Posts by Kyle Keller

The Brothers Brick is looking for Contributors, News Writers, and Graphic Designers to join our team [News]

Dear reader, you’re likely already familiar with all the tremendous news, reviews, and LEGO creations we feature here at The Brothers Brick. But producing all this content takes a team of people with a deep passion for the hobby. I was lucky enough to join this wonderful group two years ago, and we’re once again looking to expand our ranks. We’re looking for Contributors to help write up the best darn LEGO creations the internet has to offer. We’re seeking News Writers to help cover breaking information on this hobby that we love. And we’re after Graphic Designers to help create the cover images that draw you all into the news and reviews we have to share. Are you interested in helping us out? Read on for more on the open positions at TBB and how to apply!

Click to read more about the open roles

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

A cup of gnomish creativity

It’s not too often that the LEGO bricks line up in a way that we can do a theme day here at TBB. But when two great builders push the limits on a certain hard-to-use part, it’s tough not to write them up together. We already saw Nate’s spaceship earlier today, and now we’re treated to this delightful gnome-built cottage by Maxx Davidson, both built around this human-sized LEGO mug. Fitting with the Iron Forge challenge to use as many LEGO liquid containers as possible, the creation also features mug-turbaned gnomes with Minecraft Shulker faces, and some lovely window awnings made from latte cups.

Just when you thought it was safe to walk past LEGO barns...

Even if your aim’s so terrible that you can’t hit the broadside of a barn, you can certainly use one to hide, as we see in this LEGO vignette by Mihał Ch (BardJaskier). With an army dressed similarly to the 10297 Boutique Hotel staff hiding in the foreground, my attention is drawn to the ~~expect~~ expert techniques used in the granary. Brown brick-built doors look sturdy as can be and the foundation is appropriately cobbled. But it’s those thick black lines framing the structure that really make the building pop. Make sure to zoom in and check out the cheese slope technique used to get those smooth diagonal lines.

This LEGO Dark Knight is more than black and dark gray

While LEGO Batman will forever be Will Arnett, there’s certainly room for creations that take the caped crusader a bit more seriously. For instance, check out this glorious scene from Batman Begins by Joe (jnj_bricks). Within their temple high in the Tibetan Himalayas, the League of Shadows is about to adopt a new member. But Bruce Wayne manages an escape from Ra’s al Ghul and his minions. Here we see the explosion that kicks off the action-packed scene, frozen in plastic-y time. And it’s a good thing, too, because it allows us plenty of time to admire Joe’s impressive use of Harry Potter wands in the vignette. Employed both in the windows above and the railings below, the pair of wands still attached to their sprue provide an interesting and hard-to-achieve texture in the model.

LEGO Ideas announces the next set in the theme as 21347 Red London Telephone Box [News]

LEGO Ideas has been on a roll lately, springboarding off the release of 21344 Orient Express Train back in December into a wave of set announcements including 21345 Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera and 21346 Family Tree so far this year. And we can now tack one more onto the list as well. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the K2 Telephone Box, LEGO will release LEGO Ideas 21347 Red London Telephone Box next month. Based on the original submission by John Cramp, this model stands nearly a foot tall (30 cm), and has the iconic crimson booth stood along the fictional English street of Buildmore Road. The set also has a built-in stand to hold your cell phone for all the Anglophiles looking to add this to their collections. LEGO Ideas 21347 Red London Telephone Box, 1460 pieces large, will be available from LEGO.com on February 1st for LEGO Insiders (February 4th for everyone else) and will retail for US $114.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £99.99.

Answer the call on this new set below!

Setting the bar with a setting of LEGO bars

Sometimes, one can forget that LEGO is more than just studs, tubes, and minifigures. There are so many other connections available to the savvy constructor. And there are few as savvy as TBB alum Mansur Soeleman (lamborghiniwafflesauce), as we can see in his space-y creation titled The Mirrorheim. Featuring so many twisting tubes and clipped panels, his model is a paragon of micro space construction. And while I can’t speak to its fragility based solely on these pictures, the desire to “swoosh” this teeny starfighter all over the room is irrefutable.

Sketching out the Diary of a Wimpy Kid in LEGO

While Jeff Kinney may be the original creator of Manny Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise, builder SDR. may be the first one to immortalize is visage in LEGO. Younger brother of series protagonist Greg, the smallest of the Heffley clan is also the most spoiled (or at least from the perspective of the Diary, he is). And this brick-built doodle looks like it’s been lifted – or rather torn – right off the page! There’s quite a bit of minifigure headgear used in this caricature, notably relying on the standard space helmet to form those great big buck teeth. And the paper background is no slouch either, with some brilliant linework forming that wide rule on the notebook paper. The blue lines are even show the varied shades of color thanks to cheap printing on thin paper. What a great detail!

With 7,000 pieces, this golden LEGO dragon welcomes in the New Year

Next weekend, the LEGO convention Brickvention will return to Melbourne, Australia, bringing with it so many brick-built creations from the continent. Now we’ve seen some pretty impressive stuff from this show in past years, so it should be no surprise that a LEGO dragon of this scale will be making an appearance for this year’s con. From the mind of Donny Chen, this marker of the coming Chinese New Year 2024 can stretch out to 2 meters long and contains 1300 2×4 oval tiles as golden scales.

As impressive as the body is, with a flexible skeleton supporting all those tiles, the dragon’s face is also quite the marvel. Pearl gold has a fairly limited part palette, but Donny is still able to create some fantastic shapes in constructing the eyes, crown, and jawline of this majestic mythical beast. I particularly like his use of 1×1 slopes to create the appearance of small scales along the dragon’s snout and chin. I hope those of you able to make it to Melbourne can enjoy it in person.

In the golden forest, a LEGO dragon blocks the way

When I first spotted this exquisite LEGO creation by F.S. Leinad, it was most definitely the dragon that made me stop for a deeper peek. It’s such a beautiful agglomeration of parts and connections forming the small beast. With a neck made from a robot’s foot and horns from minifigure goggles, there’s so much to love about its construction. But you may not see the forest for the dragon, so to speak. These yellow-foliated trees are a wonder! They form such natural shapes with their trunks and boughs, providing an irregular, natural look that’s a far cry from the standard LEGO leaf parts. I’m absolutely taking notes on this one!

“Orange you glad I didn’t say red panda”

Amid the social media universe of artists, there is a creative prompt known as the color wheel challenge. The artist must complete a separate piece for each wedge of a color wheel, typically consisting of red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, and pink. And LEGO character builder extraordinaire Steven Howard (aka Ghalad) has taken up the challenge in brick form with this first submission for the orange slice. Despite the misnomer, it’s fair to say that a red panda is quite the orange beast. But I’m pretty sure (and feel free to fact-check me on this one, dear readers) that a red panda has never presided over a fiefdom in the history of the animal. Nevertheless, fiction or not, this is still a dynamite character exuding all the regal glory that Ailurus fulgens can muster. Very much looking forward to the next wedge, Ghalad!

And if you’d like to see more of Steven’s awe-inspiring work, please take a look in our archives.

The LEGO bricks of 1995 are not to be underestimated

What happens when you’re restricted to the bricks of a certain LEGO era? Builder Ids de Jong thrives with such limitations, bringing us a castle that looks at home in modern-day Castle themes. Without access to modern plant parts, we still have an excellent-looking birch. Lacking today’s complement of bricks made for SNOT construction (Studs Not On Top), Ids throws together some exquisite cross-windows with the help of minifigure legs. And despite no masonry profile bricks from back in the 90’s, the old school approach of layering standard 1×2 plates to recreate the masonry texture works just fine instead. This makes me wonder what other themes could be revisited with only 1995 parts.

The Brothers Brick LEGO Builder of the Year 2023 [News]

We here at The Brothers Brick have poured through the list of LEGO builders we’ve featured on the site for 2023. With so many excellent creations blogged by us in those 365 days, it’s always tough to find the singular builder who went above and beyond in that time – who not only rose above their peers, but also improved upon their work from past years. And when we specifically looked for someone who seriously stepped up their game in the year 2023, it was clear who fit the bill.

The Brothers Brick is thrilled to announce that Dicken Liu is our TBB LEGO Builder of the Year for 2023.

Read up on Dicken Liu’s award-winning 2023 below!