Click here to read our full review and find out!

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Weapon Wednesday and the joy of LEGO rituals [Guest Feature]

Hello! I’m ASortaOkayBuilder, and I am a sorta’ okay builder. Two of my passions in life are LEGO and Dungeons & Dragons, and I will combine the two at any given opportunity.

For me, one of the most fun things to build is tiny little fantasy weapons. Swords, spears, axes, hammers, staves, incredibly cursed artifacts–The works! I post a collection of 10+ Weapons each Wednesday for a little thing I like to call “Weapon Wednesday.” Some of these I will actually use in the DnD sessions I run, but most of them are built just for the love of the game.

Build your own M:Tron Mobile Moon Base with free Instructions

During its two-year run, LEGO produced just nine M-Tron sets, but for ’90s kids lucky enough to have a few sets with the magnet-wielding spacemen, the theme promised a boundless universe of adventure. We’ve featured many tributes to the theme over the years, but today’s M-Tron moc is special as it comes with free instructions to let you create your own retro Mobile Moon Base, just in time for Febrovery! Designed by Thomus Bean, the rover reworks the Arctic Explorer Science Lab set with M-Tron livery, magnet tech, and rugged tires. It’s a fun remix, freely shared, so you can continue to riff on the design. The free instructions are available here.

Thomus has created several retro M-Tron rovers over the years. This asymmetrical carrier is especially inspired.

Leaping into the Year of the Horse

The Year of the Horse is here! Vincent Kiew leaps to the occasion with an impressive equestrian display. The builder had impressed is several times over the years with their LEGO horsemanship, so it’s excellent to see they haven’t lost their step for the Lunar New Year.

Microscale moonshot is a stellar creation

RebelLUG member Marc Linares (Syrdarian) is one of the hardest-working builders around, participating in competitions and collaborations that push outside of their comfort zone and learning from peers to broaden their toolbox of techniques. Marc’s latest is a microscale scene of extra-solar exploration on the planet Gothea, where miners work in domed settlements under an icy moon. The banded horizon evokes the iconic Tales of the Space Age ideas set, while the rockets and domes follow the colors of City Space. What impresses most about the build is the texture and depth. The icy moon features so many clever textural bits across its blue gradient.

The planetary vista is made from a mix of studs up and SNOT planes, some a brick tick, others just a tile, creating so many layers in a compact space. And around the colony, incredible details come into focus, like a hill made from a minifig turkey.

If you’re a fan of Marc’s microscale work, you have a chance to vote on turning another model into a Bricklink Designer Program set as part of Series 10. Village in the Sky even adds kinetic functions, designed in collaboration with BLDP alum Leewan. Voting is open until February 20.

Febrovery 2026 – Merrily we roll along with our mid-month Febrovery round-up

Febrovery is an annual event for LEGO Space fans where builders share their wheeled creations for exploring distant moons. Some passionate builders share a new rover every day of February while others focus on one special build for the month. This year, Febrovery turns 15 years old, making it one of the longest-running traditions in the AFOL community. To learn more about the event’s history, Rover regular Andreas Lenander created an excellent primer over on Brick Nerd). As we pass the halfway point, let’s roll out some of our favorite rovers of the month so far!

Speakin of Andreas Lenander, this Swedish builder is always on the lookout for new elements to turn into wheels! This year it’s the Unikitty tail that helps the rover get around.

Huw Gwilliam is a digital creator who has created several stellar rovers so far. We’re especially fond of this HV-W8 model used by Crystal speculators. The diamond tiles make great treads for those oversized wheels.

Click here to continue the rover rollout

The Knights of the Old Republic’s Ebon Hawk returns in LEGO

The Knights of the Old Republic games remain some of the finest adventures to ever be told in the Star Wars universe. They even spawned some of the best (and most expensive among collectors) LEGO Star Wars playsets. One ship that never made the jump to official set is the player’s primary ship and home base in the games – the Ebon Hawk. Builder Jonah Frost corrects this oversight with a wonderful take on the beloved starship.

Better yet, the model opens up with rooms for your custom crew of misfits to plan their next mission. Built to play-scale rather than UCS, things might get a bit cramped for a full party of companions. I’d love to see Jonah or other builders expanding on the Ebon Hawk with a full party of companions. For now, this is just the build I need to bring back those gaming memories as we await the upcoming Fate of the Old Republic. Will the Ebon Hawk make an appearance in KotoR’s spiritual successor? We can hope!

Machine-moving machine

Rawcliffe & Sons is a British heavy haulage firm, one of whose specialisations is machine transport. My latest model represents one of the vehicles used for this: a Volvo FH. While most of my minifigure-scale trucks are tractors with semi-trailers, this one is a bit different. The truck itself has four axles, with steering on the front and rear. It has a flatbed with a rear-mounted knuckleboom crane, for (un)loading cargo, and pulls a three-axle drawbar trailer.

On quite a few of my recent truck builds, the cargo is more of an attraction than the truck. I am thinking of my combine or my bulldozer transport, for instance. For this build, I wanted the truck itself to be the starring attraction. Hence, the cargo is a fairly simple set of crates, for machine parts, and a little forklift. The truck is recognisably British, with its green and red colour scheme and the drop shadow lettering.
Continue reading →

LEGO Koi capture graceful motion in bricks

Some LEGO builders find a niche and stick to it, but others, like builder David Duperre, prefer to move gracefully between styles and subjects. David’s Medusa model had us transfixed, and the builder rolled a natural 20 with his Stranger Things tribute. David’s latest celebrates the “dragons of the pond” – koi – in a model that captures both the dynamism of swimming and the delicate fins of these beautiful fish.

The rippling fins are built largely from 2×1 round plates, which angle easily for gentle curves. To create feathered edges, David uses minifig flippers and a mix of horn and blade elements. The fish are accompanied by “Sammy the snail” – the builder’s take on an aquatic apple snail – and water lilies that would be right at home in the Botanicals line. David will br bringing the model to LEGO events this summer, so perhaps some of our readers will have the chance to see it in person soon!

LEGO Ideas 21365 Love Birds: Seeing the birds for the tree [Review]

LEGO Ideas contests let builders bring their own spin to a selected theme, and fan designer Micah Longden entered a number of challenges in the process of growing into the love-themed submission that turned into 21365 Love Birds. It’s botanicals-adjacent with a twist, and some lovely new colors in plumage and foliage. Let’s take quick look at what we can do with it.

LEGO Ideas 21365 Love Birds | 750 Pieces | Available now | US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99

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.

Cozy up for our review and bonus build!

Love is in the air (and the water) in this Guillermo del Toro LEGO tribute

It’s Valentines day, and what better time to get cozy with your special someone to watch a romantic movie? And what could be more romantic than a film that packs in clandestine government labs, janitorial work, and a magical fish man? French builder Keyser Bricks pays tribute to Guillermo del Toro’s Best Picture-winning The Shape of Water in LEGO. As much as we love a good Star Wars or Superhero movie build, it’s a treat to see more personal films like this one get the vignette treatment. Keyser does a commendable job building the Cold War era tech – the pipes and cables around the amphibious man’s tank are especially eye-catching.

Step right into this dreamy LEGO kitchen

Victor van den Berg has a unique ability to create and photograph LEGO rooms that feel so real that you could walk right into them. This stunning kitchen is his latest creation, and it’s a dream kitchen for most. The lighting in this photo really sells the realism, but a closer look will have you hunting all over for great parts usage. I spy at least 12 One Rings (that’s enough to make Sauron jealous), a knife block supporting a slew of lightsaber handles, and a silver technic ball joint that makes for a perfect doorknob. Of course, as with any dream kitchen there’s enough masonry bricks and alternating tiles to make you feel right at home.