About Clinton

I'm all the way down in a little country called South Africa. There's no lions roaming the streets, unfortunately, but there is everyone's favourite plastic brick.   I don't have a lot of my own work online (yet), but I've been following The Brother Brick for around eight years, so it's bizarre that I'm going to be writing for it.   My day job is journalism covering the maker movement for htxt.africa. And yes, I do occasionally sneak stories of Lego onto the site.   Follow my ramblings, LEGO and otherwise: Twitter: @Clint_Matos | Instagram: @clinton_matos

Posts by Clinton

One beautiful black mech

Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann brings us a new bit of mechanised walking glory with his Black Boa “Blitz” BB3 Infantry Assault Division (Type Flight Mode). Wow, both those names had a lot of words in them. Anyway, this is definitely a model you should zoom in on and appreciate the details and the fine shaping.
Black Boa "Blitz" BB3 Type Flight Mode

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Screw hoverboards, we want these hoverbikes

In October it was “Back to the Future Day”, the day irresponsible time travelers Marty McFly and Doc Brown caught up with the future. Now that we’ve reached and passed that time, we’re all a bit disappointed that we’re not scooting around on floating skateboards. What would be even better though, are these nifty little scooters from nobu_tary. The green one reminds us of the hovercars from Dragonball Z.

Hoverbike X-15

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The evolution of a mech

kenny_yan brings us a new mech in the form of the m.k.007-01. Somehow, this mech manages to look both agile and extremely bulky at the same time.

m.k.007-01

Wonder how it was made? How the angles were pulled off and how a model like this is even created? Thankfully you’re covered by a set of progression shots that show how the build came along. It’s really interesting to see what aspects were kept and what was junked as time went on.

m.k.007-11

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Lacking the V, but still an awesome spaceship

Since it is NoVVember, and it has become tradition, people are making (and we are posting) a lot of Vic Vipers. To shake it up a bit and still get your required dose of interstellar machines, here’s a build called “Gravitator I3” by David Steeves. Proving that one of the best aspects of flying around in space is that you don’t need to worry about pesky air resistance, this starfighter has some outrageous curves and shapes, and we love it. This is definitely one of those models that could easily be mistaken for a regular model that isn’t made of LEGO.

Gravitator I3

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Mickey Mouse is coming back to Duplo [News]

After recent leaks that 2016 would bring us a Disney-themed Collectible Minigifures line, we now have some confirmation that there is going to be more of everyone’s favourite mouse in the LEGO world. On LEGO’s official Instagram account, this short Mickey animation was posted:

Get ready for a visit from a very special #LEGODUPLO guest! We are so excited!

A video posted by LEGO (@lego) on

The brief looped video shows a rough outline of a Mickey Mouse Duplo minifigure. While Mickey Mouse and co. have had the LEGO treatment before, that was 15 years ago in 2000. The “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” also includes Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck, so expect to see those soon.

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He’s Popeye the LEGO Man!

Very few characters lend themselves to being made out of solid, usually rectangular bricks without some amount of artistic interpretation. But Popeye, with his cartoonish proportions, actually lends himself to being made in brick. Eh, it must be the spinach.

Kosmas Santosa brings the character to life with a faithful build that manages to nail every aspect of the famous design of the sailor. Some custom stickers give the spinach cans their labels and that massive forearm an anchor tattoo, but the rest is straight LEGO and all Popeye.

Popeye

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Full size Bionicle Iron Man helmet

As we all know, “Iron Man” isn’t actually made of iron, but rather gold-titanium alloy. Robert Downey Jr wouldn’t lie to us, would he? At any rate, definitely not made out of iron or any alloys (but still as impressive) is this new creation by nobu_tary. We’re not sure if this helmet would actually fit on a person’s head, but taking a guess from the size of certain pieces, it does look up to the task.

IRONMAN Helmet

This will pair nicely with other Iron Man creations we’ve featured in the past, like a gauntlet or the famous arc reactor. Everyone keep up the good work, we’ll soon have an entire suit.

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Mercedes-Benz 180 Ponton – recreated down to the wheel jack

We’ve been featuring quite a few cars on The Brothers Brick lately; hot rods, mini hot rods, trucks and even… tire robots? Anyway, since so many great motors are being made, we want to show them off, and this Mercedes-Benz from nameless_member does the German car in excruciating detail. The model only gets better when you look inside and see a fully fleshed out interior, engine, and, yes, even the tools you need to fix the thing.
Lego Mercedes Benz 180 Ponton
Lego Mercedes Benz 180 Ponton   Motor

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First glimpse of new LEGO Ninjago sets [News]

Back when we were hearing rumors of the upcoming 2016 sets, it was hinted that the next place for the Ninjago theme to go was straight up with a floating-rock setting reminiscent of Bioschock Infinite.

Now we have an official taste of the upcoming change of setting, and it seems to be called “Ninjago Skybound.” It is accompanied by the text “Careful what you wish for”.

Ninjago 2016

In the artwork we can see some new set(s) being shown off with two airships and a dragon-type creature. The overall feel looks very Steampunk, which we’re sure will make a lot of people happy. The most interesting aspect we can see is what looks to be a new bigfig that appears very similar to a Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who has been experimenting with steroids. Also, check out that monkey-wrench wielding monkey! Finally, the presence of a bad guy and the “Careful what you wish for” text makes us believe the new setting will tie into genie mythology.

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Watch this LEGO Star Wars AT-ST meet its doom by swinging logs

The folks over at WIRED seem to have found a niche in the LEGO community. While the tech site usually creates content around, well, tech, we assume someone convinced their boss to buy them LEGO for “work”. Then, with certain Star Wars sets, they do the unthinkable (for some people, at least) by building them up, and the destroying them. One of their most popular was a Super Star Destroyer meeting its end, all filmed at 100 frames per second. Now they’re back, and have gone to the forest moon of Endor to beat up an AT-ST walker.

Recreating that iconic scene from the movie when Ewoks crush the poor chicken walker between two logs, it’s quite expertly done and great fun:

Though, we’re going to have to deduct some points for not making the background and logs out of LEGO. 7/10.

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In space, no one can hear you freeze

Nexo Knights, in its theme-bending audacity, has got a lot of people thinking about one of the Classic Space subthemes, Ice Planet 2002. The 1994 subtheme, while not nearly as popular as stuff like Blacktron or Space Police, certainly had its charm with its striking colour scheme that it seems to share with Nexo Knights. Now Ilya T. brings back ice Planet with a model that would fit right into the bygone subtheme. Many, many extra points must be given to the background here, which could have easily been mistaken for actual boxart. We wonder if the piece count is accurate…
6973 Lego Ice Planet 2002 - Space Cargo Shuttle
6973 Lego Ice Planet 2002 - Space Cargo Shuttle
Speaking of Nexo Knights, I’m personally extremely excited for it. Knights? Elements of Classic Space? Mechs and robots? Effing floating robo-horses? Get outta here, LEGO, you can’t make a theme specifically for one person.

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Just a trucking good recreation

Spaceships, mechs and Akira-esque bikes are all very well and good, but sometimes simply recreating a real vehicle is a pleasure unto itself. Adam Glowacki has brought us trucks before, but this model of a Kenworth K108 is superb. Check out a picture of the real thing to see just how close this version gets. The only aspect really missing is shiny chrome. We miss the days of shiny bricks…

Kenworth K108
Kenworth K108
I’d like to personally apologize for the title.

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