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

For the love of money...and chicken legs

You can be forgiven for barely remembering the droid bounty hunter 4-LOM who boasted roughly one second of screen time in The Empire Strikes Back. But for LEGO builder Greg Dalink, 4-LOM (stands for; For the Love of Money) holds a special place in his heart. He’s working on a series of battle mechs that houses the Star Wars bounty hunter for which it resembles. You know, for when a bounty hunter wants to work more conspicuously. I love the greebly details and overall black and gun-metal color of this mech. The Bionicle shoulder pads make great compound eyes and the breathing device (do droids breathe?) is an amazing touch.

The best part is the head opens to reveal a 4-LOM minifig driver nestled inside as seen in this photo. It seems 4-LOM loves money and the feeling of being inside himself…or something. Ahem. Just click this Greg Dalink link to see some of the other bounty hunter mechs in action.

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Doo-Doo Racer from the Stone Jungle

Now here’s something you don’t see every day—or rather, no other day in the history of the world ever. LEGO builder Nikita Nikolsky lets loose a Doo-Doo Racer from the Stone Jungle and we’re not sure how that settles with us. It’s like Mad Max meets Caddyshack or Death Race 2000 meets National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Probably the less said about this the better. But if there were a B-List movie of the same title I’d likely watch it. Still, that’s some pretty sick camber on those tires though. The pipes are epic too but I don’t want to know what comes out of the exhaust.

Dia de los Muertos; the Halloween after Halloween

LEGO builder Kevin Wanner made a trip to San Diego recently, took a few photos, and treated us all to something amazing. In his words; “Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2. It is a holiday of joyful celebration involving family and friends gathering to pay respects to those who have died. Traditions connected with the holiday include honoring the deceased using calaveras and Aztec marigold flowers known as cempazúchitl, it is also common to give gifts to friends such as candy sugar skulls.” I love the colors and festivity of it all. The flowers, painted cobblestone tiles, sugar skulls, and various cactus plants are all fun details. Even the photography, with its depth of field, is expertly done. It gives us a reason to celebrate the loved ones who have passed on.

Leaf pieces are really shaping up nicely.

Builder Azurekingfisher calls this LEGO sculpture Cone Cube Sphere for, well, the obvious reasons. It’s well-photographed, graphicly bold, and, at first glance, can be misconstrued as something other than LEGO. But they make interesting use of the tree leaf part in three different colors. My personal fave is the cube as it makes use of some plates and tiles but the cone and sphere certainly aren’t without their charm. It must take some expert hands to craft these as, I imagine anyway, that cone is a good way to snap those brittle leaf pieces in half. Azurekingfisher, please chime in in the comments if you’ve ever broken any. In the meantime, everyone else click the little blue link above to see many more delights that make use of the leaf part.

A Summer folding chair in the middle of Autumn

That air is brisk out there! Autumn most certainly has arrived, making me want to don a warm sweater and maybe sip a pumpkin spice latte. But maybe it’s warm where Dicken Liu is because clearly he has summer on his mind as evidenced by this LEGO folding chair. He even titled this piece Summer Nights. If the desired effect was to have me thinking of summer, even as the wind howls and rattles our ghost Halloween decorations, it worked! I can just about feel the comfort and warmth of a starry summer night. The tea and the side table are a nice touch, too. The mushrooms are also neat!

Something turmeric this way comes

We don’t intend to feature nearly every LEGO creation Bart De Dobbelaer has made. But when he’s so masterful at creating beyond-bizarre alien worlds and creatures, the likelihood of us being captivated by his work is as likely as a TikTok influencer being fired from a job, then posting said firing on TikTok. Which, you have to admit, is fairly high odds. Turmeric is an excellent dietary supplement that is said to help with variety of conditions, including arthritis, digestive disorders, respiratory infections, allergies, liver disease and depression. However, these creatures Bart calls Turmeric Nightmares are giving me the heebie-jeebies. Two shades of brown and trans-yellow work well here. The end result is like some sort of malevolent fungus. Creepy stuff! Still we keep coming back for more. Click the link to find out why we think Bart De Dobbelaer is more compelling than a TikTok influencer getting fired.

Have no fear, Chainsaw Man is here! Or something.

For LEGO creations straight from the mind of a weird ten-year old boy, (I know, because I was one once) then look no further than Redverse. Apparently, my ten-year-old self is not the only one to have sketched out something like this. Chainsaw Man is a popular manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto. This build, against that bold background, depicts the volume one cover. The story features Denji, an impoverished young man, who makes a contract that fuses his body with that of a dog-like devil named Pochita, granting him the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. I mean, what kid hasn’t wanted to do that? Wikipedia goes on to say that Denji eventually joins the Public Safety Devil Hunters, a government agency focused on fighting against devils whenever they become a threat to the world. You see? My parents were wrong; job opportunities abound when you have chainsaws for hands and a face! Now if only I knew how to cash in on my deranged juvenile ideas.

Rockhall lights the way to an epic layout

Call me weird but I love a huge LEGO layout with a unified color scheme. Take this striking red and white creation by the eerily named Eric TheSkeleton, for example. The buildings, lighthouse, even the numerous airships stay faithful to that red and white color scheme; it’s kinda like the White Stripes live there. I’m sure there are other real-life examples but with the hill and Mediterranean-style red roofs, this layout reminds me of Coimbra, Portugal. Upon closer inspection, this is actually a microscale build but the island citadel seems to have a more massive footprint than what is true to life. The bones as waves are a masterful touch! That water just might be a bedsheet or a tablecloth but, with the tiny ripples, the effect works amazingly well within the composition. It’s not quite a purist approach but the last time we upset the purists, we had a record number of complaints from folks with AOL email addresses so maybe lightning will strike again this time. Here’s to hoping it does!

This ship leaves us feeling flat but in a good way

In the aftermath of SHIPtember, it is actually refreshing to see a few littler LEGO ships in our midst. Here’s one that David Roberts simply calls A Flat Ship but its striking color scheme and interesting shape leave us feeling anything but flat. It has just the right amount of oomph to make it interesting. David has a surprisingly profound thing to say about ships; “Many LEGO spaceships are just abstract sculptures, that happen to have a cockpit and engines added to make them more accessible!” That certainly is a neat way of putting it.

Walk the wave, if you dare

Marion Weintraut flexes some architectural might and probably more than a few LEGO bricks with this stunning Ruyi Bridge. I’m in awe of its intricate waving construct; a feat that doesn’t look easy. It’s a delicate and beautiful structure that would look handsome as a display at any architectural firm. I would probably be too frightened to traverse such a dizzying structure had it have been real. Well, I should hang on tight and have a sick bag at the ready because, as it turns out, it is!

A trio of Star Wars TIE Fighters to tie you over

Man, I love good LEGO builds in an alternate scale! Here we see a trio of TIE Fighters built by Tim Goddard. They’re not quite microscale, but probably what we’d call closer to Midi-scale. Tim calls it Trophy Scale which would be great to receive such a trophy. The Darth Vader TIE Advanced X1 and its regular TIE escorts are handsome on their stands and showcase just about as much detail as their bigger UCS counterparts.

Tim tells us he has been thinking about building the entire Death Star trench run in this scale, which would still be massive and jaw-droppingly impressive if he pulls it off. In the meantime, just tie yourselves over with a couple of the good guy ships, an X-Wing and A-Wing. Now don’t get cocky! Actually, we prefer when you do get cocky. It usually makes for good LEGO creations and amusing subject matter to write about.

Go for the gold!

Sure we love massive spaceships and huge LEGO dioramas here at The Brothers Brick. But sometimes you’ve gotta appreciate the little things in life. Like this goldfish built by Kashim K, for example. It has just enough pieces to make it interesting; plus it makes use of a Brick Separator so that’s fun. What clever things have you done with your Brick Separators lately? We now return you to your regularly scheduled spaceships and huge LEGO dioramas.

About Lino

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