Posts by Theo Spencer

LEGO expands minifig Disney Villain offerings with Cruella de Vil’s car [News]

It seems that LEGO is on a bit of a 101 Dalmatians kick! With a couple of spotty-dog sets already coming out this month, a follow-up set focusing on the film’s villain has been announced for release in September: 43277 Cruella de Vil’s Car. The set is notable for its minifig scale, when most Disney playsets not targeting 18+ collectors have featured minidolls. The vehicle design is also quite striking, with classic car curves that could broaden its appeal beyond the usual Disney playset audience. In the live-action features and Cruella series, this car was an appropriately-named Panther de Ville, but this version is based on the unnamed roadster from the original 1960s animated feature. Either way, it’s made up of 378 pieces, and will retail for US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99 when it releases September 1, 2025.

Continue reading →

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.

June 2025 LEGO sets now available, from Lord of the Rings and Pixar to book nooks, Ideas and Technic [News]

June is often a bumper month for new LEGO releases, with the halfway point of the year coming up. And June 2025 is no different! There are loads of new LEGO sets coming out within the next few weeks – almost too many for us to cover. It does mean there’ll surely be something to take your fancy, though. There are book nooks, Technic diggers, Disney mascots… And a great big dragon. Check out some of our favourites below, or see all of the new releases (and more) on LEGO’s website: LEGO US | LEGO CAN | LEGO UK.

Continue reading →

Drumming up a dynamic LEGO musician mid-session

Steve ‘Rubblemaker‘ Marsh is well-known for his unconventionally-shaped spaceships. But he has more strings to his bow than just spacecraft! That’s proven by this snap of a robot drummer mid-jam. It’s deceptively large: red wheels, 4 studs wide in diameter, make up many of the smaller toms. But the drummer’s dextrous limbs are where the real complexity lies. According to Steve, achieving this dynamic pose required “independent movement in its neck, fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, waist, hips, knees and ankles”. So you know, just about every joint there is. Well, it was certainly worth the effort!

Ma.K.ing the most of LEGO’s wildest theme

Sometimes it pays to sit on an idea for a while. Occasional LEGO builder W.F Ikhasi tells us he had the fuselage of this Maschinen Krieger-inspired walker sitting around, unfinished, for no fewer than three years. Happily, it’s complete now – and thanks to… Galidor?! Yes, a piece from LEGO’s weirdest theme provided just the shape Ikhasi was looking for for the hind legs. So much so, in fact, that the front legs are a brick-built riff on the idea, and the end result looks great!

If you’re not familiar with the kitbashing dieselpunk world of Maschinen Krieger, why not get a taster in our archives?

TBB Asks: Did you have a ‘dark age’? If so, what brought you out of it? [Feature]

For our weekly TBB Asks feature, nothing is off the table. We might be asking our staff and readers whimsical questions about building sets from memory, but we might also delve deep into their psyches and get really personal. Well, OK, it’ll still be light-hearted fun – but this week, we’re going dark. Dark age! TBB Asks: did you have a ‘dark age’? If so, what brought you out of it? For those unfamiliar with the lingo, a ‘dark age’ is a period in one’s life where LEGO is not present. Sounds awful, right? For many this happens between childhood and at some point in adulthood, perhaps because LEGO isn’t seen as cool when you’re a teenager. But LEGO is always cool. Right, everyone? … Anyone?

Who are we kidding – obviously it is. But even our seasoned staff aren’t immune to a dark age, so let’s see who had one. And if you did too, let us know what made you come back to the hobby!

Continue reading →

Go gorillas for this feel-good LEGO build

When you see LEGO creations featured on the Brothers Brick, they’re normally no more than a few days old. But we can’t see them all – and some excellent creations do slip through our net. Happily, though, we’ve recently discovered Jean-Philippe Leroux‘s superb floating windmill, built a little over three months ago! But this isn’t any windmill: this is a vessel known to Gorillaz fans as the Slowboat. Even if you’re not a Gorillaz guru, you’ll probably still recognise it from the Feel Good, Inc. and El Manana music videos. The album from whence those songs came – Demon Days – is celebrating its 20th birthday today, so that makes our discovery of J-P’s build very timely indeed!

We’re going to give our Demon Days record another spin, but while that plays out, why not see what other musical builds have featured on the Brothers Brick down the years?

TBB Asks: do you have a favourite bit of non-LEGO brick LEGO memorabilia? [Feature]

Ever been at a LEGO convention and had to endure the awkwardness of meeting new AFOLs, with no idea of where to start the conversation? I know I sure have. OK, partly that’s because it was in Finland and my Finnish doesn’t go much further than ‘I like your LEGO model’. Still, if you’re looking for an ice-breaker question to get to know your fellow hobbyists a bit better, then take inspiration from our weekly TBB Asks feature! This week, TBB Asks if you have any favourite bits of LEGO memorabilia that aren’t LEGO bricks. Yes, even outside the world of bricks there is loads of LEGO swag to be had, some of it quite rare!

Let’s see if any of our staff have anything special in their collection – or indeed, if our readers do. Let us know if you’ve got some cool collectibles in the comments!

Continue reading →

From liminal LEGO spaces to fruity robot friends

In this house, we are big Pan Noda fans. And speaking of houses – normally, that’s precisely the kind of thing we’d be featuring from one of the best liminal LEGO space creators. But of late, Pan has been experimenting with other types of MOC, and we’re equally enthralled. We’ve got a couple of yellow mechs to feast our eyes on here, the first being the Banana-Automaton. There’s some clever parts use going on here: a yellow life-ring atop the head, chain-link treads to add some heft (and nice texture) to its limbs.

Those treads appear in its bigger sibling, too. This is the Pinea-Automaton, which looks designed to carry a pilot. Despite their differences, the common design language makes it clear that these are from the same family of automata. A scout and a heavy, perhaps? Presumably those blade weapons aren’t for preparing a fruit salad…

Rainbow squadron, standing by!

It’s getting harder and harder to keep track of the squadron colours in Star Wars. First it was just Red and Gold, then Green came along in Return of the Jedi, Blue appeared – and disappeared – in Rogue One… And that’s before we even get to LEGO-specific ones like Teal Squadron. Let’s just get them all out of the way at once, shall we? Over on Instagram, Mark (lego_coffee) has brought together as many colours as he can to craft some miniature monochrome x-wings. And by LEGO’s official colours naming scheme, we have Mid-Stone Gray Squadron, Flame Yellowish Orange Squadron, Reddish Brown Squadron, Bright Purple Squadron… The only criticism I can make is that such names don’t exactly roll off the tongue!

Iced brickaccino for, uh, Jeff Vader?

Here’s a fun bit of AFOL lore for you, readers. One of my very first interactions with the online LEGO community – and indeed YouTube – was a brick-film of Suzy Eddie Izzard’s famous Death Star Canteen sketch. (It’s still online to this day, and having looked at the upload date I now feel terribly old.) I have to wonder if that might have formed the inspiration for Kelly Bartlett‘s fantastic Death Star cafeteria! It’s part of a collaborative display at this week’s Bricks Cascade event in Portland, OR: the Death Star Village. As the name suggests, it’s all the Death Star amenities we never got to see in the films. And Kelly has shown she has a knack for brand marketing… I mean come on, Death Starbucks?! It’s almost meant to be!

The barista droid has taken your order – why not take a look around while you wait?

1,941-piece LEGO City Tower brings together the best of LEGO City [News]

LEGO City covers a lot of bases. Fire service? Check. Police force? Absolutely. Construction? Naturally. Space? As of last year, big-time! But that’s a lot of different sets to buy if you want a taste of everything. Fortunately, LEGO has you covered with an enormous tower of City. And it’s called, well, 60473 The City Tower! 1,941 pieces make up a skate ramp, construction site, metro, and even a spaceship launch pad. If you’ve seen the LEGO City: No Limits TV show, you’ll likely recognise some of the seven minifigures included too. This one-stop City shop will hit shelves this June 1 with a retail price of US $209.99 | CAN $TBD | UK £179.99.

Continue reading →

Cello, is it me you’re looking for?

Yes, yes, I know this is probably a double bass rather than a cello. But I couldn’t come up with a bass-based pun for the title, so you’ll just have to bear with it. Besides, we should be focussing on this terrific LEGO musician as built by Mattia Carredu. The cello/double bass/contrabass/whatever it is is very well-sculpted – the wands for tuning pegs are a great touch. So, too, is its player, looking resplendent in blue. There are some great techniques at play here as well. Her dress includes an upturned cupcake tin, and the hat is a terrific arrangement of droid arms around a wheel. Individually, they’re great builds – but put together, they are the very picture of elegance!