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

Every narcissistic superhero needs their “me, me, me time”

I know you’re all as insanely excited as we are about the forthcoming LEGO Batman Movie. We’ve already been tantalized with hilarious trailers, the official sets, and a rather splendid new line of collectible minifigs that reveal some of the movie’s bizarre characters and alternate versions of the titular hero. Toryman has built this charming living room around the Lobster-Lovin’ Batman minifigure:

While considerably more modest that the digs we’ll see in the movie, this version certainly measures up with its oversized fireplace, wine collection, very very dark grey coffee table, and tasteful red furnishings. Just the ticket for wandering about in a robe and gnawing on some lobster after a hard day’s crime fighting.

While we count down the days until the movie’s release on February 10th, TBB staff are working round the clock to try and crack the mystery behind the digits 07734. We have an extensive server farm crunching the numbers and searching for clues on the web night and day. So stay tuned! We think it could be something really big, and we’ll let you know as soon as we have something to share…

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Punch when you have to punch, kick when you have to kick

Fan builders have certainly come up with some creative uses for LEGO’s balloon segment pieces. In his latest creation, Romanian builder Letranger Absurde has used the ones in set 70603 Ninjago Raid Zeppelin to create a very believable speed punch bag. Although by all accounts, getting this thing stay in one piece and in one place was so frustrating that I’m sure he was tempted to vent his frustration on it with his fists (…guessing it would have been good for exactly one punch).

Apart from what is obviously an amazing balancing act and an impressive amount of brick-built wall surface, what makes this build for me are the matte gold colored parts used to create the chain. If you look closely you’ll see a few Star Wars battle droid components in there! Although there’s a minor mystery here, as these parts don’t normally come in this finish.

Check out our recent interview with this talented builder.

Build it, then throw a blanket over it [Instructions]

Fans of Bravest Warriors rejoice! After vanishing for two and half years, this wacky space animation from the mind that created Adventure Time is now back from the dead, with a third season beginning today on Cartoon Hangover. And because LEGO makes everything 9000% sexier, here is a building guide for Catbug to get you in the mood.

(Click here for enlarged version)

Remembering Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) [News]

Beloved actress and writer Carrie Fisher has passed away at age 60, after a recent heart attack. While she will be most fondly remembered for her role as the feisty Princess Leia Organa in the Star Wars saga, Fisher appeared in many other well-known movies including The Blues Brothers and When Harry Met Sally. She was also both an accomplished writer (often drawing upon her own over-the-top life experiences in Postcards from the Edge and more recently The Princess Diarist) and an oft-uncredited screenplay writer with involvement in movies like Hook and The Wedding Singer.

The iconic image of Fisher as Princess Leia will almost certainly be the one that stays with her fans, whether it be sporting the flowing regal gown and giant hair buns of A New Hope, or the metallic bikini “slave girl” outfit from Return of the Jedi. These images resonate with LEGO fans too, and over the years we’ve featured plenty of custom builds of the Leia character. Below are a few of them.

See more Princess Leia LEGO creations

Announcing winners of the TBB Create-a-calendar contest [News]

Merry Christmas, dear readers! Here at the Brothers Brick compound, all the little doors on our three LEGO Advent calendars have now been opened, their bricky contents sit resplendent upon the mantelpiece, while the empty boxes burn in the fireplace, creating a warm glow upon our faces …or maybe that’s just the eggnog.

Before the Lemur began distributing our Secret Santa gifts (they’re all socks, they’re always socks) he reminded us to vote on the 46 entries in our Create-a-calendar building contest. As always, we were blown away by your ingenuity and skill. But there can only be three winners, and here they are…

FIRST PLACE
Indiana Jones by Charis Stella

SECOND PLACE
Futurama by Sam Beattie

THIRD PLACE
Classic Space by Andreas Lenander

Thank you again to everyone who took part. And to the winners, congratulations! We’ll be sending you your holiday-themed prize sets soon. We’re just sorry they can’t be sitting there under your tree already. And happy holidays to you all. (…bah, humbug!)

LEGO Ideas 21308 Adventure Time [Review]

Unless you’re just tragically unhip or have been living under a rock, on Mars, then you’ll no doubt have heard of the critically acclaimed, Emmy winning, noodly limbed, gender stereotype breaking, cult followed, totally mathematical, pop culture phenomenon that is Adventure Time.

It’s now been 10 years since the original pilot aired, and with almost 250 episodes under its belt (including a new 8-part special Islands coming next month) the show remains as popular as ever, thanks to its groundbreaking style, the diversity of its characters, and massive merchandising empire. And now it is finally a LEGO set, 21308 Adventure Time. Not bad for a cartoon inspired by D&D and videogames!

Read our full review of this set

Create-a-calendar contest ends Saturday night! [News]

Ho, ho, ho! This is a friendly reminder that the Brothers Brick Create-a-calendar building contest ends at midnight this Saturday, December 17th. After that, judging will begin so that we can announce winners on Christmas Day. We’ve already seen some great entries in the contest Flickr group, so now you know what you’re up against! There are some cool prizes to be won, so dream up a theme and get building those tiny Advent calendar models today.

The black stallion

After 8 months, 20 races and plenty of drama, the 2016 Formula One season is now finally over. As a kid, F1 was regular TV viewing in my household and the cheers were always for Team Lotus drivers like Mansell, Andretti and Senna …which was probably because my dad worked for John Player! In my mind there is no race car more iconic than a 70s/80s era Lotus decked out in black and gold JPS livery. So this stunning LEGO model of a Lotus 72D by Hungarian builder zipar gives me all the feels.

The scale of this model means that the builder has managed to capture all of this vehicle’s angles and many small details (right down to the cockpit and V8 engine). But most impressively, it has allowed him to not cop out and use stickers to recreate the gold decals – they’re all brick built! Check out the full album for many glorious closeups.

Go the way of the dinosaur

LEGO dragon builder extraordinaire Aaron Newman recently took a break from his normal fantasy fayre to create this neat minifig scale Stegosaurus. Taken on as a commissioned project, it has 19 separate points of articulation, to provide its owner with hours of fig-smashing reptilian fun!

Speed demon

The Fiat Mefistofele was a one-off racing car created in the 1920s to break the land speed record. It was named after a demon by its driver, apparently due to the infernal sound created by the airplane engine that had been fitted inside! Korean builder Pixel Junkie does the historic vehicle justice in this LEGO minifig scale reinterpretation.

The Mefistofele’s unusual construction might explain why the builder chose to man his version with a well-known animated pilot! I only wish the hood could be removed to reveal a LEGO version of that engine. Instead, I will have to make do with this lovely little scene of a mechanic tinkering with it the workshop.

The Brothers Brick “Create-a-calendar” Contest [News]

The holiday season is underway, and for many LEGO fans that means it’s time to crack open the first door on their official LEGO Advent calendars. This year LEGO once again offers the choice of three calendar themes: Town, Friends, and Star Wars. The Brothers Brick will even be joining in the fun, as each day we reveal the daily mini-models from all three sets.

If you could wish for any LEGO Advent calendar theme, what would it be? Ninjago? Space? Wild West? Well, we’d like to know. But we don’t want to you just tell us, we want you to show us in The Brothers Brick “Create-a-calendar” Contest. Simply choose your dream theme for an Advent calendar, and build some example mini-models to illustrate it. The contest runs from now through December 17th, and we’ll announce the winners on Christmas Day.

Click here to learn more about the contest

Red panda, standing by

They’re not really red, nor strictly pandas. But what these little cat-bear-fox-racoons are is totally adorable. And this LEGO version by German builder Felix Jaensch captures that in spades. The beautifully curled up tail and body are constructed using simple bricks, which somehow convey a sense of furriness, while more complex parts and techniques are employed to provide detail and expression to the creature’s face. OMG SO MUCH CUTENESS! ಥ‿ಥ