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

Take a vacation anywhere you happen to be

I long for the days of going back to doing the things I enjoyed, like getting kicked out of a Sizzler. Now everyone is kicked out of Sizzler, and it just doesn’t feel special anymore. Remember vacations? That’s when you pack a suitcase and stay at a place that’s likely smaller and not as well-decorated as your own house, but the scenery is better. I loved vacations! Nicolas Carlier proves that you can vacation wherever you happen to be with this delightful LEGO render. Open the suitcase and be engulfed in the soothing sand and surf. You could build a sandcastle, listen to the waves, or tell a crab about all the times you’ve been thrown out of Sizzler. Doing all that while having a full head of hair and totally ripped abs, why that’s just a slice of heaven right there. Boy, I loved vacations!

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Hard suits sound-off: one, two, three!

You may recall a prior trio of hard suits published earlier. Now Ayrlego has joined in on the fun with a trio that looks like they could be from the British Empire. At far left in the fur hat we have “Grenediere” who tears it up in the urban environment. In the middle “Flamer” deals out fiery justice in the tropical/desert environs while “Scout” does his particular brand of shenanigans in the woodlands. It turns out this builder is no stranger to exotic environments. Take some time to check out their archives.

Star Wars: Now serving Order 66!

The prequels are generally regarded as the least favorites of the Star Wars franchise for many fans. With that said, we can’t deny there were some iconic moments in the films. One such moment; Order 66. That’s when the Galactic Republic was secretly ordered to execute every Jedi they could find–and man that was some edge-of-your-seat stuff! Max Fudal replicates the scene nicely in LEGO and tells us this project took two years and 50,000 pieces to complete. I’d say this was well worth the time and effort. The terrain, from the planet’s liquid core to its craggy cliffs, is astounding. The man-made structures built into the cliffside offer up a change in textures and the minifigures denote plenty of action.

I can get lost in all these great details. I just want to play with this scene all day and maybe execute Order 66 myself! Does that make me a bad person? While you’re mulling that over let’s rejoice in the fact that this seems to be the first time we’ve featured this builder here on The Brothers Brick. If this is any indicator, we readily look forward to seeing what else Max is capable of.

Tear it up with these hard suits

Do you like traditional Japanese folklore? Do you like hard suits? Then, by golly, you can set your squeal-holes to positively delighted with this LEGO trio by Louis of Nutwood. The desert hard suit, aka “The Camel” has a strategically placed saw I would not want to tangle with in an alley, dark, or otherwise. The R.A.M.B.O. jungle suit is just the thing to tear it up in the underbrush while the low-temperature suit, known as “The Snowflake”, has a rocket launcher. You know, for the cold. Which is your favorite?

Go super fast with this super train

The coolest thing about this LEGO scene by General Sparkle (if that’s your real name!) is the blurred effects cluing us in that this is one fast train. However, the subject matter is well in focus. It’s just a really neat effect. In case the train went by too fast for you, the high ranking military official with the dubious name tells us the cars are as follows: engine, crew, tanker, passenger, passenger, ammunition, passenger, weapon and anti-aircraft gun, heavy equipment flatbed, and more passenger cars. Thank you, General! We’re not even sure if this is a render or an actual LEGO build with some neat photographic trickery. But we are pretty sure this is the first time we’ve featured this builder so let’s hope we see many more cool creations to come. It joins the ranks of so many trains we’ve featured here over the years.

We’re gonna need a bigger boat!

We all know how this ends. I believe Jaws was the first movie I saw in the theater. Since I was a small child at the time, that speaks of how relaxed they were about letting kids into the theater and…could also explain a lot about how I turned out. The 45th anniversary of this pivotal movie just passed and Arco Noide celebrates with this LEGO version of Quint’s boat. Although Quint is a tough as nails old salt with one of the most memorable intros in movie history, (spoiler alert!) things eventually don’t go well for Quint and his little boat. Still, this is a stunning tribute to the craft. I like how two sets of cattle horns create shark jaws just forward of the ship’s wheel. Judging by the four yellow barrels still present, we have about an hour before things go really sour for Quint. We’re gonna need a bigger boat indeed.

A river runs through it

I told myself today was going to be the day I get stuff done. This was going to be the day I didn’t procrastinate with silliness online. But then I took one of those “what kind of dog are you?” quizzes and they cited me as a basset hound when I fancy myself as more of a golden retriever and now I have that to deal with. Among all this important online research, I stumbled upon this serene LEGO scene by Carter Witz. I like the golden leaves, the haphazard texture of the roof, and the fact that the trail and river interrupt the base structure. Now I pretty much don’t want to get any work done anymore. I just want to relax in Carter’s world for a while. You can also go down the rabbit hole of unproductivity and check out Carter’s other fantastic layouts. Basset hounds enjoy rabbit holes, don’t they?

The Trans-Am wins the drag race standing still

I’ve been a rather prolific LEGO car builder in my day and the Pontiac Trans-Am has been on my to-do list for quite some time. I’ve never scratched it of this said to-do list as I’ve been rather intimidated at the prospect of building this icon of American muscle. Well, leave it to my friend and master car builder Firas Abu-Jaber to really knock this one out of the park! He tells us it took about a month-and-a-half to complete and it came with some difficulty, even for his considerable skill.

This alternate view shows off the opening doors, hood, and trunk as well as the seats and dashboard. The seats move forward, the armrest opens; it has all the niceties you could expect from a Firas original creation. The chrome tailpipes reflect nicely on that slick surface. And while we’re at it, let’s admire that gold steering wheel! I have just three words for this iconic classic American muscle car; alright, alright, alright!

This is not the first time we’ve been enthralled with Firas’ style. Not by a long shot.

Fortress of solitude. Also goats.

LEGO builder Jonathan Snyder has built a little something he calls “Solitude.” It’s part of a fortress wall using only two shades of tan and olive green. It proves you don’t need a lot of colors to build something charming. Varied textures created by masonry bricks, hinge plates, jumper plates and door rail plates all help create visually interesting surfaces. Goats also help make things interesting. Whether you’re building cars, spaceships, architecture or airplanes always incorporate goats to make things more interesting. Goats are both the cause and the solution to all our problems. Goats are always the answer. Goats!

She carries a spare tire with her

A LEGO builder who goes by the name of -Disty- has built a totally rad lady on a futuristic bike. Her hair and outfit give her a cyberpunk feel that is so popular in post-apocalyptic movies. Both the bike and rider are fantastic builds on their own but together it’s a dose of perfection. But what happens if she were to blow a tire? Well, the builder cleverly used an inside-out rubber LEGO tire as her halter top, which presumably she could use in case of a blowout. According to my limited research just now she would thus completely break the law in Utah, Tennessee, Indiana, and parts of Mexico. Some states have ambiguous rules on the matter, some select US cities are OK but in free-thinking Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia she can totally rock out with the girls out! Way to go, Canada!

I’ve got two big blades and may or may not know how to use them

Meet Dalga, a new LEGO creation by Ron Folkers. He’s a highly armored specialist with dual blades and a pulse cannon. I’m pretty convinced he’s a great white killing machine and a schlub like we wouldn’t stand a chance. However, Ron tells us he’s a newly assembled inexperienced fighter who has not yet known the perils of combat. Still, I’m going to err on the side of assuming his whole head is a deadly weapon and I’ll just take my cookies elsewhere. If you’d like to risk it and stick around, you should check out some of Dalga’s friends.

Simurgh yourself in the lore of this mythical beast

As LEGO builders ourselves we are inherently already fond of the creations we write about here on The Brothers Brick. What makes me take special notice however is something like this Simurgh built by Joss Woodyard. According to Joss, the Simurgh is a unity between land and sky incarnate. According to Iranian legend, the mythical creature is so old that it has seen the world end three times over. Plus it will also rid your surrounding area of snakes, so there’s that. I’m seeing also a unity between System brick and Bionicle. This seems to be Joss’calling card as he has taken us through a menagerie of mythical beasts before.