Posts by Jarrett Gercken

From Solo: A Star Wars Story concept art to LEGO creation

Star Wars MOC legend Tim Goddard is back at it again, this time with a LEGO creation based on concept art that didn’t make the big screen. Appropriately titled the ‘Lunt Snail’ (a nod to artist Jake Lunt Davies), this build is based off of unused concept art for Savereen, one of the final locations visited in Solo: A Star Wars Story. This build is large, colorful, and wonderfully shaped. There’s some great part usage throughout the entire build, but our favorite has to be the interior of the creature’s mouth. It looks dense, detailed, and hardly even LEGO.

Take a ride to see some additional photos, including the original concept art!

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Red Squadron Standing By

John (J.R. Snotly Builds) has a penchant for Star Wars ship builds, and it shows with this smooth recreation of one of the most iconic ships in Star Wars history. In a world full of white X-Wing builds, it’s refreshing to see a gray X-Wing with proportions that more closely resemble the original ILM miniatures. We’re specifically in love with the brick-build cockpit and the build technique to expertly capture the quad laser cannons.

With this model, John has made it easy to adjust the markings on the wings, nose, and sides of the X-Wing to convert it to Luke’s infamous Red 5. The dismembered hands used for the striping really give it that ‘Luke Skywalker’ feel.

Catch ’em all? Taking a closer look at the first LEGO Pokémon wave [Editorial]

Resident Pokémon fan Jarrett (wilderland.builds) here to offer some early thoughts on the long-awaited official LEGO Pokémon sets! This week marked the reveal of the first wave, and like everyone else, I’ve already begun dissecting the promotional images to get a feel for what to expect from this release. Pokémon has long been a well-represented theme in the MOC community (you can view some highlights in The Brothers Brick Pokémon archive), but for the first time, we have official collaboration sets from these two industry titans. While I’m looking forward to seeing each of them in person before making any final judgements (which is something I always recommend), I’ll take a closer look at each set below and offer my Poké-fan take.

Should we catch ’em all?

Mini Tirith, City of Mini Kings

Just last month we posted a roundup of some of the incredible creations from Joe (jnj_bricks), including a Minas Tirith build that cleverly uses force perspective akin to the Peter Jackson films. Apparently not content with wow-ing us with just one Minas Tirith build, Joe is back again with a smaller but equally impressive build of the White City. He shared that everything here is fully connected, and we think the smooth lineup of the cheese slopes used predominantly throughout the shaping of this build give it a very polished look.

An aerial view reveals the Court of the Fountain, which cleverly uses a turntable base atop a green plate to nearly identically recreate the courtyard’s appearance in the films and art from Alan Lee.

Take flight with this stunning Cormorant

Nature photographer and bird-building extraordinaire Bram (skabram.builds) recently re-worked an older creation and shared this absolutely stunning Cormorant build! Bram is no stranger to incredible bird builds and has a unique ability to capture their likeness in brick form, but this is the largest creation we’ve seen from him yet and makes for a striking display piece. The head rotates, the wings are flexible via the use of various ball-joints, and there’s an alternate display in which the bird’s wings are tucked in. Our favorite view is the imposing wingspan side profile below, but this build is a sight to behold no matter which angle you view it from.

Fly on in and check out some alternate views of the Cormorant!

The hottest Dino in the Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 recently arrived on the Nintendo Switch, and Sakiya Watanabe (N.A.B.E_mocs) has already marked the occasion with a new build featuring one of our favorite enemies from these games. The Dino Piranha is a piranha plant variation that resembles Petey Piranha (first introduced in Super Mario Sunshine), but the difference is that these guys hatch from eggs and have dinosaur features – because of course they do. The Super Mario Galaxy games were revolutionary for the franchise and took every enemy, world, and gameplay element to the next level, and Sakiya has done the same with this build.

The 2×2 round brick tube (part 65473) has proven to be the most essential piece for Super Mario builds, and is predominantly featured on sets like The Mighty Bowser, the Spiny Shell, and the Piranha Plant. Sakiya used the same part here in different colors to capture the mouth and tail of the Dino Piranha, which looks right at home next to the official sets. We especially appreciate the use of some newer leaf molds on the Fiery Dino Piranha to round out their scorching hot ‘mane’.

Sakiya also shared an alternate color of this build to represent the base Dino Piranha that is first encountered in the Good Egg Galaxy. The Mario galaxy crystal resembling a LEGO rock 1×1 crystal in both builds is such an excellent touch.

A Silksong ensemble with free instructions!

Team Cherry recently announced upcoming updates to the latest Hollow Knight installment, a sign that the Silksong hype isn’t going away anytime soon. While I’m still working my way through the postgame act, Coosey_Goosey shared three new wonderful character builds from this incredible game – including one character that we haven’t seen built or covered on The Brothers Brick yet! They’ve also made free instructions available for all three builds, which you can download by visiting Coosey_Goosey on Rebrickable. Join us as we take a closer look at each of these buggy builds below.

Brave The Citadel and bug out at these Pharloom builds

Effigy of Dismay, a master class in parts usage

This latest creation from Panuvara is absolutely overflowing with details and part usage that makes it a treat to look at both from a distance and closer up. From afar, this build appears as an expertly shaped figure with an almost haunting skeletal form, and the intentionality to sparingly use what appears to be only 4-5 different colors in this build makes each portion of the build feel significant and unique. Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice all of the unconventional parts usage throughout this build. We’ve located Bionicle masks, skeletal horses (and a full non-skeletal horse!), a Scout Trooper helmet, an orchid blossom (of the Demogorgon variety), and plenty of other great details. What else can you find hidden in this stunning build?

General Grievous, you’re taller than I expected

The buildable Technic Star Wars figures from a decade ago received generally mixed feedback, but several of the molded and printed parts were a big hit. This topic reappeared with the release of 75434 K-2SO Security Droid this year, with many builders and collectors discussing the possibility of using the molded head from the buildable K2SO instead. Builder nobu_tary takes a similar approach here with an expert build of General Grievous, using the head from the buildable figure in set 75112. This is a sizable build with a ton of great details all over. The most impressive aspect of the build is that it captures Grievous’ especially tricky shape and proportions very well, and when compared to the Technic buildable this version feels so much more like the Separatist leader that we’ve all grown to love.

Warm up with this miniature cup of cocoa

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and nothing feels better during this chilly season than a warm cup of hot chocolate. LEGO Masters Season 5 winner Ian Summers built this wonderful little mug of cocoa (appropriately accompanied by copious amounts of marshmallows and treats). All of the little details are fantastic, and the way he was able to represent a Santa-themed mug at this scale is very impressive. Our favorite detail is the NPU of the fan-favorite Candy Cane piece to represent a festive straw – it works so well and adds such a nice visual element to the build. This is just the drink I was looking for, and I think I’ll have another.

You underestimate my clutch power!

LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game (and its subsequent appearance in The Complete Saga) has become a cult classic among both Star Wars and video game fans, and Alex Lyman assembled all of that nostalgia in this wonderful little vignette. Capturing the moment on Mustafar where this co-op game became a versus game, Anakin and Obi-Wan duel it out here in a world that is viewed through the HUD of the game. The stud progress bar is a visual icon (though we’re still a ways off from True Jedi here), and we fully appreciate the purist approach to representing the character avatar and lives. The mosaic texture used to detail the lava and backdrop is effective and adds to the nostalgia with some simulated pixelation.

While it may not be instantly obvious upon first look, this build actually has a 3D element that leverages the stud depth of the vignette. It adds a nice element that makes this scene feel at home with the Star Wars vignettes or most recent book nooks.

Treebeard’s gone and had too much Ent-draught

I’ve always loved seeing new Treebeard MOCs, because he’s rarely ever built the same way twice. The variety of scales and building techniques we’ve seen used to create one of my favorite Tolkien characters makes it all the more interesting, and this Treebeard build from Ben Arkley is one of the most impressive yet. The sheer scale of this build is the first thing that sticks out, especially when you notice how tiny Merry and Pippin are in contrast.

Click to see more of this colossal Treebeard