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.

This general store is an admirable build

Builder Andrew Tate has a knack for capturing bygone eras in brick form. His latest creation is an early 20th-century building housing a first-floor general store with apartments above. The structure is assembled in various shades of brown, with a few pops of muted greens in both the architecture and the well-manicured plant life, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere that has us wondering if there are any vacancies.

The interior is just as charming with goods and sundries to meet all your household needs. Inside, as out, Andrew’s build feels of a kind to official LEGO modulars, while smoothing away nearly every stud.

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Dominique Boeynaems joins LEGO as set designer – This is Fine!

Usually, the “This is Fine” dog gets dropped when things aren’t going well, but for the builder of this scene, Dominique Boeynaems, things are actually very fine indeed. Spectacular, even! This September, Dominique joins the LEGO Group as a set designer, joining Jiwoo Seon as a member of the AFOL community making the jump to creating the sets that we will all be building in years to come.

Dominique’s builds continually impress us with the ingenious parts usage, the wide range of themes and scales that the builder works with, and a joyful approach to building. Earlier this year, we watched with rapt admiration as Dominique earned Iron Builder status, winning the Iron Forge competition. His entries into the Rogue Olympics (Like the meme here) have been equally delightful.

Dominique shares the news:

I’m incredibly excited to share that starting this September, I will be a Product Designer for LEGO!

While I’ve not been part of the online LEGO community for very long, I have spent most my life with and around LEGO, and this is quite literally a dream come true. This has been something I have wanted to do and have been steadily working towards, since the very day I realised that there was someone at the other end, actually creating all these sets I’ve spent my entire youth playing with.

I’m so excited for this next step in my journey with the LEGO group, that started with a simple yet rewarding retail job in our local LEGO store, and I can’t wait to see a set that i design on the shelves, some years(?) in the future, and to help inspire a new generation of kids, as so many of us were once inspired.

Congratulations, Dominique, and may all your days as a designer be fine.

MOCs of the LEGO Masters: Summers siblings get on the LEGO Masters diet

Ian Summers is a wizard transforming LEGO elements into tiny objects that barely look like bricks at all. His miniature food is especially magical, like this sushi tray with translucent tuna wrapped gently in skirts of rice and rubber-wrapped maki aligned ever so neatly. Ian made these micro meals a couple of years back, and now a steady diet of LEGO ingenuity has landed the bricktacular builder and his sister Sage a spot on LEGO Masters season 5.

Is sushi not to your taste? Ian has you covered with this amazing diner food that looks a whole lot more wholesome than what they’re selling over at Krusty Burger.

We can’t wait to see what the Summers siblings cook up on the new season!

This is part of our series on MOCs of the Masters where we preview the work of the newest batch of LEGO Master contestants. Have a look at creations from other builders in the lineup.

MOCs of the Masters: Bringing Bionicle Back

LEGO Masters contestants come from a broad mix of backgrounds, but one corner of the LEGO world that doesn’t get much of a spotlight these days is Bionicle fandom. Alex Bailey is a builder whose preferred elements hail from Mata Nui and who brings in influences from anime and skate culture to his large-scale characters. Like Tachayah, “he who gives life,” an original character inspired by Inuyasha. Finn’s face looks impressive with a Bionicle mask becoming white cornrows. Alex is joined by his brother Tone, a multi-media artist and musician. I’m excited to see what creativity they’ll bring to the LEGO table!

This is part of our series on MOCs of the Masters where we preview the work of the newest batch of LEGO Master contestants. Have a look at creations from other builders in the lineup.

MOCs of the LEGO Masters: Medieval farm brings buckets of charm

Maia (mbbricks) is one busy builder! She and her father are making their LEGO Masters debut next week, representing Canada in the US edition of the show. She’s also prepping an epic elven village for next month’s Brickworld Chicago that sends Rivendell-style architecture into the mountains. But the build I’m most excited by is this medieval farm, with a slick half-timbered top atop a rocky foundation.

Maia says this is her first time using the SNOT (studs not on top) technique for the irregular stonework. It’s always a joy to see builders stretching their wings with new skills. The woven fence technique is always a favorite of mine as it’s a technique still used to this day in some farms near where I live in Sweden.

Good luck on LEGO Masters, Maia and Jamie (BricksDad)!

This is part of our series on MOCs of the Masters where we preview the work of the newest batch of LEGO Master contestants. Have a look at creations from other builders in the lineup.

Iced brickaccino for, uh, Jeff Vader?

Here’s a fun bit of AFOL lore for you, readers. One of my very first interactions with the online LEGO community – and indeed YouTube – was a brick-film of Suzy Eddie Izzard’s famous Death Star Canteen sketch. (It’s still online to this day, and having looked at the upload date I now feel terribly old.) I have to wonder if that might have formed the inspiration for Kelly Bartlett‘s fantastic Death Star cafeteria! It’s part of a collaborative display at this week’s Bricks Cascade event in Portland, OR: the Death Star Village. As the name suggests, it’s all the Death Star amenities we never got to see in the films. And Kelly has shown she has a knack for brand marketing… I mean come on, Death Starbucks?! It’s almost meant to be!

The barista droid has taken your order – why not take a look around while you wait?

Self-Portrait of LEGO’s next designer: Jiwoo Seon

Jiwoo Seon’s stunning modulars, like this gilded opera house, put her in LEGO Ideas 10k club three-times over. LEGO House is currently displaying her builds in the Masterpiece Gallery. In Seoul, her ornate framed floral works earned her a gallery show. But starting this August, Jiwoo’s building is taking her to someplace most builders only dream of – a seat in Billund as a set designer. Jiwoo’s models are consistently ornate, finding classical beauty in constrained colors. It will be fascinating to see how her distinctive style will translate into future sets. As she begins the next phase of her life’s journey, the artist shares this brick-built self-portrait.

And here’s the artist in her own words:

A fleeting moment never stays.
A candle burns and disappears, its flame vanishing too quickly.
But I believe—when I respond with instinct, the moment doesn’t vanish.
It remains, as light.
⠀
This piece is not a portrait of who I was, nor who I hoped to be.
⠀
It is the moment, the gaze that answered it, and the essence that sustained me, and the instinct unfolding through motion upon it—all brought together as a self-portrait shaped through my present gesture.
⠀
On the left, the candlestick and scattered matches represent the fleeting moment—a sharp, vivid instant that called for instinctive response.
⠀
At the center, a lavishly adorned frame holds my self-portrait blooming like blossoms.
It captures the gaze and emotions that responded to each moment, and the me who longed to bloom in the now.
⠀
To the right stands a solitary pillar—a symbol of the inner essence that has long sustained me.
Atop it, a ballerina spins in a quiet pirouette.
She is the embodiment of my present self,
built upon that essence.
Her movement is the convergence of instinct and gaze—a graceful expression of transformation, and the form of my will made visible.
⠀
Now, I stand—facing the moment, the look, and the instinct within me—shaped into one self-portrait.

M.E.R.P.-ing around all the M.E.R.P. long day

If you recall the Smurfs cartoon, they used “Smurf” as a noun and a verb and it was pretty much a replacement for any word you wanted it to be. For example: I smurfed my way onto the dance floor, I’ve been smurfing the internet for an hour now and go smurf yourself. I’m pretty sure LEGO builder Thomas Harding just invented a new noun and verb-M.E.R.P., which stands for- well, you can read if for yourself in the photo. It’s short, rugged, reliable and capable of traversing all kinds of terrain. I just want to M.E.R.P. around all day with those two adorable little space people. Maybe we can be M.E.R.P. pals, listen to cool M.E.R.P-ing music and leave a steaming pile of M.E.R.P. on the boss’ desk. Have I taken this pun too far? Sorry, I’ll just M.E.R.P. myself out, then.

Cello, is it me you’re looking for?

Yes, yes, I know this is probably a double bass rather than a cello. But I couldn’t come up with a bass-based pun for the title, so you’ll just have to bear with it. Besides, we should be focussing on this terrific LEGO musician as built by Mattia Carredu. The cello/double bass/contrabass/whatever it is is very well-sculpted – the wands for tuning pegs are a great touch. So, too, is its player, looking resplendent in blue. There are some great techniques at play here as well. Her dress includes an upturned cupcake tin, and the hat is a terrific arrangement of droid arms around a wheel. Individually, they’re great builds – but put together, they are the very picture of elegance!

The Second-Best Restaurant at the End of the Universe

If the Restaurant at the End of the Universe is fully booked, don’t sweat it- You can always find a welcoming booth at Milo’s Diner. This intergalactic waystation, built in LEGO by Terra Ender, is built on the remains of an irradiated asteroid that definitely isn’t hiding any secrets beneath the spacedust crust. No, at Milo’s you’re always welcomed with a smile, whether you’re Space Police, hard-working M-Tron miner, or totally-above-board Blacktron accountant. They even serve droids!

T.E. is previewing this impressive installation before displaying it at Brickworld Chicago next month. For those who won’t be warping into the Windy City, we have all the details here. Order up!

Grab a booth at Milo’s, where the soup of the day is always the soup du jour

Paranoid android disappears completely into exit music

AI “doomers” worry about the devastating impact artificial superintelligence could have on humanity, but what if the real doom is the crushing sadness felt by the machines? Builder Kat calls this LEGO creation the e-motion engine, and just going by those eyes (created from the negative space in a Bionicle Phantoka torso), this little guy could be the slightly more adjusted sibling of Marvin the Android. Kat draws on a wild mix of parts, from a Vidyo strap for the headphones to inverted tire knees to a stylish Scala jacket. Kat doesn’t post often, but each of her builds is a treat, especially her entries into the 2023 BioCup (like this incredible Cyberpunk scene). Which reminds me, the competition is returning soon!

Extermin8 with extreme prejudice

You see just one of these buggers crawling across your kitchen counter and you know there are hundreds more in hiding. Who can relate? That was my college dorm room experience. It was a bummer because I’m pretty sure I signed up to have only one roommate, not hundreds getting into all my stuff. Thankfully LEGO phenom Dicken Liu comes to the rescue with a can of insecticide. The dead roach, with it’s broken leg and fishing rod antennae, is a clever touch. It serves as a reminder that getting on top of a roach infestation can be icky business. Cockroaches don’t even seem to appreciate alternative rock, although I specifically stated on my roommate application that alt rock was my jam.