About Alexander

Alexander Alekseev is an active member of the Russian LUG since 2007. Linguist by education, he believes that LEGO pieces are the most effective mean of self-expression and communication between people.

Posts by Alexander

When typography is on point, bricks become words

Jonas Kramm, whose way of seeing LEGO bricks has delighted us so many times, has simply done it. And by that I mean he’s literary created “it” with a handful of bricks and curved slopes. This is a fine example of an antique neoclassical font… heavy lines with sharp ends and gorgeous serifs.

If you like this creation by Jonas as much as we do, check out his other builds for “The New Black” project on our favorite parts-obsessed blog New Elementary, where Jonas explores the unlimited possibilities of modified and unusual parts, like paint rollers which he used to create some stunning antique street lamps.

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.

My other car’s a Porsche, and also a truck

Do you remember good old LEGO Designer Sets from 2004-05? Besides the main build, each of them featured a thick ideas book full of alternative models. To be honest, not all of those models were top-class, but the joy of building not one, but 50 different robots or cars was overwhelming. Serge S shows us that even though the times have changed, the bricks are all the same. Each set contains as many cool creations as your imagination can produce.

I bet you’ve already recognized that the lovely 10242 Mini Cooper set provided the parts that Serge has used for his creations. To be specific, the Porsche above required a couple of Mini Coopers, and this is the second version of the car. The first one (below) was built entirely from 10242’s pieces, which is why it has more white parts.

But how about another alternative car? Not a sports car, but a heavy truck. This not just any old semi, but a scaled-down version of an Iveco truck. Building one even with unlimited parts would not be a trivial task, but doing so with a just these parts is what makes these models true masterpieces of their kind.

Pantone Fashion Color Report reveals trending colors for the upcoming LEGO building season [News]

LEGO has spoiled us with an enormous choice of colors over the past couple of years, most notably in the Elves and Friends lines. So it would be foolish not to keep an eye on new trends in the color industry. Now that LEGO has unveiled most of its lineup of sets for the first half of 2017, it’s about time we looked at them in terms of colors using the Pantone Fashion Color Report. This annual report, presented by the Pantone Color Institute, the world leading provider of color systems, predicts the top 10 trending colors for the upcoming 2017 spring season.

Based on a list of the most popular colors seen on the world’s hottest fashion runways, this guide includes hues described as natural and vital, rustic and relaxed. According to Pantone’s press release, the selected colors are perfect for portraying the warmth of a sunny day (with PANTONE 13-0755 Primrose Yellow) or conveying the feeling of breathing fresh mountain air (using PANTONE 18-0107 Kale), while PANTONE 14-4620 Island Paradise represents the tones of some far away exotic location.

And naturally, each of these trendy shades can easily be found amongst the LEGO color palette! Here’s our totally fabulous LEGO version of the list, showing rough equivalents of the Pantone colors:

Clearly any self-repecting, fashion-conscious LEGO fan will want to stock up on next season’s trendiest colors as fast and efficiently as possible. So which sets should we begin hoarding in the new year? We browsed the Spring 2017 themes to create the ultimate shopping list for a multi-colored and diverse refresh of your LEGO collection. We’ll start with some basic options and work all the way to the most fashionable new sets. Feel free to use the current official LEGO color chart to compare the selected colors with the wide range of the colors available.

Continue reading →

An insane hat trick

This bobble headed Mad Hatter by Julius von Brunk seems to contain both regular LEGO bricks and an element of madness. You might remember one of Julius’ previous works we featured back in September — a menacing set of aces from Alice’s Wonderland. According to the builder, this Hatter figure will be starring in an upcoming stop-motion animation parody. I can’t wait!

Everything is awesome in the LEGO village

Back in my childhood days a rich collection of LEGO road baseplates was the hallmark of wealth and loving grandparents. The more plates you have, the larger your playground becomes. Unfortunately, we don’t find road plates in official LEGO sets any longer, but Krešo Krejča brings them back with a vivid diorama that could easily fit into an official LEGO catalogue.

The builder brilliantly combines some classic City genres: farm, logistic services, construction site and a rural cottage. This diorama is not about advanced creations, but is amazingly full of life and motion. Go ahead and have a look at lots of perfectly executed shots revealing the everyday life of LEGO minifigures.

Designing on the fly

W. Navarre has fun with some red plates and tiles. The result is an incredibly smart yet utterly simple fly swatter. Some may say that this build isn’t practical, but I will disagree. Of course you can swat a fly with it–but probably only one.

Epitome of the Swedish idyll

We all know what Swedish houses look inside like (thank you, Ikea), but what about the exterior? Emil Lidé hones his microscale building skills with this lovely traditional Swedish cottage. We’ve already seen these brilliant trees in his previous set of sketches, however this house steals the show. Actually, there’s not much to describe besides the particular Scandinavian style, which the diorama is full of. And some huge boulders in the garden complete this land property especially well!

Mondays don’t start with a cup of coffee

This adorable vignette by Cecilie Fritzvold first made me laugh. Then, I looked at the local forecast for tonight and burst into tears. Although, this is a perfect way to build a car without actually building one. Finally, nobody is arguing whether it should be 5 or 6 studs wide! Oh, and just wait for this guy’s face when he finds out this is not his car!

You’ll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of green

Don’t you think there are too many spaceships and interstellar fighters prowling around the international LEGO space lately? Of course, their top-class designs are undeniable, but how about taking just a day off and spending it somewhere in a calm restful rural place? This vast diorama by Piotr Machalski, a talented builder from Poland, is full of soft summer sun and serenity. Even though the actual size of the build is 25 m², it can hardly contain a huge century-old oak and just a little bit of a field by the farm.

Hurry up to see some brilliant close-ups of the diorama as the author promises to extend his creation with new territory.

Lock n’ load for planet conquering

It took me some time to realize why this brilliant viper by Cole Blaq looks so scary, but I finally got it: it totally resembles one of those anglerfishes from the darkest depths of the ocean. Here are its big globe-shaped head and some huge sharp claws, but instead of a fleshy lure it has a couple of massive barrels on its back. I doubt this fighter brings anything but devastation, but at least it does it in a spectacular way for sure.

The fighter’s peculiar design is the result of an evolution through seven rounds of the Starfighter Telephone Game. The earlier ship by Pascal Schmidt gave Cole’s creation it bright color scheme, spherical cock-pit and four wings in an “X” shape.

LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures revealed [News]

The first official image of the upcoming LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures Series (CMF) was recently published on the company’s official Twitter account, revealing the full lineup of awesome Batman outfits along with new villians including Red Hood, Eraser and Calculator. Minifigures will hit store shelves on January, 1 2017. Check out the individual images of all the the figures below.

Continue reading →

In space nobody can hear your screaming colors

Stephan Niehoff brings into play some yellow slopes, combines them with black grilles and chrome silver touches and — voilà! — a top-class starfighter is swooshing through the space. Its main design feature, a smooth curved canopy above the cockpit, is an awesome alternative to excessive greebling made of tiny tools, and it goes perfectly with the huge cockpit glass — not the most useful LEGO part with a print on it, but it looks as pretty as if it had been specially designed for this creation.