About Chris

Chris Malloy (porschecm2) has been a LEGO fan nearly all his life, having started with System bricks at age 3. He is the co-author of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars, and his creations have been featured in several books and The LEGO Movie. He also helped develop the first LEGO Minecraft set, 21102 Minecraft Micro World: The Forest, which has gone on to inspire a whole theme of sets. He's been active in the online community since 2002, and regularly attends LEGO fan conventions such as BrickCon and BrickCan. He enjoys building in a wide range of themes, but keeps returning to Castle, Space, and Pirates. Check out his LEGO creations and photography here.

Posts by Chris

Little big horns for your Krampus

The new LEGO x Target collection has delivered some remarkably fun pieces. The Snow Character kit, ostensibly for building a snowman, includes human-sized versions of a handful of elements, and fans are already taking advantage of them in unique ways. This build by Blair Archer incorporates the giant-sized horns to create a Krampus head just in time for Christmas. The glow in the dark eyes round out the build giving it an otherworldly glow. Hope you haven’t been naughty this year!

If you’re interested in the LEGO x Target collection big pieces, be sure to check out Tom Alphin’s excellent review over at Brick Architect.

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The best technique, bar none

OK, so maybe this isn’t the best LEGO technique of all time, but it’s surely one of the most tedious. The effect Andreas Lenander created by stacking a few hundred transparent blue bar 4Ls (AKA lightsaber blades) to create the shimmering portal is magnificent. The shadowy figure completes the effect, while the mottled brickwork gives the whole portal an eery, otherworldly feel. Now who wants to create a Stargate using this method?

An X-wing of a different scale

How many different ways can you build a LEGO X-wing? It’s one of the most iconic ships for Star Wars, and builders have been trying their hand at it over and over, and some of these LEGO X-wings are quite spectacular. But most of them are minifigure scale, so what if you tried a different scale? That’s what Pascal has done, with this slightly smaller and lightly chibi-ized version. He first built it back in 2016, but recently returned to update it a bit, and the result is just lovely. Rather than being the perfect scale model of an X-wing, it looks like a perfect recreation of a toy X-wing, the sort of thing I’d have spent hours swooshing about as a kid making “pew-pew” noises.

LEGO Star Wars 40557 Hoth Rebels & 40558 Clone Troopers Minifigure Accessory Packs [Review]

LEGO Star Wars has been around for more than 20 years, and for the first time LEGO is producing Star Wars accessory packs. They’re effectively the same as the boxed Battle Pack sets, but packaged in the minifigure-shaped clamshells that are used on a variety of other themes. 40557 Hoth Rebels Minifigure Accessory Pack contains 64 pieces and includes three Rebel troops in Hoth outfits plus some defenses, and will retail for US $14.99 | CAN $19.99 | UK £12.99. 40558 Clone Troopers Minifigure Accessory Pack has 66 pieces (a foreboding number) and includes three Clone Troopers and a few bits of gear, and should retail for the same US $14.99 | CAN $19.99 | UK £12.99. Both sets will be available starting Jan. 1.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with early copies of these sets for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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The shadows of Shadar Logoth

The eerie city of Shadar Logoth stands in magnificent ruin in this large diorama by Brick Ninja. They’ve been slowly working their way through scenes from Robert Jordan’s monumental Wheel of Time series, presenting each snapshot completely immersively. Brick Ninja doesn’t show us the full build–or even if the structure is more than a facade. Instead, it’s built for the camera, to be seen from this angle, and it’s beautiful, with architectural details sculpted throughout. The detailing at the top of the large central doorway is especially nice, as is the huge domed roof.

Huge LEGO City 2022 lineup revealed with 21 new sets, bringing Fire, Police, NASA, and more [News]

Today LEGO has revealed a huge swath of new LEGO City sets for 2022, taking the wraps off 21 new sets. The sets span the usual City subjects with a heavy emphasis on emergency services with a new police station, fire station, and hospital, but also bring some less common subjects like a school, city park, and even a sardine factory. LEGO also revealed a pair of new City space sets that are a collaboration with NASA and are loosely based on NASA’s real-life Artemis project to return to the moon. While LEGO only revealed two of these NASA-inspired sets, we know there are more in the works since the back of the boxes point to there being additional sets in the space lineup. All of the new sets will be available Jan. 1, 2022.

Click to see all the new LEGO City 2022 sets

LEGO reveals 21057 Singapore as latest Architecture Skyline set [News]

Today LEGO has revealed that the latest set in the long-running Skyline series of Architecture sets will be 21057 Singapore. The 827-piece microscale model will feature some of the city-state’s most prominent landmarks, including the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel, which also got its own standalone Architecture set back in 2013. Other locations in the skyline include the Lau Pa Sat market, One Raffles Place and OCBC skyscrapers, the posh Fullerton Hotel, the historic Boat Quay, and the distinctive and beautiful Gardens by the Bay nature park full of towering artificial trees covered in lush vegetation. The set will retail for US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99 and will be available starting Jan. 1.

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VVery nice ice

The LEGO fan community is filled with various builder-driven challenges and monthly themes. One of the most popular challenges for space builders is Novvember, wherein builders use the month to recreate the Vic Viper from Gradius with their own twists. If you’ve been following us here on The Brothers Brick for long, you’ll no doubt have seen a fair handful already. This version by Pascal gives it the Ice Planet makeover, with an opaque windscreen and blocky but studless angles.

What happens when you combine Blacktron and farming?

Name a more unlikely duo. You’ll be hardpressed to find a more odd pairing than Blacktron and farming, yet that mashup is precisely what Dario Đipić has done with this insane combine harvester. Decked out in the theme’s iconic colors of black, white, and trans neon green, this harvester looks ready to collect…wait, what does it collect? I spy skeletons on the edges of the cutter. Hmm…maybe that does track with Blacktron. After all, the Space Police were always after them for some reason.

Oh, and as for unlikely pairings? Well, ok, maybe there are a few others just as out there. Like Star Wars and Fabuland, which is apparently a whole thing. Don’t believe me? Check out our Fabuland archives.

This LEGO Halo diorama takes us back to the classics

I recently replayed Halo: Combat Evolved for the first time in years with the updated Master Chief Collection, and I have to say that 20 years on, the game still holds up remarkably well. I do miss those split-screen, multi-TV LAN games with friends, though. This LEGO diorama by DP_Studios_ takes me right back there with that iconic Covenant architecture and the unmistakable and eternally awesome Warthog. The builder has added just the right amount of details throughout to make it feel the way I remember it, though I secretly suspect this diorama actually has more texture than the original game.

LEGO Holiday Black Friday 2021 Gift with Purchase 40484 Santa’s Front Yard [Review]

For a number of years, LEGO has been slowly building out its Winter Village Collection with numerous sets featuring Santa and his elves, starting back in 2014 with 10245 Santa’s Worshop, and following up in 2020 with 10275 Elf Clubhouse. This year’s free Gift with Purchase holiday set adds one more elf set to the mix, along with an adorable brick-built reindeer in 40484 Santa’s Front Yard. The 317-piece set will be available this weekend, Nov. 20 and 21, for LEGO VIP members, and then will be available for anyone Nov. 26-29 with purchases of US $170 | CAN $TBD | UK £170 or more from LEGO.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with a copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full review

I spy with my little eye

LEGO wearables are always an interesting challenge to create. But this set of Steampunk goggles by Dwalin Forkbeard would feel right at home on a full cosplay outfit, even if the rest weren’t made of bricks. This 1:1 scale creation is the perfect use for those super cool trans blue and pearl gold Ninjago windscreens, and I can’t get over how awesome the two pearl gold animal tails look when combined to make the swooping frames. And of course, don’t miss the strap, which is made of brown chainlinks.