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

LEGO Art 31204 Elvis Presley – Can’t help falling in love. [Review]

Elvis fans had a reason to sing when LEGO announced that the King of Rock ‘n Roll would be joining the Art theme in the spring of 2022. Featuring three iconic portrait options, LEGO Art 31204 – Elvis Presley will be available March 1st from the LEGO Shop Online for US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £104.99. Come along as we see just what this 3445 piece set has to offer. Will it be a trip to the Heartbreak Hotel or a case of Burning Love?

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.

Click to read the full hands-on review

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.

LEGO Art 31205 DC Jim Lee Batman Collection – Plenty of black and some very, very dark grey [Review]

When LEGO announced that they were expanding their LEGO Art line to include Jim Lee’s Batman art, there was a certain amount of “well, that was inevitable” to the news. Batman is one of the most iconic super heroes in the world, and it was only a matter of time before LEGO expanded from their minifigure-scaled movie tie-in sets and Technic offerings into the “adult collector” area. LEGO Art 31205 DC Jim Lee Batman Collection will be available starting March 1, for US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £104.99. The 4167 pieces in this set can be used to create the grim visage of the caped crusader, or can be rebuilt into a portrait of either the Joker or Harley Quinn. Come along as we take a close look at the set’s ups and downs, and see just how arty this Bat-Mosaic really is.

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.

Click to read the full hands-on review

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.

Today’s the day to fall in love with Mosaics on Monday [Feature]

One of the great things about LEGO is that there are so many creative ways to build. Some people navigate towards spaceships or castles. Some gravitate towards trains or buildings. And some explore the more esoteric fringes of artistic creativity with sculpture. Or, in this case, mosaics.

Over on Instagram, there’s been a lot of great art showing up in the #MosaicsOnMonday tag. We recently had a chance to sit down (virtually) with the innovators behind this challenge, and learn a bit about where this tag came from, where it is, and where it’s headed.

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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.

Why another mosaic? It’s a mystery (science theater).

The Brothers Brick contributor Chris Doyle is back with another large-scale LEGO mosaic. This time he leaves the superheroes behind to celebrate a recent highlight of live-performance pop culture.

I’m a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and have spent a lot of time recreating the robots and scenes from the show in LEGO. Last December I was lucky enough to be treated to VIP passes to the MST3k Time Bubble Live Show, and was really taken with the new host, Emily Marsh. So much so, that I wanted to immortalize her role with a big ol’ mosaic. Read on after the jump for more about the process, and just what that stuff along the bottom edge is…

Emily Marsh MST3k Mosaic - some context

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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.

An elegant tracery of lines and curves

Some LEGO builds inspire moments of quiet contemplation. This elegant inked fan by Dad’s Bricks evokes that feeling for me. The life-sized shaping is excellent, and the delicate line work created by rods and slightly curved tubing offsets the the bright red of the flowers. Take a closer look and you can spot 1×1 heart tiles in pink, creating a tiny clovers of brightness to contrast to the rich colors. The pen, stand, and brush are almost afterthoughts – but they blend seamlessly into the full image and add real-world context to this piece of art.

[LEGO] <桃園畫師 — 扇與梅> Ink painting - Fan and plum

Be sure to check our archives for even more artistic expressions in plastic.

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.

Thomas has just got new friends

Do you like trains? Sure, we all do. And Canadian steam engines? Well, those are just super-sweet. I mean check out these great digital builds of U-4-A “Northern Type” engines by Nemowerty. Sure, only five of these were ever built in real life, but that’s no reason to exclude them from having LEGO representation. I love the sleek styling of these 1:44/1:45 versions, and the in-progress view Nemowerty shared is a tempting jumping off point for folks to start building their own.

We’re trying to expand of coverage of great LEGO train builds. Know of a builder who should be on our radar? Let us know in the comments below!

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 can do this all day. Because I’m a robot.

As Disney continues to absorb every form of media, it will only be a matter of time before the House of Mouse releases a Star Wars/Marvel Comics crossover film. Not one to wait for the inevitable, builder Veynom has taken the first step with a pair of Battle Droids from the Star Wars universe that are truly Super Soldiers. There’s classic “Steve Roger Rogers” with a bright blue color scheme and vintage shield, and modern “Steve Roger Rogers” with an Avengers-era, dark-blue color scheme and shield from the 76168 Captain America Mech Armor. While the pun in the name here is just *chef’s kiss* perfect, I still want to see Veynom tackle the rest of the Avengers in a similar style. There were a lot of droids in the Clone Wars…I’m sure there are some other great matches out there. (At least give us a Super Battle Droid in green with purple pants.)

In the meantime, check out some other great Star Wars and Avengers builds in our archives!

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.

The bats on the bus go round and round

If any version of the Batman was going to drive a modified VW bus, it was going to be the 1960’s Adam West incarnation. 1saac W. has created the ultimate hybrid with this Bat Bus – a tricked out version of one of 1saac’s other great automotive recreations, the Volkswagen T1 Westfalla. (Westfalla. Get it?) This model uses stickers and some parts from the 76188 Classic Batmobile set to great effect – Bats is ready to hit the road in style.

The Bat Bus

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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.

LEGO Art 21226: Art Project – Create Together: Team Building you might actually enjoy [Review]

There’s a lot of excitement about LEGO Art mosaics right now, thanks in part to recent reveals of some cool upcoming DC Comics licensed LEGO art. But what if you’re more into creating your own LEO images? Well, LEGO has you covered there, too. LEGO Art 21226: Art Project – Create Together is available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £104.99. This 4138 piece set is designed to be shared between up to nine people, and includes designs for 36 different 1-panel designs, and a 9-panel Classic Spaceman “maxi-image”.  Sounds fun, right? But is it? We bought a copy…come along and see what we found out!

Click to read the full hands-on review

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.

Spirited Away bathhouse recreated from LEGO bricks in intricate detail

In the Studio Ghibli animated classic Spirited Away, a sense of wonder and magic infuses just about everything. Marcin Otręba takes us on a trip to a LEGO recreation of the iconic bathhouse, and it’s every bit as wonderous. From the graceful curve of the bridge to the spot-on color choices and complex tiling in the walls, this microscale reproduction is very true to the original. But, like in the film, there’s more here than you might first see. Keep reading to discover some of the secrets!

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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.

A monster has fallen into the sewer in LEGO City!

Are you old enough to remember Dirty Jobs? This scene from Shannon Sproule reminds me of that show. It’s easy to project the personality of Mike Rowe onto the hard-hatted figure descending into the sewer, particularly with the backstory that Gracie (as the monster is known) gets along just fine with the City workforce. It’s a fun little slice of life that shows we can all get along if we try. (And if we offer the monsters in our lives chicken legs and cheeseburgers.)

Mornin' Gracie!

We’ve featured a lot of monstrous creations over the years. Why not check them out?

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.

LEGO Gift with Purchase 40532 Vintage Taxi – Let our friendly driver take you for a ride! [Review]

LEGO recently celebrated 15 years of their City Modular Building Collection with the stunning 10297 Boutique Hotel. Now they’ve unveiled a new set that seems to slot right into that downtown area.  LEGO 40532 Vintage Taxi will be available as a Gift With Purchase from LEGO Shop Online. While LEGO has yet to officially confirm the promotion details, it’s rumored to be available starting January 28th with qualifying purchases of US $200 | CAN $200 | UK £200. This 163-piece set comes with a driver, taxi stand, and a very sweet-looking ride. But is it worth the price of admission? Come along and see for yourself!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early, non-embargoed 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

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.