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.

New LEGO Lord of the Rings sets out + free shipping & Jor-El minifig [News]

Russell Crowe was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon promoting Man of Steel a couple nights ago, and Jimmy brought out some of the recent Jor-El toys depicting Russell Crowe in the movie role. Russell Crowe said that his son’s favorite toy in the whole world is the LEGO minifig, and he’s very happy to have a minifig version of his dad now.

Of course, the Jor-El minifig doesn’t actually come in any sets, but you can get it for free. The LEGO Shop’s June promotion is a free Jor-El minifig for orders over $75 or £50. LEGO is also introducing free shipping “every day” on all orders over $75/£50.

But first, all of the summer 2013 LEGO Lord of the Rings sets are out on both the LEGO Shop website and Amazon.com (links below go to Amazon, where buying anything goes to support TBB; scroll to the bottom of the post if you want to get them from the LEGO Shop, with the Jor-El minifig).

79006 The Council of Elrond includes Elrond, Arwen, Frodo, and Gimli, with 243 pieces for $30.

79007 Battle at the Black Gate includes Aragorn, Gandalf the White (previously only available as Gandalf the Grey), the Mouth of Sauron, two orcs, an eagle, and 656 pieces for $60.

The big set from this batch of new LEGO Lord of the Rings sets is LEGO LOTR 79008 Pirate Ship Ambush with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, the King of the Dead, two Dead Men of Dunharrow, a Corsair pirate, and two orcs. For $100, you get 756 pieces.

Finally, LEGO LOTR 79005 The Wizard Battle includes Gandalf the Grey and Saruman for $13 — a nice little set for two such major characters.

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UPDATE: Presumably to make room for all the new Lord of the Rings sets (in their enormous warehouses, ha!), Amazon.com has discounted a number of sets from The Hobbit as well:

20% off 79003 An Unexpected Gathering (My review: Best. LEGO set. OF ALL TIIIMMMEEE!!!)
24% off 79010 The Goblin King Battle (Josh’s review)
22% off 9473 The Mines of Moria
13% off 9474 The Battle of Helm’s Deep

(Watch to make sure you’re not getting ripped off when the prices change, or when the sales start going to third party sellers on the same page, for a much higher price.)

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With apologies for the visual repetition and a reminder that clicking through from TBB goes to support the site, here are the Jor-El links:

LEGO Shop link for US readers:

LEGO Shop link for Canadian readers:

LEGO Shop link for UK readers:

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

1957 Ford Taunus 17M P2 deLuxe by mijasper

Most of the LEGO models by Michael Jasper (mijasper) that we’ve featured here over the years have highlighted minifigs with perfectly scaled tools, furniture, and other brick-built accessories — every one featuring Michael’s brilliant parts usage (far and above merely “nice“). It’s still wonderful to see Michael build something a bit bigger, if only just. This model of a 1957 Ford Taunus certainly doesn’t suffer from immensity, but Michael still manages to pack it full of detail.

The black-and-white color scheme on the car contrasts beautifully with the elderly minifig Michael has included for scale. Of course, no model he builds would be free of NPU — note the brackets in the wheel well and tan windows as seat backs inside the car.

Ronald Vallenduuk’s BR 55 locomotive is a black beauty

I am a stickler for scale models and I love comparison pictures between the model and a photograph or a line drawing of the real thing. It will come as no surprise then that the beautiful BR 55 steam locomotive by Ronald Vallenduuk (Duq) caught my attention.

The comparison shows that the proportions are spot on. I also had the fortune of seeing this black beauty and its many details with my own two eyes at a Lowlug meeting last weekend. Since photographing a black model is not easy, the details are a bit more difficult to see in photographs, but I can recommend looking at the flickr set. The locomotive is powered by a Power Functions L-motor carefully hidden in the firebox, with a battery box and IR receiver in the tender. The locomotive is 8 studs wide, which may be bigger than many LEGO train lovers like, but it can navigate normal LEGO train curves without any difficulty.

As an interesting side-note, the connecting rods are custom pieces made by Benn Coifman from Railbricks. The surface finish of the parts suggest that they were 3D-printed, as they are not completely smooth, but the fit is impressive.

Massive Lego model of the Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect

Ben Caukins spent the past 7 months constructing the Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect, proving yet again that he’s not afraid to build large curved ships. The ship measures almost 4 feet long with a wingspan of 19 inches. It will be displayed at Brickworld this weekend in Chicago. You can check out work-in-progress pictures on Flickr.

LEGOberry 3.141592635

Many years (a decade?) ago a LEGO computer case did the rounds of the internet[1]. Sadly I can’t find any pictures of it, but I can assure you that Jim Devona’s (anoved) LEGO Rasberry pi case is at least 100 times smaller. And if you want one yourself, Jim has kindly put up instructions for it.

[1] There have been many since, but this particular one was the first I was aware of that found widespread fame on the internet. It was not pretty :)

Don’t be the bunny.

Don’t be the bunny
Don’t be the stew
Don’t be the dinner
You have better things to do

The poem and the…build?…are brought to you by iElkie.

A big thanks to my fellow Brothers and you the audience, it has been a pleasure to once again be your weekend DJ. We now return you to your regularly scheduled TBB programming.

Three, two, one, GO!

This Lego rendition of the classic Super Smash Brothers by Daniel Church brings me back to my middle school days when I played this game. The stage of Peach’s Castle is instantly recognizable and features miniland-scale Nintendo characters by Nick Jensen and Casey McCoy.

Red White and Blue Spaceships

I don’t always go in for renderings of LEGO models, as I often find them lacking compared to real photographs of brick-built creations, but these renders by the fantastically-named Awesome O’saurus are terrific. Over the past few months, he’s been slowly churning out some lovely microscale spaceships in the hard sci-fi vein. Here are his latest two, the Sumerset, a patrol ship, and the larger Kettler, a colony ship.

The LCC Final-4

The boys over at LCC (Lands of Classic Castle) are trying to separate the wheat from the chaff as voting is in full-swing for their 4th Global Challenge. The contest is down to the final 4, some of which may seem familiar to constant readers of TBB.

Lands of Classic Castle is a MOC-based fantasy world called Roawia which is populated by the members of the Classic Castle forums. The world is broken up into four factions: Garheim in the arctic north, Lenfald in the forests of the northwest, Loreos in the central desert and grasslands, and the Outlaws who are scattered throughout the land, but are more concentrated in the southern mountains and swamps.

Each participant creates a character who will represent them in the game. This character can be anyone; a merchant, a power-hungry baron, or a simple farmer. Once you’ve decided on your in-game persona, you can build MOCs that help to tell his/her story. You can also build MOCs that will help increase your status in the kingdom as well as your faction’s standing. This occurs through various contests, challenges, guild builds and free builds.

Apart from the fat envelope full of cash, the reason I’m excited about pimping this enterprise is because the boys over at Classic Castle (Mark of Falworth and AK Brickster) have managed to inspire and motivate over 160 people to sign up for the LCC project, many of whom were long-time lurkers on the CC forums before being lured out of the shadows to join in the fun. I think that kind of effort should be rewarded. If you’re a member of Classic Castle, it’s time to vote!

...and what about the Batman?

I was on the fence for a while about whether or not to blog the latest effort from Helsinki, Finland’s Cpt. Brick. When I first looked at the thumbnail in a group-pool, the giant spooky Scarecrow-face drew me in for a closer look. Upon closer inspection, the rest of the model didn’t seem complex enough and the fingers of the Scarecrow in particular (above the hypodermic needles) seemed a little rough for the lofty quality expectations here at TBB. Over the course of the weekend a funny thing happened, the model started to grow on me and I went back for a second and third look. The final thing that tipped me over was the sheer number of ‘favorites’ and the volume of enthusiastic comments.

I’m blathering on about myself here because our selection process must seem a mystery to many of our readers, and I don’t have anything particularly clever to say about this diorama. Its spooky.

Les hommes du village et la femme en rouge

Mesdames et Messieurs, la brique du frère est fier de présenter deux excellents vignettes par Sofiane SAMLAL samsofy L’un est fabuleusement heureux, et on est peut-être le contraire.

La première scène est le célèbre groupe de disco américaine des années 1970 qui a comporté des stéréotypes culturels américains, ainsi que des mélodies accrocheuses et des paroles suggestives. Dans la recherche de cet article, je suis surpised de constater que le groupe était-il la création d’un compositeur français.

La deuxième scène est beaucoup plus grave, depicitng Ceyda Sungur, comme elle est comblé avec du gaz lacrymogène dans le parc Gezi comme elle est venue de son bureau de l’université à proximité de défendre parc de pelles.

To all our French and French-speaking Canadian readers, please excuse my rusty attempts at your language. High School was a long time ago…

Action at Hangar 51

Brian Williams delivers a stunning rendition of the warehouse scene from Indiana Jones. It took me a while to realize there were mirrors used to create the illusion of depth, for the actual diorama is much smaller. If you spend more time taking a closer look, you might find some good laughs in the crate labels.