Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Monster Mash collab is an NPU smash

Halloween may be in the past, but we’re still haunted by a collab of classic movie monsters reinterpreted in LEGO by top character builders.

Fresh off winning the 2025 Bio-Cup, Hlebo Bas gets back to the mad NPU science with this wild and inspired take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both the good doctor and his alter ego feature wonderfully expressive faces from a fun mix of parts. Just as impressive is the sinewy sense of movement that the builder excels at.

Another Bio-Cup alum, GiiKei, unearths this stunning Mummy. The delicate limbs wrapped everything from rubber bands to minifig helms to balloon panels looks phenomenal in the leonine pose, but the showstopping piece here is the buildable Rey face painted gold.

Click to see the rest of monster mash, if you dare

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Villains unite – sinister figs of the LEGO multiverse [Minifig Monday]

What’s a hero without a good villain? Or, better yet, a whole rogue’s gallery of baddies in every flavor. This week on Minifig Monday, we celebrate custom LEGO creations of villains – both familiar faces from comics and original characters.

Llano (femmefromtheblock) gets things started with this hot take on Mr. Freeze. It’s just one of the builder’s growing ensemble of #dcllanoverse Bat characters. The pale blue and pearlescent works so well for Gotham’s coolest villain.

Redbirch Bricks is back with this “midi-fig” spin on Bane, from the infamous Knightfall arc. The villain’s minifig legs as arms perfectly sell his venom-fueled muscles as he breaks the Bat.

Click for more villains from the world of comics, Warhammer, and fantasy

One builder’s weekly exploration of shape and color with Monday mosaics

Since 2021, #MosaicsOnMonday has invited LEGO artists to share mosaic works of any shape and size in a community tradition that starts the week off with a joyful mix of bricks. One regular contributor who specializes in larger-format mosaics is Johanita Kirsten. Each of Jo’s works is an experiment in color and form, ranging from elegant patterns reminiscent of Moorish art to bold modern mosaics like this one, which uses only rectangular tiles in as many colors as possible.

Some of Jo’s mosaics incorporate botanical elements amongst the tiles, which is fitting as they sometimes resemble a garden seen from above with their quadrants and lanes.

Here you can see how two similar color palettes can yield strikingly different patterns – one using curves and textures, the other constrained to almost entirely flat lines.

Or here we see similar geometric patterns with different applications of color. Each weekly mosaic represents hours of work – both the creation and stripping off the elements to a clear baseplate, like sand art. Most LEGO MOCs are ephemeral, but with weekly mosaics, it becomes a ritual – one that builders like Jo share as a community.

If you’re curious about the origins of MosaicsOnMonday, we spoke with the founders of the initiative back in 2022.

Greg Scherrer’s inspired brick-built characters find big Muppet energy in LEGO

What if Jim Henson had worked with ABS plastic instead of felt when he started creating the Muppets? Maybe they’d look something like the incredible characters of Chicago-based LEGO builder Greg Scherrer. Each model shows an uncanny talent for bringing out personality in bricks, with a cartoonist’s playfulness in form and color and a puppeteer’s playfulness with motion. It makes sense seeing as Greg is a cartoonist and illustrator by trade. We reached out to the builder to learn a bit more about his process.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve gotten pretty into creating improvised brick-built characters. I try to stock up my parts collection with the kinds of pieces that inspire me, lots of bright colors and curved slopes. My approach to building characters is then fully improvised based on my parts inventory. I’ve never built digitally, and I rarely leave a build unfinished to wait on an order of something specific.

The fun of building characters for me is in the improvisation and problem-solving on-the-go. I’ll often start off with just wanting to try out a build idea for eyes, or a mouth that hinges for a potential working puppet. From there, I completely lose track of time and can spend hours figuring out what I’m building and making it work.

A cozy watch tower for fire spotting in microscale

When working life feels like a grind, I daydream about trading office life for a fire lookout tower in remote wilderness. Aside from the allure of having an amazing view and only birds and a ham radio for company, the setting has also inspired some great media, like the amazing Firewatch game and the Tower 4 narrative podcast. Danish builder Benjamin Anderledes also felt the pull of the lookout tower and created a microscale version in LEGO. Brown chain railing keeps the microfigure ranger safe as they take in the spectacular view of microscale trees.

From swans to spoonbills, these brick-built birds are a soaring achievement

Dutch AFOL William Van Beek didn’t set out with a focus on building birds – his MOCs had been grounded more in the architecture of the Netherlands. But as buildings became dioramas, birds became as essential as minifigs to bring the Dutch countryside to life.

This was especially true as William began a project to recreate the historic Efteling Park in LEGO, as the storybook theme park famously features a daily goose parade! Soon William had an army of geese with an adorable and expressive design made from roughly 15 parts, most prominently croissant wings. Friends and AFOLs were taking notice!

But as prominent as geese are in Dutch landscapes, they’re far from the only bird. Swans and pheasants joined the flock! Wings from the D&D Aarakocra Ranger work perfectly for soaring swans, and the pheasant modifies the goose build with a stubbier heads and buttery brown croissant wings.

AFOLs and birdwatchers, come this way for more fantastic fowl

Johnny Thunder returns to the Amazon and those ruins have never looked better

For those of us who grew up with LEGO playsets, there’s a charm to the mix of accessories, side builds, and play features that could turn a modest number of elements into endless possibilities. Clayton (sunroombricks) is one of a growing wave of builders who are leaning into retro aesthetics, and for this builder, Adventurers is the theme that continues to inspire. Clayton’s latest project is a remake of 5986 Amazon Ancient Ruins. All of the original play features are present, and then some. The build utilizes modern colors and elements while retaining classic LEGO design principles.

Here you can see a hobbled together version of the original set that Clayton dug up to introduce to his kids. That molded base plate brings back memories!

Read on for more pics of Clayton’s update to this Adventurers classic!

Vince Toulouse takes flight with this owl-inspired retro-futuristic airplane

For over a decade, French AFOL Vincent Gachod (aka Vince Toulouse) has been turning heads with retro-futuristic vehicles that take advantage of the latest LEGO curves to blend tech with biological design. His latest design wonder is the C4-Owl, a ten-engine plane that is ready to soar in sand and dark blues. That distinctive cockpit uses corner windows from the Botanical Gardens and those 10 shiny chrome propellers hail from early aughts Jack Stone sets.

I love the mix of retro whimsy, like the little bicycle wheel under the tailfin, and the two organic exhausts coming out of the rear fuselage.

The design evokes one of Vincent’s spectacular convention builds from 2022, only that larger passenger plane used insect wings and antennae instead of 92 feathers.

We interviewed Vincent back in 2017 about his distinctive deco style, which you can read here.

Cooking up a Waffle House in LEGO for my modern city [Guest Feature]

Hi there, my name is Jan, username wooootles, and I am excited to contribute to The Brothers Brick for the first time! A short introduction: I am a huge fan of LEGO, and I tend to focus on MOCS- particularly LEGO City. I was fortunate to have LEGO as a kid, but my interest in the hobby really started to take off with the release of the first modulars: 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer. My passion went into overdrive when I discovered Bricklink around the same time, just after getting my first paychecks as a working adult!

I’ve built car and house MOCs, but I’ve really focused on building and honing my MOC skills in big apartments and modular-sized skyscrapers. Wasabi District, my city layout, has been the result of nearly a decade of slowly building a super modern-style City layout, something that I think is uncommon in the Lego social media world.

While growing my layout with tall modern buildings has always been my core interest, that doesn’t mean that I can’t take a break from those once in a while, and my most recent example of this is my Waffle House build!

Let’s fire up the jukebox and pour us some LEGO waffles!

LEGO Coraline is cute as a button

Henry Selick’s Coraline is an animated masterpiece that gets better with every viewing, scary and beautiful in equal measure. The young heroine’s design with her blue hair and yellow raincoat pops on the big screen and in LEGO courtesy of Kaylie (ohlego). The builder captures Coraline’s skeptical and childlike spirit with the offset mouth, and the asymmetrical hair. All she’s missing is some button eyes – then she can be happy forever!

A Predator fresh from the Badlands, an Alien destined to be prey

Predators and Aliens are both having a moment with Predator: Badlands, Predator: Killer of Killers, and Alien: Earth, each giving the sci-fi staples a jolt of creative energy. Of course, these two franchises never go out of style as inspiration for LEGO creators. Haru_bonks is the latest AFOL to tackle the movie monsters. The builder incorporates elements from Bionicle, Hero Factory, Knights Kingdom, and Technic alongside System details.

The Predator’s head and shoulders are my favorite part of the build, packed with detail and excellent shaping. The Hero Factory insect mask for the Predator’s helmet is an inspired choice, as is a One Ring decoration on one of the locs. Of course a Predator this armed to the teeth needs something to hunt…

See Haru’s Alien and the inevitable face off after the break!

A sunny estate provides solace between wars for this LEGO lord

It’s been far too long since we’ve spotlighted a build by Ayrlego, an Australian AFOL specializing in historical builds that span centuries and cultures. It’s been a while since Ayrlego has shared a larger build, but he’s back as part of “Brethren of the Brick Seas” role-play setting hosted by Eurobricks. The challenge for this chapter was “Homecoming,” and here Ayrlego shows the estate of Basil Vatatzes. The sunbaked bricks and terra cotta roof create modest grandeur where one can easily imagine fields of olive trees and ancient grape vines on the noble’s lands. Wands on their sprues create detailed railings, while a judicious use of SNOT techniques allows for elegant tilework around the windows.

Here we see a closeup of the estate’s owner. As the build is part of a role-playing challenge, of course, Ayrlego comes with excellent lore:

Widowed in his earlier years, Basil raised two sons who have since carved their own paths: one as a soldier in the imperial legions, the other as a clerk in the imperial court. His recent remarriage to Yazinta, a Mogholay woman and daughter of a prosperous trader, has raised eyebrows among the local land owners. Yazinta Vatatzaina, herself a widow with no children, brings a quiet dignity and worldly insight to Basil’s household, challenging the insular traditions of Pyrite aristocracy.

For more wonderful castles and other historical builds, check out our Ayrlego archive.