Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

LEGO Art 31216 Keith Haring – Dancing Figures – Brick up and dance with me [Review]

LEGO’s Art line has proven a popular way to engage with iconic artwork, with sets that translate brushstrokes into bricks that you can hang on your wall. The newest addition to the line, LEGO Art 31216 Keith Haring – Dancing Figures, shakes up the formula with a playful interpretation of the pop artist’s work that invites sharing the build experience with others. And instead of one finished work, you get 5 pieces that you can display your own way. For this review, I’ll be taking LEGO’s suggestion and inviting my family to join in for a social build experience. If you have others to share the build with, I recommend that you try this as well. As Keith Haring famously said, “art is for everybody.” But is this set for you? Let’s dig in!

Keith Haring – Dancing Figures will hit shelves and walls this May 15th for US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £104.99.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read the full review

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Colors, competition, and cookies! A packed This Week in LEGO Bricks! [Feature]

It’s been an exceptionally busy week in the LEGOverse with dozens of new sets getting announced, May the Fourth blasting off, and a new batch of Bricklink Designer kits moving to the voting round. Not to mention the Rogue Olympics and Iron Builder competitions, and all the usual MOCs and articles about our beloved bricks. Thankfully, ABrickDreamer has rounded up the essentials for easy viewing. My favorite stories this week: in the Conversation Piece column, there’s a must-read roundtable discussion of color theory and LEGO, and over on New Elementary, one of our favorite builders, Tom Loftus, brings an expert’s eye to new parts and recolors on the new Jango Fett’s Starship.

Otaku icons Yotsuba and Danbo in LEGO&!

Outside of Otakudom, Yotsuba might not be as familiar as Calvin and Hobbes or Dennis the Menace, but this genki girl from the long-running manga offers a similar authentic and charming child’s view of the world. To celebrate a new volume, Ids de Jong builds Yotsuba in LEGO, along with her cardboard companion Danbo. Yotsuba is posed among sunflowers, a motif used on the book covers. Ids uses bright green bricks for the hair, a color that is quite scarce, and even pick-a-brick has limits of 10 for some parts, but the results are spot on.

Ids previously made a Hatsune Miku character that is equally kawaii.

A bridge over tranquil waters

When I’m feeling weary and small, sometimes all it takes is seeing bricks laid down to ease my mind. And what’s more comforting than a bridge over ~~troubled~~ tranquil waters in the countryside? As chairman of the Zbudujmy.to! (Polish for Let’sBuild.It!) LEGO community, Paweł Michalak (aka Kris Kelvin) has contributed to and coordinated many amazing and immersive builds that celebrate the buildings and landscape of Poland. Paweł’s latest piece features a bridge, but it’s the scenery that sweeps you away. The weeping willow, made from dozens of green whips, is a clever design that transports you right to the riverbank. The three swans, gracefully swooping under the bridge, let the scene soar.

Where are the swans headed? Probably one of the builder’s scene castles, gardens, or hobbit holes!

LEGO Icons 10351 Sherlock Holmes: Book Nook – A study in plastic [Review]

Book Nooks are a cozy trend in decor and DIY crafting in which you assemble a diorama that fits between books on a shelf offering a window into a miniature world. They’re also the latest format that LEGO is experimenting with in finding new ways for adult fans to assemble and display brick-built models, starting with LEGO Icons 10351 Sherlock Holmes: Book Nook. The set is exclusive to Barnes & Noble booksellers and LEGO online and retail stores beginning on June 1st, where it will retail for US $129.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £109.99. A folding façade of 221B Baker Street full of literary easter eggs, architectural flourishes, and minifigs of iconic characters that can be tucked away on any bookshelf? In theory, it’s a match made in millennial aesthetic heaven. But is this the book nook we deserve or just a red herring? Come, Watson! The game is afoot!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Join us as we crack the case of the Sherlock Holmes: Book Nook!

Highly-synchronized miniature Evangelion mecha are absolutely terrific

The EVA mechs of Neon Genesis Evangelion are perennial subjects for LEGO builders, and as big fans of the show, we never get tired of seeing new takes. Joe Lam has the Nerv(e) to build all three units in his signature spindly style. These little guys are so tiny, I hope they don’t face any Angels bigger than a cherub. Unit-01 trades purple for blue and sports a scredriver for its signature horn and holds an impressively pointy Spear of Longinus. What’s fun about this scale of bot is how common the parts are and how accessible it is for new MOC builders to figure out the steps to make copies of their own.

Joe previously made bloody good LEGO Chainsaw Man and Katana Man at this scale.

NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise takes flight with LEGO Icons 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft [News]

LEGO has many versions of NASA’s iconic Space Shuttle over the years, but never like this. In less than two weeks, the shuttle makes a surprise return atop a Boeing 747 as part of the LEGO Icons line. Measuring two feet long with a wingspan of 21 inches, and featuring working 18-wheel landing gear, LEGO Icons 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft follows in the wake of 2023’s Concorde as a perfect project and display model for fans of aerospace engineering. The set contains 2,417 pieces and will be available early to LEGO Insiders on May 15 and to all on May 18 for US $229.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £199.99.

Read our review with Chris Malloy here!

Blast off for aerospace adventure with pictures and product details from LEGO

The sun sets on Revenge of the Fifth

In Revenge of the Sith, we witness the twilight of the Jedi in the glow of lasers, lightsabers, and lava. Sam (dewback_bricks) brings cinematic lighting to Anakin’s fall in a LEGO diorama that infuses excellent brickwork with a powerful air of tragedy. The floor design is brilliantly done, as is the forced perspective through the tall window. (And no doubt many builders are envious of those sand red columns!)

Thanks to LED lighting and a few minor changes, the scene transforms as the Dark Side rises.

As George Lucas famously said about the prequels, “It’s like poetry. It rhymes.”

Ekko from Arcane transformed into a LEGO legend

Mitch Phillips isn’t just a phenomenal LEGO character builder – he’s also a great teacher at how to break free from the LEGO grid and create impossible shapes full of personality. His latest creation is the hero Ekko from Arcane, the animated series based on League of Legends. The build started with Ekko’s face and iconic hourglass face paint (the hero’s powers involve time manipulation), and an afro made from twisted rubber bands.The mix of curves and angles is a perfect match for the animated series’s signature style.

Mitch breaks it all down in his video walkthrough, which is an essential watch if you’re curious about techniques that push LEGO elements to their limits. Not visible in the photograph is the most insane parts usage – the hoverboard’s rotor is made from a ring of Clone Trooper visors using a connection I’ve never seen before.

The name Ekko also suggests a mash-up of Eero Okkonen, another character builder whose creations some of Mitch’s design invokes. Coincidence…?

New LEGO Harry Potter sets fly in this June bringing buildable creatures and biggest ever Hogwarts module [News]

LEGO must have hidden those Harry Potter Horcruxes somewhere very safe indeed, as 14 years after the Deathly Hallows ended the Boy Who Lived’s story, sets keep coming. This summer you can manage some mischief at home with 8 new sets, ranging from a massive minifigure scale version of Hogwarts’ Main Tower to the pull-back powered Book of Monsters. All sets will release on June 1, 2025, and many can be pre-ordered now. Don’t get caught in a pop quiz unprepared – read on for the full details.

Take a peek at the next wave of LEGO sets from the Wizarding World!

From Sand Elves to Frank Herbert’s DUNE, these desert dwelling minifigs are an oasis of creativity [Minifig Monday]

Believe it or not, Tatooine is not the only desert world to inspire amazing minifigures. There’s also Jakku. And Jedha. And Geonosis. And Pasaana. And… You know what? We’re not looking at any desert worls where Jedi have set foot today. Instead, for this week’s Minifig Monday we’re looking at original designs from the worlds of fantasy, literature, history, and military sci-fi.

Leading us into the desert today is Jacob Manahan, whose Akhanii desert elves are an imagined ancient kingdom from which civilization flowed. Jacob selects a nice assortment of printed body parts with folds of cloth and timeless jewelry (and I see Horizon‘s Aloy split across two different figures). Those blue eyes suggest the presnce of a certain spice on this world…

Speaking of Spice, builders Parker (lego.frenzy) and Woudt (_standaartwoudt_) recently collaborated on a series of fig builds based interpreting the characters of Frank Herbert’s Dune, without leaning the official figures from the excellent Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter. Parker’s series leads with this ensemble. I love the choice of the Haunted Mansion employee for Paul’s sullen face. The Sardukar soldier is epic and menacing. Parker even slips in a brilliant mini-build with that innovative Sandworm maw made from light nougat shields clipped in a ring.

Quench your thirst for hot desert minifigures after the break

Crush the budding rebellion from within the Imperial Security Bureau

The Imperial Security Bureau scenes are easily some of the best in both seasons of Andor as we get to see how petty and cunning the Empire’s most ruthless officers can be. Some even say that the ISB is the shadow government undermining the Emperor’s good intentions. Jonah Frost converts the ISB briefing room into LEGO and this brightly-lit set for shadowy dealings has never looked better. The standout technique is the irregular wall textures made from cheese slopes at every orientation. The doorway with the Imperial logo also looks great. It’s a perfect backdrop for the new Dedra Meero minifig to stand and sneer. Maybe Major Partagaz can even muster up some kind words for everyone’s favorite spider-counter.