Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

2024 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 4 [Feature]

Are those jingle bells ringing? No, it’s the crinkly plastic bags inside each our six LEGO advent calendars. Friends and Disney, City and Harry Potter, Star Wars and Spider-man! It’s time to open some doors and find out who goes on the naughty and nice lists today.

As ever, our intrepid TBB team is on hand with witty comments, insightful observations, and bad jokes for each day’s builds. And of course, you can add your own thoughts in the comments section each day! So without further ado, let’s crack open the build for day 4…

Click here to see today’s builds!

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2024 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 3 [Feature]

On the third day of December, my LEGO Advent calendars gave to me… six mystery items that we’re here to reveal! Between City, Friends, Disney, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Spider-Man, who will have us cooing like a trio of French hens?

Click here to see today’s builds!

2024 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 2 [Feature]

Cyber Monday? Who has time for that?! It’s day 2 of the annual TBB Advent Calendar-a-palooza and we have six doors to open today! Come on folks, you can save money on your online shopping later.

Click here to see today’s builds!

2024 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 1 [Feature]

December is here, and in these parts that means it’s time for us to don our ugliest sweaters, top off our mugs of hot cocoa, and get very serious about tiny builds hidden behind little doors in LEGO’s crop of advent calendars. And what a bumper crop it is, with an unprecedented (sinister?) SIX themes on offer! This year Marvel lets the other Avengers take a holiday so that Spider-Man and friends can have the spotlight. Disney doubles the minidoll offerings with a princess-themed calendar making its debut. Advent alumni Star Wars and Harry Potter are back, and of course, we have LEGO’s own City and Friends themes.

6 themes, 24 doors… that’s a whopping 144 gifts. It’s going to be a wild ride. Join us each day for holiday spoilers and our brilliant insights (and awful jokes). And of course, you can add your own thoughts in the comments section each day! Brace yourselves. We’re going in…

Click here to see today’s builds!

A very hungry LEGO caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of the most enduring and beloved works of childrens’ literature thanks to the distinctive style of creator Eric Carle. 55 years after eating its way through readers’ hearts, the Hungry Caterpillar is back in LEGO form courtesy of another distinctive artist, Pan Noda. A character build like this is a departure from the uncanny architecture and liminal spaces we’ve come to expect from the builder, but there’s something about the Hungry Caterpillar that makes it feel at home in Pan’s pantheon. Maybe it’s those haunting eyes of life preservers atop Scala foam? Or the dozens of cherries that turn eerily to fur along the caterpillar’s back. Or the existential question of whether a hole in a book is part of the book or the absence of book. In any case, it’s a brilliant build. Were it not for the apple leaf in the foreground, it would be easy to overlook that it’s a LEGO model all!

Stained glass in Shanghai

The last time builder Hugo Huang shared an architectural build, it sent me down a research rabbit hole of light boats, German brewers, and Chinese occupation. Once again, Hugo uses LEGO to recreate a historic sight that’s too obscure for the travelogues but reveals a fascinating history. The Catholic Country Church, lovingly recreated in brick yellow and sand green by Hugo, was designed by architect László Hudec and completed in 1925. Hudec was a Hungarian who served in WWI, was captured by Russians and imprisoned in Siberia, jumped a train, and escaped to Shanghai where he joined an American architectural firm before starting his own practice. In the following decades, he designed many landmark buildings in the city, including several churches.

Hugo’s LEGO version is a fitting tribute with wonderful stained glass windows made of transparent cheese slopes, and incredible domes made of sand green aloe vera points from the succulent collection. I love it when a LEGO creation introduces me to new building techniques as well as fascinating facts about our world!

What we build in the shadows...

Great castle architecture always grabs my attention. I’m continually amazed when builders find new techniques for medieval roofing, brickwork, or half-timbering in LEGO. Gabriel Midgley has quickly become a favorite castle builder and the Procession of the Vampire Lord shows why. Just look at that doorway. Forming arches from partially connected 2×1 plates is nothing new, but the three nested archways here with a half-stud offset is epic. The color gradient on the half-timbered top, using a mix of profile bricks on their sides, is gorgeous – especially when paired with the red and blue windows. Cheese slopes allow smooth curves for the tower side. And as with all of Gabriel’s builds, excellent landscaping, thoughtfully composed minifigs, and custom lighting turn a great architectural build into immersive world-building. This is truly a castle build you can sink your teeth into!

Tiny tower tribute to a legend

Microscale models of official LEGO sets aren’t hard to come by, but microscale tributes to original builds are much rarer and more personal. If ever a personal build was worthy of a microscale spin, it’s Bridgetown by Markus Rollbühler. Christian Rau lovingly adapts Markus’ masterpiece with the ace architectural artistry the builder is known for. Markus’ build was itself inspired by an illustration from Leo Hartas. Who will be inspired by Christian’s build and where will that creation end up, I wonder…?

Link’s legendary LEGO sword that seals the darkness

Throughout The Legend of Zelda series, earning the Master Sword marks Link’s transition into a worthy hero. Builder Dylan Mievis has created many memorable video game tributes in the past and definitely proves worthy with this LEGO model of the Master Sword as seen in Breath of the Wild. Coming in at 110 cm in length, the replica is life-size (insomuch as a video game prop can be) and painstakingly faithful to the original design, down to the embossed Triforce at the base of the blade. Dylan depicts the sword as Link finds it, embedded in a pedestal, just like in LEGO The Legend of Zelda 77092 Great Deku Tree. Even more game-accurate, Dylan pairs the sword with a beautiful Silent Princess flower. Go ahead and try to draw the sword if you think you have the courage (and enough heart containers!).

LEGO turkey is hot to trot this Thanksgiving

Today many of our American readers are no doubt sitting around a table with friends, loved ones, and that one annoying uncle, looking for ways to avoid talking about politics or football before carving into that centerpiece bird. Not this turkey! LEGO builder Lee Nuo presents the one that got away. With this gobbler on the lam, it means more room for dressing, yams, Brussels sprouts, or an extra slice of pie!

As always, we at the Brothers Brick are thankful to be a part of this amazing LEGO fan community. Whether it’s helping to share creations from builders around the world or bringing you news and reviews to help you navigate the hobby, we’re all motivated by a shared love for the creativity that flows from our favorite bricks.

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.

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.