Posts by Daniel

Stunning stacked city keeps going, and going, and going

When I saw this amazing vertical city by Sebastian Bachórzewski, my first thought was, “What a neat microscale building,” followed almost immediately by “HOLY crap! That is minifig scale.” To say that there was a lot going on here would be an understatement. Between the many residential and commercial units piled high, to the floating vehicles coming and going at various levels, to the street scenes along all four sides of the base, this Favela is home to many faded, bitten, random, unwanted and surplus LEGO elements, cobbled together in some surprising ways.

Favela

Check out more of this stellar stacked city

Marching to war in the latest war machine fashion

Let’s face it, war is hell, especially on your feet. All that marching across rugged terrain can wreak havoc on even the most leathery of soles. Well, everyone who is anyone will be lining up to get their hands on the latest model in castle-busting siege engines by Tino Poutiainen, the Siege Giant (patent pending). Sporting the newest military miracle, the Trebuchoulder pads, this walking wall-wrecker will be no match for your enemies. Tino has put together a very expressive creation, from slumping shoulders to a tired and resigned expression on the giant’s face, made with only a few simple parts. I think my favorite part, besides that face, is the ram-headed club made from Tauntaun tusks.

Siege Giant

And if you need more proof that the Siege Giant is the pinnacle of mobile combat, look no further than the smile on this soldier’s face. No blisters on these feet.

Siege Giant

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for November 9, 2019 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the second week of November 2019.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: All the brick news that’s fit to print, from Star Wars to Batman, and everything in-between.

Click here to read the rest of the week’s news

Maz artillery truck pulls its weight, and more [Video]

Building functioning vehicles has been a passion for many builders ever since the introduction of the Technic line of LEGO sets back in 1977 as the Expert Builder series. Some builders add motors so their vehicles can move and steer, but then there are builders like Sariel who go far and above merely building a motorized vehicle to create something truly special. When I first saw this model of a MAZ 535 heavy artillery truck made in USSR, I was impressed by both the scale, and the attention to detail, which compared to photos is remarkable.

But the amazing attention to detail doesn’t stop there. Sariel has created a video that shows off some of the many hidden features, included an opening top hatch, and two speeds for the transmission, which allows the LEGO truck to pull an incredible amount of weight. In the video, the Maz is seen pulling a chair across the floor! There is even a scene of an adorable hamster checking out the fabric hand-stitched canopy.

A brand new take on a true classic castle

Growing up, I was lucky to have one of LEGO’s early sets in the castle theme, 375 Castle, which, along with several classic space sets catapulted my LEGO building creativity to a whole new level. And it seems I am not alone in my nostalgic feelings for this set. Galaktek has built a LEGO model inspired by this set, featuring a central section, with four hinged wings that open up for further play and display options. This one perfectly represents feudal Japan with an arched front gate, very detailed stone foundations and vegetation, and a lovely pagoda with ornate gold details.

Ninjago Castle - Front

And if this castle mash-up feels familiar, it’s for a good reason. You may have seen this model in person if you were in Seattle for Brickcon 2019 in early October, where the builder had several castles all built as an homage to the original castle LEGO set. We also covered another of these castle mash-ups recently here on TBB.

When the ants go sailing in...I feel bad for the spiders.

My original title for this article was something along the lines of a Zoolander quote, but then, that just made me feel old. But enough about me. We’re here to talk about a few amazingly detailed pirate ships at a scale suitable for Ant-man, the Wasp, or any other shrinking superhero, built by Robert4168/Garmadon and adorned with tiny sails made from paper, I think, and dozens of hand-tied rigging, which makes me tired just thinking about… or maybe that’s just me being old again. These ships may be small, but they still strike a mighty fierce cut.

Montroy's Flagship

This black-sailed ship is even firing cannons, using the ice-cream cone for the cannon smoke.

The Cardinal's Shadow

Captain Nemo reporting for duty.

Majestic and mysterious. Those are just a few choice words to describe this LEGO model of Jules Verne’s enigmatic submarine captain by Eero Okkonen. Nemo, or Prince Dakkar, pilot of the equally mysterious Nautilus submarine, is adorned with gold trim, and that olive green turban even has a nautilus tile in front. By far though, the star of this build is his richly textured mustache and beard, made from such choice parts as Star Wars pistols, minifigure hands, and “raven” wings. He would make a fearsome foe indeed.

Captain Nemo

Classic space never looked so..... long

LEGO themes present creative builders with endless opportunities to mash multiple themes together into the ultimate, ultimate LEGO creations, like zombie pirates, zombie army, zombie spaceships, and zombie cowboys. (what is up with this guy and his obsession with zombies? I blame Halloween). Anyways, back to mash-ups, this wonderful SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) by Hans Dendauw brings together the fan challenges of SHIPtember and Novvember (an homage to the Vic Viper, one of the racing spaceships from the 1995 video game Gradius, distinguished by a two-pronged fuselage), and does it all in Classic space style. Benny would be proud.

Space Truckin' Round The Stars

Who says electric vehicles are slow?

Building fast cars in LEGO has always been a popular theme, and that only sped up with the launch of the Speed Champions theme. And while the creation of racecar models isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, there are some LEGO fans giving this genre a serious boost. One such builder is Malte Dorowski, whose newest model off of the assembly lines is this beautiful Porsche 99X Electric. I am a big fan of the 3-color scheme in stark black, white, and red, with my favorite part being the front fenders made from panels found in 1980s and 1990s space sets.

This serious ballista vehicle is not messing around

When you need to defend your outpost from aerial attack, you need an anti-aircraft Ballista. Like this one built by Douglas Hughes, which features not one, but two substantially armed turrets; one sporting rocket launchers, the other, twin machine guns. The cab is very well sculpted with angled panels, and that blue striped detail is a nice touch.

Ballista mobile anti-air unit!

The vehicle is based on the Anvil Ballista from the multiplayer sci-fi game Star Citizen. But Douglas didn’t just build an amazing vehicle, he motorized it (maybe you noticed the cleverly integrated control box on the side) and lit the cab as well.

Ballista cockpit!

When you gotta catch ’em all, you need a Pokedex

If you are anything like young Ash Ketchum, you love collecting Pokemon while you are walking to work, or while you are walking around at work instead of working… hey, we’ve all been there. And so has LEGO builder Chungpo Cheng, who has built a folding Pokedex at the perfect scale to fit in the palm of your hand. The Pokeball is also just the right size and is quite nicely shaped. I wonder which Pokemon is resting inside. Hopefully, it’s my personal favorite, Marowak… wearing the skull of his father for a helmet.

Pokédex&Poké Ball

Menacing manga mech warrior swings a mighty sword

If you are a manga warrior in a mech suit, you are judged by two things. How tattered your cape is, and how big your sword is. By these criteria, this hulking mech suit inspired by the manga/anime Berserk, and brought to brooding LEGO life by Marco De Bon is winning top marks. And with boots sculpted out of this layered shield part, he looks like he’s also ready to kick butt in the battle of the metal mech bands.

Lego FA-12 "Berserk mech"

The hands are a perfect size, with my favorite detail part, the ingot piece, and the interior looks pretty comfortable as well.

Lego FA-12 "Berserk mech"