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.

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

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Celebrate the release of A Minecraft Movie by embracing Creative Mode with imaginative LEGO creations [Feature]

Today sees the release of A Minecraft Movie, the unlikely yet inevitable next step for the world’s best-selling video game. Will it make waves like The LEGO Movie did back in 2014? Critically, reviews suggest no, but we’ll see after this weekend what generations raised with these digital building blocks think. Outside of the cinema, perhaps the strangest Minecraft partnership has been with LEGO. In most regards, Minecraft succeeds at blending play and building in a digital space better than any LEGO game has to date, and early in the product’s life, LEGO was in talks to partner with Mojang for a “Brickcraft” take on the experience.

Even though a partnership or buyout on digital worlds never came to fruition, LEGO has been enjoying over a decade of success with toy kits based on the Minecraft IP and aesthetic, like the recent tribute LEGO Minecraft 21265 Workbench. The theme is a best-seller with younger builders but there are many adult fans who enjoy expanding on the theme with original creations or incorporating the unique elements into their sets. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite Minecraft builds!

Builder Syrdarian has found magic in the isometric angles of Minecraft’s voxel world. Titled “No Mistakes, Just Happy Accidents,” this scene looks as tranquil as a Bob Ross painting until you look closely at the glowing light source. Oops! Someone got too close to the lava. I love the verticality of this build and the cutaway terrain that makes it feel like a part of a much bigger world.

Grab a pick and dig deeper for more Minecraft inspired builds

This Week in LEGO Bricks: Building with character! [Feature]

As March rolls into April, several LEGO events come to an end and reputable sites like this one roll out dubious news. With so many amazing builds and stories in the AFOL world, we’re grateful that ABrickDreamer is here to round up the highlights in one place. This Week in Bricks captures highlights from events like Marchitecture and the Rogue Olympics, as well as April Fools, but it was character builds that took the spotlight. From a mind-numbingly good Nien Nunb to the latest Eero Okkonen diva, builders created some striking and memorable characters this week.

Marchikoma 2025 – celebrating the latest and greatest LEGO “think tank” mechs [Feature]

March is becoming a packed month in the LEGO building community – Marchitecture, Imperial March, and our old favorite Marchikoma when builders make “think tanks” inspired by the mecha of the classic anime Ghost in the Shell. A think tank is a sentient mech characterized by 4 (or sometimes more) legs with feet or rollers, a pair of manipulator arms, and sensor “eyes,” that skitters about like a high-tech militarized spider or crab. Each year builders find ways to add a fresh spin to the iconic design. Let’s bring on the Marchikoma mecha of 2025!

We start with this Blue Planet Attacker by LEGO set designer Wes Talbott. Inspiration came from Wes playing with the latest smooth nougat parts in his collection, which paired with red-orange evoked the classic Life on Mars LEGO theme. Bright yellowish green and dark azure highlights make for a distinct color scheme. But it’s those manipulator arms and big eyes that ooze personality. Wes paired the mech with a patch of incredible space terrain where the military mech makes peaceful first contact.

Fellow LEGO designer Chris Perron also skates in with this beautiful Ice Planet mech, the Snow Scuttler. Chris took inspiration from the CMF Ice Planet fig for the design specifics, like the curves and sensor eye. Aside from the iconic trans neon orange elements from the classic theme, Chris incorporates X-Pod lid and Fabuland windows to create maximum curves with minimal seams.

Skitter on down for more think tank goodness

The next LEGO geographic mosaic set revealed: 42025 Map of Greenland [April Fool’s!]

LEGO has offered a sneak peak of their upcoming mosaic set: 42025 Map of Greenland. Following the success of the 31203 World Map mosaic set from 2021, LEGO seeks to launch other geographic map mosaic sets starting with the sovereign nation of Greenland, which is an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. The Map of Greenland set consists of 5422 pieces and measures 53 cm long 74cm high (20.86in x 29.13 in) and will be available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores globally from June 1, 2025, priced at US $149.99 | CAN $249.99 | UK £129.99. There is no word yet as to when this set will be available globally at other retailers but The LEGO Group anticipates that this set will be of particular interest in the American market segment.

LEGO debuts Creator 1-of-3 line with upscaled Classic Space Minifig spread over three sets [April Fool’s!]

Acknowledging that the size and complexity of sets has become overwhelming for many builders, LEGO announced today the Creator 1-of-3 line that promises to let fans build at their own pace. The first wave features a scaled-up Classic Space Minifigure serialized over 3 separate sets. Together the sets contain an intimidating 694 pieces, but don’t sweat it! With the 1-of-3 line, the model is split into more manageable stand-alone kits with modest piece counts designed to lower anxiety. LEGO Creator 1-of-3 40125 Classic Space Torso, the largest of the wave, consists of an up-scaled Minifigure torso containing 274 parts and features the iconic Classic Space logo and posable arms and hands. Set 40126 Classic Space Legs trails its torso counterpart with 231 pieces and features movable legs, while set 40127 Classic Space Head rounds out the trio with 189 pieces, comprising of a blue helmet and the iconic smiling yellow Minifigure face. While it’s possible to collect them all to build a fully posable up-scaled Minifigure that stands 10 inches tall (25.5 cm), there’s no pressure to do so. Each section makes a wonderful display piece on its own. We can expect all these sets to hit store shelves on May 15th. Read on for info and pictures for each specific set.

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These magical minifigs have us under their spell [Minifig Monday]

On Minifig Mondays, we take a break from brick-intensive builds to appreciate the creativity found in the minifig scene. We prioritize characters made with official LEGO elements where the combination of accessories and expressions creates a personality that entrances the viewer. On that note, this week’s theme is magic using minifigs, and this set of characters has us spellbound!

Captain Dark Shark creates a wandering feline sorceress that surely has nine lifetimes of adventures to share. Even though the head draws from the Wizarding World (a polyjuice-ified Hermione), this fig gives big anime or cozy game vibes.

ASortaOkayBuilder also brings a Potterverse cat to the table for this apprentice illusionist. The poor wizard strains under the load of too much study material!

Abracadabra amor oo na na, the magical minfigs continue after the jump!

Building trees with minifig antlers, Pt. 2: Branching out with Forestmen [Feature]

The last few years have been bountiful for fans of LEGO flora with new elements and recolors vastly expanding the range of plastic plant life. Maybe it’s nostalgia for the oak trees I grew up with on the Central Coast of California, or maybe it’s my love of noodling with the smallest of LEGO elements, but the plant piece I’ve been most excited about lately is the minifig antlers in green, which recently showed up on some pick-a-brick shops. In the first installment of this feature, I explored ways that this element could be used in microscale trees. For part 2, I’ll explore using the part on minifig scale MOCs. As it was the Forestmen sub-theme that launched my love of LEGO trees, what better place to apply this new part than on one of their iconic hideouts?

To jump-start the process, I’ve agreed to help my Forestmen friends remodel the Forest Hideout GWP. The set is itself a remake of the smallest Forestmen tree set, all of which feature a brick-built tree with a thick black trunk and stubby limbs reminiscent of an ancient English Oak (Perhaps one like this). The re-imagined set incorporates curved elements for the branches but sticks with the classic leaf elements, to match the style in the Lion Knights’ Castle. There’s something undeniably pleasing about the bendy trees next to rigid stone walls, but for my remake, I wanted to bring things a little closer to the look of an old oak. But first… we’re going to need a lot more leaves! 100 minifig antlers was barely enough for a micro-scale forest grove. By chance, a group of Black Falcons had just left Ye Olde Pick-a-Brick with a wagon full of antlers that my Forestmen friends were all too happy to liberate.

Grab a bow and join me and the Forestmen for a grand tree adventure

This Week in LEGO Bricks: Galactic Empire state of mind [Feature]

That’s no moon. It’s another Star Wars creation in LEGO! We’ve been noticing a lot of Star Wars builds lately, and so has our friend ABrickDreamer in the latest This Week in Bricks. Burned out on the Galactic Empire? How about a video on building the LEGO Roman Empire? There are a lot of great builds and articles covered this week, but my favorite has to be the Baoli of the Lotuses from akidandabrick. Thanks as always to ABrickDreamer for making it easy to catch the week’s highlights in one handy video.

Android freedom fighters lead the charge in a new weekly feature [Minifig Monday]

The Brothers Brick started as a minfig-focused site, so with our 20th anniversary fast approaching, it’s high time we bring back the celebration of custom minifigure creations. A lot has changed in the minifig scene since TBB founder Andrew shared his first fig. Collectible Minifigure lines and ever-expanding licenses have exploded the range of minifig elements and accessories, and social media has led to more channels to share creations and get inspired by the community. Minifig Mondays is a new feature where we choose a theme and showcase recent creations from the custom Minifig community. This week’s theme is Androids – humanoid robots.

Our first figs are a collaboration between Red Impala and Bambus Bricks Customs. These three are members of Onyx Talon, a faction of freedom-fighting androids in a post-apocalyptic future. Ferret the infiltrator, Hare the scout, and Beetle the reconnaissance drone provide intel and overwatch for the team. I love the digitigrade leg designs, especially Hare’s with the hotdog feet. In case you’re wondering where Hare’s eerie face is from, it’s from Star Wars: Solo character Enfys Nest.

Read on for more amazing custom minifigs and microbuilds

Bringing the magnificent mechs of Lancer to the tabletop in LEGO [Feature]

Lancer is a tabletop RPG about piloting mechs that focuses on human-scale stories in a distant future. Builder Dane Erland has given the distinctive mechs the LEGO treatment with a mix of scales and factions to capture the deep lore of the gaming sourcebook. First up is the IPS-Northstar “Tortuga.” Dane does a fine job capturing the hyper-dense armor of the source, with excellent color blocking to break up the dark grey tiles. The Technic pin shotgun shells on the ground are a nice touch.

The IPS-N “Blackbeard” is a Berserker-type melee unit. I love the contrast of the spindly limbs and a massive two-handed sword. Dane has an innovative solution for the nimble fingers, using minfigure hand to add an extra joint. Battle Droid heads look great on the mech’s feet.

Read on for more amazing mech models from the Lancer world

This Week in LEGO Bricks – March miniature madness [Feature]

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another roundup of notable MOCs and must-see stories from the LEGO community courtesy of our friend ABrickDreamer. This week’s biggest trend is thinking small – amazing microscale builds connected to the Marchitecture competition, and the first rounds of the Rogue Olympics with its strict 101 piece count. Also featured are some fabulous brick-built food, BrickLink Designer Program series 7 analysis, and a deep dive into the tricky new suspension mount element in the latest wave of F1 cars.