About Rod

Rod likes building stuff, particularly steampunk and microscale. He's built for a number of the Dorling Kindersley LEGO books, including LEGO Play and the Awesome Ideas book. When he's not building, he writes, and has published a trilogy of old-fashioned adventure stories. To pay the bills he works in innovation and marketing for one of the world's biggest brewers, inventing new beers and ciders. This is clearly the best job in the world.

Posts by Rod

Democracy requires a nation of participants

“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone else how to vote, let alone people who live in a different country to me. However, to any external observer (and to most of the Americans I’ve spoken to) the current Presidential election campaign has been singularly depressing in its negative tone. And that’s what prompted me to build this model.

Here’s hoping whoever wins out in tomorrow’s vote will at least attempt to heal some of the divisions that have opened up. Whatever happens, if you don’t vote, you can’t complain.

LEGO Builders Of America — from our worldwide team of contributors to our friends in the USA — put your bricks down for a little while tomorrow and go exercise your franchise.

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.

LEGO Tow Truck gets an upgrade

What’s not to love about a big American tow truck? EROL‘s latest vehicle is a beefy behemoth of a truck, inspired by the official LEGO Tow Truck set 60056. The shift to “7-studs-wide” rather than the “6-wide” standard gives the builder plenty of space to play with, adding smart detailing and shapes whilst preserving the interesting color scheme of the original set.

I really enjoy when builders take on this sort of challenge. Getting the balance right is tricky — using your fan building tricks and wide brick collection, but not straying so far from the source material that it becomes unrecognisable. The air horns on the cab roof, the addition of chrome exhausts, the functional-looking chunkiness of the tow bar itself — this is a great reimagination of a set.

Winging it

David Roberts mashes together two great LEGO building styles in his latest spaceship. GARC (Galactic Asteroid Racing Circuit) and the Vic Viper standard collide here to eyecatching effect. Whilst the twin cockpits are smart, for me this model is all about those stunning wings. This is surely another example of a LEGO spaceship influenced by Chris Foss.

Every space habitat needs an Augmented Robotic Companion

Rob has been putting together a great little series of LEGO robots, each with a different designation and function. The building techniques are good, with some smart connections and solid color choices, but it’s the presentation of the models which really sets these creations apart — detailed technical spec sheets accompany shots of the bots in action.

Click to see more of the A.R.C. Bot

It’s all about the cake

Milan Sekiz has mixed up all the ingredients required for a perfect little bakery. This scene is packed with detail for such a tight footprint, and the color choices represent a refreshing change from a lot of City building.

Cakes are obviously the main reason to visit any bakery, and Milan’s display counter doesn’t disappoint. Check out the tempting selection on show (and don’t miss the detail of the ventilation slits in the refrigeration units under the counter — nice).

And then through in the back-of-house, Milan has made great use of “brick bricks” and kitchen unit pieces to create a smart prep area. I particularly like the unbaked croissants sitting to the left. However, unless there’s another oven lurking off-scene somewhere, I’m not convinced this store has quite the baking capacity it requires — the visible oven provision seems somewhat lacking. But kitchen efficiency concerns aside, this is a wonderful little model.

Delivering the goods

This food service delivery truck from Chris Maddison is a cracking LEGO creation. The stripped-back color scheme leaves room for the details to steal the show — particularly the lovely touch of a red rubber band as the brake line connection between truck and trailer. White is always a tricky color to use for the main body of a model, swallowing up detail and allowing people to miss all your efforts at capturing accurate shaping, not to mention it can be a pig to photograph. However, there’s no such problems here, this is a great model to look at — although I must admit I’d much rather vroom it around my desk than just look at it!

Classic Space 2.0?

Don Wilson asks an interesting question… What would LEGO Space look like if it happened today? There are a bunch of new colors and parts available since the Classic Space heyday and Don puts some of them to effective use in his latest spaceship design.

The shift from Classic Space’s regular blue to dark blue immediately creates a more serious feel. The classic inspiration is clear, but there’s a definite evolution towards a more dangerous and slightly sinister look. As for the build itself, I particularly like the “greeble sandwich” design of the front prongs — a nice layer of complex detail held between the plates of the hull. The shaping on those swept-back wings is excellent, and the use of the hexagonal stud shooters as engine exhausts is magic…

As regular readers will spot, this craft has twin prongs at the front, a pair of wings, and a central cockpit and tail. That can only mean one thing — it’s a Vic Viper, and NoVVember must be just around the corner.

The bar where I met your mother

One of the things I like about TV show How I Met Your Mother is how central McLaren’s Bar is to the action. Having run pubs for years, I love to see a good bar depicted well in LEGO. speedyhead doesn’t disappoint here with some excellent attention to detail.

The booths are nicely-built, as are the bar stools, but I particularly like the wonderful clutter on the back bar and the use of printed tiles to represent all the posters and sports memorabilia that bedeck the walls. When you wrap all the detail up with a smart color scheme and smooth tiled look, this would be a great little pub model even it wasn’t so faithful to the TV show.

Here comes the Maschinen Krieger parade

It’s that time of year again, when MaKtoberfest brings a parade of LEGO creations inspired by the distinctive near-future aesthetic of Maschinen Krieger sci-fi. The curved organic style of MaK is difficult to pull off in bricks, but this biped walker by Pico van Grootveld properly hits the mark.

This has all the requisite curves and awkward angles for a good MaK creation, and I love the little touches like the stickered plates at ankle and thigh. But what makes the model for me is the addition of the smiley face — exactly what you’d imagine the walker’s pilot adding in a moment of bleak humour. The presentation is excellent too, depicting this creation as a scale model kit (a format which provides much of the inspiration for MaK builders).

Neglected farm makes for a smart LEGO model

This autumnal ranch scene will cause conflicting emotions. On one hand, you should love it because it’s beautifully built — Heikki Mattila has done a great job on the battered homestead, the tree, and the outlying structures like the well and pigsty. However, the muted color scheme and air of neglect and decay create a real sense of foreboding. LEGO creations are generally bright and cheery, the gloominess of this one makes for a strangely refreshing change.

Although the builder makes no mention of any zombie apocalypse, I can’t shake the feeling that the shambling undead are about to appear and chase the poor old dude off his porch.

Does my head look fat in this hairband?

Here comes delayice with a smart bit of character building. The face is just brilliant — packed full of expression, and the hair is well done, particularly the hairband and bow. But this is one of those LEGO models that is less about the details as the overall design. The head is spot-on for this kind of build — clearly too big for the body, creating immediate comedy value and injecting a real dose of personality. I can just imagine this little minx loudly demanding extra dessert.

Fee Fi Fo Fum! I smell the blood of a LEGO man

Jacob Nion‘s latest creation is an impressive fantasy diorama depicting a fearsome giant coming down from the mountains — no doubt to bring chaos and terror to a peaceful Crownie settlement.

Whilst the scenery is well done, the giant himself is the obvious star of this show. The figure is packed full of nice parts usage — wrapped sails for trousers, minifig hair for his luxurious beard, and then there’s the use of “bigfig” troll arms as, err… arms. My favourite bit of the model? His packed lunch — a live cow. Nothing like a bit of fresh meat.

About Rod

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!