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

A chocolate box château in France

The Château de Chenonceau is a historic building in the Loire Valley in France, spanning the River Cher. The current château was built in the early 1500s on the foundations of an old mill and was later extended to span the river. While not the original owners, the château was acquired by the Menier family, who are famous for their signature chocolates, and they still own the château to this day. Isaac Snyder has managed to capture the architectural essence of this beautiful, grand building in LEGO microscale.

The complex collection of varying roofs that depict the chapel and library areas at that Northeast end of the château are very nicely built, but my favourite section is definitely the multiple archways with the flowing river 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.

Duplo brick in critical but stable condition

You can almost smell the clinical environment and hear the beep… beep… beep of the heart monitor in this hospital-themed build by Finnish builder Eero Okkonen. The IV bag hanging from the drip stand seems to contain the infamously yellow vitamin B infusion with a tube leading down to a rather frail looking hand on the bed. The pulse oximeter is hooked up to a large monitoring machine with a glowing display. Additional details like the “Get Well Soon” card and a couple of bottles of tablets are a lovely touch.

What is particularly impressive about this build is the ingenuity of the part that Eero used as the screen display for the monitor — it’s actually the underside of the current seed part in this round of Iron Builder, namely the Duplo part Fire/Grass/Ice 1x4x2.

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales 71042 Silent Mary [Exclusive Review]

Last month, we went to New York Toy fair to bring you the first images of 71042 Silent Mary when LEGO unveiled their latest Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in set, 71042 Silent Mary, and now we’re pleased to bring you this exclusive early review of the set. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is the fifth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and is due for release on 26 May, 2017. Although the official trailer for the movie features the Silent Mary, Armando Salazar’s ghost ship, there may be some very minor spoilers below.

LEGO 71042 Silent Mary has 2,294 parts and is due for release to LEGO VIP members on 17 March, 2017 priced at $199.99/£179.99/199,99 € and is listed for ages 14+. The Silent Mary isn’t quite the largest ship LEGO has made, though she does impressively measure over 18” (48cm) high with the main mast in vertical position, and 26” (68cm) long and 8” (22cm) wide. She’s just over 14” (36cm) wide with the main mast collapsed. To give you a comparison, a largest LEGO ship is 10210 Imperial Flagship, which measures 29.5” (75 cm) long and 23.6” (60 cm) tall. 4184 The Black Pearl is a bit smaller, coming in at 21” (53cm) long, 20” (50cm) tall and 5” (12cm) wide.

Continue reading →

A gull flies in the face of the iron curtain

Back when the iron curtain was firmly in position, a car manufacturer called GAZ was producing luxury cars from within the Soviet Union. Anton Creator has built one of their car models in LEGO, the GAZ Chaika (Rus: Ча́йка), which means gull. The boxy car is a throwback to a time when big meant luxurious and mpg efficiency did not feature highly when prioritising car choice. While the car is a great little built, it is the background that really brings this whole build to life. The red flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics hangs in place with a gold hammer crossed with a gold sickle, symbols of communism and socialism.

I must ask Anton where the fallen star has gone?

The great Steambug migration has begun

You may have heard of the great migration of the Serengeti wildebeest, who migrate over 1,600 kilometres each year in search of grass and water. Well, the dust is rising over Butcher Paper Canyon, and it’s due to the massive Steambug Migration heading across the land, thanks to Ted Andes’ imagination and building skills. There are 7 initial species of Steambug present in this migration, but Ted hopes that many more will join by the time the migration reaches BrickWorld later this year.

Let’s get the magnifying glass out and take a closer look at these Steambugs.

See all of these LEGO critters up close

The wooden fortress of Valahadrian can withstand any force (except fire)

The Elven Fortress of Valahadrian is located deep in the Mystic Isles of Avalonia, and was created from the imagination of LEGO builder Tirrell Brown. The tan and reddish brown colour combination fits well into the green woodland landscape surrounding the fortress. I love the unusual circular construction with overgrown arches to give a really organic feel to the architecture. Tirrell has clearly spent time on the trees and greenery to bring the whole build together, resulting in a lovely vignette. There’s a story unfolding before our very eyes with the rowing boat arriving and someone awaiting the visitor’s arrival.

I can’t help but draw your attention to the multi-layered base mimicking the differing grass, soil and water layers — a very nice detail!

In space, no one can hear you refuelling

LEGO Space is a much-loved theme and builders continue to create new interpretations in what is commonly referred to as “Neo-Classic Space”. Rob Damiano has built a fantastic Rover Utility Vehicle — part of his wider Nova Team adventures. Apparently the R.U.V. is the “golf cart” of the Federation — just big enough for one occupant, with a tool box in the rear compartment.

The rover and fuel tanker are both great little builds, but it’s the overall scene and photography which makes this really impressive. I love the lighting and the sense of distance created by the backdrop.

Even a Spacehog needs some bumble bee stripes

As the Febrovery event comes to its conclusion, I couldn’t resist featuring one more ‘rover’ – although a Spacehog is more of a bike than a rover. With an extra long front fork and a laid back riding position, Brian Grissom has definitely captured the feel of a Harley Davison motorbike or “Hog”. I imagine this Spacehog will be an altogether quieter ride in the vacuum of space, compared to the thundering roar of a Harley down here on Earth!

I’m not sure how practical this particular vehicle would be on the tough terrain encountered in space, but Benny seems to be loving every second of his ride. Fan’s of Classic Space will recognise the nod to those classic “bumble-bee” stripes cleverly included in the central portion on the frame.

Inspiring Gothic cathedral worthy of our reverence

While this particular cathedral is not actually based on a real building, Swedish builder O Wingård was inspired by some of the world’s most beautiful Gothic architecture. He mentions Notre Dame in Paris, Kölner Dom in Cologne, and Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden. There are so many details to enjoy, but I have to highlight some of those key Gothic characteristics: the flying buttresses (seen in the centre-right of the photo), the lancet arches, and those impressive spires that give vertical emphasis.

Taking a closer look at the main entrance allows a great view of the stained glass rose window and all the many and varied bricks that depict the intricate details of this grand building. The steps lead up to the ground floor lancet arches, cleverly constructed using a series of bar holder with handle parts.

This is not just a façade, as the build is a 360 degree creation that is beautifully detailed, irrespective of the angle from which it is viewed. There are more photos on the builder’s Flickr album, and even a video tour of the cathedral.

Meet the ultra-cute Shinheadz and Blackheadz

LEGO recently released a new series of sets called Brickheadz, cute brick-built characters that seem to be the LEGO equivalent to Funko’s Pop Vinyls. And it’s no surprise that fans are responding with their own characters in this style. Tokoyo Tag Team have two couples to share the limelight. Firstly we have Shin Hayata, the lead character in the Japanese TV show Ultraman, and one of the monsters he fights, namely Gyango, who appears in an episode gloriously translated as The Rascal from Outer Space. Ultraman’s helmet has the perfect retro-futuristic vibe of a 1960’s sfi-fi television show.

Next up we have King Joe Black from the television series Ultraseven, a follow up to Ultraman. The slug-like creature next to him is Twin-Tail, a 15 kiloton prehistoric monster from the Return of Ultraman series. What a cutie!

Capturing characters in this chibi style is a great way to hone your character building skills by picking out the key features with bricks. I’m sure there will be lots more of these fan-built Brickheadz to come.

Planes, trains, automobiles ...and a hot air balloon

LEGO City remains one of the most popular themes designed by LEGO and is always fun to see a large city layout. And you will definitely not be disappointed by this bustling city scene by Korean building team OliveSeon – a huge minifigure scale diorama that is over 6 meters (19 feet) in length. The main central part of the scene includes a few official modular sets such as the Detective’s Office, Parisian Restaurant and Ghostbusters HQ on the left. But there is much more to this diorama than buildings, as I believe it depicts almost every form of transport system imaginable from an airplane, to a suspension railway, to HGVs and even a hot air balloon.

On the far right beyond those skyscrapers, the concrete plunges into a chilled out beach scene and then a mountain peak complete with cable car. The red and white cable car is very cute, as is the hot air balloon, even if every Health & Safety bone in my body is shouting that it’s too close to the high wires!

On the far left the transportation has a more nautical feel with the port and harbour area. Don’t go for a dip in the water on this side of the build though, cos I’ve spotted a few hungry sharks on patrol.

So can you think of any other forms of transportation the builders have missed in this huge 3-part diorama?

RAF Hawker Typhoon swooshes into enemy airspace

The Hawker Typhoon, known by the RAF as Tiffy for short, was a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft during World War II. Einon‘s LEGO version of the Typhoon features a fully retractable landing gear and carries eight rockets under the wings and two bombs. The real life bomber had a few design issues but Einon has managed to iron out some of these in his minifigure-scale version. The brick-built propeller is a good solution for sizing on this model but the invasion stripes on the upper wing surfaces and fuselage seal this as an accurate wartime Typhoon.

Einon has made a short video that not only shares more details about the Typoon, but also demonstrates his version’s retractable landing gear and how swooshable this LEGO bomber can be.