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

This harp plucks at our heartstrings

Ten minutes ago if you would have told me a LEGO baroque harp would have been the best thing I’ve seen all day, I’d respond with “you must be hitting the nipperkin”, or some other clever 17th-century phrase denoting my disbelief. Now ten minutes have passed and here we are. This is pretty much the best thing I’ve seen all day. It comes from a builder aptly named Vincent’s LEGO Creation. I’m in awe of the intricate detailing, the filigree, which is nearly entirely monochromatic. To see this in person would certainly be a sight to behold. It conjures up images of fancy lords in pantaloons and powdered wigs, ladies in hoop skirts and heaving bosoms, and both with questionable grooming practices. No, it’s true! I’ve read books on the matter. You don’t want to know! Anyway, this is a thing of beauty.

If only we had more photos, we’d feature multiple shots of this from every angle. But for now, we have but this one image and the hope that we’ll see more creations from this builder again soon.

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A little death (star)

Sure you can plunk down the monetary equivalent of a used Toyota and buy yourself the now-defunct LEGO 10143 Death Star II set. But who would you impress, really? Here at The Brothers Brick, you get more kudos and respect if you take matters into your own hands like Rui Miguel Anacleto did here. Even though it’s a wee little Death Star it is expertly constructed and well detailed. And it’s the perfect size and shape to turn it into an ornament for your Christmas tree. Now you have art and practicality all rolled into one. I’d like to see you try that with your 10143 LEGO set. If you do, let me know how that goes.

I’ve got the blues real bad

You’ve got to hand it to this mech for its commitment to that blue outfit. Is that how it works with mechs? They wake up one morning and sift through their wardrobe of sassy ensembles and decide…blue it is! Well, even if that’s not the way it is with mechs, you have to admire the craftsmanship of this LEGO creation by nobu_tary. Gundam fans would recognize this as the MS-07B Gouf, which I was already well aware of and definitely didn’t learn it from looking it up three minutes ago so don’t get that idea in your heads. This builder is on a roll lately with cool mechs. It turns out this mech has hundreds of friends you may want to check out, each with their own fabulous outfits.

Mars: Bringer of War...and also color coordination

I think I’m not alone in assuming, as a child, that we’d have Mars colonization by the time I was grown. Well, we haven’t even sent manned missions out there yet. But when we get there we’ll inevitably need to shoot stuff. Bob DeQuatre shows us what that could look like with this impressive LEGO Mars Corporation Ares Long-Range Artillery Platform. As you may know, Ares is the Greek god of war and Bob tells us this is Mars Corporation’s deadliest vehicle. He could have called it by its Roman mythological name but that would have been…uh…redundant.

Proving he’s no slouch, Bob also built this Hermes Mobile Command Center in the same striking red and white color scheme. Designed for long-range missions, this vehicle can hold up to six passengers as well as the driver and gunner. This makes sense considering Hermes was the ancient Greek god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves,…and travel. Phew, that’s a lot of jobs! We can only assume all those other things are going on onboard as well.

We’re kind of really into Bob’s stuff. Here’s the proof.

It’s all a big joke(r)

At a glance, this may look like a LEGO minifig, but it is indeed a Maxifig. It has the same shape and proportions of your usual minifig, but it built up to a monstrous size. Pascal Hetzel has crafted this Joker Maxifig nicely with a bright bowtie, a purple and green outfit and even a pocket watch chain.The hands are shaped by using actual minifig legs. Using minifig parts to build a Maxifig; I’m sure there’s a clever word or phrase for that but damned if I can figure it out now. Perhaps you can in the comments.

As this shot reveals, Pascal has even built each section as if it were an actual minifig, complete with separate legs, torso, head, and hair elements. That is some clever Maxifig building right there! Pascal has built the Joker, and now he should build the Smoker and the Midnight Toker to finish out the trio. Boy, did I just date myself! Nevermind Googling the reference, kids. Just get off my lawn.

Build it like a rock star!

Do you feel that? That is your heart racing just a little bit at the sight of this LEGO Barracuda GT-3 built by Michael Ablinger. I get that feeling around nice cars in general and superbly build LEGO creations. Michael tells us this was constructed with nine-hundred parts. There is working steering, a fully modeled interior, and realistic aerodynamic devices. I’m a fan of an understated primary color with a flashy secondary color. Black and lime green fits the bill nicely. Custom stickers really set this GT-3 apart from your usual LEGO builds. You should settle in and check out all the other times my heart went a pitter-patter. Maybe I should cut down on the Rock Star energy drinks?

A very stable genius

A builder who goes by the name of Ayrlego has constructed a LEGO scene depicting a peaceful stable. He tells us that Lacryma, with its rolling plains and temperate climate, has become famous for the quality of the horses bred there. In the settlement of Elizabethville, many stables such as this one were built to house both the equines and their human companions. I would love to live in this world for a little while and maybe brush the horses and banter with the townsfolk. The word for how I feel about this is anemoia, a nostalgia for a time and a place I’ve never known. Are you feeling a bit of anemoia too? It turns out this builder is quite good at evoking feelings for a time and a place we’ve never been to. I hope you can check out the archives to see what I mean.

Containment breach

There’s been a slew of stunning LEGO builds recently that is based on the work of conceptual artists and I, for one, am thrilled. My case in point; this neat creation by Bart De Dobbelaer is called Containment Breach and is inspired by the work of Francesco Lorenzetti. Here is the specific reference material. Bart makes great use of color and composition to replicate the unsettling feel of Francesco’s piece. The fearsome red creature is nestled in the shadows and stands out in stark contrast against gray, white, and black. As one commenter on his Flickr stream puts it, “This is classic Bart” and well…I have to agree. Here’s another recent creation by Bart to show you what they mean.

Weirdness under the cover of night

At first glance, this LEGO piece by Shannon Sproule yields more questions than answers. Why is the sky red? Who are those people? Why are they huddled together like that? And what is up with that statue? The ominous title certainly doesn’t help; Meeting by the statue, slurp, slurp, slurp. But then I read the only tag Shannon left; Miskatonic, and it all became clear. Of course. This all makes perfect sense now. You see, Shannon speaks my language, but then again, I already knew that about him. We are students of Miskatonic, sons of Innsmouth, whatever you want to call us. If you’re still confused by all that, then clearly, you have not been indoctrinated into the writings of one H. P. Lovecraft, and maybe you’re better off. Move on, go look at some Star Wars spaceships or something and let Shannon and I have our knowing conspiratorial glances. I’ll meet you by the statue, Shannon.

The Heimdall is a lesson in color-blocking

Sometimes a LEGO creation comes along that needs a double or even a triple take to really appreciate it. Such is the case with this Heimdall built by Lech Kulina. At first glance, does it take inspiration from a whale? A stingray? A bird? Maybe all three. One thing for sure is this ship is built with a whopping 7441 pieces and took Lech five months to design. He tells us the project is inspired by the imaginative art of Michal Kus, likely this piece. The biggest takeaway from Michal’s work is his use of color-blocking. This is a technique that uses colors that are opposites on the color wheel and pairs them together to make interesting and complementary color combinations. Often this is associated with fashion, but LEGO builders also utilize this technique with equal flair.

Click here to take a closer look

Skids up on the Colonial Viper Mk VII

Here at The Brothers Brick, we give a lot of love to Star Wars LEGO creations and sets. But when the likes of David Duperron comes around with a new Battlestar Galactica creation, we surely take notice. David is a master at building highly detailed UCS (Ultimate Collector’s Series) ships as evidenced by this Colonial Viper Mk VII. The Mk VII contains an additional laser cannon at the dorsal fin, a darker color palette, and is sleeker than the Mk II. Be sure to check out David’s Mk II for comparison. In this version System and Technic bricks are integrated seamlessly to give the Viper its signature shape.

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Back to school, in some way or another, we hope

Is 2020 going to be the year that every kid stays back a grade? I sure hope not! I’m seeing an alarming number of adult students making a mess of their educations this year, with distance learning not being their strong suit. Hopefully, the kiddos are faring better than their parents. In the meantime, Instagram user brickdesigned presents some neat LEGO back-to-school elements. Various desks, lockers, a chalkboard, and those noisy metal benches from chemistry class are surely hitting me in the nostalgic feels. This is usually the time, in the late days of summer, that kids are gearing to go back to school. So whether you’re going to a physical place or learning from home, your old uncle Lino wants you to please make the best of it and be safe out there. Got it, you little whippersnappers? Good! I’m glad we could have this talk. Now get the heck off my lawn!