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

Nice Winnebago but will it keep you safe from The Walking Dead?

Who could forget season one of The Walking Dead? Come to think of it, I forgot most of it. 2010 was a long time ago! Was that before or after Carl got to wear his dad’s hat? Anyway, one detail that still knocks around the ol’ reptile brain is Dale’s Winnebago and Jonas Kramm has done a great job recreating it in LEGO. Here we see Dale keeping an eye out for Walkers in (relative) safety from the roof. I’m loving the cooler, radio, beach chair, umbrella, and aerial antenna. It has all the makings to keep the whole gang safe through one season of the apocalypse only to have something horrific happen to it and all occupants not named Rick a short time later. Good times! While we’re wracking our delicious braaaaaains trying to remember what happened to Dale, take a slow shambling walk down memory lane and check out some other Walking Dead LEGO scenes that also didn’t go well for anyone.

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 lovely jewelry box for your lovely stuff

I’ll share a fun fact with you. Most of my LEGO collection is relegated to my LEGO room downstairs under the guise that– no one wants to see your Star Wars spaceships or whatever. However, some of the few LEGO sets that have made it to the main floor (you know, where nice civilized people hang out) are from the Botanical line. Famed builder Ian Hou has used parts from that botanical line to create this lovely ornate jewelry box. I’m in awe of the flowery filigree adorning this creation. While my LEGO room is admitttedly cluttered with paraphenelia too lowbrow for polite company, this box just might be fine enough to occupy one of the upper floor bedrooms (gasp!) in which no LEGO currently resides.

Fabuland Ganesha doesn’t judge you

We’re used to being in awe and maybe a bit flabbergasted by the wild and wonderful LEGO creations of Ivan Martynov. But this time we’re like; is that even LEGO? It’s a computer render, as it turns out, but still a neat concept. Here we see Elton Elephant as Ganesha, the Hindu god of beginnings and the patron of intellectuals, bankers, scribes, and authors. He’s one of those cool, laidback dieties who doesn’t judge your shortcomings because he himself isn’t without folly. I, on the other hand, can be judgemental, at times. I am forever furrowing my brow at the antics of others. If you’d rather we didn’t shake our heads with quiet condemnation at how you treat others then quit acting like an entitled high-and-mighty brat, Karen! (Wow, that escalated fast.) While you’re clamoring to reach my manager, why not take a gander at some other Fabuland creations built by totally fabulous grown-ass adults.

This starship has a snake in its boot! (Probably)

I love Iron Builder! It usually means job security for us here at TBB, loads of awesome LEGO entertainment for you, and stress, horror, and depravity for the poor sods who have to build for it. Take this pointy starship built by Joe (jnj_bricks) for example. It’s pretty neat in its own right, but knowing full well you gotta crank out a bunch of quality builds in short order while your competitor does the same gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it. As per the rules of Iron Builder, you gotta cleverly use a seed part or another. We’re supposed to be impressed by Joe’s use of the required hexagonal blabitty-blah but I’m more smitten with the hidden Woody figure from Toy Story. Can you spot it?

What it’s like to have an awesome woody

For those keeping track at home, (and I hope to god you are) you may already know that I am into cars. Like way into them, probably to the point of cars filing restraining orders against me. Classic American rides are my favorite so you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover this glorious LEGO woody by AtomicBuilder. Sometimes you see something so beautiful, you just want to cry. You know? That’s how I felt when I first saw this. I love the shaping, the tires, and how the wood paneling lines up just perfectly. He doesn’t specify the make or model but if LEGO can come out with a generic pickup set then he is not wrong in this approach. I can tell by the Cruzan and Copa de Oro bottles in the background that this Atomic fella is a real class act, someone I would probably get along with.

Click to see more views of this sweet ride. You know you want to!

Tim’s take on the Slab Wagon

LEGO car and sometimes architecture builder Tim Inman has built a 1963 Chevy II Station Wagon and suddenly I’m tickled pink. Or tan. I’m tickled tan, actually. It’s a well-known fact that they commonly call the Chevy II Station Wagon the “Slab Wagon”. By “they” I mean me and by “well-known fact” I mean I made that up just now. But it’s fast thinking like this is the reason why they pay me big bucks here at The Brothers Brick. Or so they tell me. It’s hard to keep track of your fortunes when everything is direct deposit. Anyway, I’m loving the red interior juxtaposed against the understated tan paint job. The roof rack, even the ice skater blades used as door handles are all great touches.

Continue reading →

The tiny mighty Dreadnaught

A builder who goes by the name of Mix the Brix proves you don’t need a shipyard full of LEGO pieces to build an awesome battleship. This tiny model is good enough to show off the superstructure and an impressive array of cannons. I mean, check out those billowing smokestacks! Mix (can I call you Mix?) says this is their first military build and it also seems to be their first time being featured on The Brothers Brick. With wee builds this amazing, we might have to keep an eye out for whatever they may do next.

A retro robot to protect your city

Maybe it’s just the booze talking but the 70s and 80s were the best time to be a kid. I mean, you’ve got Star Wars, Micronauts, Shogun Warriors, and of course LEGO coming out with some freaking awesome themes like Castle and Classic Space. Shannon Sproule knows what I’m talking about. This fabulously retro Metorogādo: City Protector Robo combines the awesomeness of Shogun Warriors, the playability of Micronauts, and maybe even some of the awe of Star Wars. This hits all the nostalgic childhood sweet spots for me. And of course, it’s all LEGO…or mostly LEGO—those shoulder fins are some other brand of brick.

Shannon says it was a miracle to find both a left and a right fin in the loose brick bargain bin. And that’s another cool thing about being a kid; while we likely preferred LEGO, we didn’t care too much if some sweet off-brand parts snuck into our collections now and then. It’s the adults who fret over such things. With childhood wonder intact, (booze references notwithstanding) be sure to check out why Shannon consistently hits all our sweet spots.

An even taller Tallneck

Fans of Horizon: Forbidden West and/or fans of mechanical giraffes with disks for heads were thrilled to learn that LEGO has launched an official LEGO Horizon Tallneck set. Clearly, Nicola Stocchi falls into one or both categories, as he has built a UCS Tallneck. (I fall into only one category but more on that later.) What does this whole UCS business mean, exactly? Well, UCS stands for Ultimate Collectors Series. When someone slaps that moniker onto anything they have built this means you’re bound to get something bigger and much more detailed than your usual fare. This model lives up to its name as it was rendered using a whopping 7391 pieces! It stands 94 centimeters or nearly three feet high.

As I have never heard of the Horizon: Forbidden West game until we featured the article on the Tallneck set, I have learned that I fall into the category of people who love mechanical giraffes with disks for heads. This thing is amazing, even if you’re clueless about the source material. A quick Google search proves these are peaceful machines that serve as great communication towers. The 5G must be amazing around these things! My personal 5G coverage is great because I am vaccinated. While you’re mulling over that logic, tune your 5G to our archives and check out some other wild and weird creatures from the Horizon Zero Dawn francise.

Theodore Q. Spacepants cares about the environment and stuff

This past month we featured a lot of LEGO space rovers because of Febrovery or something. Well, it’s now March but we’re still having plenty of fun with it. Take this awesome rover by Tommy Frost for example. With a couple of VIDIYO Boomboxes, four knobby tires, and some weird plant life, we’re whisked away to another planet, one that Theodore Q. Spacepants is happy to be a part of. You see, Theodore cares deeply about environmental issues and volunteers for the B. Good Foundation’s Spaceplant Conservation Project. he says it wasn’t really a job because he didn’t get paid but, like most things we volunteer for, it was a whole pant-load of fun. That’s pretty much how I describe my time spent here volunteering for The Brothers Brick, a pant-load of fun. Check out why we think Mr. Frost is also a pant-load of fun.

Even weirdo space-demons have play dates

If there’s one thing LEGO builder Bart De Dobbelaer has taught us is…um…he’s probably a weirdo space-demon. I mean, seriously! Check out this offering, for example. He captions it with “Can Timmy come out and play?” Then goes on to say that “even demons have play dates”. That is all. We’re left to fend for ourselves as to the how and why this is all happening. I mean, I’m sure there’s a good lesson in here somewhere about great textures, and the use of lighting in your LEGO creations. But I’m pretty certain by now that Bart has tentacles and at least one proboscis if not several. Check out what I mean with all his alien weirdness in our archives.

The real casualties of a real war

This new LEGO creation by a historian who goes by the name of Benjamin acts as a stark reminder that there are currently real-world actions with real-world consequences. Here we see a Ukrainian civilian discovering possibly a loved one among a heap of rubble. Benjamin provides a passage in German that, while you are free to translate it yourself, the gist is that this is not a war of tanks and soldiers but rather of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters, as well as kindergartens, schools, town halls, shopping malls, universities, factories, and homes. When we feature things like this we predictably get a slew of comments on social media that state something to the effect of; keep your world view out of LEGO. Or I come to this site to not see this kind of thing so stop doing it. The truth is that something as big and consequential as one country invading another cannot go unnoticed and cannot go unheard, even among us adults who enjoy building with LEGO. At the very least it has us worrying about our Ukrainian and Russian friends, family, and colleagues, but the impact of these actions span far wider than that.

Keeping silent or purposefully misinformed about such things is how wars like this get started in the first place. It’s how they can go on indefinitely. This is why we at The Brothers Brick will stand with our brethren of builders and feature articles such as this one. While we haven’t shied away from real-world problems before, this is the first you’ve seen depicting the conflict in Ukraine. I can assure you that this will likely be the first of many because alas real-world actions like this are too important to go unheard.