About Nick

Nick Jensen, also known as Nick Brick, plays games almost as much as he builds LEGO. He's probably most well known for replicating gaming weapons and equipment at 1:1 scale. He is a member of ChiLUG and attends Brickworld Chicago every year. You can follow his LEGO work on Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

Posts by Nick

The LEGO Star Wars GR-75 Transport is away

Adding to an impressive line-up of spacecraft for SHIPtember 2018 is Anders Horvath with his LEGO replica of a GR-75 Medium Transport from The Empire Strikes Back. Choosing to build a Star Wars spacecraft so iconic and recognizable is challenging, but Anders nailed it with excellent contrast between the cargo containers, central greebling, and relatively slick hull panels. Best yet, it’s even got an interior.

GR-75 Medium Transport 01

The layered elliptic paneling of the hull is built beautifully. The original seen on screen is segmented unevenly, and this is reflected well in the LEGO rendition. The layering of tiles create the divisions between panels and suggests curvature down the length. Continue reading →

Build your own LEGO Fortnite Glider and Loot Llama [Instructions]

YouTuber The Action Brick shares the love for Fortnite and his LEGO knowledge with a couple easy-to-follow minifigure-scale building guides. Gather your materials and drop into these instructional videos showing how to build a glider and Loot Llama from the wildly popular battle royale! These mini builds were featured in his vignette of the Fatal Fields region.

The Action Brick LEGO Fortnite Fatal Fields

First, we have the default glider. After following these instructions, all you will need is a minifigure avatar to fly it!

Second, we have the cute little Loot Llama! Will its contents lead to a victory royale?

LEGO Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster and Starman prepared for launch

In February 2018, an impressive test launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket was conducted with Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster as the payload. For SHIPtember each year, LEGO builders challenge each other to build a LEGO spaceship (in which “SHIP” means “Significantly Huge Investment in Parts”) at least one hundred studs long. Adrian Drake took up the challenge to construct an impressive LEGO model of Musk’s roadster and its dummy pilot “Starman.” Whether it counts as a spacecraft for SHIPtember is debatable (we believe it does count!), but it hits the 100-stud-long mark (about 31.5 inches) and is shaped and sculpted rather well at this scale.

roadster 03

The fully detailed cabin interior is worth a closer look.

roadster 15

See more photos of Adrian’s Tesla Roadster and Starman on Flickr.

Like and subscribe for more LEGO YouTuber caricatures

One can expect outstanding LEGO caricatures from builder SuckMyBrick. Their latest series captures the likeness and personalities of several popular YouTubers well with the bricks. From left to right, we have: Rhett and Link of Good Mythical Morning; well-known vlogger Casey Neistat; Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect; infamous vlogger Logan Paul; silly singer Miranda Sings; Internet meme legend Techno Viking; and our friend at BrickNerd, Tommy Williamson.

Youtubers

Each build here is recognizable to those who enjoy the YouTube creator community, but my personal favorite here is their build of Casey Neistat.

Youtuber Casey Neistat

LEGO Exodus Black from Destiny 2 stands nearly 3 feet tall

It’s that time of year again for SHIPtember — one month to build a spacecraft over one hundred LEGO studs in length (approximately 31.5 inches). I haven’t participated successfully since 2014, when I built UNSC Savannah from Halo: Reach. 2018’s build worked out much better, so I present my LEGO model of Exodus Black, a colony ship from Destiny 2.

Colony Ship "Exodus Black" - Destiny 2

See more photos of Nick’s Exodus Black after the jump

The LEGO pistol of choice for Cyberpunk 2077 high tech lowlives

CD PROJEKT RED’s upcoming RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is one of my most anticipated video games. I carefully examined the screenshots revealed on the official site and found a good close-up of one of the handguns in the game. It was clear and showed all the details I needed to make a LEGO replica of it, so I created my build of the Militech 9mm Pistol to show my excitement for Cyberpunk 2077.

Militech 9mm Pistol - Cyberpunk 2077

The LEGO Militech 9mm Pistol features a moving trigger, removable magazine, and sliding bolt. These functions are demonstrated in this video, which also compares the LEGO pistol to the reference screenshots I used to build it.

Take it easy for a little while

Everything appears chill and cozy in Heikki M’s LEGO scene of an attic apartment room. The attic implied with the sloped ceiling and the brick wall in the back of the room are top notch techniques in a scene full of fantastic detail to take in. I also appreciate the use of textured bricks in the rug. Is it suggesting a raised texture, or someone who walked through? You decide, but it’s great either way.

Night in the Attic Apartment

Arms of the New Colossus

One of my favorite video game stories is told in Wolfenstein: The New Order and The New Colossus. It’s a powerful story set in an alternate history 1960 defined by Nazi world domination. The German tech in this game as as fascinating as the story, so I combined my love of the plot and tech with a bit of flair in my LEGO replica of a gold plated Pistole 1946, wielded by antagonist Frau Irene Engel.

Gold Pistole 1946 - Wolfenstein

This handgun takes clear motifs of a Luger P08 with some modifications. Building it entirely in pearl gold was quite challenging; if 2×2 plates and tiles weren’t made in pearl gold, this build would not have been structurally sound. I talk about some of the limitations I overcame and the resulting techniques created in this video (as well as demonstrate its removable magazine).

With this, I can check “gold weapon” off the list for my LEGO arsenal!

Gotta build ’em all

Continuing to show love for Pokémon, Mike Nieves built an adorable LEGO Eevee. Just about everything about his Eevee – the eyes, the color choices, the head tilt, and the fluffy tail – is just so darn cute. The sculpting with rounded slope bricks around Eevee’s neck is particularly lovely.

Pokemon: eevee

If you enjoyed Mike’s Eevee, you may also like his LEGO Arcanine and Rapidash we’ve featured previously.

Trying to build a balance

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen shows master-class LEGO character creation with the Herald of Scales, imagined in ancient Egyptian styling. The inspirational seed part for Eero here was the mini-doll skirt used as, well, segments of the Herald’s skirt! Equally notable is his use of chains as both embellishment and supports on her staff, and again as beautiful braided hair.

The Herad of Scales

Eero details the artistic and building processes on his blog, which you can read here.

Drop in and set Frontier worlds ablaze

The fun, fast-paced action of Titanfall 2 multiplayer is what hooks me in, but with my latest LEGO Titan I wanted to show appreciation for its well crafted single player campaign. To make a Titan build unique to campaign styling, I chose to build Kane’s Scorch Titan, the first boss Jack Cooper and BT-7274 fight in the campaign. Kane was like a stereotypical multiplayer gamer: overconfident, calling his opponents “scrub,” and easily defeated.

Kane's Scorch Titan - Titanfall 2

See more of Nick’s awesome Titanfall mech

The LEGO cargo hauling Shell-Walker from Horizon Zero Dawn

German LEGO builder Marius Herrmann has quite an expansive army of LEGO ancient machines from Horizon: Zero Dawn. His latest, the Shell-Walker, is one of his most detailed machines yet. I love the way he achieved the pattern on the hexagonal container as well as his use of orange roller skates for the shield-generator claw and subtle mechanical bits on the legs.

Shell-Walker (from "Horizon Zero Dawn")

Marius’s Shell-Walker features an incredible range of motion, and the container on the back can be separated from the body.

Shell-Walker (from "Horizon Zero Dawn")

Be sure to check out his other Horizon: Zero Dawn builds which include the Thunderjaw and Corruptor.