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

Do you want tentacle babies? Because that’s how you get tentacle babies!

There was a time when LEGO builder Grant Davis was a regular here at The Brothers Brick but lately he’s been as rare as truck nuts on a Prius. That’s because he’s been away at the university. But that’s all about to change because he is competing in the ever-popular Iron Builder competition against our friend and recent TBB alumni Benjamin Stenlund. Grant calls this one “The Experiment” and, like many sci-fi movies and Florida Man stories, it features toxic goo, tentacles, and a situation that’s about to get calamitous. This is only his first entry in this competition so we can expect to see plenty more from Grant and even Benjamin soon. Iron Builder always means job security for us. Speaking of job security for us, check out the other times we were totally gaga for Grant’s stuff.

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.

This anti-gravity Wipeout Racer has a checkered history

You may have heard the humorous adage that if you paint racing stripes on your vehicle it’ll automatically go faster. In the case of this LEGO anti-gravity Wipeout Racer by David Roberts that might actually be true. He tells us that this ship was first in its class partly due to its powerful engine pack and partly due to its color scheme distracting other pilots and causing them to crash. He goes on to explain that this led to a rule change where the team had to paint their ship in a more sober pattern and thus the success of the race sadly and predictably waned. The lesson learned here is that racing fans like crazy stuff and now we can’t have nice things. Speaking of nice things, this would not be David’s first lap with brightly-colored ships and other awesome stuff. Check out our archives to see what I mean.

Headdresses and cocktail dresses

With his new LEGO creation, Eero Okkonen begs the question; Ancient headdresses and cocktail dresses are a nice combo, right? Wait, let me think about this. Yes. Yes, they are. Margibi Imber pulls the ensemble off nicely with her Ancient Egyptian-inspired headdress complete with a scarab ornament. She pairs that with a festive strapless cocktail dress for a surprisingly coherent outfit. Accessorize with leg-length boots and a matching handbag and you have yourselves the makings of a fabulous night on the town. (Your results may vary.) My favorite detail is the LEGO netting used for hair. While Eero is certainly capable of building other things, find out why he’s among our favorite character builders in our archives.

Go anywhere in the rugged Toyota FJ40

LEGO automotive enthusiasts lost our collective cookies when they came out with the 10271 Fiat 500 set in bright lemony yellow. (I think I peed a little!) It was a previously difficult color to come by but as Jonathan Elliott pointed out, even with the Fiat, there are only 352 parts available in that shade, a large chunk dedicated to minifig hairstyles. This means building your own creations in that tasty color is still somewhat difficult. Boy, don’t I know it! That didn’t stop Jonathan from building a totally awesome Toyota FJ40 though. This model is so accurate it almost feels like you can actually go off-roading in it. While he is no slouch with building LEGO cars, his automotive chops really shined with this one. Check out the archives to see what I mean.

Take the Minnie Winnie on a maxi road trip

With vaccines rolling out and COVID numbers dropping in most countries, many folks are looking to travel again. However, some areas are unfortunately spiking, so airplane travel with strangers can still feel a bit icky. That is why a road trip is a compelling option for many people right now. If you still love the folks you’ve been locked up with for the last several months to a year-and-a-half, then look no further than this neat little LEGO 1977 Minnie Winnie built by 1saac W. This builder has been on a hot streak here at The Brothers Brick lately, and it’s clever build techniques like this are the reason why. I’m loving the iconic “W” for Winnebago. Or maybe it’s an homage to the builder’s last name? Oooh, maybe his last name is Winnebago! How perfect would that be? While you’re mulling that over, check out some other cool vehicles built by 1saac and many others.

We all want $1000

One could argue that this LEGO creation by balticlegomoc is of a guy who wants $1000 presumably for a festive makeover. But that’s not how wanted posters work there, pardner! Wanted posters alert the public that a bounty is out on some steely-eyed outlaw or another for the crimes of extreme vagrancy or something. From a graphic design standpoint, there are two different brick-built fonts here neatly centered, which can be hard to pull off in LEGO.The use of grayscale give this an old-timey feel. I like that this particular steely-eyed outlaw is a brick-built bust with a literal handlebar mustache.

Star Trek: The Next Generation engage!

This new LEGO creation by Mikael Montelius features all your favorites from Star Trek: The Next Generation. From left to right we have Wesley and Beverly Crusher, Captain Picard, Data, LaForge, Riker, Troi and Worf. There aren’t many parts here but the likeness to each character is uncanny. I like that each shoulder is touching the next but is slightly askew. The base and the whole presentation makes for a handsome display that could adorn any desk or office. The formula is simple, yet brilliant. We’ve been smitten by Mikael’s work before but I can see this setting a trend for other builders to follow. Think about how this formula of characters on a neat linear display could work for other fun franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, DC Comics, Harry Potter or…The Human Centipede. Sorry. I’ll just let myself out.

Your day just got weirder. You’re welcome!

I’m really not that good with kids. I mean, I don’t even know what kind of bourbon they like. However, LEGO builder 1saac W. seems to have his finger on the pulse of what youngsters are into. That being, riding around in a souped-up Mad Max style baby buggy and collecting the bones of all those who oppose them. I knew it! Maybe it’s just the bourbon talking but from my perspective toddlers are creepy little buggers. And before you go commenting about how your darling Sonny-Boy can do no wrong do you really know what they’re plotting? Because I don’t think you do. I’ll have you know I was a kid once and I had my baby brother convinced the president was going to send missiles to our house if he wasn’t a good boy. It was the 80’s Reaganomics era and stock footage of MX Missiles were all the rage on TV so convincing him was easy. In my defense, he deserved it because, like I said, babies are just creepy!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Batman!

What does famed LEGO builder Paul Hetherington do when he’s not impressing us with his amazing talent? Nothing, as it turns out. That’s because Paul is always impressing us with his talent. I’m pretty sure he can just sip a cup of coffee or mow his lawn and we’d all be impressed, by golly! Take this brightly-colored Batman diorama, for example. It seems The Joker has repurposed an abandoned ice cream factory into a…wait for it…I Scream Factory. Of course he has! That Joker doesn’t simply engage in normal bad guy stuff like robbing banks or not picking up after his dog. No, The Clown Prince of Crime goes above and beyond with his own unique sense of flair and style. Dousing Batman’s sweet ride in some kind of oozing radioactive soft-serve goo really takes the cake but the Joker has other tricks up his sleeve.

Click to discover what else The Joker has in store!

The (Bomb) of Damocles is hanging over my head

World-renowned LEGO builder Ivan Martynov has a new digital creation with a rather serious and timely message. Here we see a person clearly in a position of power. He has a device that launches nuclear weapons; “The Football” as it is sometimes affectionately called around here. Yielding this power can bring fear and respect but also devastation to himself and his people. Former President John F. Kennedy once said “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness.” That is certainly a heavy burden to think about. With great power comes great responsibility. That’s something my dad said. Or did I hear that from Spider-Man? I don’t know. Either way, I’d rather think back on my carefree old days of going to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and, if you’ve ever been, you’ll know where I pilfered the title of this article.

It takes Ingenuity to fly a craft on Mars

What does NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Stephen Pakbaz do for fun when he’s not working on real-life Mars vehicles? Well, it turns out he builds Mars vehicles in LEGO. Here is a 1:1 scale, motorized model of the Ingenuity Helicopter that spans about four feet (1.2 meters) across. In case you’ve been living under a meteorite this past month this craft has made headlines with a number of historic flights.You can keep up with the latest real-life shenanigans of the helicopter on Mars on Nasa’s official website. As for LEGO-life shenanigans, you may notice that Stephen has also built the Ingenuity a leeetle friend in 1:3 scale. That one he has launched on LEGO Ideas in hopes of gaining the votes needed to maybe make it an official set at some point. This isn’t Stephen’s first orbit with LEGO Ideas. He was successful in turning the Curiosity Rover into an official set back in the early days when LEGO Ideas was called Cuusoo. Check out our interview from 2013.

Feeling itchy? Check for Riot Fleas!

A bit ago a group of friends coordinated in posting a slew of Riot Fleas onto the interwebs. What’s a Riot Flea? You know, we’re still not sure. Maybe they’re like regular fleas but more…you know…riotous. This one by LEGO builder Johann Dakitsch is particularly good with its red armor and tools for hands. Unlike the other Riot Fleas, Johann tells us this one is good for assessment, maintenance and the occasional intruder disposal. This still doesn’t help in ascertaining exactly what a Riot Flea is but we like it anyway. Check out the other time we were impressed albeit flummoxed by Riot Fleas and be sure to check out the rest of them in the builder’s links.