These Cryo Pods built by Peter Reid evoke the eerie feeling of Ridley Scott’s Alien hiding in the corner ready to pounce. The abundant use of grey paired with dramatic lighting gives off the feelings of being far away from earth and long travel in cold reaches of space. The scene is built with almost no LEGO studs visible, which also tricks our minds to believe that this could be larger than what it actually is — at first glance almost close to a movie-scale prop.
Before there was the Game Boy, Nintendo was making Game & Watch devices. It is said that back in 1979, the inventor was on a bullet train watching a bored businessman playing with his calculator, which inspired him to create an LCD gaming device to kill time. From then on and right through the ’80s this silhouette of Mr. Game & Watch has been embedded into many of our brain cells. This 2D silhouette made by Logan W with various LEGO elements may not be perfect, but it definitely is close enough to transport us back in time.
Battle packs are known for being sets with simple builds and greater emphasis on the number of minifigures. The 75225 Elite Praetorian Guard Battle Pack comes with three Praetorian Guards, a First Order stormtrooper, and a plethora of weapons. You can’t really go wrong with battle packs if you’re out to build an army, but this Elite Praetorian Guard Battle Pack 109 piece set is more than meets the eye. Since minifigures are the primary attraction when it comes to battle packs, the emphasis of this review will be on them.
Box artwork portrays the Elite Praetorian Guards in what appears to be a training room. The set consists of two numberless bags and a set of instructions
Click to read the full review of the Elite Praetorian Guard Battle Pack
There are only so many Star Wars scenes that are prominent enough to become a LEGO set, so it’s refreshing to see something that hasn’t been done before. Most LEGO Star Wars fans would probably agree that the Death Star escape scene has been long overdue in becoming a set. Despite receiving 3 minutes of screen time, it is one of the most memorable scenes from the franchise. Now, we finally get to see it built in LEGO-form. The 75229 Death Star Escape consists of 329 pieces and retails for $29.99 USD (CDN 39.99 and GBP 24.99). Does it hold up to the memorable scene from Star Wars: A New Hope? Read on to find out more.
Click to read the full review of the Death Star Escape
One of my favorite movies of all time is Aliens, and I get giddy when I see any one of them being created with LEGO bricks. There’s just a feeling of biomechanics involved from H.R.Giger’s original design and the eventual creatures we see on the big screen that makes it believable with a brick built design. This rendition by Carter Baldwin is quite amazing as the whole build is supported on its own legs. All we need now are some flamethrowers and Ellen Ripley to show up and get this party started!
Having grown up with the iconic Raleigh bicycle and a Boombox radio in the garage, it was tough to pass up this nostalgic blast from the past. Builder Melan-E pulls out all the stops in the detailing of each artifact of yesteryear. A few things stand out for me, including the great styling of both front and rear wheels, the reverse side of the 8×8 round element used for the speaker on the boombox, and oh! — those cassette tapes are simply charming.
The boombox and cassette tapes look like they could almost scream out a hit like “Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees. I wonder if the cassettes would fit right into the slots, as it does look like some hinged parts were used for the tape deck.
Melanie has created beautiful detailing around the rims with 1×1 plates that go all around, plus a school backpack to go.
If you need a reference point of what a classic Raleigh looks like, I just happen to have one that my Mom had saved through the decades, brought back to life with a new coat of paint and a basket.
A number of things have changed in the way LEGO has begun marketing its sets in 2019, and one of them is the Juniors line of branding. The “Juniors” branding has been replaced by boxes with a huge “4+” number at the bottom left corner. This year, for the very first time, the LEGO Star Wars theme enters the newly branded 4+ (formerly “Juniors”) age group and one of our favorite vehicles makes its debut, the X-Wing Starfighter. We don’t typically review sets meant exclusively for younger kids, but with Star Wars, how could we say no? 75235 X-Wing Starfighter Trench Run is available now, retailing at $29.99 in the US (CDN 39.99 and GBP 24.99), and we wanted to let you decide for yourselves as we dive into the details.
Read our full review of 75235 X-Wing Starfighter Trench Run
In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of January 2019.
TBB NEWS: Ushering in 2019, a flood of new LEGO sets hit stores and we have your complete guide. We also got a peek at of The LEGO Movie 2 with minifigures and a massive set.
TBB REVIEWS: We take a look at some of the 2019 releases from two popular themes and an exclusive: Speed Champions, Star Wars, and the Chinese New Years Eve Dinner, respectively.
TBB EDITORIALS & FEATURES:
With the ringing in of 2019, we’re also getting the release of Series 6 of the LEGO Star Wars Microfighters. When the series was first introduced, each Microfighter pack came with a single build, and most, if not all were vehicles, as the theme’s title implies. 75228 Escape Pod vs Dewback Microfighters comes with two builds in a single pack, which we first saw introduced in 2018. But now for the very first time, a Microfighters set features a creature instead of a vehicle. It’s also the first time the Dewback is in a brick-built form as opposed to a molded figure, and it created a bit of a buzz with LEGO Star Wars fans. The set comes with 177 pieces and retails for $19.99 USD. Let’s take a look and see how it stacks up.
The Escape Pod and Dewback are among the first scenes on Tatooine we see in Star Wars: A New Hope. C-3PO and R2-D2 first arrive from their escape pod fresh off the Tantive IV with the plans of the Death Star hidden in R2-D2’s memory banks. Sand Troopers scour the desert hunting down the pod’s contents, confirming that the pods were not empty vessels as first suspected but instead finding traces of droids in the area.
Nancy Grace Roman, the astronomer and “the mother of the Hubble” passed away on December 26 at the age of 93. She worked on the Hubble Space Telescope in the early stages and was honored in the LEGO Ideas Women of NASA set in 2017. She was also the first woman executive at NASA and also one of the first chief astronomers. She will dearly be missed by the lives she’s touched and inspired all over the world, and her legacy will be long remembered. On behalf of the LEGO community and the team at The Brothers Brick, we bid you farewell. Nancy, you are now one truly with the stars and you will always shine with brightness in the sky, leading the way for aspiring youth to light the path to even greater things. Rest in peace, Nancy.
The next best thing that came out of the Star Wars prequels, next to having Darth Maul and his dual lightsaber scenes (for me at least) were these STAP (Single Trooper Aerial Platform) Droids. I’ve always thought they were quite functional and neat looking while being able to navigate smoothly through jungle terrain. This build by SP Design is quite a delightful reminder that this particular pair of vehicle/character could be a set issued under the constraction theme, similar to the Scout Trooper & Speeder Bike. I’d probably get a bulk load of them just to have an army. It’s also been a while since I’ve watched the prequels and maybe time to do so again.
I really love this simplistic yet almost mysterious corner townhouse built by Nybohov Creation Ltd. The tower takes a different shade that does not match the rest of the building facade, yet seems pleasantly in place. I tend to let my imagination run wild and think of mysterious permanent residents who have the free will to leave but choose not to. Perhaps it’s those street lamps that remind me of scary exorcist movies. From a building technique standpoint, the dark orange roof stands out using staggered 1×2 slopes, contrasting nicely with the sand blue tones of the structure. Keeping things simple sometimes gets you the best outcome.