Who wouldn’t want a tiny clockwork LEGO tripod to set scuttling across their desk? I know I would. Whilst this delightful piece of steampunk whimsy by Sad Brick might not be able to actually move, it certainly looks like it’s about to lurch into jerky motion. Aside from the classy mechanical greebles stuffed within its transparent carapace, it’s a relatively simple model, but the jaunty posing and the compelling composition invest this creation with a whole heap of character.
Here’s an impressive LEGO rendition of an epic film location — Edoras, the capital city of the Riders of Rohan in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic The Lord of the Rings. Patrick B. has faithfully recreated the film’s vision of the town — a hill, studded with wooden buildings, surrounded by a palisade, and capped by King Théoden’s hall. The wooden fencing around the town is excellent, particularly the towers — brilliant detailing for such small-scale building. And don’t miss the dark brown robot arms clutching Harry Potter wand parts — they make for surprisingly effective windblown trees.
Here’s a more detailed look at the great hall on top of the hill — Meduseld, seat of the Kings of Rohan. The close-up view allows you to fully appreciate the rockwork and the clever choice of different textured bricks which goes into the microscale detailing of the buildings…
Triangular shapes are never the easiest structures to put together in LEGO creations, so it’s always refreshing to see a fancy tri-wing spaceship design. LegOH!‘s latest model is a cool little Space Police creation — which looks just about perfect for chasing down any ships in breach of close-orbit speed limits. The bubble canopy is great, but it’s the way the lower wings curve around it, and the tall vertical fin which make this model really pop.
The spaceship doesn’t look too shabby from the rear either. The single thruster is simple but effective, and those red fuel tanks are a lovely touch…
If you will insist on picking flowers on alien worlds, at the very least you should check they’re not the offspring of some larger carnivorous plant. That’s Paddy Bricksplitter‘s advice — as depicted in this great little scene. An unsuspecting pink-clad astronaut skips through an excellent alien landscape, seemingly oblivious to the floral horror her pruning has awakened. The giant flower beastie is a cracker — all spikes and teeth and sinister tongue-stamen thing. I love the use of balloon panels as petals, and the ring of teeth at the top is nicely done. The purple rocks add a wonderful splash of otherworldly colour to the backdrop.
Developing a shortlist of the finest LEGO creations of 2018 was difficult enough, but narrowing it down to a single “best creation” proved even harder! However, after much debate amongst the team, the Brothers Brick is delighted to announce the Jakku Star Destroyer collaborative build by Eli Willsea and Grant Davis as our LEGO Creation of the Year for 2018.
Click to see the winning creation
Each day the team here at The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO models from the global community of LEGO builders. Their creations inspire, excite, and amuse us every day. But each year there are a handful of builders who take things to new heights — displaying their skills across a range of building styles, and amazing us with their parts usage and building techniques.
The Brothers Brick is delighted to name Chi Hsin Wei (AKA LEGO 7) as our LEGO Builder of the Year 2018.
LEGO 7 has had an incredible year, in both quantity and quality of LEGO creations. Across a range of styles and subjects, he’s showcased excellent building skills. We’ve loved seeing the different models he’s built during 2018, and we hope you’ll enjoy this retrospective look at his last twelve months…
Click to see some of LEGO 7’s models from 2018
The theft of an Imperial AT-Hauler spacecraft forms a key part of the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story. The AT-Hauler is an interesting design, with rotating lift-arms the key feature, designed to carry and deploy the Empire’s fearsome AT-AT Walkers. skeptical.bricks spent six months designing and building a screen-accurate LEGO model of the ship, and the end result is a beauty. The large-scale model perfectly captures the shape of the spacecraft, and whilst it’s very grey, the somewhat drab colour scheme is faithful to the source material, and the mix of plate and tile cladding certainly recreates the feel of armour plating.
Click through to see more pictures of this impressive Star Wars creation
What’s Benny the Spaceman so pleased about? Maybe the arrival of the brilliant 70841 Benny’s Space Squad set? Or, just as likely, he’s absolutely stoked at the cool space speeder captainsmog has built for him. This is Classic Space building at its best — a spot-on colour scheme, a depth of greebly detailing, and a huge sense of fun. The ranks of angled clips along the sides at the front are a smart choice, their textured sections provide a touch of tiny detail which make this look more realistic. (Or at least as realistic as anything can be in outer space where helmets don’t need visors!)
The blocky Brickheadz building style meets classic Japanese anime in this cubist LEGO rendition of San from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke. Immediately recognisable to fans of the movie, Nathan DeCastro‘s model captures all the essential elements of the famous character. Those streaks of red makeup are perfect, tapering to a point thanks to the use of curved 1×1 tiles, and the white fur headdress and the necklace are excellent. Now all this needs is a giant wolf built to the appropriate scale!
For over a decade The Brothers Brick has been highlighting the best LEGO creations, and this year has been a cracker with builders across the world putting together some amazing models. To celebrate a year of great building, The Brothers Brick team has looked back over everything we’ve featured, and here’s our selection of the finest LEGO creations of 2018.
Have a look at the fantastic models we’ve shortlisted, and stay tuned for the announcement of our LEGO Creation of the Year 2018 on New Year’s Eve!
And don’t forget to check out the winners of LEGO Creation of the Year 2017 and LEGO Creation of the Year 2016 to see what honourable company this year’s nominations enjoy.
Click to see all of this year’s nominees
Although JRR Tolkien primarily created his Middle-Earth fantasy world as a place for his invented languages to exist, his populating of that world with an array of fantastical creatures was a key element in the enduring appeal of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings. Aaron Newman brings us fantastic microscale LEGO models depicting the movie versions of 3 of Tolkien’s most famous “big beasts” — the Balrog, the Nazgul’s Fell Beast, and an armoured Mumakil.
The Balrog looks great, with it’s flaming whip and broad wingspan. I particularly like how Aaron has captured the creature’s distinctive face in a tight selection of pieces. The Mumakil is brilliant, poised to stomp and tusk-sweep its way through a swathe of eensy-weensy Rohirrim. But the highlight of the show has to be Nazgul on his Fell Beast. A clever parts selection has managed to produce a sinuous and reptilian effect, perfectly capturing how the movie trilogy Fell Beasts seemed to slither through the air. Now we need appropriately scaled microscale backdrops for all 3 models — come on Aaron, get to work.
How do you make Super Mario Brothers even better? Recreate its stars in LEGO bricks. Build Better Bricks has done exactly that. First up, Mario faces off against Bowser, with both characters put together brilliantly. Mario looks smart in his trademark dungarees, and appears eminently poseable thanks to the use of Mixel ball-and-socket joints. Bowser kind of steals the show here though (making a change from stealing the Princess), with a perfectly sculpted form. The face in particular is excellent — I can almost hear his throaty chuckle.
And Mario’s little brother shouldn’t feel left out of the fun. Here he is, looking petrified as usual. However, at least he has his trusty Poltergust vacuum-backpack to deal with any persistent spectres. Don’t worry Luigi — there is nothing to fear but fear itself…
