About Lino

Lino is an artist, humorist, and occasional responsible adult. He is the co-founder of a challenge-based LEGO car club called LUGNuts which boasts over 1100 members worldwide. He proposed automotive building challenges every month for ten years (120 challenges!) which he and the other members built accordingly. LUGNuts has retired its challenges on its 10th anniversary but still remains a cornerstone for LEGO automotive builders. Between his artistic work and LEGO builds, Lino has been published in several books, including Beautiful LEGO, Beautiful LEGO: Dark, and Beautiful LEGO: Wild. He lives in Washington with his girlfriend and dogs.

Posts by Lino

The 1864 Battle of Dybbol won Best Battle Scene at Brickfair, Virginia

Sometimes a LEGO creation can be small and still impressive. But sometimes it can be on such a grand scale, that it takes a team of friends to make it happen. That is the case with this stunning Battle of Dybbol scene built by Hunter Erickson and friends. In the builder’s words; Prussia under Wilhelm I and his foreign minister Otto Von Bismarck sought to unify the German states under one banner through careful diplomacy and war. One example of this was the 8-month-long Second Schleswig War between Prussia and Austria against Denmark. The German Confederation thought it was unacceptable that Denmark sought to further integrate the majority German Duchy of Schleswig into the Danish state in 1863. This was seen as a violation of the London Protocol that ended the First Schleswig War in 1852. War was inevitable and in 1864, Prussia and Austria invaded Denmark. That is the scene depicted here.

Continue reading →

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 panda playing a violin on a dock

For most of us, The Sound of Autumn can be leaves rustling in the wind and then blowing down the street as they fall from the trees. Where LEGO builder Vincent Kiew is from The Sound of Autumn apparently involves a panda playing the violin on a dock. I’d like to hear what that sounds like, actually. To me, it’s far more exotic than the usual rustling of autumn leaves, and even the most audacious Pumpkin Spice Latte order at Starbucks. Check out our archives to see why we think Vincent Kiew is music to our ears.

This builder brings the beautiful bugs

LEGO will be launching the The Insect Collection soon and, as a result, some of our favorite builders are a little buggier than usual. Take, for example, this lovely Orchid Mantis built by LEGO 7 that is adorned, like its namesake, in pink and white. The flowers come from 10311 Orchid set from last year.

Continue reading →

For the record, Han Solo shot first

LEGO builder Hannes Tscharner (aka Marshal Banana) has reminded me of one of the hottest debates in sci-fi fandom, that being; what the heck is up with E.T.’s finger? I mean, seriously is it a Slim Jim with a lightbulb on the end or what? Also, having nothing to do with nerdy fanboys debating online is this awesome Star Wars replica of Han Solo’s blaster. The handsome DL-44 borrows design DNA from the Mauser C96 but added a scope and a bunch of other greebly bits including the “mystery disk”. What does the mystery disk do? It shoots mouthy Rodian bounty hunters right in the aedeagus, that’s what! This movie-accurate replica is 1:1 so you can hold it and practice your lovable scoundrel smile in the mirror. Isn’t that what we all do when not debating E.T.’s dubious finger?

Ride the Walibrick Roller Coaster. What can go wrong?

Sometimes you just gotta throw caution (as well as your hair and face) to the wind and strap into a single reptile-themed roller coaster car and let gravity and evolution do the rest. That’s exactly what’s going on here with lokiloki29’s new LEGO creation. I like that the coaster car’s face looks just as scared and exhilarated as its rider. Will it go well? Magic 8-ball says “Reply hazy, try again”. While we mull over that vote of confidence, check out our lokiloki29 archives to learn why Loki squared x29 both exhilarates us and scares our sensibilities sometimes.

Why not a Star Wars Y-Wing?

It turns out, the formula for successfully getting featured on The Brothers Brick is Star Wars. Oh, and LEGO. That part is crucial. The dubiously-named Simulterious takes pretty much the only two pages of TBB’s Book of Winning the Entire Internet and combines Star Wars and LEGO. And now everyone is as pleased as punch. It doesn’t hurt that this crowd-pleasing Rebel workhorse is outfitted with some nifty details and build techniques. Thanks to this builder’s amazing work, this article was really not much effort on my part. You just type up a couple of stream-of-conscious quips, then sit back and watch the success roll in. Thanks, Simulterious !

A snowman attack in August? Sure thing!

With some extreme weather, wildfires, and record temperatures, it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to see this LEGO scene built by PeterBoxXu. I mean, we’ve already seen murder hornets and a Latter-Day Saint ghost town that keeps emerging from Lake Mead and we didn’t even have that on our weird stuff bingo card. Somehow I love the concept of a massive snowman who has had enough of your winter holiday cheer. In August, no less! I like the snowman’s red neckerchief and his grabby Maxifig hands. The snowblower figure hurling through the air has definitely seen better days. If this creation wins the contest for the “All Seasons” theme it just might be seen in the LEGO Ideas House. I’m rooting for the snowman. In fact, with oppressive temperatures and a hint of smoke in the air, I’d welcome a snowman attack right about now. Or was I thinking of a cold glass of lemonade? Yeah, that’s it, cold lemonade!

May 15th, 1988; a fabulous day for Formula One racing

1988 saw the introduction of Roger Rabbit, the US Stealth Bomber, Prozac, and the first-ever computer virus. LEGO builder Alex_bricks takes us on a journey to a very specific time and place in 1988; that is May 15th at the Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren cars dominated the circuit and the rivalry between teammates Alain Prost of France and Ayrton Senna of Brazil was legendary. Senna put on a spectacular performance in qualifying, beating out his teammate by 1.427 seconds, an unheard-of gap for pole position. In the race, despite a commanding gap to Prost, Senna crashed out of the lead with a momentary lapse in judgment, heading into a barrier eleven laps from the end and thus Prost took the lead. The colors and textures of this build are amazing; I can just about hear the roar of the engines. The yacht and crane are nice touches, painstakingly researched by Alex.

Continue reading →

“Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...”

LEGO builder BrickiboT pays homage to Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws movie and demonstrates why an entire generation was afraid to go into the water. Tough-as-nails shark hunter Quint was responsible for some of the movie’s most memorable scenes. When he slowly scratched his nails across a chalkboard, it simultaneously agonized audiences and cemented one of the most memorable character introductions in movie history. His off-color sea shanties were also kinda endearing but alas this shark-obsessed Ahab of the Spielberg world met a grizzly demise as illustrated in this diorama. Quint was quite the scene-chewer, in fact, but, as fate would have it, Jaws would become quite the (ahem) Quint-chewer. Sorry. I’ll just let myself out. Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies…

Finally, a baby-safe missile launcher!

As kids growing up in the 70s and 80s can attest, when it comes to lawn darts and easy bake ovens it only takes one dumb kid to ruin a good thing for the rest of us. Maybe it was all the lead paint we ingested? Whatever the reason, we just can’t have nice things anymore! Thankfully, famed LEGO aficionado Angus MacLane has found a solution to our problem. It’s an amazing Classic Space rocket launcher that transforms into a giant baby mech. What part of that don’t you understand? Since the baby is a rocket launcher, I’m pretty sure that should pass the muster of even the most litigious parents. Probably. It definitely passes muster for what we consider to be totally amazeballs.

Angus provided a graphic illustrating how the rocket launcher transforms into the adorable little tike. Once you’ve looked that over, be sure to check out our Classic Space archives to see what us kids of the 70s and 80s were into when we weren’t eating lead paint.

Digging up the Doosan DL420

If this were a LEGO Technic set, I’d see it, think it’s impressive, then probably move on to buy something else. But in the very capable hands of Michał Skorupka, he can use System brick on something that would normally be Technic and make it quite exciting indeed. This rugged Doosan DL420 Wheel Loader is about the most interesting thing I’ve seen all week and I’ve seen a major social media platform pretty much implode. It doesn’t hurt that I’m (ahem) digging the orange and dark gray color scheme. The amount of detail Michał can achieve with his creations is awe-inspiring. See for yourselves in our Michał Skorupka archives.

Continue reading →

In my tower of solitude

Just look at this lovely new LEGO creation by Thomas van Urk. The shapes and textures here; I’m almost lost for words. The slopes and tiles along that very interesting red roof are masterfully sculpted. A lesser builder would have just spired the roof and called it good but Thomas taunts us with first a spire, then an onion dome, and back into a spire. I frankly can’t even fathom how he did that! The Tudor-style detailing is not entirely uncommon in LEGO. The medium most certainly works well in that style but there are parts of the Tudor detailing that, like the red spire I can’t fathom. Thomas calls this The Princess Tower and I’d happily be a princess for a day if it means hanging out in this fantastic world for a while.

Even the gray stone part of the tower utilizes both new gray and some sun-faded old gray. I recall in 2004 when LEGO changed their gray bricks there were starchy, rigid LEGO fans who vowed to leave the hobby forever. I imagine either they eventually warmed up to the new color shades or indeed remained in 2004 with their flip-phones and AOL email addresses.