Adult LEGO builders are an amazing and imaginative lot. While most who buy LEGO are happy with building sets as per the instructions and calling it a day, an elite bunch take it a step further when they create from scratch. While opinions may vary, we’ve crunched numbers, done some analytics stuff and came up with The Brothers Brick top 10 creations of 2024 based on views. Without further ado, here’s what you came for.
LEGO builder Kristel Whitaker presents a sweet little Christmas vignette of a reindeer barn. First we have the good, thich is getting to pet a baby reindeer. Very nice! Next is the bad, which is having to scoop the poopy. I wonder what that elf did to get on the naughty list. Finally we have the…ugly? The funny? The weird? We’re not too sure how to categorize this one but Santa is napping on the roof with what appears to be a liquor bottle and a pizza. There’s no judgements here. We’ve all been there, right?
This is sort of tangentially Christmas-related but here is another vignette that we noticed earlier this month of Mrs.Gingerbread baking some delicious heart cookies. Perhaps they’re laced with a little something extra, which could explain why Santa is napping on the roof.
Sometimes great ideas arise when you combine unrelated materials from diverse sources. That’s what is at play here with Isaac Wilder’s latest LEGO creation called Tabitha’s Traveling Tonics. He tells us his fiance was playing Fables III and within the game are these neat caravans. So naturally, he decided to try one of his own. He used the wise and diminutive Mrs. Castillo from the DreamZzz line, specifically the Turtle Van set as Tabitha. A reindeer and snow was added to his idea to create a rather dreamy wintery scene. Stir in a fanciful caravan wagon, a few unearthly light sources, and a dash of magic and you have yourselves a cure for foot fungus and a bevy of love potions; all delivered to you post haste!
There’s a lot to love in this LEGO Parisian subway built by Renaud Petit. The “Miniland” and “LEGO Shop” signs tell me this is my stop and I should get out and explore a bit. I particularly like the extremely Parisian man with his typical French striped shirt, French neckerchief, French bread, French beret, and French bulldog. He’s looking disparagingly at a sleeping French hobo, which I believe is a clochard in French. I don’t know if this is a cultural thing or not but everyone in this composition seems a bit upset. Perhaps everyone needs a good French press coffee and a croissant to take the edge off?
LEGO phenom Joss Ivanwood has been building a dragon every month in 2024; Year of the Dragon in case you’re wondering why. It turns out, eleven months into the year, this jellyfish-inspired dragon marks the first instance of creative block. It’s quite understandable, trying to design a dragon based on a jellyfish; I imagine there were several iterations of this magnificent beast, several head-scratching moments and maybe sleepless nights. But the end result is probably my favorite of the entire line. I mean, look at those tendrils made from legions of clips and that arching transparent bell. It’s proof that something can be deadly and beautiful all at the same time. Joss tells us that while he’s aware that jellyfish don’t have brains, he couldn’t resist including the new brain creature piece from the Mindflayer D&D minifigure. That’s a smart use for that brain piece!
Back in 2013 LEGO produced the 10236 Ewok Village and at the time it was the first large Star Wars set that wasn’t a spaceship. It was a popular set, likely the pinnacle of Star Wars playsets at the time. Now, eleven years later, Simulterious takes inspiration from that pivotal set but doesn’t stop there; he also borrows some design cues from The Kenner Playset from 1983. If many of our readers are like me, this should hit several nostalgic sweet spots simultaneously. Or should I say…simulteriously? Whether your favorite inspiration was the 2013 LEGO set, the 1983 Kenner playset or neither because you can’t wrap your head around the concept of cute cannibalistic care bears toppling an entire galactic empire, then you have to at least admire the the amazing build techniques on display here.
A thing that Alex Eylar does really well with his LEGO creations is set a mood. Sometimes, often actually, that mood can be deeply unsettling. You don’t need to read the title to know this is an iconic scene from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Here we see an already deranged and inebriated Jack Torrence taking family advice from a ghostly Delbert Grady. The advice in question was chilling and unwholesome, even for 1980 standards; and let’s just say nothing went well for anybody. It turns out this wasn’t the only deeply unsettling bathroom scene in the movie. Alex, if you go on to build the nightmare fuel that was the green bathroom, I’m pretty sure I’ll be damaged goods forever.
On the calendar and in accordance with dropping temperatures around here, Autumn is being shown the door by Old Man Winter. However, in Mattia Careddu‘s world, Autumn is just arriving as evidenced by their latest LEGO creation. Here we see a dynamic duo; first up is the red spider lily (Lycoris radiata), the Japanese flower that symbolizes the arrival of Autumn. Next on the docket is what appears to be a hummingbird but it’s Macroglossum stellatarum, a kind of moth called the hummingbird hawkmoth that behaves exactly like a hummingbird. I’ve found the hummingbirds around my feeders to be hyper-intense, territorial, and belligerent toward one another so, in this regard, some people also act like hummingbirds. This duo is doing birds and bees stuff. If you haven’t yet been made privy to “the talk” I advise you ask someone else. Or Google it.
The builder is no stranger to life-size flowers and unusual insects. We also like this Sri Lankan duo.
In a Star Trek world of Enterprises and Klingon Birds of Prey, sometimes it’s the little ships that mean a lot. Take this LEGO Shuttlecraft built by Horace Worblehat for example. It’s expertly crafted and certainly takes me back to classic Star Trek episodes. This little craft has taken these two crewmembers to parts unknown. What will harangue them next? Will it be a ferocious Gorn or a hideous Salt Vampire? One thing for certain is one of these guys will escape by the skin of their teeth and the other will die a horrible yet amusing death. It’s the Redshirt, by the way. It’s always the Redshirt.
Boy, I sure love a fan-made Star Wars concept! These LEGO TIE Arrestors built by Alec Hole look like they can be canon but are inspired by the Cantwell class Arrestor Cruiser from the Andor series. The TIE Arrestor, according to Alec “is an Imperial starfighter with two powerful tractor beam emitter dishes. It can be deployed to intercept, disable and tow Rebel starfighters suspected of stealing Imperial technology. It can also be used to capture Rebel personnel wanted for questioning.” It sounds like such unpleasant business! What’s with the purple? Well, it seems our alum Mansur Soeleman has his tentacles all up in the influence of this color decision. Alec tells us the purple accents denote the evil counterpart to Mansur’s Teal Squadron.
Anyone of a certain age or otherwise taking a sick day from work knows the glitzy phenomenon that is the daytime Game Show. Family Feud was a good one. I’ve spent many-a-day yelling at the TV while watching some goober lose $400 for their team because he thinks M&M’s are a common thing found in a sandwich. Martin Studio has LEGO-fied the game but also gave it a Classic Castle-themed twist. Here we see legendary factions The Lion Knights feuding against The Black Falcons. Falcons are ahead by 20 points but all it takes is a missed guess by some foolhardy squire to turn the odds in the Lions’ favor. This delightful diorama can be found on display at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark through 2025, just in case you happen to be visiting LEGO headquarters.
Being dispensable, famously banging your head on a doorway, or generally missing your targets can be taxing on the health of your average Imperial Stormtrooper. Thankfully, when calamity strikes, this LEGO stormy presented by Auto’s Builds is in the very capable hands of two Imperial Medics and also the cold steel hands of Medical Droid 2-1B. They’ll have this fellow back in the field and missing his targets in no time. He’s in for the best healthcare Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial medic team can provide; and based on the annoyed looks on their faces, I’m guessing it’s not much.
