About Elspeth De Montes

Elspeth De Montes is Scottish but lives in North Yorkshire with her partner and twins. She is a LEGO Builder not a collector of sets, which in theory should make the hobby less expensive (ahem!) but monochrome collections can be pricey. You can see more of Elspeth's work on her blog or website and Flickr. Elspeth is also a bike lover; mountain bike, fixie, road bike, tri-bike (n+1=number of bikes I need).

Posts by Elspeth De Montes

Become an Imperial engineer and build your own TIE Fighter [Instructions]

The ‘twin ion engines’ in a TIE fighter help to make these little starfighters fast, agile and perfectly suited for a dog-fight in a narrow trench. Every Star Wars fan surely needs at least one sitting on their desk? Thanks to instructions provided by Inthert, you can build his LEGO version of this iconic starfighter and take on the nearest X-wing.

There are three pages of instructions provided. Page one provides the steps for building the solar array wings…

Page two completes the wings and provides instructions to start the spherical central cockpit area…

Finally, page three completes the cockpit and shows how to put everything together…

Thanks to Inthert for taking the time to make instructions as his TIE-fighter looks to be a fun build.

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Buying a round may render you penniless

When creating this digital LEGO model of three different buildings, Łukasz Libuszewski was inspired by the beautiful architecture of Prague. On the right, we have the pub on the ground floor and a museum showing the old town on the first floor. There is a handy cashpoint just outside the pub, so no excuses about running out of cash when it’s time to buy drinks. There is also a slightly abandoned looking tenement building on the left — it’s definitely in need of repair. Access to the lookout tower is via the central steps, but take care as those shadowy stairs look a little eerie to me.

A view from the rear shows some of the interior design with the old town layout in the museum and some cosy looking tables and chairs all set up in the pub below. I particularly like some of the architectural details such as the tan stonework around the window at the back of the pub and the use of the Elves keys in light blue grey within the look-out tower.

While this build is a digital build, it has been beautifully crafted and, although there a few elements that do not exist in LEGO’s official collection, it looks build-able ‘in the brick’

Is there an exo-suit in the house?

Nobody wants to be unwell, but if your temperature spikes or you break out in hives, then it’s time to visit the doctor. Andreas Lenander has created the kind of sick bay the average physician would dream of: Isolation beds to ensure disease doesn’t spread, a giant claw to transfer patients, and the latest in medical technology — the medical exosuit. The whole scene is full of great details for Neo-Classic Space fans. Although the exosuit and ‘claw’ are great, I really love all the little miscellaneous builds that complete the scene: ducts, vents, tubing, medical bottles, racks, and the little stasis beds.

Exclusive TBB guide to the LEGO House experience [News]

On 22 Sept, LEGO House opened it’s doors to over 600 adult fans of LEGO and their families, allowing advanced access to this world of creative experiences. The official public opening is on the 28th Sept, but The Brothers Brick flew over to Billund to attend the preview opening to give you a closer look inside the Home of the Brick.

LEGO House exterior is certainly striking, designed by Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels to look like a stack of bricks from the outside with the keystone white 2×4 LEGO brick on top. The 21 colourful interlocking bricks contain four playful Experience Zones, with tons of creative fun, a Masterpiece Gallery inside the Keystone at the very top, a LEGO History Museum in the basement, three restaurants, and a LEGO Brand Retail Store. Lets step inside.

On entering LEGO House, you find yourself in the main foyer. A cavernous area that reaches from the floor to the Masterpiece Gallery in the roof. The foyer is known as LEGO Square and is where the LEGO Retail Store, two restaurants, Brickaccino cafe and elevator access to the roof terraces can be found.

Read our complete review of the LEGO House

LEGO House Exclusive Pick-A-Model Instructions [News]

Last week, The Brothers Brick attended the preview opening event at the LEGO House, the new LEGO experience centrally located at the home of the brick in Billund, Denmark. Two of the exclusive Pick-A-Model sets available at the LEGO Store within LEGO House are mini fish tanks. These will provide a memory of the day as one of the awesome attractions is a huge selection of bricks available to build your own fish, scan it and then watch as it happily starts to explore the digital underwater world around you.

The instructions are for two different Fish Tank pick-a-model builds, 3850060 and 3850061, with 33 and 34 parts respectively. Each set comes in a blister pack with parts and a instruction booklet but they are simple builds that can be made with similar parts you have at home.

See the step-by-step instructions for these two fishy models after the jump

LEGO House opens its doors to the playing public [News]

LEGO House is the newly built LEGO Experience family attraction in the very centre of Billund, Denmark. We reported from LEGO House back in June when the exhibits were still being installed and there was still a lot of work to be done to the interior and exterior. LEGO House is now completely finished, the last bricks have been placed and tomorrow, 28 September doors will be opened to the public.

Among the speakers at the opening ceremony will be 3rd generation LEGO Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, LEGO House architect Bjarke Ingels, and HRH The Crown Princess Mary. After the ceremony, specific parts of LEGO House will be open to public, including the Square, the LEGO store and the coloured outdoor terraces but the Experience Zones, which require a ticket, are not available until 29 September. Livestream of highlights from the upcoming event will be available on Facebook.

LEGO House has been built with creativity, play and learning in mind and with more than 25 million bricks there is no shortage of LEGO available to build with inside. This is not just a look and see gallery, but roughly 20,000 square feet of LEGO experience that will engage young and old alike. On entering, there is open access to the roof terraces, the LEGO Store (complete with Pick-A-Brick and Pick-A-Model) and the three eateries.

Tickets for the experience zones cost 199DKK/US$31/£23 each for adults and children (free for accompanied children under 2) and are purchased online in advance for an arrival time but you can stay as long as you wish until the House closes at 8 pm.

Somewhere over Australia, rainbow birds fly

The Rainbow Lorikeet is a species of parrot found in Australia — unmistakable with its bright red beak and colourful plumage. Gabriel Thomson has built this fantastic LEGO rendition, complete with a tree branch to perch upon, and a little avian friend, a Superb Wren. I love the bright blue plumage of the Wren, a display of colour designed to attract the ladies in real life. Both birds have been well-shaped to give an accurate, natural appearance — no mean feat with plastic bricks instead of feathers.

If you want to see this model ‘in the brick’, it is on display in LEGO House — the new LEGO experience over in Billund, Denmark.

Every man is an island above an azure sea

John Donne wrote that “no man is an island”, but when it comes to LEGO creations, famous poets do not restrict your imagination. Ben Fitzsimmons has turned that saying around with his huge LEGO diorama depicting a multitude of islands each inhabited by wandering travellers. Each unique little island is a place for rest and trade above the expanse of dark azure ocean. This is a beautiful, fantastical build with a touch of steampunk. The islands are all full of creative buildings like the tall lighthouse on the far right, and nice landscaping such as the waterfall spilling back into the ocean and the colourful trees.

A closer look at one part of the diorama shows some of the fun details. I love the propeller-powered pack that one traveller is wearing to cruise between islands, while the use of the ‘hot air balloon part’ as a sail works well at this scale.

Ben’s diorama won the Steampunk category at Brickfair Virginia this year and I imagine the build was even more impressive to see in person.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie wave 2 set images revealed [News]

The release of The LEGO Ninjago Movie this weekend has raised Ninjago hysteria to new levels, so what better time to reveal a second wave of tie-in sets? A further four sets have been revealed with official set images, and are due to be released in December. No further details regarding parts count and US prices are available as yet. In addition, a further set, 70656 70656 garmadon Garmadon GARMADON, which had only been seen on display at SDCC earlier, is also due for December release.

70631 Garmadon’s Volcano

Mild SPOILERS ahead in the full set of LEGO Ninjago Movie wave 2 set images

Spaceship makes two-pronged attack

Intergalactic space is getting busy with SHIPtember traffic as the number of large LEGO spaceships begins to rocket. Here’s another fine looking vessel called the ZC Lapsadle. Built by TBB alumnus Simon Liu, it definitely meets the longer-than-100-studs criteria to be a SHIP. The flashes of Bright Light Orange are a standout feature along with the interesting two-prong shape of the bow. I love the central launch bays on either side — dark and deep enough to generate some intriguing shadows.

Do you think Simon actually built two of these ships or are we seeing some artistic jiggery-pokery at work?

HispaBrick Magazine 028 is out now [NEWS]

Lluís Gibert, Jetro de Château, and the rest of the team at HispaBrick Magazine have just released the English edition of Issue 028 as a free download.

This issue includes a report from the LEGO Fan Media Days in Billund, plus interviews with LEGO theme teams, and Robert “RobenAnne” Bontenbal — the fan designer of LEGO Ideas 21310 Old Fishing Store.

There is also a reconstruction of the conversation the team had with LEGO’s then-CEO, Bali Padda, by Richard Jones from The Rambling Brick, and Stuck in Plastic talk about their toy photographers’ collective. The rest of this issue is packed full of articles about education with Six Bricks, set reviews, robotics, MOCs, and all you need to know about LEGO Boost.

Hispabrick 028 is available as a free download in English, Spanish and Croation, thanks to a collaboration with Kockice.

Beasts from Bricks [Review]

Beasts from Bricks: Amazing LEGO Designs for Animals from Around the World is the latest LEGO instructional book from Quarry Books, authored by LEGO artist and designer Ekow Nimako. This is the second book in the series following Birds from Bricks. The 144-page book presents illustrated step-by-step instructions to build 15 animals from around the world: Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, Oceania, Central/South America, the Caribbean, and North America. Each set of instructions includes a couple of paragraphs of information about the animal’s characteristics and habitat. Also included is a bonus gallery of Ekow Nimako’s more complex, large-scale animal designs.

Read the full review after the jump