Category Archives: Models

This is what we’re all about. We scour the web for the best custom LEGO models to share with you. From castles and spaceships to planes, trains, and automobiles, you’ll find the best LEGO creations from builders all over the world right here on The Brothers Brick.

Red Squadron Standing By

John (J.R. Snotly Builds) has a penchant for Star Wars ship builds, and it shows with this smooth recreation of one of the most iconic ships in Star Wars history. In a world full of white X-Wing builds, it’s refreshing to see a gray X-Wing with proportions that more closely resemble the original ILM miniatures. We’re specifically in love with the brick-build cockpit and the build technique to expertly capture the quad laser cannons.

With this model, John has made it easy to adjust the markings on the wings, nose, and sides of the X-Wing to convert it to Luke’s infamous Red 5. The dismembered hands used for the striping really give it that ‘Luke Skywalker’ feel.

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This LEGO Monkey’s Gone to Heaven

Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, or just plain Monkey, is the most enduring mythological hero in the world, inspiring so many retellings, including LEGO’s own Monkey Kid franchise. Chinese Builder Jin Chen took on the legendary character at the height of his power, armed with the
Ruyi Jingu Bang staff and standing atop a fallen demon. Monkey’s white face markings are based on the traditional depiction seen in Chinese Opera.

Jin’s makes excellent use of the range of elements in pearl gold to sculpt Monkey’s ornate armor, tightly packing every surface with horns and shuriken. The tattered cape is especially dramatic with its mix of rounded tail elements and angular plates.

Take a peek at the making of Monkey after the break

Celebrating Bionicle’s 25th Anniversary with Minifigures

“The tales tell of six great heroes who will come to aid us in our darkest hour. A powerful toa of fire. A wise toa of water. A strong toa of earth. A mighty toa of stone. A courageous toa of air, A brave toa of ice.” Has it really been 25 years since LEGO introduced us to the heroes of Mata Nui?

I created this series of minifigs for a collaboration with @majestyminifigs where we reboot a cancelled LEGO theme with custom minifigures. Of course I chose Bionicle. It took me a hot minute to figure out how I wanted to convert the toa mata into minifigure form, but I overall, I’m proud of the result!

Jacob’s figs and story follows

This purple pod racer is anything but poodoo

Pod racing is back! Last year, we rounded up a slew of new pod racing mocs from AFOLs and LEGO designers, but now a new competitor zooms in courtesy of Kyle Collard, aka Lord of Vador, and this one’s a stunner. (Of course, we wouldn’t expect anything less from Kyle, whose Mustafar moc was one of our favorite builds of 2025.) The engines roar with greeble detail thanks to the larger scale. I didn’t appreciate just how big this build is until I saw the cables connecting the cockpit. This racer is huge! The size also allows for beautiful color blocking and smooth curves in the fins.

Kyle based the design on a piece of concept art from Alexander “Minze” Thümler, but the LEGO version incorporates purple as the primary accent color. As the builder explains: “The color scheme stays dark and aggressive: dark purple, dark blue, and light gray, layered with pearl dark gray and flat silver to give the engines weight and metallic depth. The white accents are decals—kept clean to cut through the darkness.”

Kyle’s racer has me pushing Galactic Racer to the top of my most anticipated game releases:

TIE Striker in flight, afternoon delight

I saw this sweet LEGO TIE /sk X1 Striker by Auto’s Builds and somehow the chorus to a cheesy provocative tune popped into my head, hence the title. Now I’m making it your problem. But now that you’re hearing it too, you have to admit this Coruscant Air Guard checks all the right boxes: Star Wars, cool-ass spaceship, and striking design aesthetics. Auto tells us the TIE Striker is ideal for navigating Coruscant’s dense architecture and crowded skylanes. The Air Guard fitted their variant with precision weapons and under-wing guided missiles to minimize collateral damage. What’s the Earthly equivalent to this? An Apache helicopter maybe? I can’t speak for the Apache’s maneuverability within a city but seeing any of these gunships in your rear view means your days of doing that afternoon delight stuff are numbered.

These WALL-E x LEGO Space remixes are the nostalgia I need right now

WALL-E and LEGO Space will always share a special bond. After all, WALL-E’s lead animator Angus MacLane designed the winning Ideas set that became the first LEGO take on the character. There’s something about the big-eyed robot’s design that lends itself so well to bricks, and not just for screen-accurate interpretations. Curtis D Collins uses the basic WALL-E design as a springboard for a whole army of bots inspired by LEGO’s iconic space themes.

Of course, the series has to start with Classic Space colors. Curtis incorporates signature elements from each era into the WALL-E builds, like this fella’s positioning thrusters.

My favorite of the whole series is the M-Tron WALL-E, which might not incorporate actual magnet pieces, but does upgrade the bot’s hands with magnet-inspired manipulators. The design also incorporates theme-appropriate tires for retro authenticity.

The robot rollcall continues after the fold

LEGO Knights of the Square Table

I’m sure every one of us has an unusual LEGO part that they remember from their childhood. Perhaps it’s some of the original buildable LEGO figures, or something from the barely-LEGO Scala theme. What really activates my nostalgia is these fold-out racetracks from LEGO Racers sets. A racetrack that doubles as a box?! How cool is that! The flip-side of such unusual parts is that they can be difficult to incorporate into MOCs. Such trivialities don’t scare Mattia Careddu, though. Even then, of all the things to turn it into, I never would’ve thought of a rectangular knight!

But wait! It’s not just a knight and its minions. Mattia has stayed true to the unfolding nature of the racetrack, and this knight turns into a base of operations for the smaller ones! Weapons storage, siege lessons, tools and repairs – it’s all here. It harkens back to a different style of toy entirely. It’s even got its own superbly edited TV commercial!

Take a seat! The 2026 Iron Forge heats up

If you follow TBB regularly, you’ve no doubt encountered many articles spotlighting the Iron Builder competition, like our interview last month with the participants in the most recent battle. You might be wondering, how does one get to challenge Iron Builder? One path is to prove your skills in the Iron Forge, a January tradition now in its 7th year. As with the Iron Builder contests, a seed part is chosen that must be used in multiple builds. Only for the Forge, builders only have one week per part before a new seed element is chosen. There is no prize for winning beyond the chance to compete against an Iron Builder, but several Iron Forge champions went on to become LEGO set designers, including Maxx Davidson and last year’s winner Dominique Boeynaems. Glory aside, it’s an amazing showcase of creativity and inspired parts use.

The first round, open to all, just concluded, which featured the minifig chair as the seed part. Here are the to-scoring creations from the 20 builders advancing to the next round.

Grant Davis integrates the seed part in multiple ways into this elegant cafe scene. The obvious spot is for the diner stools that flip the chairs on their back, but chairs are also used for the espresso machine and door panel. The biggest flex of all, however, is the sign which uses LEGO rubber bands and string to form the lettering and lines.

See the top-scoring builds from the other 18 advancing builders below

Nothing beats a good cup of tea... Except maybe a great LEGO build

At the risk of sounding excessively British: there is no problem that can’t be solved over a good cup of tea. My preference is for English Breakfast (strong, milk, two sugars), but that maxim doesn’t need to be restricted to certain types of tea! For Taj: Brick Minstrel‘s slice of Arabian life, chai is the drink of choice. And now we know what the tea is, we need to know what the tea is. (I gather that’s what the kids are calling gossip these days.) Are these three discussing matters of science, or economics, or politics, or philosophy? Or are they discussing more serious matters, such as how far you could walk barefoot on LEGO bricks?i

I Spy a LEGO puzzle, discovered two years too late

Better late than never. But does it depend on how late? Looking at this photo, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s nearly 30 years late – especially if you grew up with the I SPY book series. But in actual fact, we’re only a couple of years late for this one. The photo is not taken by Walter Wick, but by John Reily. We’ve only just come across his series of photos made as on homage to the original Wick and Jean Marzollo books. This is our favourite of the bunch, with its mix of scales and reflections! Can you find everything mentioned in the rhyme?

Making mecha the Mischief way

The aptly-named builder mischiefmecha has a knack for creating playful bots from surprising pieces. After a brief building hiatus, Mischief is back with a pair of fresh mechs with personality and NPU to spare. First up is Gahlok Stiil, looking good in light bright blue plating and grey greebles. Galidor limbs blend with car hoods to make a Transformers-adjacent bot who’s ready for action.

Next comes TOUNG, a bot with a dumpy body who looks like a very good boy with that lolling tongue and three wagging tails. Mischief deploys brilliant parts usage again, especially with those Bionicle masks as knees.

NPU’s better down where it’s wetter, take it from this Tidepool Princess

From jellyfish to deep sea monsters, underwater settings have long been a favorite subject for NPU flexes. LEGO’s recent Tropical Aquarium boasts one of the most colorful and eclectic mix of parts ever found in an official set, but this Tidepool Princess from nu_montag says “Hold my Beerracuda.” Some of the amazingly diverse elements on display – a DUPLO skirt, a Bionicle Barraki headpiece, and, most impressively, a gaggle of legs from a McDonald’s Galidor Happy Meal toy.

More Galidor and Bionicle elements are visible on the back side of the moc. These weird and organic-looking elements feel alien and out of place in today’s LEGO lineup of parts, so it’s always a treat to see them integrated into modern builds.