Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

24 Days of Brickmas – A holiday challenge for builders of all ages starts today!

Opening advent calendars is one way to celebrate the holidays with LEGO (which you know we love!), but at The Brothers Brick, we’re even more excited by fans who use the occasion to create their own jolly builds. The 24 Days of Brickmas challenge on Instagram is a tradition about just that! Organizer Jessica (@dontbrickmedown) provided a list of daily prompts if you want to join in!

There are plenty of prizes for participants, including some exclusively for children. The Brothers Brick will be contributing two sets of six collectible Minifigures from the upcoming series – one set for AFOLs, one set for KFOLs (Kid fan of LEGO). It’s not too late to try for a 24-day streak, or pick your favorite themes and join in the fun for a snow day.

Here are a few of the early entries for this year’s challenge for inspiration:

snarkybrixx offers up this delightful greeble mosaic full of holiday cheer.

Here are a few more Bricksmas builds that have us seeing red!

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2025 LEGO Advent Calendar Spoilers: Day 1 [Feature]

December is here, and for LEGO fans, that means one thing: time to start opening Advent Calendars! Here at The Brothers Brick, we’ve been sharing daily reveals since 2015, served with hot mugs of spicy commentary and plates of silly side builds. This year, the spoiling duties are being shared by three accomplished builders who you might recognize from our Minifig Monday series. Harry Potter and Frozen calendars are being covered by Fool’s Figures, who also provided the cover image below. ExpansionBricks is launching Star Wars and Friends. And beyondb0nes is digging into Minecraft and City.

6 themes, 24 doors, 144 gifts. It’s going to be a wild ride! Starting tomorrow, in addition to the daily spoilers, our intrepid advent adventurers will also be creating alternate builds with the day’s parts and pieces that came before. Now it’s on to door number 1!

Click here to see today’s builds!

Taiwan’s top builders team up for endangered animal LEGO tributes

At Taipei’s LEGO Sunkids flagship store, three familiar builders debuted amazing new MOCs as part of an exhibit about threatened and endangered animal species in Taiwan.

Hsinwei Chi presents this adorable Leopard Cat, the only wild cat living on Taiwan. As adorable as this frisky feline is, the species is only a distant cousin to the house cat and it cannot be domesticated. The builder does a phenomenal job with the cat’s complex markings, but it’s the playful posing that makes this a work of truly rare talent.

James Zhan captured the scaly beauty of the exotic pangolin, which despite its armored appearance is more closely related to a bear than an armadillo. The builder makes good use of various curved slopes in dark orange to create the pinecone-like scaly hide. We were previously enamored by the builder’s elegant Spoonbill.

Finally, Ian Hou swims in with Lutra Lutra – the Eurasian river otter. Hunted to near extinction on Taiwan for their fur, the species is at the center of ongoing efforts to bring back from the brink. Ian’s LEGO version captures the otter’s appeal with its stocky tube body and smiling face. The floppy fish is an excellent touch. The builder has created many incredible animal builds over the years, which you can see in our Ian Hou archives.

Incidentally, these talented builders are impacted by the troubling news that Bricklink is ending service to 35 countries, which includes Taiwan.

Robot romantics

What is more romantic than an offering of plant matter? Clearly this robot suitor from Kelly Bartlett is well versed in human courtship rituals. Maybe you or I would have picked the purple flowers and left the dirty roots in the ground, but it’s the thought that counts. Kelly’s bots are a delight a wordless LEGO comic with big heart.

Hellboy will always look this good

Ron Perlman’s take on big red is one of the great on-screen superheroes – Hellboy fits him like a glove. But in comics, Hellboy’s form is a lot more malleable under the pen of creator Mike Mignola, who brings an expressionist approach to the hero. Sometimes he’s a hulking beast, other times he’s downright willowy, as in this haunting MOC from builder Jin Chen. Jin faithfully captures Mignola’s dramatic pose and Hellboy’s chiseled body. Excellent photography uses shadows to fill in detail, in Mignola fashion.

Jin had applied his LEGO artistry to Hellboy before with this smiling bust of the big guy.

Give thanks for the ultimate dessert: Baja Blast Pie!

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, probably the biggest day of the year for pie consumption. Pumpkin and Pecan might be traditional flavors of the fall, but this year Taco Bell really captured the spirit of 2025 with a bold new pie flavor: Baja Blast! Sadly, the pie was only available at the start of the month, so no making a run for the border to save your family dinner. Let’s give thanks to Eli Willsea (via his Morlorn Empire side account) for capturing this memeable moment in LEGO. This is the build that teal bricks were made for! (Or is it the build that Mark Stafford foresaw and tried to kill?)

A month of daily mechs with ace AFOL Ivy [Interview]

From Febrovery to Frogust, the LEGO world is rich with events that challenge AFOLs to build under constraints to spark creativity and build community. Some of these, like the newly minted NovHENber, casually invite a single build during a month. The most rigorous challenges are those with a daily creation. Few have the time and stamina for that breakneck pace of building, and every builder who achieves this is an inspiration. Ivybrickss is one such builder who recently completed her second Mechtober – a month of LEGO mechs with mind-blowing variety in theme and function. We sat down with Ivy to talk about her amazing month.

Click to read our interview with Ivybrickss and see highlights of her 31 mechs

Legendary Xerneas makes a staggeringly cute LEGO Pokémon

As anticipation rises for official LEGO Pokémon sets in 2026, more builders than ever are creating their own Pocket Monster MOCs. The latest builder to try and catch ’em is Azurekingfisher, a builder with a distinctive style whose works are currently on display in LEGO House’s Masterpiece gallery. Azurekingfisher’s builds often focus on flowers, birds, and geometric patterns, so seeing a pop-culture creature on their page was quite a surprise. Somehow, the fairy-type Xerneas seems right at home amongst the builders’ works. It’s equal parts adorable and elegant.

The very private Japanese builder has been sharing pictures of their work since 2014. If you want to learn more about their work, BrickNerd just shared an excellent interview with Azurekingfisher.

A clean and classic Vic Viper isn’t just good, it’s Gradius!

NoVVemeber, the annual tradition of building “Vic Viper” inspired starfighters in November, may have been first inspired by classic video game Gradius, but over the past 17 years, builders have pushed the format to wild places, like a ship made from string or this VV made from medical supplies. The One and Only Mr. R (yes, that’s his handle) goes back to the source this month with a ship directly based on the Vic Viper of Gradius V, in player 2 red. While the inspiration isn’t revolutionary, the craftsmanship is of the highest caliber.

The geometry of the wings, the subtle recesses in the SNOT-built forward prongs, and the slick color blocking make this Vic Viper a dream from every angle.

Feeling nostalgic for Novvember? Check out our Vic Viper archives for dozens more ships in this iconic style.

Ari “loafbuilds” Hytti defends Iron Builder title against challenger Ben Anderson

Today, the three judges of the venerable Iron Builder competition announced the results of the latest face-off between defending builder Ari “loafbuilds” Hytti against challenger Ben Anderson. While Ben came out on top in the number of builds (7 MOCs to Ari’s 4), it was Ari’s consistent highlighting of the seed part that gave the returning champion an edge, and the judges were unanimous in picking their winner. You can read the judge’s comments here.

The see part for this round was the wave rounded flame element in dark blue, which with its unusual connection points and irregular shape made for a true building challenge.

Now, let’s recap the builds, starting with the victor, Ari!

Shared on Halloween, Ari’s “Infernal Bargain” is one of the most impressive build I’ve seen come out of an Iron Builder competition, and one of the largest! The seed part is used to excellent effect for the demon’s hair, as well as for the quill pen’s feather. The other parts brought, from a Viking sail contrct, to dragon legs for brows, to the truly inspired mountain elements for the neck, boggle the mind.

Click to see the rest of Ari and Ben’s amazing Iron Builder creations

Gotta stack ‘em all, Pokémon!

LEGO Masters Germany winner Alex (Brix Tales) has been on a hot streak in recent months, participating in Habitat Challenges with some spectacular stacks that throw convention out the window. Traditionally, a habitat is an 8×8 base with two walls, built to house a minifig, and designed to interlock and stack. For this tribute to the Gameboy era of handheld gaming, Alex frames one familiar habitat with a pixelated explosion of Pokémon characters. I love how the build embraces the 2D source material and turns the pixel art into layered building blocks. All the starters are present and even a pair of Poké Balls make it into the mix. It’s not just a radical reinterpretation of the LEGO habitat stack – it’s one of the best tributes to 8-bit gaming I’ve seen in LEGO. Bravo.

Dancing with dragons and thrones in LEGO

RebelLUG member Kaleb (llego_pig) returns to the Seven Kingdoms with the latest in a series of masterful medieval builds that capture the specificity of George R. R. Martin’s world like few builders can. This time Kaleb’s subject is the Merman’s Court, where Davos Seaworth meets with Wyman Manderly, Lord of the White Harbor. Take a moment to appreciate the murals that adorn the walls. Ornate mosaics have become a fixture in Castle builds, but usually to create geometric patterns. I’m in awe of the way Kaleb weaves a Kraken fighting a whale, kelp, and an undulating tide into the brickwork with minimal gaps. The floor, too, reminiscent of a seabed, is equally impressive.

Kaleb’s past LEGO tributes to Westeros landmarks have been impressive, and even grander in scale. Build in 2022, here is Kaleb’s take on Deepwood Motte. Theon Greyjoy might have called it a “wooden pisspot on a hill,” but it’s quite majestic in brick with excellent SNOT walls of wood-colored plates. The builder added a weirwood tree to make enhance the connection to A Song of Ice and Fire.

See more of Kaleb’s incredible builds from the Seven Kingdoms