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

Functioning LEGO RC Pagani Huayra [Video]

Sariel has long since been a regular feature on this site with impressive Technic and Power Functions builds such as a motorised Kaneda’s bike from Akira and a remote controlled Batpod.
Now the builder’s newest creation — an RC car modeled after the Pagani Huayra — is sure to make petrol heads like myself happy. While it may not be a purist build (it uses 3D printed covers to simulate a new rim design as well as aftermarket chromed pieces) it’s still an amazing model and all the functioning and structural bits are LEGO.

Particularly impressive are the awesome features of the build such as the “aero flaps” which flip up in unison with the front steering as well as the rear wheel drive propulsion with a transmission. Sariel gives a lot more information on how he built this car, including pictures of partial breakdowns on his website.

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.

Five arms are better than two

This truly alien-looking creation from Tremah comes courtesy of a great mix of System, Technic, Bionicle, and Hero Factory parts. Qlauflus the Handyman is a marvel of low-parts-count versus overall shape. There’s skillful use of larger LEGO pieces, coupled with bars and tentacles to create those spindly appendages.

The color scheme is also working well — relatively rare lime green pairs up nicely with the white. I think there’s some “cheating” going on, with concealed elements to keep the model balanced upright for the photo, but they’re so well hidden that I’ll let it slide.

Street Sharks? I haven’t heard that name in years

Well, even if it’s been said thousands of times, it bears repeating here: One of the best aspects of LEGO is the ability to come up with a completely bonkers idea and turn it into a physical creation. One such idea from Tora is “Spec Ops Commander Hammer Shark… a hammerhead shark that can actually walk and eliminate assigned targets with his harpoon rifle”. I wonder what that would look like, hmm…

Using a truly mixed bag of parts from Bionicle to the Star Wars buildable action figures to, if I’m not mistaken, the often-mocked Galidor, this build is a true showcase of what LEGO is capable of.

Make sure you also check out this back shot of the build, which shows off the suit which allows this shark to breath while on land.

Functioning LEGO hammer drill [Video]

While the 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is an amazing collector’s item, there’s no denying that it makes a fantastic parts pack, especially with all those orange Technic panel pieces. František Hajdekr has used those panels in a unique way, fashioning them into a cordless drill hammer.

If you look closely at the build, you may notice the Technic power functions XL-Motor. This isn’t a flashy model; under all those orange panels is a working mechanism that causes the chisel to move back and forth. While it might not help you in your next home improvement project, it’s certainly a fun idea! You can see it in action below:

We Are Number One but it’s a photo and made of LEGO

Of all the jokes and memes that came and went in 2016, none was as long-lasting and popular as “We Are Number One”. If you’re unfamiliar with it, I’ll let the experts explain it properly, but essentially it involves a song from the children’s TV show Lazy Town being endlessly remixed and fiddled with and then retitled “We Are Number One but [some weird change to the video]“. However, teen builder A Plastic Infinity‘s interpretation involves recreating four characters from the song (Robbie Rotten and his clones) as LEGO figures:

Take note of the quaffed hair which is built differently for each figure, as well Mr Rotten’s characteristic huge chin, cleverly captured using just one half of a ‘hinged plate’ assembly.

One great thing to come from the whole joke, aside from this cool LEGO build, is that the actor who played Robbie Rotten (Stefán Karl Stefánsson) was suffering from cancer around the time the meme hit fever pitch. The attention it brought to the character resulted in him and his family being able to raise a lot of the money they needed via GoFundMe. Good job, Internet!

Dark Tower from the Stephen King novels in LEGO

The Dark Tower series of books by Stephen King is quickly entering the public eye as the upcoming movie draws closer to release. While it’s on everyone’s minds, David Collins has created his own version of the mystical structure in LEGO. Designed for a “books to life” exhibit of LEGO creations, this Tower stands two feet (~61 centimetres) tall. Collins had intended to make the tower taller, but was restricted to this height by the rules of the exhibit. I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s worth questing for regardless.

And what is a Dark Tower without a gunslinger to find it? Collins has also created a minifigure of protagonist Roland Deschain to go with it.

On a personal note, I can’t wait to see this movie. I love the books and, by a strange coincidence, they began filming the movie right here in my home country of South Africa.

Need a strong spaceship? Try a triangle!

Don Wilson has brought us a spaceship with an unusual triangular configuration. The “Watchdog Fightercraft” started focused on a single piece – the larger yellow ones forming the “mandibles” – and the build evolved from there.

Two great aspects of the build which you can’t see from the angle above is the extremely detailed rear section. When the ship lands it does so with the cockpit pointed straight up, and the builder has accounted for this with a moving seat:

Get away from her, you bricks!

The power loader from Aliens is difficult to pull off at minifig scale because of the inherent lack of movement in a minifig. But Daniel Schlumpp has done a darned good job with this LEGO version, as well as an appropriate Xenomorph alien to go with it.

And while we’re in the Aliens universe, be sure to check out the 1:1 scale motion tracker we featured recently.

A refreshing return to Cloud City

With Rogue One having just been released, I’m in a Star Wars mood. While there’s been a lot of both fan builds and official LEGO sets from the movie already, Eric Druon is going in a more nostalgic direction with a charming diorama of Cloud City (Bespin) from The Empire Strikes Back.

While not a sweeping recreation of the entire city, all the important elements are here: the meeting with Vader, the carbon freezing chamber, the Cloud Car, and a few other little details.

Make sure to check out the builder’s photostream to see each segment of the build in detail. It seems to have been created in a modular fashion so each scene can be displayed on its own. Also check out Eric’s Death Star play set that we featured recently.

You don’t need a lotta parts to create a good build

This “Tanker Rover” by Robert Heim is a great example of a few good pieces being enough to pull off a great build. Every piece here, from the large airplane piece forming part of the cockpit, to the rim pieces simulating the tank, fits just right. The result is a futuristic vehicle that doesn’t resort to hundreds of pieces or excessive greebling. Another great use of parts here is the silver trophy piece that, while not part of the actual build, goes a long way to suggesting the immense scale of the tanker.

LEGO Overwatch characters on a macro scale

We’ve featured plenty of Overwatch LEGO here already, from a minifig-scale D.Va and her mech, to life-sized Overwatch weapons. But today we have something in between. Builder Piggy brother has graced us with these rather large builds of six of the game’s heroes. Seven if you count D.Va’s mech separately.

Each of these builds is large and detailed, so check out an individual view of each after the jump.

Continue reading →

LEGO clockwork robot winds itself up

Dvd has created a clockwork robot that will wind itself up. It’s a great build, as well as some allegory for many human conditions. Inside of the retrofuturistic exterior is a simple mechanism in which the left arm turns, setting off a system which turns various objects on the head of the build.

Luckily there’s a video to go a long with it which you can view below. The clever bit is that DVD keeps up the illusion of a self-winding robot by making the whole robot self-contained, with no exposed wires or controls. The back of the ‘bot gives nothing away either, and incredibly, DVD even lets us look into the robot’s heart.