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.

Rosetta comet encounter recreated in LEGO

After over 10 years in flight, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta space probe today arrived at it’s target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. And builder Stefan Schindler decided to commemorate the event by recreating it in LEGO! Not only did he do a splendid job on the probe, he even managed to capture the bizarre shape of the comet as well.

Stefan has entered his creation in the ESA’s official #RosettaAreWeThereYet photo contest. So LEGO fans should head over there and VOTE FOR IT NOW! (Entries are piling up so you may have to search for it on the second or third page).

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The M:Tron base of our dreams: 4 years and 100,000 LEGO bricks

I remember getting a used M:Tron set as a kid and discovering how awesome magnetism is, and how I wanted to learn where magnets came from. Thanks to Blake Foster and his M:Tron Magnet Factory, I finally know the answer:

Not only has Blake created an inspired M:Tron base and stunning landscaped base, but he’s added a monorail and some really impressive movement which you can see in the following video:

I was able to see this incredible creation this past weekend at BrickFair Virginia, where it took the Best Space trophy (check out the time-lapse setup video). I sat down with Blake to get the details on his layout:

TBB: With all the classic LEGO space themes or even other pop culture references why did you choose M:Tron as a theme for your build?

BF: It’s part nostalgia and part obscurity. I loved M:Tron as a kid, and yet it doesn’t get all that much attention from the AFOL community. Compared to Neo-Blacktron or Neo-Classic-Space, M:Tron is a rarity. That obscurity can be a good thing, though, because there are more opportunities to do something original. I really wanted to make something unique, so M:Tron seemed like a good theme to do it in.

TBB: With something of this size, 4 x 6 baseplates (192 x 128 studs), how long did it take you to build?

BF: I started toying with ideas for this project 4-5 years ago. I was in grad school at the time, though, and didn’t have the budget to complete it. I started working in earnest two years ago. By my best guess, it took about 3,000 hours of building, 462 Bricklink orders and I would estimate 100,00 bricks. Here is an early work in progress image of the build:

Zaldrīzes rises

It’s time for some awesome Bionicle. Behold the great green dragon Zaldrīzes by Mitch (Gamma-Raay). He looks like he’s about to leap up into the air and swoop off with a roar.

I like the rear shot above because it showcases the dragon’s white spine, the Ninjago sails, and the sawtoothed tail so well, but the front view of Zaldrīzes is no less formidable. The light blue fringe on the skull also ties in beautifully with the tip of the dragon’s tail.

While we’re at it, Mitch also proves that you can build a pretty awesome spaceship from Bionicle, too! Annapurna is from last year’s SHIPtember (which I’m sure we’ll be hearing about quite a lot over the next couple of months).

The Real Ankyl Biter

Paul T. goes old-school with this brick-built organic tank. The well-known Ankylosaurus may be an herbivore, but with armor plating and built in weapon in its tail, it’s spoiling for a fight. Paul’s clever creation incorporates the new inverted 2×2 dome brilliantly to comprise the armor plating. This is just the sort of awesome creation we want to see at our ChronCon display at Brickcon, where we even have a category for Fiercest Fighting Dinosaur!

The Habitat in the Sands of Solar System

Microscale and space colonies are a match made in the heavens. Karf Oohlu’s Colony Base Omega may be fighting for life on a foreign world, but it does so with panache. This slick modular sci-fi outpost looks fresh off the mothership and ready to get some terra formed.

Unikitty Celebrates Batman’s 75th

In a city that never sleeps, only one superhero knows how to get things done. That superhero is Unibat! Or is it Battikitty? Well, whatever you call this adorable hybrid by Melanie F., it’s awesome. Built to the same scale as her other giant Unikitty versions (Seasick Unikitty is my favorite), Melanie’s Unikitty army is well poised for Unikitty dominance.

Here, Melanie poses with her original Unikitty for scale.

Did you miss out on ordering an Exo Suit?

Last Thursday night, LEGO.com was so overloaded that many of us weren’t able to get through to order the new LEGO Ideas Exo Suit. My own order got stuck, but the good people at LEGO unstuck it without my even having to call them. Nice!

The experience was memorable enough for Rob D. (agaethon29) that he commemorated it with this little scene.

And in case you missed it, we really are giving away a copy of the set, lightly customized by our own talented Simon (your choice of his custom model or the set’s disassembled parts). Head on over and leave a comment to enter the raffle.

An evening with The Continental

Lino M. remains one of my favorite automobile builders, churning large-scale cars each month as part of LUGNuts challenges. For last month’s challenge, Lino built a Rolls-Royce Phantom II from the 1930s. The clean, elegant lines look like they’re ready to carry a Rockefeller or Carnegie to an evening at the Metropolitan Opera.

The seedier side of Heartlake City

A good indication of a builder’s talent is that he or she attracts the attention of several of our contributors separately. When I first bookmarked this scene by Rickard and Helen, I hadn’t noticed yet that it was the same team that had built the despots and notables (posted by Carter), the South Park characters (posted by Ralph), or one of the top three BRICKNADO winners chosen by all of us.

It’s actually not unusual for a Town layout at a LEGO convention to have a trailer park on the edge (demonstrating that Town builders do, in fact, have a sense of humor), but it’s rare to see such a lovely trailer or range of amusing detail.

Renault Type AG-1 from 1910 – the Taxi de la Marne

Given the horrors of World War I, our last post deserves an adorable chaser from the same era. LegoEng normally builds military models himself, but he took a break to build this 1910 Renault AG-1.

Getting the proportions of minifig-scale vehicles right can be very challenging, and this builder has accomplished it by going with an odd width — the cab is five studs wide and the narrow hood is only one stud wide (with tiles attached for greater width). The whole thing looks held together with clips.

The Great War that should have ended all wars...

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Germany’s declaration of war against France, drawing two of Europe’s largest nations into what would later be known as World War I. The “Great War” introduced numerous new and deadly military technologies, from fighter planes to tanks.

Talented Polish builder Ciamosław Ciamek (PigletCiamek) has built a triptych of highly detailed dioramas depicting three phases of World War I.

The first diorama, titled “Enthusiasm,” shows French citizens volunteering as the patriotic population admires the soldiers marching off to the front in 1914.

The second scene, titled “Awe”, illustrates the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, in which hundreds of thousands of men died.

Finally, Ciamek’s third diorama, titled “Glory”, shows the moment when German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen (the “Red Baron”) was shot down in his famous red tri-plane in 1918.

“We are singing stardust”

Popular culture is filled with many iconic fictional spacecraft, but relatively few factual ones. But to anyone old enough to remember Carl Sagan’s TV series Cosmos, or young enough to have enjoyed its more recent incarnation, the image below will stir up many fond memories!

It is of course a NASA Voyager probe, faithfully recreated in LEGO by Ryan H (eldeem)…

Launched in the 1970’s, NASA’s Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft were actually the first to explore the outer solar system, and the first to carry a message for any aliens that might encounter them. But the later Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes gained much more notoriety, with their more ambitious missions and superior imaging capabilities. Even the “message from Earth” got an upgrade, from a simple plaque, to a recording containing images and sounds from Earth (which you can even see in Ryan’s model above).

Lasting more than a decade, the Voyager missions were much longer than anything the public were used to at that time. Every few years one of the spacecraft would reach its next target, and the world would be caught up in Voyager fever all over again, as amazing images of far-off worlds flooded our screens. Still transmitting to this day, the Voyager probes are among the most distant man-made objects in existence, and are now at the very edge of the solar system, headed for interstellar space.

Ryan’s Voyager is a commission for the University of Colorado, and will be on display at the CU Heritage Center from mid-September. Go check it out!