About Iain

Iain Heath is an avid builder specializing in the "Bricks of Character" style, which he helped define. He has been using LEGO to parody popular culture since 2007, when he created the now infamous Stephen Hawking model. He is a SeaLUG member and regular theme coordinator at BrickCon. For five years he also ran a blog called The Living Brick, that showcased the best character-based LEGO creations from around the world. You can find his irreverent body of work on Flickr.

Posts by Iain

Issue 16 of Blocks Magazine now available [News]

Valentine’s Day is on the horizon, and what better way to declare your love than with LEGO? From hearts to brick bouquets, this month’s issue of Blocks Magazine is packed with outside-the-box ideas to make this year’s celebration a little more special. Meanwhile in the ‘Build It’ section learn how to construct your own transforming Optimus Prime, with step-by-step instructions and a guide to sourcing all the necessary parts.

Also in this issue, Daniel Konstanski takes us through the history of “ramp and pit” baseplates, Simon Pickard investigates how LEGO can save a national heritage site from ruin, and there’s an exclusive interview with Matt De Lanoy, the man behind one of LEGO Ideas’ fastest-growing projects: Johnny Five.

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.

For whom the bell trolls

Despite how well this creation by Takamichi Irie captures the essence of the ubiquitous and inexplicably enduring troll dolls, you might be inclined to dismiss it as just another nostalgia build. But hold onto your hats because, in a comeback that will probably put the Smurfs to shame, toshe loveably ugly “Gonks” are returning in 2016 with their very own animated movie! So get ready to see a lot, lot more of these frizzy haired critters on shelves later this year.

(Of course, we are secretly hoping this image will become the standard now when referring to “trolls” in the online LEGO community)

Achieving inner piece

In his quest for true LEGO enlightenment, British builder Simply Bricking It has incorporated parts from such ancient and powerful LEGO themes as Belville, Avatar and Click-It to create this whimsical version of that most recognizable of Hindu deities, the elephant-headed Ganesha:

You are filled with determination (and spaghetti)

First it was Angry Birds, then Minecraft, then Five Nights at Freddy’s. Now the latest fad videogame phenomenon (if my teen’s current free time and fashion choices are any indication) appears to be the retro roleplaying runaway hit UNDERTALE. Such is the charm of this game, that even this old fart found himself playing …until I realized it had taken me a week to get just 5% of the way through!

Not surprisingly, LEGO versions of the game’s characters have started to appear online. I’ve picked out my favorites in the gallery below, and even created a LEGO Undertale Flickr group so we can all keep up with what I hope is gonna be a popular new building theme in 2016.

Flowey and Papyrus by Dylan Mievis

Click here to see the full gallery

Steven Universe in brick form is a gem of a LEGO creation

Spawned from the loins of mold-breaking show Adventure Time, and apparently destined for a similar kind of cult following, Steven Universe is a critically acclaimed American animation about a boy and his troop of supernatural friends, the Crystal Gems. It’s on frequently in my house, although I’ll admit I haven’t been bitten by the bug yet. But Danish builder Ilia must have, judging by his superb sculpture of the show’s titular character:

Talent is an accident of genes, and a responsibility

…not the catchphrase of Dr. Lazarus, Hans Gruber, the Sheriff of Nottingham or Severus Snape, but words spoken by the singular actor with the nasal tone and sardonic expression who portrayed all of them over the course of his stellar 25 year movie career. Beloved British actor Alan Rickman passed away today at the age of 69 (strangely mirroring the very recent passing of British music icon David Bowie). Hong Kong builder Alanboar Cheung whipped together this quick tribute to one of the more recent – and arguably most popular – of Rickman’s characters, the complicated Professor of Potions from the Harry Potter film series.

See the mice in their million hordes, from Ibiza to the Norfolk broads

Trying to summarize almost half a century of accomplishments and innovation in a couple of paragraphs would be futile, so I won’t even try. Yesterday a singular artist departed this particular plane of existence, leaving us with a body of work that will no doubt be remembered for another half century to come (including one final album, released just a few days ago).

Somehow we overlooked this gorgeous LEGO sculpture of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane album cover, built by Gabriel Thomson as an entry for the 2014 MOCAthalon contest. So let’s fix that now.

RIP David Bowie (aka Ziggy Stardust, aka Major Tom, aka The Goblin King) 1947-2016.

LEGO Angry Birds movie sets revealed [News]

Get ready to party like it’s 2009, because LEGO has finally revealed details of its April lineup of sets tied to the forthcoming Angry Birds movie. Their new LEGO Angry Birds website includes set names, box art, close-ups and breakdowns of all the play features.

The sets are as follows:

75821 Piggy Car Escape
75822 Piggy Plane Attack
75823 Bird Island Egg Heist
75824 Pig City Teardown
75825 Piggy Pirate Ship
75286 King Pig’s Castle

Click here to see all the entire pig-bliterating lineup!

A room with a view

As a predominantly character-focused builder myself, I have really enjoyed watching prolific Romanian builder Legranger Absurde develop his own distinct brand of small-scale characters over the past few months. His signature style invariably features Mixel eyes, long bangs, and curvaceous females in shoulderless outfits. But it also demonstrates some new clever limb articulation techniques, allowing for wonderful posing. And with his latest creation, the builder has even taken a crack at building a detailed scene around one of these figures:

I feel remiss in not having featured more of these delightful characters here before. So click below the fold for a gallery of previous examples of this builder’s recent work…

Click here to see the gallery

The game has changed

What the 2010 movie sequel TRON: Legacy lacked in terms of story, character development, and avoiding the Uncanny Valley, it more than made up for visually – thanks to the design sense of architecturally-trained director Joseph Kosinski. And while we have seen plenty of LEGO interpretations of the iconic vehicles and characters from both TRON movies, Joe Perez has created the most curve-licious LEGO light cycle to date, at a scale I would never have imagined possible. Breathtaking…

I am Cornholio, and I need TP for my bung-hole!

Back when MTV was still a thing, a prophetic documentarian named Mike Judge introduced Generation Y with a new set of role models, in the form of two hopeless morons named Beavis and Butthead. Fans of the show will no doubt recognize Beavis’ sugar-induced alter ego Cornholio, hilariously recreated here in LEGO by TBB favorite Jimmy Fortel. Heh heh, heh… ARE YOU THREATENING ME?

TBB cover photo: January 2016

Happy new year! We hope January 1st finds you lying in a giant champagne stain, with a pounding headache and bits of confetti stuck in your hair. And that your New Years resolution will be to never do anything like that again …well, until next December 31st. And as it’s a fresh new month, we have an itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny super creepy-crawly new cover photo for you, courtesy of David Hensel.

Want to see your own LEGO creation featured across TBB social media for a month? Then acquaint yourself with the submission guidelines and submit your photo today!

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