Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Get ready to showdown with these LEGO samurai, ninja, and cyber-ronin [Minifig Monday]

When LEGO moved the Castle theme from Europe to Japan in 1998 with sets like Flying Ninja Fortress (one of my top 5 all time favorite sets!), the theme brought with it a slew of new minifig elements, like katanas, golden antlers, and samurai armor. In the years since, Ninjago has tapped Asian history and pop culture for even more accessories from Edo era and beyond. This week we bring you a roundup of custom samurai-inspired figs showcasing parts old and new.

Michał Dziadosz gets us started with Master Hirotaka…

Once a general feared on the battlefield, Hirotaka now walks the path of the lone swordsman, bound not by loyalty to lords, but to his own code. His golden katana, earned through a lifetime of victory, gleams like the setting sun before a storm. Behind him follows the whisper of silk a reminder of the life he left behind, and the woman who still watches from the shadows

Michał’s fig was a collaboration with Expansion Bricks, who presents the kensei, literally “sword saint,” an honorary title for master swordsmen and followers of bushido. Note the fig’s wide stance, a technique borrowed from 2p_figs for giving a minifig a more imposing presence.

The Bushido code requires that you continue appreciating these amazing minifig samurai

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The Art of the LEGO Tableau – building in the “Ground-Based” style [Feature]

When setting a LEGO scene, how much of a world needs to be built to spark the viewer’s imagination?

There are two approaches to bringing a world to life in LEGO: 1) meticulously build out every aspect of the scene with bricks, or 2) provide just enough detail to suggest the bigger picture while letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the rest. While building it all can make for impressive displays, I am drawn to the latter approach.

Various styles can achieve this, each with its distinct charms. Immersive scenes transport us to new worlds, like a window into a picture, by filling the frame with LEGO. Vignettes, on the other hand, embrace the artifice of a model and give the impression that a slice of the world has been captured in bricks. Even if vignettes have their appeal, I have a preference for immersive scenes. They’re more fun, if more part-intensive.

But there’s a third style worth exploring, one that many in the community – including myself – have experimented with. It’s a style that I call “Ground-Based.” As you’ve probably already guessed, this is the topic I’ll be covering today
Learn how to create MOCs in the ground-based style

Orion Pax makes us fall in love with the Undersea World again with Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso in LEGO

From the 1960s to the early 80s, the aquatic expeditions of Jacques Cousteau brought the deep sea into millions of homes. I fell under the Frenchman’s ocean spell watching reruns on public television as a kid, and a big part of that enchantment was thanks to the aptly named Calypso, the British minesweeper boat adapted for scientific use. Fellow 80s kid turned LEGO legend Alex “Orion Pax” Jones also fell in love with Cousteau’s undersea world and decades after trying to build the Calypso as a child, he returns with a masterful LEGO rendition built at 1/50 scale.

Alex includes a functioning version of the crane used to lift the Denise mini-sub, as well as a midi-scale helicopter on the rear deck landing pad.

See more of the Calypso and Orion Pax’s other creations after the jump

LEGO Ideas 21360 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Candy is dandy but plastic’s fantastic [Review]

Brennen (Brickbot_Studio) here again, and today we’re taking a trip back to 1971 with one of the strangest, most whimsical LEGO Icons sets yet. 21360 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is based directly on Mel Stuart’s classic film and brings one of cinema’s most surreal settings to brick form. With a full cast of kids, a couple of Oompa Loompas, the eccentric chocolatier himself, and a gorgeous recreation of the Chocolate Room, this set is packed with nostalgia, clever features, and just enough weirdness to feel true to the movie. Let’s unwrap this baby and see if it contains a Golden Ticket.

LEGO Ideas 21360 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | 2025 Pieces | Available September 15 |US $219.99 | CAN $279.99 | UK £199.99

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.

Click to read our scrumdiddlyumptious review!

Adapting a sweet idea into LEGO 21360 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory took more than pure imagination [News]

The LEGO Ideas program lets the community vote on which concepts might become official sets. Adapting fan designs into an official set always involves changes – both compromises and upgrades. The next fan-designed set, LEGO Ideas 21360 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, announced today, introduced many unique challenges for the design team. You can read our review here or keep reading to see more official pics of this sweet set and learn some behind-the-scenes stories of how the design team arrived at the finished model.

LEGO Ideas 21360 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | 2025 Pieces | Available September 15 |US $219.99 | CAN $279.99 | UK £199.99

Learn more about LEGO’s delicious new Ideas set

Documenting LEGO Middle Earth with a photographer’s eye

Of all the partnerships in the LEGO library, none is more cinematic than the Lord of the Rings. While sets like Rivendell are rapturous enough just sitting on a shelf, with amazing lighting and post-production, LEGO Lord of the Rings MOCs can transport you right to Middle-earth. Valenque is a builder and photographer who blends official sets, custom landscaping, and VFX to create immersive scenes from Tolkien’s books and the films they inspired. The builder’s latest borrows a Hungarian Horntail to recreate an epic meeting from the posthumously published Children of Hurin. The minifig of Túrin is supplemented with a digital dragon crest on the helm to match Alan Lee’s illustration.

Valenque has previously captured scenes from the Hobbit and Rings trilogies, like this scene of Gandalf igniting pinecones to ward off goblins on the slopes of the Misty Mountains.

Click to see more of Valenque’s amazing scenes from Middle Earth

LEGO Pirates Imperial Armada sets sail again with a new MOC flagship, the Ocean’s Crown

LEGO’s Pirate theme may be dormant, but 2025 is shaping up to be the biggest pirate year ever, thanks to One Piece, minifigs, and more. It’s only fitting that we’re seeing some incredible pirate themed MOCs set sail of late, perhaps none so majestic as the Ocean’s Crown – the latest creation from Vietnamese AFOL and Masterpiece Gallery alum Khang Huynh in collaboration with Kỷ Duy Phong.

Inspired by Imperial Flagship 10210, Khang’s creation is fully a meter long and 80cm tall, making it properly minifig-scale without compromise.

The duo had previously made their mark on the lawless side of the age of piracy with the “Kraken Shadowy,” a highly-detailed spin on a Black Seas Barracuda’s foundation sailing across a breathtaking brick sea. You can read our coverage from 2023 here.

Batten down the hatches and brace for more pics of the majestic Ocean’s Crown after the jump

Traveler’s Tales LEGO Batman returns, goes hard [News & Commentary]

LEGO’s first decade of software products were decidedly kid-centric, with titles like LEGO Island, LEGO Racers, and LEGO Friends. 2005’s LEGO Star Wars from developer Traveler’s Tale changed the script with a goofy multiplayer adventure that fans of all ages could enjoy. The slapstick, sight gags, and dad jokes helped establish the tone that would become synonymous with minifigs across media, and the focus on collecting minifigs was both delightful and prescient. Over 20 years, the Traveler’s Tale partnership spawned roughly 3 dozen spins on the classic formula, with the brick takes on Batman being among the best entries. Last night, LEGO and Traveler’s tale revealed the next game to carry on that legacy. Batman’s back, baby. And this time he’s watched the Nolan films.

Read on for our take on the next Batman game

LEGO astronaut beholds space oddities

When astronauts in orbit turn away from the pale blue dot of home to gaze upon the vastness of space, there’s not a lot of color for the naked eye to see. But travel far enough or use the right lenses or tune to the right spectrums, and space is full of brilliant displays, perhaps like the one captured here in LEGO by Katja (Palixa and the Bricks). Is the astronaut witnessing the birth of stars in a molecular cloud? Or is is it some new form of life here to make first contact? Katja is a creator who builds in every manner of style, from modulars to mosaics. I love how this Astronaut scene blends mosaics with her talent for expressive characters.

The Astronaut echoes a build that Katja shared last year of a similarly stylized diver. It’s great to see her returning to past successes, like she did recently with more vacationing fruit to join last year’s bumper crop.

Nature reclaims all as Vignette Week comes to a close [Feature]

Bricks down! After seven grueling days of non-stop building, RebelLUG’s Vignweek 2025 has come to an end. The first five challenges gave builders just 24 hours to create a LEGO vignette around the daily theme, but for the final challenge, builders could take 48 hours. This time the theme was “Reclaimed by Nature,” which is the perfect excuse to pull out those bins of leaf parts and create something beautiful. As the Vignette builders break out their brick separators, let’s take a stroll through an overgrown LEGO world with some of our favorites of the day.

FS Leinad participated in all six builds, but his final creation is my favorite. The orangutan is a great design (per the builder, “RIP 3-in-1 Forest Animals) but it’s those vultures that have stolen my heart… and pick it apart with those brilliant hook beaks.

ILB Creations completed 5 challenges and also ends on a high note. I love the larger scale and the light blue mortar between crumbling bricks.

Forage for more vignettes that nature has reclaimed

Creating a new castle faction with the Minifigure Factory [Feature]

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick a free trial of this service for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Most of the time, the thought of non-official custom minifigs makes me twitchy… But then I was invited to try out the new Minifigure Factory Designer on Lego.com, and I was surprised by how much fun it was. I could even use it to create a new Castle faction! Of course, any new faction is also an excuse to create a new custom design, but first, let’s take the Minifigure Factory for a spin.

Read on to find out what Castle faction Brennen created, and see how the factory model gets a glow up

Marvel at this Legion of Extraordinary Superhero Minfigs [Minifig Monday]

Summer movie season is coming to an end, having reinvigorated the superhero genre with great entries for both Marvel and DC. While it will be some time before the next super-powered crossover hits screens, the genre is still popping in the LEGO minifig community. Today on Minifig Monday, we bring you a mix of headlining heroes and deep cut villains from a legion of incredible LEGO fig fans. Be sure to add the creators to your pull list and give them a like. Now, dear readers, without further ado – Excelsior!

When it comes to adapting Marvel for the screen, 2024’s X-Men ’97 is as good as it gets. LEGO’s X-Mansion introduced a few more mutants to minifig form, with some big omissions. Boderson Bricks steps up with Xavier’s gifted team of mutants, bringing Jubilee and Morph into the fold.

Boderson also recreates the larger supporting cast of allies and villains, most of whom never appeared in LEGO, using official LEGO parts. Mr. Sinister and Emma Frost are especially nice.

There are so many more spectactular superheroes to marvel at after the jump