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 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS: Breathtaking perfection [Review]

Every once in awhile a LEGO model comes along that makes you pause, a little slack-jawed, and then scramble for your soon-to-be-empty wallet. There are a lot of cool sets in the LEGO lineup, but a rare few are targeted at adult builders with a larger budget and a thirst for a premium experience and finished product that serves as an office-decor talking piece. These are sets that aren’t just large and complex, but sets that can be called a work of art; an ABS sculpture. Few sets that I’ve encountered fit this bill better than the new Technic 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It has 2,704 pieces, and it’s available beginning June 1 online as well as in select markets. It will hit store shelves in the USA in August, where it will retail for $299 USD.

Read the full review

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A pocket-sized castle for a crafty wizard

Microscale creations often bring out the best in builders, forcing would-be architects to look at mundane LEGO pieces in new and unusual manners, seeing a portcullis arch in a shark’s jaw, fortress spires in Technic pins and embellished walls in pauldrons. Take a look at this fascinating floating castle by Marcel V., and observe how all the tiny details crafted from odd pieces coalesce into a menacing microscale fortress.

Spectacularly ferocious LEGO T-Rex Transformer will send you back to the Jurassic

I never did get around to seeing the insane spectacle that was Transformers: Age of Extinction, but I have to admit the character designs were awesome. Nicola Stocchi has brought the most iconic of those characters to the brick with this terrifyingly incredible version of the T-Rex Grimlock. It’s a rendered work, but the complex construction of this mechanical beast is no less impressive for it.

LEGO Star Wars 75150 Vader’s TIE Advanced vs. A-Wing Starfighter [Review]

Now that the buzz from The Force Awakens has assuaged, and the hype for Rogue One hasn’t yet reached a fever pitch, the LEGO Star Wars line can turn its Goliath head toward older or smaller pieces of the franchise. Thus it is that this summer’s Star Wars wave contains elements from myriad sources, including the original trilogy, the prequels, Rebels, the Freemaker Adventures and, yes, even a little of The Force Awakens has snuck in. We’ll be looking at a few of these sets here on The Brothers Brick, starting today with 75150 Vader’s TIE Advanced vs. A-Wing Starfighter. This set is from the Star Wars Rebels line, and retails for $89.99 USD and contains 702 pieces.

Click to read the full review

Amazingly beautiful LEGO schooner has unbelievable lines

Sometimes a LEGO model is so incredible you stop and wonder if the builder is using the same catalog of bricks as the rest of us, because the finished model doesn’t even look like LEGO. Hoang H Dang is a masterful ship builder (we previously featured his incredible fishing vessel) and he’s turned his hand to building a two-masted schooner. The finished model has some of the best shaping I’ve ever seen on a LEGO ship, making this gorgeous sailing vessel sleek and elegant.

The immense scale of the model is hard to comprehend on its own, but when viewed next to the builder, it becomes obvious that at close to four feet in length and nearly as tall, this is no mere weekend project.

And for those curious how Hoang has constructed such an elegant hull from angular bricks, you can check out this work-in-progress photo to see some of the interior construction.

Incredible LEGO Roman Temple of Minerva with parading legionaries

Antonio Cerretti has brought a marvel of the ancient world to the brick with this stunning Roman temple and courtyard. When many of us LEGO fans saw the Roman soldiers in the collectible minifigures lines, we envisioned a scene like this with legionaries standing in formation before their eagle, perhaps just returned from a campaign in Gaul or Africa. But although I’ve seen a few impressive Roman armies so far, it’s Antonio’s masterful recreation of Roman architecture that sets this model apart. The pure white marble columns and reliefs are beautiful, and the sheer scale of the temple and courtyard is amazing — over five feet in length and featuring around 130 minifigures.

Click to see more pictures

LEGO Creator Expert 10253 Big Ben officially announced [News]

LEGO’s Sydney Opera House was released in 2013, but now LEGO has finally announced their next Creator Expert model of a famous piece of architecture, that grand icon of England, 10253 Big Ben. It will retail for $249.99 USD, and will be available beginning July 1, just in time for Big Ben’s 137th birthday.

Click to read the full press release

A scary scarab ship

This alien spaceship by A Plastic Infinity reminds me of a scarab for some reason, but no matter what the builder intended it to be, one part I’m sure of: it’s pretty cool. Too often alien spacecraft look a bit too human-designed, and it’s always refreshing to see a ship that’s a bit more other-worldly.

A little Laputa to brighten your day

We’ve seen a lot of LEGO renditions of Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, including a gorgeous scene of Laputa among the clouds and a beautiful music box floating fortress. But there’s always room for more, so here are a few that caught our eye.

Mel F‘s lovely little version is a joy. Mel built it to be a desk ornament, and it’s got that perfect balance of size and complexity to subtly show co-workers that LEGO is cool, but you’re not insane (that comes later when they see your LEGO room).

Another gorgeous version comes from builder 米基, with this terrific soaring castle surrounded by clouds. It even has Dola and her pirates’ tiny gliders flitting about beneath the massive fortress.

This LEGO superhero will show you how it’s done

Moko has long distinguished himself as a world-class builder, but he still manages to create builds that surprise me for their elegance. His latest is a superhero named Anpanman, and while the sculpting of the supersuit is phenomenal, what really impresses is the incredible poseability. This superhero looks like he just stepped from the cover of an iconic comic book.

Giant 5ft-long LEGO Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer “Tyrant” features incredible interior

LEGO builder Doomhandle wasn’t satisfied with LEGO’s official versions of the Imperial Star Destroyer — they just didn’t have enough detail, inside or out. Taking a cue from the official sets, though, he’s created a stellar model of the Imperial Star Destroyer Tyrant with a minifig-scale interior full of various scenes aboard a ship of the Imperial fleet.

Doomhandle tells us he spent over a year constructing it, and the final model is nearly 5 feet in length. It is significantly more accurate and detailed than LEGO’s official Ultimate Collector’s Series model, and it features a full hangar deck complete with TIE Interceptors, a Sentinel Class Imperial Shuttle, and a captured A-Wing. It also has a command deck, conference room, barracks, detention center, supply rooms, canteen, and more.

Click to see more pictures

Amazing LEGO Iron Man lab shows all of Iron Man’s suits

Minh Pham is a master LEGO customizer, and he’s long been working to create LEGO versions of Iron Man’s numerous suits — and what better way to display them than in a huge laboratory just the way Tony Stark would? See if you can pick out all the different suits, from the standard iconic suit to the rare, little-known ones.