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

LEGO Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron: the world’s most luxurious supercar now a premium LEGO set [Review + Video]

When you’re a kid playing with LEGO bricks, getting a new LEGO set for your birthday or Christmas is exciting beyond belief. There’s so much hidden play value trapped inside that colorful box–yellow, with the words LEGOLAND stamped on the front, if you grew up in the 80s–that you can’t wait to tear it open and begin building. Chances are, if you’re reading The Brothers Brick, you’re like me and still feverishly tear into new LEGO sets, no matter your age. But every once in awhile a set comes along that makes you slow down and just admire the box for a bit. Not that you’re less excited to build it, but rather that there’s something about this set that makes you want to savor it. Ask the butler to bring you some champagne. Settle into your yacht’s white leather couch, and pull up the Swarovski crystal coffee table. This set is going to be epic, and you can already feel it. LEGO’s second premium Technic set, 42083 Bugatti Chiron, is the best set of this kind yet. It’s based on the French ultra-luxury brand’s newest supercar, a 1,500 horsepower 2-seater that can rocket you to 261 miles per hour in pure comfort, provided you can afford the starting price of $2.7 million. The LEGO version is a bit more modest, however, including 3,599 pieces and retailing for $349.99 USD ($399.99 in Canada | £329.99 in the UK). It is available now.

Click to the read the full hands-on review of the Bugatti Chiron and watch the video

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New LEGO Star Wars BrickHeadz revealed, including Darth Vader [News]

LEGO continues to roll out new entries to the BrickHeadz theme with some regularity, and the latest pair to be revealed hail from Star Wars. Though we’ve had a number of Star Wars characters before, this duo is representing the Empire with Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper. Numbered as 55 and 56 in the series, we don’t have a specific release date for them yet, but we presume they’ll cost the same as previous BrickHeadz, at $10 per character. We’re also getting a look at the box art and series numbers, 62 and 63, for the Ghostbusters two-pack we revealed a few weeks ago.

Click to see more pictures of the new BrickHeadz

LEGO Overwatch sets coming, Activision Blizzard announces [News]

Today at the Licensing Expo 2018 in Las Vegas, Activision Blizzard has announced they’ve reached a licensing agreement with LEGO for the blockbuster game Overwatch, according to Business Wire. Overwatch is a first-person shooter with a loose sci-fi setting, breaking new territory for LEGO in their licensing agreements, as they’ve traditionally steered clear of such properties. The announcement comes amidst a slew of other new license partners for Activision Blizzard, including UNIQLO, Nerf, and more.

There’s no word yet on specifically what sorts of sets we’ll see from LEGO, but with LEGO’s theme-crossing video game Dimensions finished, it’s certain this won’t simply be a small tie-in expansion pack. We hope they’ll be as cool as this yellow D.Va mech by TBB’s own Nick Jensen. And if you can’t wait to buy some official Overwatch sets, Nick has provided instructions for this mech in the link above.

Sure to be smooth sailing, wind or no

The Esmeralda is an unusual LEGO ship for several reasons. First, it’s a steam corvette from the 1800s, a period when many ships were rigged with sails and outfitted with steam engine-powered screws. Despite the abundance of source material, not many LEGO builders have recreated these ships. And secondly, builder Luis Peña has chosen an interesting size, scaling the ship to the game microfigs.

The finished result looks excellent, with a ship that’s big enough to incorporate lots of details like the anchor pulleys, while still small enough to be manageable with a reasonable number of pieces. Other great details include the Technic panels as sails (a technique LEGO employed on the Sea Cow) and the excellent little Chilean flag.

The LEGO Movie 2 officially announced [News]

Today LEGO and Warner Animation Group have officially announced the sequel to their mega-hit film The LEGO Movie. Slated for release in theaters next February, exactly 5 years after the original, the new movie will be titled The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. We don’t yet have any word on the plot, but the movie has lined up the same all-star voice acting cast as the original, including Chris Pratt as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, and Will Arnett as Batman.

Upgrade your Tron lightcycles to add cool movement [Video]

Builder Jason Allemann, (aka JK Brickworks) has made a name for himself building kinetic LEGO sculptures, from Sisyphus eternally pushing a boulder to a ball maze that was turned into a real LEGO set, or even a tense Death Star trench run. But now he’s turned his hand to the new 21314 Tron: Legacy set to give it a bit of dynamism, making the lightcycles bob and weave as they cut their way across the grid.

What we love about Jason, though, is that he’s never content to simply show off something cool and leave us wondering how he did it. Instead, with every build he walks us through the steps of how his mechanisms work. Check out the video below.

Click to see the video and discover how they’re built

All 3 LEGO 2018 Advent Calendars revealed: LEGO City, Star Wars, Friends [News]

Along with the rest of the fall 2018 sets we’ve been closely following in conjunction with LEGO’s special preview event yesterday, LEGO has revealed all three of this year’s holiday season Advent calendars. As with most recent years, they follow the themes of City, Friends, and Star Wars, with the same prices as previous years: $29.99 USD each for City and Friends, and $39.99 for Star Wars. They will be available in September. Check them out below.

Click to see all the 2018 Advent Calendars

LEGO reveals final set from the new 2018 Fall Ninjago wave: the giant Oni Titan mech [News]

When we announced the rest of the new Ninjago lineup, we knew there would be at least one more set revealed. Now LEGO has revealed the Oni Titan mech as that final set. This fall the Ninjago crew is headed to the wastelands, where they’ll match wits and blades with a band of road warriors with fearsome scavenged vehicles. The Oni Titan, however, is a bit more traditional Ninjago, though we’re not sure yet if he’s fighting for the Ninjas or Garmadon. Besides the Oni Titan mech, the set includes 4 minifigures. Check out the full details below, and don’t miss our hands-on review of the brand new Ninjago City Docks.

Click to see the full Oni Titan mech

3 new LEGO Minecraft sets announced, including a skeleton trap & skull arena [News]

LEGO has just announced three more sets to the incredibly popular Minecraft theme. Having spawned from an Ideas set designed by fans (including yours truly) the Minecraft theme now consists entirely of minifigure-scale sets with lots of animals. Each set has an emphasis on modularity that’s consistent with Minecraft’s aesthetic.

21145 The Skull Arena | 198 pieces | 19.99 (USD) 24.99 (CAD) | Available in August

This PvP arena set includes lots of rare features like Minecraft’s infamous Killer Bunny (a Monty Python reference), along with a golden apple, though it’s unclear if it’s enchanted or not. For LEGO builders, it’s worth noting the pearl gold 2×2 bricks, which is a new color for one of LEGO’s most common elements. This set includes a pair of player minifigures.

Click to see all of the new Minecraft sets

LEGO Star Wars 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon available again [News]

Today LEGO has just announced that 75192 Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon is available again from the LEGO Shop Online, which has continued to experience intermittent out-of-stock issues. So if you’ve been waiting to purchase one online and get those VIP points, now’s your chance. Unsure whether you want to drop $800 on a LEGO set with 7,500 pieces? Check out our hands-on review of the new UCS Falcon.

LEGO’s Ninjago City is expanding with 70657 Ninjago City Docks [Review]

If you’re like me, you didn’t give The LEGO Ninjago Movie a lot of thought. Sure, The LEGO Movie was great, and The LEGO Batman Movie was surprisingly ok, but a movie based on LEGO’s 7-year-old homegrown Ninjago theme? Our own Dave Schefcik gave it a warm — if not exactly glowing — review, though it wasn’t the box office success that LEGO and Warner Bros hoped for. But unquestionably the film’s highpoint for fans like me — that is to say, adult builders — is that it brought us the absolutely stunning Ninjago City. As I reviewed that set last year, I was struck by the cyberpunk city’s incredible detail and gorgeous techniques. And now, although at first glance it seems an odd choice given that The LEGO Ninjago Movie’s short-lived hype has all but disappeared, LEGO is adding to Ninjago City. 70657 Ninjago City Docks will be available August 1 for $229.99 USD, and features 3,553 pieces and 13 minifigures.

Click to read the full review

More 2018 LEGO Batman sets revealed, plus we’ve got a hands-on video of the App-Controlled Batmobile [News]

We announced the new Boost-powered App-Controlled Batmobile earlier today, but that wasn’t the only new Batman set in the works. LEGO’s got three new sets planned for August, including some all-new characters.

76111 Batman: Brother Eye Takedown 269 pieces | Age 6+ 29.99 (USD) 34.99 (CAD)

Available in August

Featuring Batman, Brother Eye, and Batwoman, this set includes the full lineup of new Bat accessories and Brother Eye’s creepy floating eyeball satellite facing off against a very pointy Bat-Jet.

Click here to see more of the new Batman sets