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

This moody piece gives us the blues. Several shades of it.

When describing this LEGO creation, a commenter on Casey McCoy’s photo stream said it best; “I’ve never had a lego model stir my heart the way this one does. Absolutely fantastic composition and beautiful use of color. This is art.” When something like this evokes such profound emotions, it is art indeed. This piece is called Die in Your Arms and I’ve found myself gazing at this image for long moments at a time. Perhaps the dead being was already white when they were alive but I imagine that, as its soul drains from its body, so does the blue color. Casey tells us that this model only uses the following colors: Black, Dark Blue, Dark Azure, Medium Azure, Dark Bley (bluish gray), Light Bley, Light Aqua, and White. He also went on to say that it won Best Vignette at Brickworld Chicago 2023. The folks of Brickworld most certainly made the right choice.

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Resurrecting the Boothill Express

The Brothers Brick’s snarkiest writer and editor Lino Martins (hey, that’s me!) dusts off some LEGO brick after a three-year hiatus to build the Boothill Express. Initially designed by Ray Fahrner, this radical show rod started life as an 1850s funeral coach and was outfitted with a massive Hemi and some of the sickest pipes ever. Kids in 1967 got their greasy mitts on the first model kits with a space between “Boot” and “Hill”; “Express” was spelled the same, as it turned out. This model boasts working steering and a detailed interior. This was a blast to build but the question is; has this resurrected my LEGO prowess or should I crawl back into my crypt? Let us know in the comments. In the meantime, if vehicles revitalizes your dead heart as much as it does mine, then click the little blue link to see what my like-minded friends have been up to.

MC Vespa; full-time DJ, part-time pretty boy

Clever LEGO builder Dan Ko graces the pages of The Brothers Brick once again and this time he drops MC Vespa. He’s got cool shoes, a radical haircut, and a face like a Vespa. No seriously, it is a Vespa! The part can be found in the Friends Heartlake City Bakery. Check out that doofus grin! It has more than a few of us at TBB headquarters chuckling at this very nice parts usage. Please peruse our Dan Ko archives to learn why we think Dan is the king of NPU while you, on the other hand, just sort of loaf on the couch.

Women fear me and my oversized fishing hat

This LEGO creation by Tino Poutiainen reminds me of those model kits of yore; The Visible Man, The Visible Woman, The Visible Horse, etcetera. They even had, I found out just now, a Visible Trout similar to this one that showcases all the squishy bits you’d rather not think about while enjoying some fish and chips. Apparently, you have to sell a major organ to get your hands on these retro kits nowadays! I went on to read Tino’s write-up and he said “Women Fear Me, Fish Fear Me, Men Turn Their Eyes Away From Me, As I Walk No Beast Dares Make A Sound, In My Presence I Am Alone On This Barren Earth.” Then I was like; what the heck? Of course, I Googled it and it used to merely be a meme of an oversized fishing hat with that scripture on it but now you can buy it for real. This leaves me with a difficult choice; either save up for one of those old model kits or profess my awesomeness with an oversized fishing hat. Difficult choice, indeed!

LEGO revs up an American classic with the Icons 10321 Corvette [News]

Hot on the trail of the Land Rover Defender comes the LEGO Icons 10321 Corvette. With 1,210 pieces, this set is sure to make any gearhead’s heart go pitter-patter. They’ve replicated the classic styling of the 1961 Corvette nicely in red with a black interior and white highlights. According to details on the back of the box, the model has opening doors, trunk, and hood. Also, either the hardtop can be removed or an alternate convertible version can be built to show off the detailed interior. The LEGO Icons 31321 Corvette will be available from LEGO stores and their website starting on August 1st, and will retail for a price of US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £129.99.

Click to check under the hood

Where the explorers are tiny and the perils huge!

Gnomes are tiny mythical creatures of European folklore. With that said, it is possible that the monster spider in the center of this LEGO creation by Mihał Ch is normal-sized. Still, a spider of any size gives me the heebie-jeebies so I wouldn’t want to be that wee little gnome explorer. It looks like he’s about to become a snack! I may stick around just long enough to admire the neat build techniques used in this underground terrain; the rocks and web design are amazing. The entire diorama is only six studs deep but the amount of detail rendered makes the cave seem to go on forever. But still, let’s hope the other things we feature soon will be less spider-centric!

Behold The Last Wisteria

The Brothers Brick alumni Nannan Zhang has a knack for creating innovative and breathtaking worlds in LEGO. His specialty seems to be mixing manmade devices with biological elements and this stunning The Last Wisteria is no exception. Let me rephrase that; it’s quite exceptional. His grasp for integrating shapes and colors demonstrates the abilities of a true artist. The tree’s roots intermingled among cold hexagonal tiles are truly awe-inspiring. Even the wisteria’s leaves have a neat order to them. As capable as I like to think I am, even my own words don’t do this piece justice so instead, we’ll let Nannan use his; Among rapid cybernetic hybridization, a thing of beauty flourishes above the metallic earth.. A thing of beauty, indeed. Check out our Nannan Zhang archives to see why sometimes we’re lost for words but we still try anyway.

When Dieselpunk art imitates Dieselpunk art

This new LEGO creation by Sandro Quattrini and we’re all pretty thrilled, by golly. I’m loving the intricate details, the ape-like stance, and the fact that this thing resembles a walking airplane. I seriously want to live in this world for a little while. It turns out that you can as this is based on the work of famed concept artist Emerson Tung and his A6M-S Koumuri Jethead art . This isn’t the first time we’ve been impressed by Sandro’s work, in fact, he was named The Brothers Brick Builder of the Year in 2022. Nor is this the first time he has been inspired by Emerson’s work. Check out our Sandro Quattrini archives to see what I mean. This may be the most interesting thing I’ve seen all day and I’ve Googled potatoes and jelly.

Strap in for a long, torturous ride

This new LEGO creation by Rubblemaker is called Symbiosis. If you recall your grade school science classes, symbiosis is where two organisms share a mutually beneficial relationship. I’m not entirely sure if this is mutually beneficial; that poor clod in the cockpit may or may not be this ship’s pilot but it is most definitely its fuel source. If this ship moves as fast as Voyager II, it would take this suffering fool 9.5 years to get to Uranus. Plus you couldn’t even land there because science journals, as well as my grade school self, will tell us that Uranus is a gaseous, smelly giant. It’s likely you’d have to keep going for another few decades to reach a land-able rock and even then it’s no guarantee the locals will be friendly. Space travel sucks!

Off the wall or off the grid, you decide

Famed LEGO builder and Ideas set designer Andrea Lattanzio proposed the question; have you ever thought about living “off the wall”? That got me thinking; does he mean off the grid? While I use the term “off the wall” occasionally, I went ahead and looked it up and the definition is cited as eccentric or unconventional with their example being
“a zany, wacky, off-the-wall weirdo”. In that regard, to answer your question, Andrea I give you a resounding hell yes! Eccentric and unconventional all the way, mio amico! However, he goes on to say that the characters in this creation “probably ended up living like this because of an all-out war that wiped everything out.” So does that mean off the grid, then? Andrea goes on to say that they seem quite happy, so that’s a good thing.

Whether they’re off the wall or off the grid there’s no denying these great shapes and build techniques. He pays homage to plenty of creations from his past; the tile with the blue cottage is in reference to the 21338 A-Frame set that he designed and the white boat on the roof may be the very one taken from his Stilt House Ideas concept. Can you spot other references? There are Easter eggs a-plenty!

Re-firing up the Ninjago Fire Temple

It’s hard to find someone in the LEGO Community that doesn’t like Ninjago. Even if we don’t follow the entire storyline and history, most of us have bought a few sets even if just for their super cool and useful parts. Jakub Drobny took the 2507 Ninjago Fire Temple set from 2011 and, with newer parts and colors and build techniques made it awesome-er-er. I particularly love the trees and tank treads that create the textured roof tiles. Without the dragon and the inclusion of the waterfall, this creation seems much more serene than the old set of yore but with a name like Fire Temple, we just know some action and drama is sure to erupt soon.

Airships over Antarctica: The Battle for Flat Earth

That title; I’m just gonna leave it right there and see what happens. Actually it comes from LEGO builder Pete Strege. Anyone who is anyone knows that if climate change is real, Antartica would melt off the edge of the Earth and drown the rest of the world, presumably on the other side of the globe…er, I mean disk. That is why it is so important that the denizens of Antarctica protect it with all their might. Here we see a massive polar bear balloon piloted by penguins, penguin blimps piloted by polar bears and a squadron penguin-piloted plains worthy of an old-timey “buy war bonds” film. There’s a lot to love here. This creation acts as a reminder that no matter what shape the Earth happens to be, it is worth protecting because it’s the only planet we have.