Category Archives: Feature

The Brothers Brick is not just about showcasing the best fan builds and bringing you the latest LEGO News, we also love to investigate, interview and discuss! These featured articles are all interesting articles that you can look back and enjoy reading.

May the 4th – TBB’s Top Ten LEGO X-Wing MOCs [Feature]

In celebration of May the 4th, we’ve scoured our ~~Jedi~~ archives to appreciate the hundreds of Star Wars fan models featured on this site over the years. On the cusp of our 20th anniversary, those archives run deep. (You heard that right. If the Battle of Yavin was happening right now, The Brothers Brick would have been founded right around the time Senator Palpatine was kidnapped by General Grievous!) There is one Star Wars vehicle that has been recreated and shared by adult fans of LEGO more than any other – the X-Wing Fighter. Just as each Jedi must construct their own lightsaber, creating an original X-Wing design is almost like a rite of passage for builders. Here are 10 of our favorite designs from builders who regular readers of the site will definitely recognize. We even have free instructions for the model featured in the cover.

Cut the chatter, Red two. Let’s see those X-Wings!

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Brothers Brick picks – Our favorite sets for May the Fourth

May the 4th has exploded (like Yavin 4) into the second biggest shopping event of the year for LEGO fans with a dozen new sets and a multi-day event offering perks like double Insider points, set discounts, and exclusive gifts with purchase. This year’s LEGO Star Wars 40765 Kamino Training Facility (free with LEGO Star Wars purchases totalling US $160 | CAN $210 | UK £145) will be a big draw for many fans thanks to three exclusive Clone Cadet minifigures. We’ve scoured the sale and selected our ten favorite Star Wars sets that are available now.

See our top ten Star Wars sets for celebrating May the Fourth

Alternative builds, Iron Builders, and international buildings in this Week in Bricks! [Feature]

This week LEGO news is a blur with all the summer set announcements, but there are a lot of other great stories by and for LEGO builders to seek out. Thankfully, ABrickDreamer has gathered them into the latest This Week in Bricks. My favorite feature this week? In honor of May the Fourth, I have to go with this incredible Bespin diorama from Hypolite Bricks! I also found Jesse Gros’ story of rediscovering LEGO to be relatable and inspiring. What is your highlight of the week?

Spreading joy and crossing cultures with LEGO legend Dicken Liu [Interview]

TBB: Your LEGO creations first came to our attention after your appearance on LEGO Masters China, when you started a Flickr gallery. From the start, you were building at a very high level. I’m sure there was a long journey between when you first discovered LEGO to where you are today. When did you first discover LEGO?

Dicken Liu: Lego hasn’t been in the Chinese market for very long, and the price was a big reason why it wasn’t a toy for the average person when they first appeared in China. I first saw Lego in a shopping mall in the 90s. But it was more than a decade later that I actually bought my first Lego set.

TBB: How did you discover that LEGO was more than just a toy? When did you become “serious” about making your own creations?

DL: It was probably from 2016 that I started to try my hand at making small pieces. (Before that my interests were more focused on models, drones, and film.) I started to look around for information and learn techniques to enrich my MOC knowledge, but at that time the actual LEGO MOC pieces I saw were quite limited. Here are a few pieces I’ve kept. They’re pretty rough to look at now, but it was really the start of my MOC journey.

Our interview with Dicken Liu continues

Killer Gaming minifigs from Bloodborne, Assassin’s Creed, and beyond [Minifig Monday]

LEGO and video games are overlapping more and more, with partnerships with big players like Fortnite, Minecraft, Mario Kart, and even Horizon taking up a growing share of LEGO releases. Of course, no amount of official sets can keep up with all the games being released on PC and consoles. Fortunately, there are plenty of amazing builders making custom versions of game characters we love.

Kamil Karpiński is a builder we’ve spotlighted several times for his bolstered figs that integrate brick anatomy with minifig heads. For this tribute to From Software’s cult classic Bloodborne, the builder sticks with classic minifig parts and perfectly captures the Victorian horror aesthetic of the game. The rubber band wrapped around the sawtooth blade and the extra buckles on the arm really sell it.

beyondb0nes also found inspiration in Bloodborne with this minifig take on Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower.

Free play enabled. No need to insert another coin to continue!

This Week in LEGO Bricks: From Asgard to Isengard [Feature]

While scouring the LEGO world for essential creations and news for this week’s video, ABrickDreamer noticed a pattern – lots of builds inspired by transportation, from cyberpunk trucks to majestic camels. He also rounds up the latest models in the Rogue Olympics competition from many of our favorite builders. And if you’ve ever wondered what a 36,000 piece model of Isengard would look like, that’s here too. It’s another amazing week in LEGO bricks!

Let’s roll up some advanced Dungeons and Dragons LEGO characters [Minifig Monday]

Last year LEGO released a minifigure I never would have expected in a thousand years – a mindflayer paired with an intellect devourer. Dungeons and Dragons turned out to be the perfect license to deliver fantasy and medieval accessories to an underserved audience. While it’s uncertain if LEGO will release any other D&D sets in the future, the creative minifig building community isn’t slowing down in rolling up new charcters. Let’s have a look at some recent highlights!

What started as a group of friends and actors livestreaming their D&D campaigns became a media empire for Critical Role, culminating in the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina. Fantasy minifig artisan Thorgrihm pays tribute to the show with his take on the cast.

ASortaOkayBuilder was also inspired by D&D in other media and made a minifig tribute to the Not Another D&D Podcast. This Steel Hawk Fighter is called Zudrick of the Murder and is equipped with an oversized anime sword for over-the-top stabbing.

Roll for initiative and venture onward for more D&D minifig designs

This Week in LEGO Bricks – The (almost) no Star Wars Edition! [Feature]

Imperial March is in the rear view mirror and May the Fourth is a couple weeks out, so amid new LEGO announcements and reviews, let’s enjoy seventeen minutes of amazing builds that are 99% free of droids or Wookies! (There’s always one). As always, our friend ABrickDreamer curates the essential builder stories in one must-watch video. My favorite link of the week has to be Jonas Kramm’s Flower Pot Pals over at New Elementary. What a thrill to see TBB’s own Kimberly Giffen’s latest epic work in the spotlight (look for an extended feature on this build soon!)

Comic book characters bound from the page in bricks [Minifig Monday]

Ever since Spider-Man appeared in minifig form as part of the LEGO Studios line, superheroes have been a staple of the toymaker’s catalog, in official sets and collectible minifig series, with minifig spins on iconic characters even getting their own films and video games. LEGO has released some pretty deep-cut heroes (especially those controversial Comic-Con exclusives), but no amount of official sets can keep up with all the characters that have ever appeared in print. This week we’ll take a look at some creative spins on comic characters from the big two of DC and Marvel and beyond.

Our first character is The Batman Who Laughs, the evil universe jokerfied version of Bruce Wayne, courtesy of piotrbricks. Piotr first shared this a few years back, but it remains one of the sickest superhero designs using all official parts that I’ve ever seen. The cartoony grin of Joker from The LEGO Batman Movie is so eerie coming from the Dark Knight’s cowl, especially with rubber bands covering the eyes.

Now for something completely different, Polish builder ponuryy pays tribute to stars of bandes dessinées Asterix and Obelisk on their trip to Egypt. Their druid friend Getafix incorporates newer elements for the head, but his vintage legs seem inspired by this take from OG AFOL Michael Jasper.

Read on for more custom comic book minifigs

This Week in LEGO Bricks: The Catbus/Dark Knight Returns

Nothing that happens in the LEGO building scene gets past our friend ABrickDreamer! Once again he’s here with a round-up of the week’s essential LEGO stories. A few highlights: Star Wars fans will appreciate this TIE Fighter technique breakdown from Tips&Bricks, seeing Middle Earth’s Edoras come together will tide you over after building the Shire, and of course lots of Studio Ghibli builds!

Gayle Spiller’s enchanting LEGO box dioramas [Interview]

Gayle Spiller turns whimsical ideas into inspiring LEGO models packed with detail. Her builds, like the Butterfly Collector, are so dense with imaginative use of parts, you can get lost in them. In 2023, Gayle joined the exclusive group of builders to be featured at the LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery. In recent months, Gayle has been playing with a new, cozier build format – one that, like minifig habitats, could inspire builders looking to make their own MOCs from their favorite pieces who might be intimidated by larger constructions. We checked in with Gayle to talk about her latest series and life with LEGO since her invitation to Billund.

TBB: First of all, congratulations on being chosen as one of the latest builders invited to display your creations at the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO House. What was it like to learn that your works would be displayed in Billund? What was it like meeting the other amazing builders and the LEGO team? Has anything changed in your relationship with LEGO building since your works were spotlighted?

Gayle: Thank you. Being asked to exhibit at the Lego Masterpiece Gallery 2023/24 was a complete surprise and I definitely had imposter syndrome. It was a fantastic experience and I loved meeting the other builders who I had admired online for so long. It was interesting to learn about their building methods, how for instance Zach produces some of his spectacular pieces in only 3 hours. That was a revelation and definitely inspired me to scale down and create something that would take a weekend to finish rather than some of my larger projects which have taken months.

Click to see more of Gayle’s immersive box dioramas

Dark Side? Light Side? Take a walk on the Wild Side of Star Wars [Minifig Monday]

Star Wars canon is packed with bizarre aliens and over-the-top villains, but sometimes the franchise plays it a little too safe. For today’s Minifig Monday we’re highlighting original Star Wars characters that take risks, push boundaries, or even get a bit silly. Which in a universe with characters like Elan Sleazebagano and Therm Scissorpunch is saying something!

Our first set of characters comes from Tylar, whose Islamic astronomy tower wowed us last year. Tylar re-imagines the Geonosians from Attack of the Clones as masters of pre-historic Earth, armed with bronze age weaponry and even taming dinosaur mounts. Killmonger‘s mask from Black Panther fits perfectly with the aesthetic of this remixed faction. Minifigs aside, Tylar poses his characters on some truly epic brick-built sand dunes.

Sticking to the prequel era, here we see Padme and General Grievous in fine fantasy form courtesy of Expansion Bricks. I’m getting strong Ray Harryhausen vibes here with the living skeleton and Padme’s swashbuckling accessories. Grievous’ large golden sword is an impressive little sub-build on its own.

Read on for more weird and wonderful sustom Star Wars minifigs