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

A bad day fishing still beats a good day working

LEGO builder Mike Sinclair tells us that at least a couple of men in his family enjoy fishing. As a result, be built this neat little diorama called Grandpa’s Favorite Spot. But where’s grandpa? I see his fishing rod, his favorite chair that, if taken apart, could look right at home at a ski resort. I also see a beverage can as well as a glass bottle in the drink with a message inside. All of his favorite elements are here but grandpa is off galavanting somewhere else. I get the hunch that with grandpa his enjoyment for fishing isn’t always in the fish he can catch but rather the feeling of just being in a favorite place. I can relate; I love being in certain spaces even if I don’t achieve my stated purpose for getting there. It’s probably for the best, anyway. From the looks of it, the fish aren’t even biting.

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.

I’m here, so just grin and bear it

Part of the thrill of living in nature and off-the-grid is sometimes that aforementioned nature just might show up at your front door. Case in point, Jérôme Barchietto presents a charming LEGO build of a cozy cabin, a seasoned old occupant, and his faithful husky. With great build techniques and stunning photography, this piece would be good enough to warrant a feature here at The Brothers Brick. I mean, just look at the ramshackle way the boards of the roof are constructed! The tiny add-on for the pup, snow on the roof and the log textures really makes it all come to life. But follow their gaze and you’ll see they are fixed upon the bear at their front step. He’s likely saying, “pardon the intrusion good sirs, but may I borrow a spot of honey?” In this situation, it’s best (and neighborly) to do what the bear asks.

Capes and surf boards make a stunning arrangement [Building Techniques]

With Valentine’s Day coming up, have you considered building a LEGO floral arrangement for your sweetie? The official Botanicals collection makes it easy. However, Khang Huynh takes it a step further with some stunning build techniques. At quick glance, this may appear to be “just” a well-appointed, well-photographed floral arrangement; so realistic you can hardly tell it’s LEGO. But upon close inspection, the flowers are comprised of red capes while repetitive use of green surfboards make up the leaves. Put it all together in a classy vase (including what seems to be a light brick, no less) and you have something quite lovely indeed.

The vulture will clean up after you’re gone [Building Techniques]

You can tell someone has fired up the Iron Forge because of so many clever uses for their seed part. This time, we’ve got LEGO flower stems and filbrick pulls it off with style. The large cactus (or succulent) is adorned in your usual green flower stems to create its spines while its smaller prickly friend sports the same part in olive green. There’s even one flower stem in lavender. Finally, a few brown stems creates the unmistakable ruffle around the vulture’s neck. The eye looks as if you can screw that in with a flathead screwdriver but it is a clever use of the wheel bearing part. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a fan of the pouring un-bricked parts as demonstrated here with the desert ground.

Elbow macaroni leads to brainworms [Building Techniques]

A certain recently confirmed political official had us Googling brainworms a bit more than usual lately. Perhaps this has been the case with Djokson who has presented his own brainworm. We have a slew of the 2×2 round bricks with 45 degree elbows in both white and trans-dark pink. You’d have to stockpile at least a couple of the DreamZzz Never Witch’s Nightmare Creatures sets to obtain those tasty trans-pink ones. Maybe this is just the brainworms talking here but I am clueless as to what that brain piece is from. While it shares some family resemblance, it is most certainly NOT this piece. Let us know in the comments what that neat brain part might be because I am truly braindead on the matter.

In a Twilight world of Team Jacob or Team Edward, be Team Bella’s Truck

Twihards may already be aware that the official LEGO 21354 Cullen’s Home set is coming out soon. It certainly got onto the radar of Sseven Bricks but not necessarily for reasons of buff, shirtless werewolves or brooding, sparkly vampires. While both factions aren’t without their charms, Sseven took special notice of one feature included in the set: Bella’s 1963 Chevy C10 Pickup. Not only that, but Sseven saw the unmistakable fingerprint of LEGO Designer Adam Grabowski and decided to preemptively build their own version of the pickup before the set came out and without instructions. Being a car guy and a fan of Adam, I would have done the same — all the while reveling in the truck’s classic design and also reveling in the fact that I’m a Jacob Girl all the way. You heard me, glittery vampires; get your sparkly asses the hell off my lawn!

This charming snake denotes wisdom and transformation

2025 is the Year of the Snake according to Chinese tradition, which symbolizes wisdom and transformation. So naturally, LEGO phenom Ian Hou has built this tantalizing cobra to denote the celebration of the Chinese New Year. I’m enamored over how the repetition of curving LEGO pieces adorning the snake’s front can seem like scales. The hood of the cobra, the snake’s stance, even the base are expertly crafted. Whether you feel that snakes are fascinating or they give you the heebie-jeebies, you have to admire the excellent build techniques at play here. I’m in the camp of snake fascination and I think that Ian agrees. You know how I know? Well, I hope that Google Lens didn’t lead me too far astray here but the large characters to the left state that all snakes are fine. Indeed, Ian.

Swim or float? That is the question. [Building Techniques]

These clever LEGO build techniques are brought to you by a ton of minifig heads. Cab ~ utilizes the aforementioned minifig heads as the yellow buoys denoting the lanes in the pool and also the floaties on that one swimmer’s (or floater’s) arms. Repetitive use of 1×2 trans-blue tiles comprizes the pool water nicely. They’re not bricked directly onto the pool floor but rather suspended above it to give the illusion of depth. As for the swim or float question, for me, it’s floaties all the way. I’ll also take some washboard abs to help offset the embarrassment of using floaties.

This tree is off the chain! [Building Techniques]

With LEGO, you can turn something as industrial and gray as chains into something organic like a tree. Fedde Barendrecht shows us how, and I believe it involved clicking chain parts together end-to-end, connecting each unclicked end to the barrel-made tree trunk, then twisting the chain into a roughly a tree-shaped mass. Top it off with a wiley raven and you have the makings for an epic neighborhood showdown. Raven:1, Lino:0.

A dragon GBC among the clouds

So what’s a GBC, then? It stands for Great Ball Contraption and, despite the cringe-worthy connotations that name implies, GBC is often a crowd pleaser at LEGO conventions. It’s a mechanical means of moving one or many balls from one location to another. This particular GBC by Andreas Lenander is a feat of engineering with an artful approach. The charming dragon makes a wave pattern as orange balls move through the clouds.

It truly is a captivating work of art to behold. I wish there was some kind of way you can see it in motion. It turns out you can with this short video! Stay toward the end to see the inner workings that give this dragon its hypnotic wave motion.

Social greeting between two angels

The odd scenario before you is a new LEGO creation featuring seraphim and cherubim by Haoming Qiu called “Social greeting between two angels”. I imagine the dark one says “Howdy do! I’m all dark and brooding and stuff”. Meanwhile the other angel is like, “Sup, brah? As hideous as I am, I’m actually a biblically accurate angel”. Then the dark one is like “cool, brah!” At least that’s my interpretation of the story. The builder didn’t offer any other clues. Let us know in the comments if you have a different dialogue for this admittedly fantastic pair.

The final dragon from The Year of the Dragon

In the waning hours of 2024, Joss Ivanwood presented his final LEGO dragon for his Year of the Dragon project and it’s a doozy of a deer. Draconis Cervus takes inspiration from fallow and sika deer with their reddish nougat-colored fur and white underbellies. Joss tells us that the furry parts he has been using in this series are quickly becoming his favorite pieces but he takes particular pride with how the eyes turned out, which makes use of a Technic tow-ball inserted into a gray Mixel socket. What a lovely and satisfying end to an equally satisfying project! I look forward to whatever Joss will be doing in 2025. In the meantime, be sure to check out our Joss Ivanwood archives to discover highlights from the Year of the Dragon project and even older offerings from previous years.