About Bart Willen

Bart Willen (badboytje88) has been a fan of LEGO for as long as he can remember. When he hit puberty and slowly but surely started losing interest in the brick, LEGO released their first line of Harry Potter sets. Keeping Bart from slipping to a Dark Age. He is a fan of a quite broad range of themes, from Star Wars to Johny Thunder and from Elves to City. But somehow he always navigates back to the magical world of Harry Potter. He attends LEGO World in the Jaarbuurs in Utrecht on a yearly basis where he enjoys meeting other fans and seeing some of their creations 'in the brick'. You can check out his own creations here.

Posts by Bart Willen

A Bridgetown that should be zoomed in on

I recall going to LEGO World in Utrecht with my uncle to just look at some of the awesome builds created by the attendees. Every once and a while, you’d stumble upon a LEGO creation that you spotted before online. It never ceases to amaze me that you can still spend a good amount of time looking at a creation in the brick even though you thoroughly analyzed it online months prior. Bridgetown by Markus Rollbühler is one of those builds I’d just love to see in real life. This creation is quite massive. The rocks and pillars at the base are not just there to support the small town on top of them. They are quite detailed and actually little works of art themselves. Building a tower out of curved slopes will always impress me. These round pillars even contain windows with a lovely detailed window canopy and a flower-filled windowsill.

As if that is not enough, each of the town’s houses is a standout itself. We get a hexagonal tower with a dome top of which I have no idea how it is constructed. We get a church with a brick-built clock dial. There are even cordless electric drills incorporated in the roof of the church. The corners of the building are rounded off, which adds a nice touch to the church. On the rim of the city, there are two Tudor-style houses. The one on the left uses treasure chest lids for the woodwork. On the one on the right macaroni tiles are used. I could go on for hours about this one, but I think you should just zoom in and explore all the lovely details and techniques for yourself.

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Harry Potter and the second-floor girls’ bathroom

LEGO Harry Potter is what got me through my dark ages. When I started to lose interest in the construction toy LEGO picked up the Harry Potter license and started producing one set after another. I was hooked. I managed to collect most of the sets. I do have to admit I missed out on some big ones like the Chamber of Secrets, but my allowance wasn’t sufficient to buy all of them. This is why whenever I see a LEGO fan creation of an iconic Harry Potter moment I get soft in the knees and feel the urge to share it with the world. I know this is my soft spot so I always have to think twice and check if it is really something special. To me this creation by Hugo hits the spot. It is massive in size, filled with details and as a plus, Hugo took several pictures, each depicting different scenes from the movies taking place in this iconic location. We get the polyjuice potion-making, the polyjuice mishap, Ginny going to the Chamber of Secrets, and Ron and Harry forcing Lockhart to go down to the Chamber of Secrets with them. A feast for the eyes if you ask me.

Gettin ready for the season with a gingerbread house

When my calendar says it is December, I always develop a soft spot for LEGO gingerbread houses. This year Nadine Wölfle has me starting a little bit early with her gingerbread house. It’s part of a larger fairytale display and it is actually the house of the witch from the story of Hansel and Gretel. This sugary home features brickwork and icing jointing. There are ingot details on the corners of the building. The roof is a different color than the rest of the building which makes it stand out a bit more. Nadine used a lot of newer elements to decorate the building. There are cotton candy bushes and pie shrubberies. In the background you can spot some additional fairytales. Which ones can you find?

It’s the rare PAB hermit crab

Some LEGO fans are exceptionally good at thinking outside of the box. Redverse shows us they are one of those persons. Or are they thinking inside the box? Well, Redverse created a hermit crab inhabiting a LEGO Pick-a-Brick cup, and it doesn’t get much cuter than that. The PAB cup is instantly recognisable to diehard LEGO fans. Integrating it in your build is a really clever way to make sure you stand out. Using only red bricks for the body makes the two little black eyes pop. This build looks quite simple and that is what makes it elegant, elegant and cute. Let’s not forget about cute!

Lanterns with tassels!

Tudor style buildings are my weak spot. There, I said it! This build by Kevin Wanner is no exception to that rule. Kevin’s creation features stained glass windows with yellow glass. Using the turntable base for the stained glass windows is a technique that quite a lot of builders have used before, and even LEGO eventually picked up on this technique, featuring it in their Unexpected Gathering set. But there is so much more to love — the macaroni tiles in brown used for the woodwork, the crooked little chimeys, the round 1×2 plate well, the Mjolnir wall, the string net hills, the claws for a straw roof and the tree stump tiles used to show where the wooden support beams in the building are hiding. All lovely techniques, but the best one has to be the use of the old Scala perfume bottle to create a lantern with a tassel.

This Gringotts has a Niffler problem

I love, love, love the big LEGO 75978 Diagon Alley. It got me through the first part of the pandemic. I do however have to admit that there is a big void in this set created by the missing Gringotts bank. The predecessor 10217 Diagon Alley did come with a Gringotts bank, but this one is of a much smaller scale compared to the buildings of the newer set. Stefan Johansson solved this problem for us. They created a larger-than-life Gringotts bank complete with a white marble facade, imposing columns, bronze doors, a track with little carts, underground vaults, and of course a dragon to protect all that gold. This build is ginormous. For the white facade, Stefan used a lot of white plates, instead of bricks, to create different patterns in the wall. You can hardly notice this from afar but this build is worthy of a quick zoom. There are a few parts that deserve a quick mention. The use of the hemisphere is quite clever. I’ll have to dig through my collection to see if I own it in that colour. Using the party hat in gold as a lightning rod is a very nice little touch that I might have to reuse at some point. This creation is filled with details and action features like the tracks. The carts actually work and the Goblins are just waiting to take you to your personal vault. Overall I love this build but I wouldn’t deposit my money there. It looks like they have a serious Niffler problem!

A very smooth Halloween cottage

Okay Halloween might be over but that is no reason not to post an amazing LEGO Halloween themed build. This creation by Jake Hansen sure is something else. It is completely studless (not counting the studs on the foliage). This makes this creation almost look like it is not made out of LEGO bricks. Not building on a base but placing each element loose on paper also helps. Jake uses some interesting techniques. There are treasure chest lids hidden in the tree trunks. The best part has to be that cute fence and the balcony made with umbrellas. There is a stash of pumpkins next to the house. If you look closely you’ll spot that the ones in the back are not orange but red. This creates more depth as they look like there’s a shadow cast upon them because they are further away. Very clever. Another clever technique has to be the tombstone made out of a 2×2 round tile with hole and bar holders with clips attached to the back of the round plate. The effect is amazing!

Studded seas and sea studs

Here at The Brothers Brick we love smart building techniques. Our hearts start beating a little bit faster when we see a LEGO part used in a clever way. But clever and smart do not always mean complex. Andrea Lattanzio shows us that sometimes simple is the way to go with their 1×1 round plate sea.

While it’s not a new technique, using different colours to create waves is a real nice touch. Making the house in the same vibrant colour as the ocean is a nice way to draw attention away from the bright sea and towards the detailed little house. Plus the bright colour of the house highlights all the earth-toned details around the house. If the house was earth-toned too, those little details wouldn’t stand out as much as they do now. However, the simple studded sea is probably one of the only simple techniques used in this creation. Andrea also built a trabucco, which is an ancient fishing machine from the east coast of Italy. This build looks like it is defying gravity and I truly wonder how sturdy it is. It looks so fragile with those thin legs. I can’t help but wonder how many times the legs collapsed when Andra made alterations to the platform on top. Or maybe the legs were added as the final step to the build to prevent this from happening.

Peace and tranquility in the Ninjago City Temple

I’ll be honest with you, Ninjago was never really my cup of tea until LEGO produced the Ninjago City line. The best thing about these sets is builders like Wochenender using their imaginations and expanding their Ninjago Cities. This Ninjago City Temple is exactly what every Ninjago City inhabitant needs to get away from the busy city life. I love the use of different shades of plates underneath the trans light blue tiles to represent the depth of the water varying at places. A special mention needs to go out for the use of the candle to represent cattails. These water grass plants get the LEGO treatment quite often. Most of the time, a 1×1 round or a 1×1 cone part are used to represent the ‘corn dog’ looking flower. Seeing a different part fulfill this purpose is quite nice.

Remnants of a lost world

I am quite confident when it comes to my LEGO part identifying. Quite confident until I stumble across another wonderful creation by Bart de Dobbelaer. Lego produced quite a few themes that are compatible with the system but are not minifigure scale or use standard bricks. No LEGO theme is off limit for Bart. We are looking at the ruins of a once magnificent civilization that is now reclaimed by nature.

The aerial roots of the trees look like they are gathering water and storing it in transparent sacks but that’s just my interpretation. These parts come from the LEGO clikits line.The boat in this creation uses a Ben 10 torso which works perfectly for a futuristic floating vessel. Or is it just a piece of floating scrap metal? Whatever it is, it works perfectly. I like how you can identify the piece because of its reflection. And reflection is what makes this creation go from big to massive. The use of dark orange bricks to represent rust and decay works perfectly as a complementary colour with the blue lighting. The cute blue critters with their yellow eyes also match the surroundings perfectly.

Tudor-style buildings with plumbing

I am quite a fan of old cities. Old cities offer a little bit of everything. They have skyscrapers and office buildings but often also Tudor-style buildings reminding us of simpler times. These Tudor-style buildings are often located near the city square or the city centre or what used to be the centre of the city. Quite often these buildings had to be modernised at a given point because they didn’t have central heating and electricity in the period they were built. Sometimes these features are added very respectfully, and it is not noticeable from the outside that these features were added on in a later stage.

Sometimes, however, these features are just slapped on the building with complete disregard of how it looks. Although I prefer the first option, I’ve grown fond of the second one too. Either way, it reminds us of our past and it shows how our demands for housing changed over the years. This build by Pieter Dennison is a perfect example of a building having to evolve in order to meet the inhabitants wishes. Pieter made a lovey Tudor-style house, complete with a stone staircase leading up to the building. Bars and slope tiles have been used to create some lovely details and even windows. Dark tan and olive-green work together wonderfully for the plaster. It looks like the building has passed the test of time. The addition of rain pipes however takes it from a medieval theme right to something more now. It gives the house a bit of a steampunk-ish vibe that we all love.

I want Dragon Lands sets for Christmas

The last LEGO castle theme was LEGO Nexo Knights. Whether you think that was an actual castle theme is debatable. LEGO has released some castle-themed sets since, but not a full-blown castle theme. Sure, Harry Potter sets are mostly castles, but it’s just not the same. So, what do you do when LEGO doesn’t sell what you would like to buy? You create it yourself! Aaron Newman created not a castle set, but an entire castle theme titled Dragon Lands. Filled with elves, orcs, wizards, knights, and of course dragons. Each model looks like it could be produced by TLC. Each set comes with action features and the minifigures have a background story. Even the photography is comparable to LEGO catalogue quality.

Aaron’s amazing work doesn’t limit itself to an amazing cathedral that hinges open to reveal its lavish interior. The theme also includes a ship with festive flags, ruins covered in snow and ice, a sea serpent, a massive crossbow, a rock-dropping dragon, and last but not least a very inclusive cast of minifigures to accommodate these lovely creations.