Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

This wicked witch has her heart in the right place

Was Maleficent a misunderstood defender of the magical world or an unabashedly wicked always up to something bad? Kristel Whitaker shows that the iconic Disney villain is not that girl as the gravity-defying witch is taking part in LEGO’s Build to Give initiative by assembling a heart out of bricks. (Or maybe it’s just a ploy to be popular?) Even as Maleficent builds a heart, Kristel’s clever display is itself heart-shaped. Call me a sentimental man, but I find it charming.

Kristel built similar vignettes for fellow goth icons Wednesday and Noctura. It’s not too late to build and share your own heart as part of the Build to Give initiative. For every heart shared by December 31, LEGO will give a set to a child in need.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

A duck hunter ready for dwagon season

Dan Ko‘s dark duck knight might be deththpicable, but his clever use of unexpected parts is truly divine. Who else could have thought to build a dragon’s jaw from Lloyd’s Avatar Arcade Pod? The finger leaf fronts as the dragon’s frills are easy to identify, but did you catch the three leaves in sprues as neck segments? Daffy’s minifig head looks surprisingly menacing with the Fright Knight’s helm spun around. Using a slider disc instead of a minifig shield is an inspired accessory that accentuates the toon vibes. Dan once again shows it’s not the number of parts that count – it’s how you use them.

The Deththpicable Dark Knight is Dan’s entry in the “Capturing Character” category of the 2024 Brickscalibur competition, which runs until Jan 15, 2025.

Giant LEGO jellyfish glistens like an undersea jewel

The minifig diver in this undersea scene from Julius Kanand has lined up a lucky shot of an incredible giant jellyfish. Of course, there’s no luck involved, just incredible skill on Julius’ part with both assembling and photographing this transparent wonder. A range of transparent LEGO elements, from the umbrella top to the flame tail, bring the creature to life. Julius uses an ingenious connection around the jellyfish’s bell, clipping antenna holders around the transparent dome. Ball joints allow the jellyfish to hold its ethereal shape, and the whole thing is supported by a nearly invisible black girder. The results are magical, a mode that looks so organic, I wouldn’t dare touch it for fear of getting stung!

This isn’t Julius’ first tentacled ocean build – we also loved the builder’s cracking Captain Kraken ship.

Gleaming the cube in LEGO

Where did the cubes come from? How long have they been here? Was it aliens? Jordan Fridal offers no answers, only questions in a pair of builds featuring enigmatic cubes in ancient ruins. After creating his first cube, based on a design from geometric LEGO genius Zachary Steinman, Jordan was inspired to create a suitably mysterious setting to house it. Jordan’s first cube sits on Aztec-inspired ruins in a dense jungle. Normally a vehicle builder, this was Jordan’s first time playing with LEGO foliage.

Jordan set the second cube amidst Greek-style ruins deep beneath the sea. The explosion of color in the surrounding reef includes some clever parts usage, with orange combs, magenta hair, and frogs in pink and gold doubling as coral.

Will scientists discover a third cube, perhaps frozen the in the ice or buried in Egyptian sands? Only time will tell. For now, we can only specualte who left them…

It was aliens.

LEGO zombie concert stage is a graveyard smash

Over the past five years, Stéphane Dely has been building, expanding, and iterating on a massive 100,000 LEGO brick version of Zombillenium, the undead theme park from the comic by Arthur de Pins. His latest update is this monster stage, perfect for throwing a dead man’s party. Stéphane packs loads of brick-build into the scene, with an orc banner and the goblin king’s seal adding to the spooky vibes. Lightsabers encased in transparent tubes are a great touch. The goth band are wonderfully unexpressive as they play Bauhaus covers. Just don’t ask them to play the Monster Mash.

Purging the swamp of Imperial occupiers is more than a solo job

All the Empire wanted to do on Mimban was bring peace and prosperity, install a regime loyal to the Emperor, and eradicate the hostiles. Arthur Behe takes to LEGO to show what happens when those “hostiles” fight back. Seen during Han’s brief tour with the Empire in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Mimban is a literal swamp and a figurative quagmire for the Imperial forces. Arthur’s Imperial base, with all of its sensors and greebles, imposes on the inhospitable world perched atop rocks and surrounded by sand-green sludge. I love the dynamic terrain, with a speeder bike swooshing under the gangway. Almost as impressive as the building technique is the number of Swamp Troopers Arthur managed to recruit for the diorama!

“It’s against my programming to impersonate German Expressionism”

Fritz Lang’s silent sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis remains one of cinema’s most iconic films nearly 100 years after it first hit screens. Paolo Loro‘s LEGO tribute to the film’s classic poster should be instantly recognizable to cinephiles. A black brick skyline and shafts of golden Ninjago blade “light” capture the dramatic angles of Lang’s German Expressionist vision. C-3PO stands in for the Maschinenmensch, appropriate as the film’s robot inspired our favorite protocol droid’s design 50 years later.

Ace space base that fits on your bookcase

Being left behind on Mars and having to science your way out of certain death might sound like a terrifying fate, but I’ve always found The Martian a very cozy slice of science fiction. Nuno Taborda‘s LEGO space base isn’t based on that film, but it brings the same cozy vibes that has me daydreaming of tooting around an inhospitable planet in my little rover like Matt Damon. Nuno’s living module looks great with its round corners, orange detailing, and tasteful array of sensors and solar panels. Wouldn’t mind settling down in a base like that. But where am I supposed to grow the potatoes?

Château de Chenonceau shines in LEGO

In between competing in another Iron Builder competition and contributing to New Hashima, builder Gerrit Gottschalk (gGh0st) spent much of 2024 working on his microscale masterpiece — a model of Château de Chenonceau. The 16th-century French castle sits in the Loire Valley with its bridge and gallery crossing the river Cher. Gerrit’s model consists of about 6,600 LEGO elements and is 80 cm long.

Building in the Architecture style at this scale was a new adventure for Gerrit but you wouldn’t guess it from the end results. It’s a remarkable build filled with innovative parts usage and a high level of detail that remains virtually seamless.

Click for a detailed look at Gerrit’s majestic microscale castle !

Fall leaves when snow falls in LEGO

There is so much to appreciate about Mark van der Maarel‘s Edo-era Japanese diorama in LEGO, but it’s the red leaves against the newly fallen white snow that draw me in like an ukiyo-e woodblock print. The central cottage is charming and full of details of everyday life. A bundle of reeds over the window made from broom elements is a great touch. Towering over the cottage is an incredible wall made of interlocking brick-built stones (Mark gives credit to collaborator Marshall Banana for this technique). Down by the river, a woodcutter kneels as a samurai approaches on horseback. While Mark doesn’t offer a story, I imagine the woodcutter has a blade hidden in the cottage and soon leaves won’t be the only red splashes in the snow.

Mark’s build was part of the Rogue Ronin collaboration displayed at the Bricking Bavaria event in Germany where over 30 members of the Rogue Bricks community participated. We also adored felix-workshop’s award-winning contribtion.

Digital distortion in physical LEGO

Inspired by a painting from an unknown artist in a Korean hotel, Luka set about trying to capture distorted reality in LEGO with a work titled “Error.” The results are stunning, as pastel mountains and a city skyline get stretched at the horizon into abstract color lines. The shadow box frame looks to be about 5 bricks deep to allow for the stacked layers of the diorama. The distortion lines would have extended even further had the builder not run out of time and pieces. Luka (aka First Order Lego) is a builder who continues to impress and inspire with both abstract builds like this one and minifig scenes like his recent Witcher 3 tribute.

Forgotten LEGO Hockey heroes reborn as Tiki totems

One of LEGO’s oddest experiments was a short-lived, Bionicle-adjacent collaboration with the NHL that saw robotic hockey players like Puck Passer and Slammer Goalie slapping pucks into Technic goals. Sakiya Watanabe (N.A.B.E _mocs) resurrects these esoteric elements to create a tiki-style totem pole. Hockey masks aren’t the only clever parts usage; the builder also employs a pair of troll arms for mossy rocks, and the gear racks from Lloyd’s Golden Ultra Dragon hint at further ruins hidden behind the tropical vines. A new builder on the Flickr scene, N.A.B.E _mocs has only shared three builds so far and each employs new techniques and parts. We also loved the builder’s spot-on General Grievous bust.