About Flynn

Flynn is builder who hails from Oakland, California. His relationship with LEGO is long, but like all good relationships, it has had its ups and downs. After a long absence from the hobby, he started up again 4 years ago with an X-Men vs. The Sentinel. Since then he has won multiple Best in Show and People's Choice awards at various conventions. He is also a cake decorator, knitter, ukulele player, singer, actor, director type. He has a soft spot in his black heart for anything horror or fantasy related.

Posts by Flynn

And they all lived together in a little crooked house

Mastering the art of LEGO architecture can be difficult enough, but jaapxaap goes a step farther with this seemingly impossible little house full of color and texture. This type of work, dubbed “ramshackle style”, is a personal favorite of mine. The skill required to pull off an organic building such as this is a special one.

The sloping roof is extremely impressive with its purple tiles and the seamless way the two roofs meet. One of the keys to this style is a variety of texture which the builder pulls of admirably here. The combination of profile bricks, SNOT pieces and tiles create the feeling of a house that is constantly in repair. The building’s color palette is quite appealing in various shades of brown accented with pinks and purples. The landscaping is similarly appointed with an array of plants of different sizes, shapes and colors.

See more of this purple-roofed house

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TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for July 28, 2019 [News]

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 fourth week of July 2019.

LEGO Masters is coming to the U.S. and looking for contestants. Have you got what it takes? Keep reading this week’s Brick Report for a closer look.

TBB NEWS, REVIEWS AND INSTRUCTIONS: This week was all about a treehouse with an announcement and a review. Plus, learn to make your own Golden Snitch!

LEGO reveals 21318 Ideas Treehouse, featuring 3,000 pieces and foliage for 2 seasons – Follow the changing of the seasons with the new LEGO Ideas Treehouse.
LEGO Ideas 21318 Treehouse unleashes your childhood dreams [Review] – We take an inside look at the largest LEGO Ideas set to date. Check out our hands-on review!
Build your very own Golden Snitch [Instructions] – Builder hachiroku24 shows us how to craft the elusive Golden Snitch!
TBB’s Stranger Things building contest is flipping things upside down – There are just two and a half weeks left to build your best Stranger Things creation for a chance to win an amazing prize. Read about all the details in the article.

Continue reading →

It’s dangerous to go alone, take this Link sculpture!

Hey! Listen! Builder Vincent Kiew has built a terrific homage to one of the best RPG video games ever made, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Series hero Link (please don’t call him Zelda) has been lovingly recreated here astride his trusty steed (also not named Zelda), ready for an epic adventure in the kingdom of Hyrule.

This is a delightful model that brought a smile to my face as soon as I saw it. Upon closer inspection, I was immediately impressed by the iconic Zelda touches and the creative use of parts. The horse is chock full of building techniques that combine together to create the complicated musculature. The modified 1 x 2 plates with 3 claws make a beautiful mane and the I really like the minifigure crutch as stirrups. The award for best part use, however, must go to the implementation of Samurai helmets as hooves. If it looks like it’s defying gravity, that’s because it is! The horse was originally held up with transparent bricks which were then quickly removed for the photograph, and luckily it all remained intact.

The Link figure captures the character perfectly and his clothes are nicely rendered, with special modifications for riding versus standing. The use of car hoods for the hips of his tunic while riding and unicorn horns for his hair wisps are both great touches. As a Legend of Zelda fan, I really appreciate all the attention to Link’s equipment. The details on The Master Sword and in particular, The Hylian Shield, are beautiful. The builder even goes so far as giving him a tiny Shiekah Slate hooked to his belt with an Elves goblin eye tile to finish it all off. Now you may ask, “But, where is this Zelda we keep hearing about?” to which I shall answer “It’s a secret to everybody.”

Let’s run away with the circus!

Builder Ian Hoy turns our attention to the center ring with this beautifully built circus scene. Heed the carnival barker in his jaunty top hat as he calls to you — “Step right up folks and stare in awe and amazement at this action-packed quintuple of animal performers, each one with its own special talents on display! Hurry, hurry! Take a peek, you won’t be disappointed!”

Each of the animals in this scene could stand on its own, but the combination of all of them together makes for a truly marvelous show. If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be the leaping tiger. Hou manages to imbue it with action, movement and just a touch of danger.

The scooter-riding bear is a close second with his whimsical expression. The dog as the carnival barker is a brilliant touch, and the magician’s rabbit also provide a nice dose of humor and expression. Taking center stage is everyone’s favorite big-eared elephant Dumbo, although Hou doesn’t reference him as such in his descriptions of the piece.

Every performer has a level of detail and building creativity that is a joy to look at up close and leaves me wanting to figure out how the builder did it all.

The setting of the scene is equally rich in detail, from the bejeweled stage lights to the speakers and rounded stage. The use of flags on the sides also adds to the festive atmosphere and the font on the word “circus” is particularly impressive and creative. I’m also particularly fond of the use of the backside of the pieces to create the curtained backdrop. Many builders go to great pains to not show the back, but Hou does a terrific job in this case and it all blends together perfectly. As an added bit of humor, in the corner behind the tiger there looks to be a crate full of food, including a cooked turkey, to make sure the performers are well fed and ready to play.

Luckily, the fun doesn’t stop with the front of the model! The back and outside are equally impressive, utilizing a second lettering style and a simple but effective representation of a circus tent.

Like any good traveling spectacular, at the end of the day the whole shebang can be folded up and moved on to the next city, ready to thrill audiences with the greatest show on earth!

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for July 21, 2019 [News]

Toys ‘R’ Us returns to the U.S. in time for the 2019 holiday season. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS: This week we learned that you can’t keep a good giraffe down, watched the making of a life-size LEGO model of Iron Man, and reviewed two sets: a Technic Car Transporter and Jurassic World T. Rex vs Dino-Mech Battle. Meanwhile, our mind flaying Stranger Things contest continues gathering strength and entries.

TBB’s Stranger Things building contest is flipping things upside down – Build your best Stranger Things creation and you could win big. Read about all the details in the article.
Toys ‘R’ Us is coming back to the US – The iconic toy store will be returning to select locations in late 2019, just in time for the holidays.
Life-size LEGO Iron Man model created for San Diego Comic-Con – San Diego Comic Con was the big news this weekend and we got a look at the making of an Iron Man model using 35,119 bricks.
LEGO Technic 42098 Car Transporter – We take a closer look at the upcoming 3 ft. long Technic Car Transporter [Review].
LEGO set 75938 Jurassic World T. Rex vs Dino-Mech Battle [Review] – We discover the latest Jurassic World set based on the LEGO TV series Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar .

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

LEGO-Building Reality Competition LEGO Masters Ordered at Fox, TV Line – Already a hit in the UK and Australia, reality TV show LEGO Masters is coming to the US and they are looking for contestants.
A LEGO designer talks about designing spaceships and collaborating with NASA, The Verge – Designer Simon Kent launches into a discussion of his work on the LEGO Space theme.
LEGO SDCC Selfie Boxes for Minifigs Includes Star Wars, Batman, More, SuperHeroHype – Get a close up look at a series of special LEGO and artist built models at the LEGO Booth at San Diego Comic Con.
LEGO DC: BATMAN: Family Matters Enjoys Blocky World Premier at SDCC 2019, SyFy – The latest digital/DVD LEGO BATMAN feature premiers to excite fans.

Bedlam in the sahn

Builder Ted Andes brings us this scene full of middle-eastern style architecture and serpentine intrigue. A group of warriors battles it out with the forces of evil in the form of a snake-bodied wizard that we only see from the back. I love the way it lets your imagination fill in what might be behind that hooded cloak.

The whole courtyard is full of touches that evoke a feeling of the Middle East. The sand green and white tiled floor is beautifully done and complimented nicely by the sand green tiles with blue and yellow flowers on the wall to represent the elaborate tile work. The impressively large door made from palisades bricks is quite a presence and the use of keys as handles is very clever. The column treatment is elegant with its combination of square, round and palisades bricks as well as an earthy color palette that brings a cohesiveness to the whole scene.

But, it’s the decorated central column that really steals the show. The octagonal fountain at the base is a pleasing shape that draws your attention and mimics the angles of the tiled floor. The use of upside-down gold lamps for faucets gives is a nice touch and the gold scarab finishes this portion off nicely. The central column leads to a cluster of shin guards at the top that blossom into balloon parts topped with a bush to create a beautiful architectural palm tree. The addition of Aladdin off to the side, mopping up with a wry smile, is terrific and leaves us wondering if perhaps he was in on this evil plan the entire time.

This Fred Flintstone portrait is a Yabba-Dabba-Doozie!

Builder SuckMyBrick is perhaps best known for his pop culture LEGO models, but he has reached a new level with this spot-on portrait of Fred Flintstone. The Flintstones premiered in 1960 as the first ever prime time animated series. Almost 50 years later, Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty are still a part of our pop culture landscape, so much so that The LEGO Group produced the Flintstone’s iconic house as LEGO Ideas Set 21316 back in March.

When building with LEGO, it can be quite difficult to achieve the lines and curves required to make a portrait, and there is often a certain amount of abstraction that needs to take place. SuckMyBrick does an astounding job here with his utilization of the 3rd dimension, angles and curves. He also makes great use of studs up, studs out and even sideways building to achieve this look. I am particularly impressed by the builder’s ability to create this very sleek style with no studs showing. From a distance you might not even know this was made with LEGO bricks. The third dimension is expertly used to not only create Fred’s facial features, but to also give the impression that his is reaching out of the edge of the frame. It’s a positively perfect portrait of the patriarch of everyone’s favorite modern stone-age family!

GLaDos is doing science and she’s still alive

GLaDos is back and she’s serving up some vengeance on Chell and Wheatley in this Portal vignette by hachiroku24. Way back in 2007, the video game industry was taken by storm by Portal, a mind-bending game that pitted a human test subject against technology run amok. A sequel followed in 2011 and the series proved popular enough that LEGO included it as a playable world in LEGO Dimensions, even producing an official Chell minifigure and the beloved Weighted Companion Cube. Hachiroku24 has taken that Chell minifig and built this spot-on recreation of a scene with the evil GLaDos and Portal 2’s friendly AI, Wheatley.

GLaDos is perfectly rendered here utilizing a variety of visible Technic parts to create that feeling of exposed machine technology. The hoses and wires are especially effective and add a touch of realism that make the whole machine seem plausible. I’m very fond of the combination of pieces used to create GLaDos’ elegantly curved “face”. Comical sidekick Wheatley, in contrast to his larger relative, gets a similarly ideal treatment but using only a small number of parts. As a builder, I like “breaking the square” so I really love the use of hinges and angled plates to create a more irregular shaped base for this scene. Although 12 years may have passed, thanks to hachiroku24, GLaDos is still getting the science done for the people who are still alive.

Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world

Miro Dudas takes us on a surfin’ safari with a lovely figural model. After working with this surfer girl since 2015, Dudas has finally achieved the look he wants, proving that even smaller models can benefit from extensive tinkering.

This California girl has a wonderfully fluid pose and the limited color palette consisting of only six colors really highlights the elegant figure. It also contains some fantastic parts usage such as the minifig bandanas for the bikini top and the Battle Droid torsos as shoulders. Her windswept hairdo also features a ninja helmet horn standing in for bangs and brown carrot tops that add some nice additional detail to the coiffure. I’m also very fond of the overall smooth look achieved by showing very few studs.

Dudas says he will soon be offering instructions for this beauty so you too can ride the waves all the way to Surf City.

New Lego Star Wars video game: The Skywalker Saga revealed at E3 [News]

Hold on to your lightsabers, padawans, TT games has announced an all new Lego Star Wars game, The Skywalker Saga, at this year’s Microsoft XBox E3 press conference. Not merely a rehash of past games, this will be an all-new experience that spans all nine Star Wars movies including the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It boasts over 100 playable characters and the ability to drop into the story at any point you wish.

“LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga marks our return to the franchise that kicked off the LEGO video game series. The game will give fans an all-new LEGO Star Wars experience with complete freedom to explore the LEGO Star Wars galaxy,” said Tom Stone, managing director of TT Games. “It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the launch of the original LEGO Star Wars game and it’s equally exciting to now move the series forward and help create a new era of LEGO Star Wars games.”

“With the Skywalker saga coming to an end, we wanted to give fans the ultimate Star Wars video game experience with all the humor and charm that is uniquely LEGO,” said Douglas Reilly, vice president, Lucasfilm Games. “LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will bring to life all those Star Wars adventures remembered and undiscovered in an epic culmination of all nine saga films as fans celebrate the closing of this chapter in Star Wars.”

Check out the trailer and more screenshots from the game below. Continue reading →

The legacy of Ninjago’s Dragon’s Forge

Everything old is new again and Robert4168 takes us on a nostalgic trip back to 2017 with this colorful and detailed homage to set 70627 Dragon’s Forge. Recently, LEGO has started giving some of their classic Ninjago sets a makeover and re-issuing them under the Legacy moniker. For fans, it’s a great opportunity to get your hands on some updated versions of older locations that you may have missed the first time around. Taking a cue from LEGO, Eurobricks launched a contest asking their members to create their own Legacy scenes based on any past Ninjago set. Clearly, Robert4168 was up to the challenge!

The color palette of the landscaping is a beautiful combination of lime green and dark green accented with translucent blue tiles and bricks for a pleasing water effect. I like the use of angled plates and some sideways building to create its organic shapes. The rickety brown wooden bridge is not only nicely constructed, but provides good color contrast.

The detailed revamping of the forge’s interior is a marked improvement on the original set with its tan and dark tan color scheme, brown window frames and tiled floor. The addition of warm lights inside the forge is a perfect finishing touch that really puts this model over the top.

This Jem concert is truly, truly, truly outrageous!

You can feel the Synergy emanating from this bright and cheerful Jem set by Samuel Hatmaker. You may remember him as the creator of the popular Golden Girls project on LEGO Ideas (It reached 10,000 supporters but failed to pass the review). This time, he has built a complete playset that includes four separate pieces capturing all the glamour, glitter, fashion and fame of the 80’s hit cartoon, Jem & the Holograms.