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

Raise a glass to this LEGO brewery

Rick Bewier has built a fantastic LEGO brewery scene, complete with an old-school dray lorry picking up its next delivery. The truck itself is a nice little model, but what makes the scene for me is the excellent use of color in the building itself, and things like the sliding warehouse doors and the lights.

I work for a brewery “in real life” and so I appreciated the other touches Patrick has added. The roof is obviously pretty cool, but what I particularly liked was the chimney — a spot-on detail for a compelling recreation of a classic redbrick Victorian-era brewery.

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Jungle guardian will probably eat you once you’re dead

Check out this fantastic Jungle Guardian Bionicle creation from Victor. I’m not normally much of a fan of Bionicle — I generally prefer my LEGO in the blockier variety. However, this is the sort of build which challenges my notions of what a “proper” LEGO model is made of. I love the sense of character and menace this bad boy carries alongside that sweet mace…

Mickey Mouse makes a clean sweep

The new Disney collectible figures are getting put to good use all over the LEGO builder community. Take this Fantasia-themed model from simply bricking it, for instance — I challenge you to look at it without starting going “dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dah-da-dum…” under your breath.

There’s some nice building techniques on display in this tiny vignette — the “masonry bricks” used for the sideways-built floor, and the unusual use of technic pieces for the textured wall. But for me, it’s the old-school black castle corner piece, and the choice of an Imperial Guard’s torso for the Mickey minifig which mark this out as a cracking little scene.

High-concept art for a space rover

Shannon Sproule brings us a cute little space rover concept. As usual, the presentation is top-notch, with Shannon’s trademark 50s retro sci-fi style in full effect — lovely curves and color choices giving an “astronaut chic” feel. The use of the “tooth plate” on the cab flanks, along with leaving a bunch of hollow studs visible, builds an impressive sense of texture. Lastly, the addition of two white rubber bands across the cab windows splits up the expanse of black with the sort of thin detailing which is so hard to do on a model this scale. I want to drive one of these beauties all the way across Mars.

Cute cottage for an ugly witch

Ukranian builder flambo14 brings us a lovely little fantasy cottage. I like the wonky towers and the haphazard roofs, and the minifig choice is simply perfect.

The rocky base could maybe do with a little more greenery to break up the gray and tan, but that’s nit-picking at an otherwise great little creation. I want to see more scenes from this fairytale.

Brutal LEGO starfighter punches through space

We like a good starfighter, and here’s an absolute belter of a model from F@bz. The brutal and unusual shaping catches the eye, but look closely and you’ll also see some great details — a sweet double cockpit, functional-looking greebling and textures, and restrained-yet-effective use of color.

The “hero shot” with the planet backdrop is smart, but check out the rear view for close-up action on all those lovely engine details…

Where ill minifigs go to get better

If you’ve been feeling a little under-the-weather, this hospital room model by BrickBuilder7622 is bound to cheer you up. The bed and the other hospital furniture are all spot-on, and I’m enjoying the little touches like the angled TV mounted on the wall. But the best bit of this creation is that IV drip — a clever combination of bottle and welding equipment pieces which somehow ends up looking perfect.

Retro Dalek is set to EXSTEAMINATE!

Letranger Absurde is no stranger to the pages of The Brothers Brick. We regularly feature his models (including this recent LEGO Exorcist creation). Here he is again, with a brilliant steampunk Dalek…

This has some lovely angles and detailing, immediately recognisable as a Dalek, but with just enough steamy retro-scifi goodness to mark it out as something different. I also like the raked-back angle it’s got — like some sort of Victorian/Alien hotrod. Nice work.

(Post title stolen shamelessly from Karf Oohlu’s comment on the photo on Flickr)

Beautiful blue and white convertible

Caleb Flutur says he’s not normally a car builder. Well, he should consider it more often because his rendition of a 1956 Nash Metropolitan convertible is just beautiful. The color scheme is eye-catching and attractive, but it’s the smooth lines and the touches of chrome around the grille and bumpers which really make this build pop. That chrome stripe down the side is just magic, and “purist” too — cut from the leftovers of an official LEGO sticker sheet.

This is one of those cracking models which looks just as good from the back. Check out the way the spare tyre is set into the bodywork — lovely stuff.

This build was a present for Caleb’s dad. I hope he liked it as much as I do.

Retro LEGO workspace makes us nostalgic for floppy disks

Chris McVeigh proves once again that he’s the master of technology nostalgia with this perfect recreation of an 80s/early-90s workspace.

The desk and chair are nice work, but it’s the details on the desktop which make this brilliant — the phone, the lamp, the stapler, the computer itself, all good. But best of all? The floppy disk storage box — a long-departed office fixture which remains immediately identifiable.

And of course, everyone who works with technology deserves to get the occasional upgrade…

Brick-built shrunken head will give you the creeps

We feature a lot of cute and fun stuff here on The Brothers Brick, but it’s not often we showcase a LEGO model which is genuinely creepy. This fabulous shrunken head creation by AnActionFigure sent a shiver up my spine when I saw it for the first time.

There’s some complicated brickwork going on to create the facial features here, and the use of rubber bands as stitching around the mouth adds a nice touch of the macabre. All-in-all a disquieting little build, and an (un)pleasant change from cuter LEGO creations.

LEGO statue feels a little exposed

Jonas has built a funny scene featuring a statue that’s clearly not enjoying feeling exposed.

The statue itself is a cracking build, making good use of Mixel joint pieces to enable great posing. But I’m also a fan of the terrain and the added visual interest provided by the inclusion of the farmer and his cart.