Posts by Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

A symphony of Silksong tributes in LEGO

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the rare game that delivers on the hype, blending beautiful worldbuilding with brutal difficulty. Protagonist Hornet and the bug-like denizens of Pharloom have inspired an outpouring of fan models from the LEGO community. Here are some of our favorites!

Fresh off his incredible series of Hollow Knight builds, Joss Ivanwood begins climbing Pharloom with a series of encounters. First, Hornet encounters Shakra, the mapmaker. She’s a lot tougher than Cornifer!

My favorite of Joss’ new builds is Sherma, just a little guy on a big pilgrimage! The party hat in golld makes a perfect miniature chime.

Our tour of Pharloom’s bugs continues after the break

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One does not simply make LEGO models of Barad-Dûr this big

Barad-Dûr, seat of Sauron’s power, is known more by reputation than by first-hand accounts in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien describes it as “wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant.” Peter Jackson’s films made Barad-Dûr an iconic on-screen presence with the fiery eye watching all from atop the tallest tower. It was that version that LEGO adapted for last year’s massive Icons set. For Jae Min Lee, a Korean fantasty builder who goes by the handle Saint, the official set didn’t match the picture of Barad-Dûr in his imagination. For over a year, Saint iterated on his vision of Sauron’s stronghold with the latest version debuting just in time for Korea Brick Party 2025. Saint was kind enough to talk with us about his LEGO journey into Mordor.

Our Interview with Saint follows

LEGO celebrates 20 years of Batman with new Batmobiles and a Bat logo releasing March 2026

Following this year’s excellent Arkham Asylum set and Batman Forever Batmobile, the Dark Knight continues his hot streak as LEGO announces four new Batman sets releasing on March 1, 2026. The sets draw on different eras of the Batman movie franchise and connect to the LEGO Batman – Legacy of the Dark Knight video game, with each set containing an unlock code for an exclusive golden variant in-game.

First, a Batman Logo offers a greeble-covered take on the iconic Batman (1989) design, and includes a bonus golden Batman minifig. The other sets are branded as part of the Legendary Batmobile Collection and feature the car and costumes featured in Batman v. Superman, The Batman, and Batman & Robin, the latter making its LEGO debut. The Batmobiles are scaled and detailed similarly to Speed Champion sets, although they aren’t associated with that line. Designed with display in mind, they lack play features and villains but feature a high degree of detail for the small profile. Each set comes with a printed gold tile celebrating 20 years of LEGO Batman.

See all the bat-tastic details after the fold

LEGO pirates make a scene as Umbasa LUG x Brothers Brick contest sails to an end [Feature]

Our friends at Umbasa LUG host monthly challenges focused on minifigs and dark fantasy. For September, the community tried something a little different, challenging builders to create not just characters but a brick-built vignette of between 10-16 studs on each side. The Brothers Brick sponsored this month’s contest, providing a copy of Windmill Village Hut to the winner. And without further ado, we’re excited to reveal that the winner is…

blocksofmocs!

Of the winner, Umbasa LUG organizer jdm_bricks said: “We decided that with such a small build, blocksofmocs was able to pack in such an impressive amount of character and detail, that it just had to be put on top. Highlights for us were the whimsical aesthetic, the very lively classic color pallet, the cohesive pirate crew, and the lovely shaping of the boat and waves.”

Congratulations to blocksofmocs, and thank you to all the other amazing builders who participated.

Click to see some of our favorite runners up from the Pirate Vignette contest

A tale of two LEGO trees

There are few subjects I enjoy seeing in LEGO as much as trees, from the single-mold pine trees in vintage sets to the enormous redwoods of Sequoia Tree Trail. I never cease to be amazed by the creative ways that AFOLs find to make decidedly organic branches and bark out of plastic bricks. At Skærbæk fan weekend, a pair of builds from Finnish builder Niina L show just how evocative a LEGO tree can be. First up is this incredible iron tree with a greeble trunk sitting atop a pile of tires and surrounded by blood-red water. It’s a glimpse of a dystopian world where green has been all but forgotten. A lone sprouting branch offers hope in this dead world.

A second build also showcases Niina’s incredible talent for creating organic forms from irregular parts. This time the trunk incorporates incorporates a mix of Bionicle, constraction, and System parts in brown. The berry-like foliage, made from red helmets, adds a dose of whimsy to this scene where the tree’s resident is greeted by a friend or suitor.

Two amazing trees, each evoking a story of hope and connection.

Epic interstellar collab builds on LEGO’s City-Space aesthetic with Mission to Thalora Prime

LEGO might not have released a stand-alone Space theme since 2013’s Galaxy Squad, but the spirit of space exploration lives on as a sub-theme of City. Two years of great sets have introduced new uniforms, personal mechs, and swooshable ships with an aesthetic closer to Interstellar than retro sci-fi. At last month’s IDS Brickworld, long-time collaborators and Rogue Bricks membrers Michael Diermann and Sascha Brüning debuted a sprawling tribute to the City Space called “Mission on Thalora Prime.”

The builders adhere to the aesthetics of the line, from the nougat earth to the modular building style to the alien shrubbery, while expanding in scope and variety. The arid alien landscape is wonderfully done and provides a fun foundation for an aerial walkway to the radar module. LEGO 60430 Interstellar Spaceship has never looked better than here, with hangars to hold a squadron.

Michael, aka Boba-1980, shares a video from the event on his feed.

A Minecraft Movie’s Game Over World lovingly recreated in LEGO

A Minecraft-inspired modular? Thanks to A Minecraft Movie’s isekai plot taking real-world gamers into the fantasy land of voxel-based construction, it’s not as weird as you might think! Swedish AFOL Jenny Bergensten, a member of Swebrick, is a fan of the film – specifically Game Over World, the retro gaming shop run by Jason Momoa’s Garret “The Garbage Man” – and she spent much of the summer faithfully recreating the set in LEGO.

Jenny recreates the shop inside and out, capturing the faded glory of both Garret, the former arcade star, and a small town main street.

Insert quarter to continue exploring Jenny’s build

Liminal LEGO horror is in bloom

Japanese builder Pan Noda is a master at crafting liminal spaces in LEGO. From ancient ruins to cursed malls to surreal swimming pools, their worlds make the familiar look strange or even haunted. Controlled depth of field and a lack of minifigs make scale confounding and dreamlike. Pan Noda’s latest takes one of the most cheerful LEGO elements, the magenta flower with shaft found in so many kid sets and pick-a-brick-bins, and creates one of their most cursed scenes to date. Titled “A Field of Mocking Flowers,” a column rises from an endless field, a smiling face seen in negative space. Is there a structure beneath the blooms that happens to have a face, or is this the visage of some floral hive-mind? Are the boardwalks there to protect the flowers from pedestrian feet, or are they to protect us from this malevolent magenta force?

LEGO Bricklink Designer Program Series 6 – Sequoia Tree Trail: Towering beauty [Review]

The Bricklink Designer Program has become a haven for fan favorite themes like Classic Castle, Western, Pirates, and Trains. BLDB Series 6, which goes on sale today, hits some of those greatest hits, but the set that caught my eye isn’t tied to LEGO nostalgia, but childhood memories of summer vacation and visiting National Parks. Sequoia Tree Trail, created by 28-year-old Canadian builder Daniel Smith (pieceonearth), is a love letter to parks, rangers, and the largest trees on Earth – the Giant Sequoias. Sequoia Tree Trail contains 3,187 pieces and sells for $269.99. Pre-orders for this set and the rest of BDP Series 6 run through October 13th, 2025 at 12 PM Pacific time.

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.

pull on your hiking boots and click to read our review

Mesmerizing miniature Miyazaki models in LEGO

What makes your favorite Miyazaki film? Is it the Adventure of Laputa, the wonder of My Neighbor Totoro, the intricacy of Spirited Away, or the magic of Howl’s Moving Castle? Somehow, builder Tung Man Chun manages to distil the hearts of these films down to 8×8 studs in a series of incredible LEGO vignettes. Each model is anchored by a larger-than-life character, bringing a sense of dynamism to the compact format. Let’s have a look at the full series.

Click to see more of Tung’s incredible Ghibli vignettes

We Arrr Family celebrates LEGO pirates of all stripes [Feature]

September was a busy month for LEGO events, from the Seriously Huge spaceships of SHIPtember to the colorful minidoll-driven ships of Friendshiptember, but another community challenge just wrapped, and it’s the most inclusive one of all – We Arrr Family! The event invites anyone to create a pirate crew of at least 3 characters with the one requirement that all be different skin tones, species, or LEGO line. Join us as we sit down with the captain of this merry event, Llano (femmefromtheblock), and parlay about the event’s origins and celebrate this year’s amazing scallywags.

Our interview with Llano and a gallery of this year’s pirate crews follows

Find solace by the bonfire with these amazing LEGO Dark Souls builds

The dark fantasy worlds of FromSoftware’s games have been a huge influence for many AFOLs with their bold character designs, ornate gear, and haunting medieval settings. Builder panc4kez has been creating LEGO models inspired by From’s genre-defining Dark Souls, which perfectly translate the game’s aesthetics into brick form. After months of individual construction, Dark Sun Gwyndolin, The Nameless King, and Dragon Slayer Ornstein appear together in LEGO.

See more of panc4kez game creations after the fold, From Dark Souls to Zelda