Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

The blocking dead usher in the zombie apocalypse in LEGO

After a two-year building hiatus, Turkish AFOL Metin Delikurt returns with his most ambitious creation to date – a sprawling diorama of a town beset by zombies. Featuring eight full-size buildings in varying states of decay, multiple vehicles, and dozens of zombies and survivors, its a truly epic LEGO look at a world where the dead rise.

In the past, the builder focused on historical settings, such as the age of piracy or the Old West. For this project, Metin wanted to challenge himself to explore a more modern world, and he proves every bit as adept. Buildings are close to Modular scale, but Metin sticks to earthier tones and more intricate brickwork, the better to showcase the cracks and overgrowth of a world in decline.

The dead walk after the fold

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Where minifig babies come from

Taking your work home with you isn’t always the best idea, but that’s especially true if you work as a Labor and Delivery nurse. Story Brick finds a loophole in LEGO and recreates her workplace in bricks. The builder recreates all of the equipment and essential tools of the delivery trade – I love all the spare gloves ready for the staff. LEGO has released a number of hospitals as part of the city line, but it’s a theme that has yet to make its way into an adult set. Would you want a hospital or clinic to add to your modular city?

Undertale turns 10: Let’s celebrate with LEGO tributes

Ten years ago this week, Toby Fox’s pixel adventure Undertale released, creating a stir in the gaming world with its beloved characters, haunting music, inversions of video game tropes, and a profound sense of empathy. A trio of fans expressed their appreciation for the game in LEGO in a charming collab.

gcbricks creates Frisk, Papyrus, and Sans as minifigs. The characters use all LEGO parts, but this custom minifig creator uses knife, glue, and eraser as part of their craft.

lego_brickey assembles Mettaton, the robot with a SOUL. Minifig arms make great cartoony fingers for this entertainment bot turned anti-human boss.

Lastly, snom_nom sculpts a beautiful render for a custom Asriel head. Undertale, and its follow-up Deltarune, made a profound impact on the builder’s life. Her tribute to Deltarune on the Ideas platform is currently under review.

For more tributes to Toby Fox’s game, check out our Undertale archives.

LEGO Ideas 21361 Gizmo – Mogwai in the Spotlight [Review]

This October, LEGO is releasing two very different Ideas sets. We previously took a look at the Mineral Collection (it rocks), and today we’re dimming the lights and putting together LEGO Ideas 21361 Gizmo. If you’ve ever wanted to adopt a Mogwai without risking a midnight snack disaster, this buildable Gizmo set is your safest bet! I’m V (@Minifiguring.It.Out on Instagram) and I’m a child of the 80s who remembers when Gizmo was as beloved and ubiquitous as Labubus are right now! Put on the Gremlins Rag and come along as we unlock the secrets of this Mogwai.

LEGO Ideas 21361 Gizmo | 1,125 Pieces | Available October 1 |US $109.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99

Are you ready to take care of a LEGO Mogwai?

Even Raven Knights get the blues

The black and gold Raven Knights exist only as a single collectible minifigure from 2020, but that hasn’t stopped Classic Castle fans from imagining a bigger world for this elusive faction. Evancelt Lego broke out the fancy sand blue and dark blue bricks to craft their home. Bluestone Castle might look like a simple rectangle at first glance, but it’s actually a trapezoidal design that uses “brick bending” to add a subtle angle to the corners. If you’re wondering how you missed out on the Raven Knight horse barding, that’s an unofficial part. But wouldn’t it be nice to have more accessories for this faction? lease, LEGO, bring back the ravens!

This half-timbered beauty is more than the sum of its parts

What constitutes “a lot of bricks” these days? When you see a sprawling diorama from a LEGO expo or a giant new display set, it’s clear you’re staring at “a lot of bricks.” But size can be deceiving when it comes to the number of elements. Take this incredible model from Satnis Creations. It’s a Tudor-style street scene less than half the size of a LEGO Modular, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were close to 10,000 bricks involved. The roof alone has roughly a thousand blue tiles, the walls are packed with 1×1 tiles and cheese slopes, and of course, that sidewalk. Using small parts lets Satnis create stunning detail with maximum precision, like the half-plate offset window frames and intricate half-timbering effects. Excellent period-appropriate minifigs bring the scene to life.

Celebrating 10 Years of MOCs with LEGO Mecha Maestro Marco De Bon [Interview]

Ten years ago, Italian builder Marco De Bon emerged from his “dark age” and began sharing incredible LEGO creations of giant robots inspired by the anime of his childhood. In the years since, Marco has continued to hone his craft, building mecha that are both highly articulated and exceptionally clean. Here at The Brothers Brick, we’ve long been fans of Marco’s mecha, hardsuits, and sci-fi crafts, so in celebration of this milestone, we sat down with Marco to look back on a decade of building MOCs.

Our interview with Marco and pictures of his 10 years of amazing mecha follow…

Back to the tabletop – more LEGO Lancer mechs join the battle

The indie RPG Lancer was a breakout success on Kickstarter in part because D&D with mechs is a compelling hook, but mostly thanks to the incredible art of Tom Bloom, whose mech designs brilliantly fuse hi-tech and adventure. LEGO builder Dane Erland previously shared a series of MOCs based on Lancer designs, and now he’s back with four more incredible brick adaptations.

First up is the HORUS Balor, a protean mech of loosely contained nanobots called the Hellswarm. With the swarm churning like smokey blue flames, the long whip, and digitigrade legs, it evokes a cybernetic balrog. Dane draws on an excellent mix of trans blue elements for the Hellswarm.

Click to check out more of Dane’s LEGO takes on Lancer’s mechs

Set sail for the pink and purple seas – Friendshiptember is under way

As we reach the halfway point of September, this is your friendly reminder that there’s still plenty of time to break out the pink, purple, and aqua bricks and participate in Friendshiptember! The annual challenge invites builders of all experience levels to create a ship (space, sky, or seafaring, all are fine!) inspired by the colors and minidolls of LEGO Friends. This year, The Brothers Brick is joining the sponsors with a prize of the Friendship Camper Van for one lucky participant.

To participate:

Build a friendship!
Post it to Instagram
tag @friendshiptember as a collaborator

You can make a grand sailing ship like Virgina_bricks did last year:

But don’t worry about needing ton of parts like SHIPtember. You can also enter with a cute little craft like this one from Kayla.

You can learn more about the contest, follow Friendshiptember on Instagram or read Josh Parkinson’s article on the joys of embracing the friendly side.

Un unusually good LEGO tribute to a Regular Show

Growing up as an ’80s kid, cartoons were glorified toy commercials full of heroes, villains, and lasers, with the only sitcom being Saved by the Bell, which wasn’t even a cartoon but beat going outside on a Saturday morning. In the era of the animated sitcom, a cartoon can focus on workplace comedy and hanging out with loser friends (and the odd laser battle) and run for eight seasons, like the brilliant Regular Show. Eli Willsea is a fan and paid tribute to one of the show’s most iconic locations: Pop’s house. The house is a deceptively simple-looking build from one of the AFOL world’s most sophisticated builders, but the abundance of right angles and clean lines hides many complex SNOT techniques – just take a close look at the garage door. Studs are a rare sight in Eli’s builds – do the ones with 1×1 tiles wedged into them to form the porch railings count as visible? The show might be “regular,” but Eli’s build is anything but.

For brianbrickster, making magic in medieval LEGO is a matter of perspective

When Slovakian builder brianbrickster first started sharing medieval LEGO creations, the stonework and siege weapons were impressive. Over the years, with skills honed in the trials of Brickscalibur and the Summer Joust, Brian has become a true artist of castle creations. His latest is a breathtaking display of forced perspective. The transition from minifig to microscale is miraculous. The brick-built sky gives the immersive scene the air of a painting.

Speaking of paintings, Brian has played with perspective before. Created for 2024’s Summer Joust, here the builder creates a whole world inside the ornate picture frame.

Click to explore more of Brian’s majestic yet playful medieval LEGO creations

An AFOL’s return to the LEGO kingdom

Polish AFOL Szymon Perz has created impressive builds in themes ranging from Pirates to Neo-Classic Space to the Old West, and of course, Castle. After a prolific run of MOCs, the builder disappeared two years ago and has been sorely missed. This week Szymon returns with a new castle creation that he calls a tribute to the Castle Era.

During his time away, Szymon has been brushing up on newer castle techniques, taking a page from Rivendell’s intricate roof tiling, but also experimenting with SNOT techniques for walls and rockwork. Welcome back, Szymon – we can’t wait to see where your building will lead you next!