About Chris Doyle

Chris has been involved in many parts of the LEGO community for over twenty years, and has been building most of his life. A love of transparent bricks and pop culture combine in most of his creations, which tend to be pretty large scale. His website, Reasonably Clever, featured one of the longest running brick-based webcomics, as well as one of the first LEGO-themed avatar creators. His photographs and creations have appeared in several books.

Posts by Chris Doyle

Snow Piercer, but this time in space

You don’t normally think of “round shapes” as a highlight of a NoVVember Vic Viper, but Sheo, as usual, refuses to be bound by conventional building styles. The Blue Piercer is a twin-fork starship with enviable curves. My favorite detail is the thin Technic pulley tires nestled inside arch bricks. I also like the small detail of the half-circle tiles, adding another subtle bend to things. And those rear thrusters are pretty sweet, too.

If you like your spaceships (and other LEGO creations) with a heavy dollop of curved building, then be sure the check out the other creations of Sheo’s that we’ve spotlighted.

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Hang a left at the giant anemone

LEGO fan themes come and go, waxing and waning with the tides. But sometimes they burst back up from the ground like the nightmarish worm they are. The Black Anemone by Sebastian Arts (Aliencat!) harkens back to the simpler times when the old gods roamed the Earth. This build features organic curves, a splash of red in the extended tongue(?), inverted LEGO tires…everything you could ask for in a subterranean monster. But there are two small details that make this build fun for me. First is the LEGO minifigure skull cradled in the rings of the beast like a tiny teddy bear of death. The second is the road sign advising a hard left hand turn. That’s one detour that I think most people would be happy to take.

It’s been a few years since our last spotlighted Black Fantasy creation. Could this be the beginning of a revival? If so, is that a good thing? I’m honestly not sure.

Dystopian novels are so 1984.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Conventional wisdom says “no,” but John Snyder may have a different opinion. The elegant book binding here is complemented by some slice-of-life details that are every bit as charming. This creation is part of the Iron Builder contest, and this round focused on the challenge of incorporating modified 2×3 plates into the build. We can see them in action in the book bindings on the cover, and in the dark red flowers. The golden carriage wheel on the cover matches the yellow centers to the flowers as well as the gold coins, but did you know that the black cloth bag there is (probably) also a LEGO element? It looks to me to be a Wolfpack Pouch. Now there’s a part you don’t see every day.

If you’re in a literary mood, why not check out our book archives? You just might learn something new!

News Flash: Michael Bay to reboot Sesame Street franchise

Hi-ho, Kermit the Frog here! Today on Sesame Street news we’re sharing the latest Hollywood Leak! The monster on the street is telling us that none other than Michael Bay of Transformers fame has been tapped to relaunch the Sesame Street franchise for, and I’m quoting here, “a million kajillion dollars.” The source of the leak, a Mister “I.M. Lying” provided an image of a LEGO toy prototype reportedly designed by Simon Liu. Using the new Oscar the Grouch head from the Sesame Street Ideas set, Simon has given our resident Grouch the ability to take out his own trash. Additional sponsorship from the letter “G” for “Greeble” and the numbers 1, 2, and 3 are also reported. I, personally, think this is a terrible…hold on. I’m now getting word that our source may have been making all of this up. So nevermind. Sheesh.

(Well, even if the movie rumors are fake, this Oscar Mech is very real. Check out the 360 degree spin on Simon’s Instagram if you don’t believe me. Then check out some of the other creations of Simon’s we’ve featured.)

More than your usual rubber-stamp build

Ah, bureaucracy. Nothing is quite like the teeth-grinding angst of shuffling papers and getting the right permits. There’s also nothing quite like this creation by Inthert. Making use of an unusual 2×3 modified LEGO plate as a basis, they’ve managed to stamp out something new. There are a lot of great techniques in play, from the white rubber band around the pen clip to the layered wall panels that make up the pages of the book. But the skill used in inverting the rubber stamp’s pattern onto the page is the real treat for me.

This build is part of the latest Iron Builder challenge. Check out our archives for more great creations from that competition.

A new Spider-verse crossover?

Rumors are flying about all the live-action Spider-folk who could appear in the next Spider-Man movies, but what about LEGO versions? This brick-built web-head by Build Better Bricks seems like another quality addition. The shaping of Spidey’s mask is well done, with the eyes being particularly nifty. The figure has some great articulation, too, although that did lead to a small trade-off: those Mixel ball joint connectors currently only come in light grey. Still, that’s the price you sometimes pay for a physical model over a digital flight of fancy.

We’ve spotlighted some other creations from this team before. Check them out here!

What a load of hot air

There are a lot of things up in the air right now, and one of the nicest is this Fiesta Balloon by Pete Strege. Excellent shaping combines with bright colors to really let your imagination soar. From a design standpoint, I like the exposed studs in the balloon itself. Translated to a real-world aircraft, those patterns would make an excellent LEGO print on a full-scale envelope. If you look closely, there’s a happy family in the basket, too. I love cheerful details like that.

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LEGO Ghostbusters 10274 ECTO-1: Everybody can relax, I found the car. [Review]

The pandemic has had a pretty grim impact on cinematic release schedules this year. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was originally slated for a July 10th release, but is currently delayed to June 11, 2021. That left a lot of fans pretty unhappy…but LEGO has found a way to keep us busy while we wait for things to return to a new normal. Arguably the most beloved converted 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance of all time, the Ghostbusters ECTO-1 will be available directly via LEGO.com and LEGO Stores starting November 15th. This 2,352 piece set will retail for US $199.99 | CAN $259.99 | UK £179.99. What secrets does this new version of the ECTO-1 hold? Read on and see!

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

Silly rabbit, Trix are for...no, actually, go ahead and take them...

It always seems cruel to me that the kids in those breakfast cereal commercials wouldn’t just share. Thanks to Moko they might not have a choice anymore: this fearsome Rabbit Mech isn’t about to take “no” for an answer. The white armor plating is a great mix of Technic, Bionicle, and Hero Factory elements. The claws are particularly cool – made from Bionicle minifigure heads and Ben-10 spikes.

The mech is also has a lot of articulation, letting it bend into a more animalistic crouch. It looks even more sinister when it’s ready to pounce.

There are a lot more images and build commentary for this mech at Moko’s blog. It’s in Japanese, though, so be ready to run it through a translator. Alternately, check out our archives for more Brothers Brick coverage of Moko’s creations.

And up from the ground came a gumblin’ dude. A Ghoul, that is. [Instructions]

Spooky builder extraordinaire Covus Auriac is back with another creepy Halloween scene. The bony arm of a skeleton bursting from the ground may be a farily common trope, but this is one of the best LEGO renditions of it that I’ve seen. I’m particularly fond of the construction on the hand – the combination of white lipstick tubes and a cow horn works disturbingly well. The minifigure hands on the bones give a hint of rotting flesh, and a minifigure skirt is a great way to suggest tattered clothing.

If you’d like to make your own, Corvus is ready to help you get started with step-by-step instructions for the skeleton arm. If you want hints on the gravestone, you’re currently on your own. Maybe you can find some inpiration in the Hidden Side theme?

Carve out some time for this Halloween pumpkin

Let’s avoid the “pumpkin spice” joke this time, and just take a moment to enjoy this elegant build by Corvus Auriac. The fluted exterior of the pumpkin hints at a complex interior structure – getting those curved slopes to nest that closely is both a trick and a treat. I also like the small touch of adding minifigure hands to the spider web to make it feel a bit more organic.

Corvus has been kind enough to share instructions for other spooky builds in the past. Hopefully we’ll get a look inside that pumpkin soon, too.

Just a little messy

LEGO bricks are used to make stuff, sure. But when LEGO bricks are used to make stuff that makes stuff…that’s a different level of meta. SephiMoc FF7 has created some painting supplies that do indeed look ready to be applied to canvas. I like how they’ve used different building methods to show the pooling paint, but it’s the brushes that make me smile most. We’ve seen minifigure brooms and plumes as brush tips before, but this may be the first time I’ve seen both a banana and carrot in play as well. I do kind of feel bad for the table, though. That’s a lot of messy spillage to clean up.

If you’d like to see a different design for paint tubes, I found a gem in our archives.