Posts by Ben Dodds

See the turtle of enormous girth, on his shell he holds the Earth...

Giant turtles appear throughout works of fiction: Discworld, The Dark Tower, and The Neverending Story to name a few. Here, Gino Lohse realises one of these beasts in LEGO form. The castle, itself a great micro build, sits proudly atop the colossal reptile as it makes its way through the forest. The subtle detailing through grill pieces as crenels demonstrates some exceptional part usage here, as do the binocular window and minifigure-hand flags. But its “vehicle” is a great build too! I love how the brown colour of the shell gives way to a grey rocky outcrop ensconcing the fortification. Both the creature and its payload blend so well into the forest that they traverse.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

I could Jabba on about this one all day...

There are LEGO pieces that are very much a one-trick pony, those pieces so unique that you’d be hard-pressed to use them any other way. It was then great to come across this fantastic build by Andreas Lenander

Using the Jabba figure as a base, Andreas has fashioned a magnificent microscale palace set amongst rolling hills and cloudy mountains. The detail in this palatial build is brilliant and is reminiscent of St Basil’s Cathedral with its colourful spires reaching for the sky. Moving away from the palace, the plateau this building sits upon is decorated with well-placed (and balanced!) surrounding vegetation. The figures printing adds additional detail to the grassy terrain it portrays along with the alien head adding further detail here moving away from this inspired us of Jabba, the Swedish Lego Masters alumni, has used a wealth of parts to add subtle detail that is to be found and enjoyed here.
Now, I’m off to brush off my Galidor pieces to see what I can make from this…

By Air Mail, to the future!

When the land is flooded and we take to the skies to avoid global warming, LegOH! is here to allay our fears that we’ll still be getting our mail on time in this LEGO airship build.

LegOH! has managed to cram a lot of detail into this diminutive vessel that I love from the limited colour palette, the steampunk inspired furnace keeping the airship aloft to the wrought iron details and, of course, the cargo of letters connecting this brave new world of aeronauts.

This reminds me, I must stick the holiday post in the mail…

Most Impressive detail in this Star Wars Underworld scene

You can do little better in finding inspiration for a LEGO Star Wars build than Darth Bjorn‘s builds. Capturing that seedy underworld vibe we’ve seen in the recent Obi-Wan and Andor series here is on point and I love the futuristic urban decay that’s evident across this build.

In his latest, he’s taken one of the Expanded Universe’s lesser-known planets as a basis for creating his own take on this backwater world for the Galaxy-spanning RPG this was built for.
The brick-built Graffiti on the back wall is perfectly crafted, sitting below the neon lights that draw you into this scene. The main draw is what can be found below the giant fan, which is a brilliant circular structure that dominates the building and invites you to look below.
Now, I love customizing figures but I’ve never seen this done with Jabba before and I love that sled contraption!

The industrial elements that decorate this scene throughout from the gantries and communication equipment down to the floor itself are all brilliant examples of what detail can be made from the smallest elements in the LEGO catalog, and a reason I love what LEGO does in the Advent Calendar’s.

A table strong enough to hold the Earth

I think it’s fair to say a LEGO build by Ralf Langer is always a going to be special. So when this appeared in my feed, I felt it needed to be shared with the readers of TBB. At first glance, it’s an elegant table adorned with a little tree. But there’s always more! Using artistic license, Ralf has created a map of the world in the table design, which compliments the colour of the tree’s leaves perfectly. Using plant stem parts, these leaves capture a naturalistic look, sitting proudly atop the table. A round shape is notoriously difficult to recreate in Lego form but Ralf has executed it to great effect here, using a nice solution to capture a rimmed edge to the table.

It’s Hammertime for this Mech

Moko brings us another offering of his Animal LEGO Mech collection, this time with the Hammerhead Shark kitted out and ready to deliver the Hammer blow! The design of this build certainly emphasises the heavy armour of the Mech and the colour palette accentuates that militaristic vibe. Even within the heavy armour, there are some nice flourishes of design – from the Battle Droid Torso’s found in the ankle mechanism through to the technic construction briefly glimpsed in the arms.

But let’s not forget the Mech’s weapon, the Warhammer reveals it’s own bite which is expertly hidden away ready to add a powerful bite to any adversary they encounter. But that Hammerheads grin – toothy!

We’ve all been there, those two LEGO plates that need that additional pressure to stick together. Have no fear, this little Sharknado in a Mech suit is here to help!

It was a brick like any other...

Theres something about Film Noir that captures the heart of any cinephile and Casey McCoy brings us a Film Noir inspired scene in his latest LEGO build. I love the composition of this scene, effortlessly capturing the 30’s/40’s era. The attention to detail as you explore the construction is a real treat, from the window and blind build and on to the Art Deco radio, carpet (which is a master build in itself!) and Dado rail, which itself hidden behind set dressing that looks like its always been a part of the Private Eyes office.

What’s of particular interest in this is that Casey hasn’t snapped his latest creation in black and white but instead taken full advantage of a limited greyscale colour palette to present this tale of a dame, a seedy detective and a brick. Now excuse me whilst I dip my fedora and fold up the collar of my raincoat…

By desert, Biplane

Intrepid reader, I report from deep within the desert quarter where we find Robert4168 has revisited a classic LEGO theme to present Baron Von Barron’s Biplane. The stylistic flourishes that make 1998’s 5928 Bi-Wing Baron a classic set can be found here, recreated using new parts and techniques in this build. Robert has repurposed modern weapons to serve as the biplane’s machine guns, which work incredibly well, as does the textured desert landscape the Barron sails across! But what impresses this Adventurers fan the most is the trailing map and binoculars, just like the original box art!

It hasn’t helped the Baron find the Re-Gou Ruby though, I wonder what happened there…

You dirty swine, I’ll have you sweating like a pig!

Sometimes you come across a LEGO build and it hits everything you look for in a build; fun, story, and some great part usage. Here, MySnailEatsPizza has put together a fantastic vignette of a lie detector test, except with Pigs as the characters in this amusing scene. Injecting a spot of the absurd into the scene and why not? The characterization and emotion in this scene are told through the fantastic positioning of four half-eye tiles capturing so much through nothing more than perfect placement.

There’s some excellent detail that has been added to this build from the lie detector to the pig’s wonderful construction and the subjects sweat evident around his chair.
I could wax lyrical all day about this build but sometimes you just need to pull up a chair and enjoy the scene (but maybe not these chairs!)

That nefarious man and his flying machine

GunnBuilding‘s latest LEGO offering is a celebration of one of Cartoon history’s great duo’s, Dastardly and Mutley. Faithfully representing their Wacky Racer The Mean Machine, GunnBuilding’s captured every odd angle that the beloved vehicle features from its fin above the cockpit, using a dragon wing to great effect, through to the tiny out of proportion wheels, down to the engine which is delightfully reimagined in LEGO here.

And let’s not forget the stars of the show here, the design of Dastardly is perfect with his purple coat and racer’s hat and angry, scheming expression whilst Mutley is ready with a stick of dynamite ready for their next nefarious scheme…

Something wicked this way comes...

1:1 scale builds fascinate me and how the builder has used LEGO at this scale to display the subject of the build and furnish with detail. This LEGO build from BrickheXe has certainly cast a spell on me! This builder has constructed a Witches Grimoire, ink, and quill for capturing those last-minute spells and curses.The construction of the book is nicely done, clasped, and bound by making excellent use of a Dots bracelet whilst the front cover is effectively decorated through the use of various Gold pieces to serve as embossed detail on the witches tome and embellished with a mysterious purple stone and complimented with the burning candle for those middle of the night spell castings!

There’s some great parts usage in constructing the candle, the hockey stick in clear view works incredibly well for oozing wax and I appreciate the creative ways builders employ unusual parts into their builds! Without using any feather pieces, the construction of the quill perfectly captures the fluffy, feather qualities of this scribes tool complete with accompanying Ink well using all the right parts to finish this collection of ethereal trinkets. Collected together, I can imagine this sat on a Witch or Wizards shelf alongside the Hogwarts Icons!

This castle’s a keep-er

There were few LEGO sets as a child that were precious to me, but one that was just perfect was the Black Falcon Fortress, and in this miniaturised digital form, ZiO Chao has realised a favourite set of mine that I needed to share! In building this in a miniature scale, ZiO hasn’t compromised on detail at all. Everything that made Black Falcon’s Fortress a great build can be found here too.

Let’s explore more of this diminutive fortress here