About Simon

Simon could write a really good bio, but he's too busy building.

Posts by Simon

Red Heron Space Truck

I’m a firm believer that adding ‘Space’ to anything makes it more awesome. So what do you get when you add Space to trucks (which are already awesome), you get Jason Corlett‘s epic Space Truck:

This build actually started off as two separate builds that Jason tells us wasn’t working for him, so he combined it into one really cool mash up:

What I’ve always loved with Jason’s build is his attention to detail and realistic feel to his out of this world creations. A great example is the the awesome cab opening and the engine in the back:

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Galactic happy holidays

With the final hectic days before Christmas, Tiago Catarino (Catarino0937) wishes us a happy holiday’s, and shows us that there will be gifts for all, no matter which planet you’re on:

Chibi Aliens MicroFighters Contest entries

One of my favorite movies of all time is Aliens. It has everything a little boy would want: cool SHIP, fun dropships with APC, lots of action, and of course let’s not forget adorable aliens! So with the TBB’s Chibi MicroFighter contest, I was absolutely delighted to see not one, not two, but the three iconic builds from my favorite movie.

First up, we have Letranger Absurde (vitreolum) and his Chibi M77APC:

Sadly this doesn’t fit into our next build:

Angus MacLane and his Chibi UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship:

Of course if we continue with our Russian nesting vehicles, it would bring us to:

Halfbeak and the Chibi USS Sulaco:

There’s still plenty of time to enter to build your favorite movie/TV/lego set vehicle in chibi-microfighter form for a chance to win some great prizes!

Check out some other entries on our flickr page.

Micro Batmobiles through the ages

The Batmobile is arguably one of the coolest cars ever. Over the years it has gone through several revamps to keep regaining the top cool spot. Irwan Prabowo has recreated some of the more iconic Batmobiles that have come across in TV and film, all in adorable micro scale:

Which was your favorite Batmobile?

Edit:
It turn out that Tumbler was a copy of a _Tiler‘s that we’ve actually featured the before, but here it is again in it’s original glory:

As well the Burton Batmobile was also _Tiler’s:

Announcing the TBB Chibi Micro Contest – Win exclusive comic-con LEGO sets & more

We at the Brothers Brick love a good contest, and we have a great one with a really rare prize. Introducing the Chibi Micro Contest! Simply build a ‘Star Wars microfighter’ style version of your favorite movie, TV or LEGO theme vehicle and you could win this exclusive set which was only available at Fan Expo in Toronto, Canada.

I started off with two of my favorite vehicles – the Tumbler and the Delorean. Build your favorite chibi micro version for a chance to win!

First prize: Exclusive Fan Expo Ghost Starship with Kannan Jarrus #460 (donated by TBB) + Set of Star Wars Microfighters (donated by TLG)
Second prize: Choice of 4 Star Wars Microfighters (donated by TLG)
Third prize: Two Star Wars Microfighters (donated by TLG)

Contest starts now and you have till January 4th to submit your entries to the flickr group:

Full details can be found here.

Announcing Philly Brick Fest: April 23 – 26, 2015

Registration is now open for the next Philly Brick Fest, taking place from April 23rd-26th at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. The full registration is discounted until December 1st, so get your tickets now.

Here’s the full press release;

Philly
Brick Fest, the 4-day Fan of LEGO Convention returns to the Greater
Philadelphia Expo Center April 23 – 26, 2015 in Oaks, PA.

The 2015 event will boast more than 90,000 square feet of fan built LEGO creations, interactive building challenges and activities, and merchandise from LEGO resellers and customizers. The 4-day convention brings together Fans of LEGO to play games, learn new building techniques, meet new members of the community, and most of all have fun.

Date:
April 23 – 26, 2015

Philly Brick Fest is a LEGO Convention for Fans of LEGO (FOLs). This is a 4-day private event from April 23 – 26, 2015 consisting of games, seminars, building activities, giveaways, and more. Registered attendees also have the ability display their LEGO creations sure to inspire the general public. Registered attendees also have a chance to meet, mingle, and create new friendships with other FOLs.

Brick Fest Live is the portion of the event that is open to the public. During the public sessions, attendees will have a chance to see the amazing FOL creations in addition to the hands-on attractions facilitated by Brick Fest Live.

And check out our video!

Triumph Scrambler Motorcycle

It’s been awhile seen we seen a bike here, so I was thrilled when Stephan Jonsson built this wonderful motorcycle:

The Triumph Scrambler is combination of off road dirt bike and cruiser, with the beefed up suspensions and tyres. The build is accurate to the source material and is recreated fantastically with bricks. I loved how he’s able to shape body of the motorcycle, while adding just the right amount of details in the engine block. But what really impressed me is that the shell and seat can be removed to reveal the sweet underbody:

Stickering 101 – the magic tutorial

Applying stickers used to be something my dad would do for me when I built sets as a kid, and seems to be far less common in today’s adult builds. But anyone paying attention to the space builders this past year has seen a steady rise in stickering, especially in the micro-sized builds. Enter Jacob Unterreiner (4estFeller). We’ve seen him a few times here on this blog but I don’t think we’ve really seen him like this:

That’s a pretty amazing stickering job. But look at it closer, that’s a micro GARC and is only 11×5 studs! Feels a lot bigger, eh? He’s taken stickering to the next level and really able to skew the sense of scale with his intense stickering. By my count (assuming symmetrical stickering and no stickers on the bottom) I found 54 stickers! That’s probably 2-3 times the usual sticker sheet size for a 1000 piece LEGO set.

But dear reader, you might be asking yourself, how does he achieve such wonderful results? Thanks to our friends at Build Like a Boss who have been running a series of tutorials on everything from advanced bricklink buying, building frames or bases, and of course stickering:

You can check out the awesome three part sticker tutorial series:
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Toronto Streetcars, where the streets have names.

Today we take a little history lesson in the streetcars of Toronto. Calum Tsang and Derek Raycraft have recreated all three streetcars that have been used by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC):

From left to right: the new LRV (2013), PCC (1936) and what I grew up loving: CLRV (1977).
Which one do you like best?

Best part? You can see this up close at the Toronto (Sherway) LEGO Brand Retail store all of November.

But this isn’t the first time this dynamic duo has worked together, last time was on a slightly larger scale when Calum built a Boeing 777 and Derek built an Airbus A380 … in minifig scale… plus the airport to go with it:

I am Iron Man

I still remember Avro Brothers’ Iron Man which is in my mind the definitive LEGO Iron Man build… until today. That’s when I saw George Panteleon’s (ZetoVince) incredible 1:2 scale Iron Man bust:

Surprisingly this 24cm tall build only required about 700 pieces to create this master piece.

I love the use of the LEGO LEDs to light up the eyes and the shaping that George has been able to achieve using the various curved pieces, not just on the head, but taking the time to shape out the top of the torso as well. George plans on continuing this build and creating the rest of the chest – and the of course the arc-reactor!

Do you want to play a game? – Jigsaw puppet

With Halloween around the corner, I figured it was time we spooked up the place… French builder Pistash has built Billy the puppet from the Saw horror series, which celebrates it’s 10th birthday this Halloween.

He’s managed to really capture the creepiness of a the Billy puppet – not an easy feat with LEGO.

I think I’m going to eat some candy and watch happy cartoons now…. this build freaks me out.

Destiny’s Phaeton Class v2 jump ship

If you’ve been paying attention to what’s marketable in pulp culture these days, the video game Destiny has pretty popular. It has also become a pretty common excuse: “Sorry, can’t build, playing Destiny”. Jake (Jayfourke) has solved this problem by building Destiny with this fantastic ship:

Even if it wasn’t from a game, the ship design is gorgeous. I love the simple colour stripes, and really great angles that Jake was able to recreate. Though my favorite part, and what impressed me most was those iconic triangular intakes:

This thing looks like it was built for swooshing.