Posts by Theo Spencer

AT-AT Driver becomes latest entry in LEGO Star Wars’ helmets line [News]

LEGO launched the Helmet Collection as part of their Star Wars line some five years ago, and many of the early sets depicted Imperial designs. Since then, we’ve seen Mandalorians, clones, bounty hunters and Rebel Alliance pilots. Now, we’re coming full circle to the Empire again: 75429 AT-AT Driver has today been announced as the latest entry into the Star Wars Helmet Collection. The massive four-legged walkers they drove undoubtedly left an impression when they appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, and from this March 1st you can add the AT-AT Driver helmet to your collection. With 730 pieces, it will retail for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £69.99.

Click here to see more pictures of the AT-AT Driver!

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New LEGO Restaurants of the World line debuts with 10362 French Café [News]

LEGO is no stranger to depicting buildings from around the world, as evidenced by the long-standing Architecture line, among other things. But today, a new LEGO Icons set is unveiled that adds culinary flair to architectural extravagance. 10362 French Café depicts a coffee shop that you might find on a typical street corner in France. The set also features the subtitle “Restaurants of the World”, so we can speculate that it may form part of a new sub-theme of the Icons brand. With 1,101 pieces, 10362 French Café is set to hit shelves this coming March 1st, 2025 with an RRP of US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99.

Check out more pictures after the jump!

LEGO Creator 3-in-1 set Cute Bunny, I choose you! [Instructions]

We really like LEGO’s Creator 3-in-1 sets; our archives are full of glowing set reviews for this theme. But did you know that, once upon a time, Creator sets featured instructions for as many as 8 or 9 individual models? Flickr-based builder Jan Willem has invoked the spirit of these heady, more-than-3-in-1 days by creating a fourth build for the 31162 Cute Bunny set. In case you don’t recognise it, this is Rowlet, the grass (and, if you ask me, best) starter from the 7th generation of Pokémon games. It sure is cute! Jan has done a great job of recreating its rotund shape, especially considering he only used about three-quarters of the pieces!

If you fancy building your own Rowlet, Jan has made the instructions available for free download over on Rebrickable. But we’re still missing Litten and Poplio… Who fancies having a go at making alt-builds for those two?

Bringing the LEGO Endurance to life: an interview with photographer Benedek Lampert [Feature]

If you ask us, one of the prettiest sets to come out last year was LEGO Icons 10335 The Endurance. But we’re not the only ones to think that! Benedek Lampert is a toy photographer with a particular affinity for LEGO. In fact, as well as conducting official photoshoots, he even appeared on the LEGO Masters TV show! But when he came across the brick-built model of Ernest Shackleton’s famous ship, his next photography project immediately became clear. And the results are stunning, fully immersing us in the Antarctic and bringing new life to this exceptional set.

But how did he go about photographing it? How did expedition snapper Frank Hurley’s famous pictures help inspire him? And how did he get involved in photography in the first place? Well, you can watch a short video below on Benedek’s setup – but we also had a chance to quiz him about this latest project! Be sure to click the link below to see more photos, behind-the-scenes, and read our interview with him!

Step this way to read our interview with Benedek!

Latest LEGO Ideas set 21354 Twilight: The Cullen House unveiled [News]

The next set in the LEGO Ideas line of fan-submitted creations has been unveiled today, and it’s one for movie and book fans alike! Based on the popular Twilight saga, 21354 Twilight: The Cullen House depicts the abode of protagonist and vampire Edward Cullen. Fan designer Nick Micheels’ original submission was one of the quickest ever to reach the required 10,000 votes, doing so in just 48 hours. Having been turned into an official LEGO set, it now consists of 2,001 pieces and counts Edward Cullen and Bella Swan among its 7 minifigures. General release is on February 4, but you can pre-order it right now for US $219.99 | CAN $279.99 | UK £189.99.

More pictures and LEGO’s press release are right here!

A beautiful bird and a praise-worthy pun

As much as we like coming up with witty comments about the LEGO builds we feature on TBB, sometimes, the original title says it all. A tip of the hat to Mike Sinclair, who has conjured up a superb ornithological pun to go with this creation: “No Egrets.” But even referring to it just as a great blue heron – which bird this depicts – would have been accurate enough. It’s immediately recognisable as a heron, the blue plumage is wonderfully textured, and it does indeed look great! Impressively, the heron’s full weight is balanced on just one leg and a reed towards the back. Together the reeds, water, and a hidden dragonfly elevate this build from a brilliant bird to a terrific tableau of nature. Bravo, Mike!

Hardsuits: the only hobby more expensive than LEGO

Some sci-fi builds would have us believe that future militaries are full of mechanized robots mass-produced by corporations. And looking at LEGO builder Devid VII‘s grey hardsuit here, you might be forgiven for thinking that’s where this machine comes from. But the forced-perspective backdrop and accessories in the foreground tell an altogether different story. This is no military production line! It’s just a hands-on young man tinkering away in his workshop. He just happens to build hardsuits in his spare time. Think Big Hero 6, but… Er, less cuddly.

And you will know us (this LEGO build) by the trail of dust

Take it from me: there are few things as epic in life as seeing a rally car going full pelt over a jump. Mike Sinclair has added a LEGO freeze-frame to the gallery of big sends! Mike says he studied a variety of rallies to come up with the layout, and I’m reminded of the famous Fafe jump at Rally de Portugal. And as jumps go, that’s probably the best of the lot! The highlight of the scene is the trail of dust that this particular car is leaving in its wake, but the details are just as realistic. The banner across the apex of the jump, the many cameras ready to capture the moment, and the distance markers for those crews looking for bragging rights. In fact, the only thing missing is… Er, the co-driver?! That’s some drive if it’s all been done without pacenotes!

A terrifying tree (and a lesson in awful alliteration)

Its name might not be as catchy as Whomping Willow, but you still won’t want to get too close to talented Ukrainian LEGO builder Illia Zubashev (AKA Dwalin Forkbeard)’s “Mysterious Shrub”. Just ask the two soldiers in this scene! One is being dragged under by the tree’s roots, and I fear the other may not last much longer. Perhaps that’s why it hasn’t earned a catchy name – no-one lives long enough after meeting its gaze to give it one. Thankfully, Illia’s diorama is built at a safe distance, so we can ponder the question ourselves. The Swallowing Spruce? The Odious Oak? The Brutalising Birch? I would find out what type of tree it is, but I’m not about to ask it to find out…

Heating up a LEGO House with the help of hardy Harald

Up here in the northern hemisphere, we’re properly in the depths of winter now, and this LEGO build from Jaka Kupina is here to remind us of the fact that it’s cold outside. Or is it? Certainly we’re in colder climes here: all that nicely clumped snow is a dead giveaway. But this is a house built for such weather, with a touch of Germanic or Scandinavian flair to last the winter. Its owner (that would be Harald) looks well-prepped, too – all that luscious black hair is sure to keep some heat in. Not that he might need it! He’s busy chopping firewood to warm up all those wintry nights. And that in itself will be enough to warm him up!

The Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2024 [News]

Last week, we introduced our shortlist of 10 creations that were in the running to earn a coveted title: that of our favourite LEGO creation of the year. Narrowing it down to that list was hard enough – there is so much talent in the LEGO community! Over the past week, we’ve had the unenviable task of picking out a winner. In our round-up of the TBB readers’ (hey! That’s you!) favourite LEGO moments of 2024, we were struck by how many people had listed conventions as their highlight of the year. After all, that is the best place for community – and to see jaw-dropping builds in person. Our winner this year is one such build, one that made a real impression on us both in the brick and online. It’s epic in size and scale, being made up of nearly 7,000 pieces. It’s wonderfully sculpted, with an entirely brick-built inner frame. And all that in an incredibly limited colour palette: gold!

And after all, it is the year of the dragon. Donny Chen‘s Golden Dragon is The Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2024!

Read what else impressed us about Donny’s dragon!

The Brothers Brick LEGO Builder of the Year 2024 [News]

That weird period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve is coming to an end. Normally a stretch where time seems to disappear, here at TBB Towers we’ve used the intervening week to whittle down our LEGO Builder of the Year shortlist. Making that list was a heck of a job in and of itself! But while everyone was pitching their nominees, and we had our discussions, there was one name that kept on cropping up. A builder who demonstrated creative flair, made clever use of unusual parts, and did so to an exceptionally high standard. Most impressive of all, it was all done with remarkable consistency – we wrote about their creations a whopping 19 times across the year.

That builder, and The Brothers Brick LEGO Builder of the Year 2024, is Maxx Davidson!

Here are some of our favourites among Maxx’s many highlights…