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.

A long time ago, in a toy aisle not so far away…

Maximillian Bricks has triggered my nostalgia in a big way with these recreations of the Kenner Star Wars Mini-rigs. A little backstory, for those of you unfamiliar with the Mini-rigs: Star Wars was famously a merchandising juggernaut from the very beginning. But, once upon a time, before the internet and on-demand movies – heck, even before wide-spread physical media for your home – people buying up Star Wars merchandise weren’t obsessed with screen accuracy. It was enough that the toys just looked vaguely like something that might have been on screen. The toy company Kenner needed to fill the shelves with certain price points, and so they developed a line of smaller vehicles that never appeared in the movies.

These vehicles, being smaller and more affordable, filled toy boxes nationwide. And, for some of us, they’re key to our nostalgia of playing Star Wars at the time, even though they never appeared in the media. Maximillian’s brilliant recreations take me back to the days of burying Luke Skywalker in my sandbox, back when I didn’t worry about the fact that his lightsaber accessory was yellow and when WalrusMan was the most dangerous villain in the galaxy (because I didn’t have a Darth Vader figure).

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Neo-Classic Space is so old-hat

Classic Space has had a well-established revival among AFOLs in the form of Neo-Classic Space. Recently though, another vintage LEGO space theme has been having its own revival – Ice Planet 2002. Dale Harris has come up with an excellent idea for the story behind this resurrection! Rather than referring to it as Ice Planet 2022 (too obvious), he has coined the term Ice Planet Badlands. It’s described as a ‘post-apocalyptic Ice Planet’, which sounds frankly awesome. This Surefoot TR3 rover is part of this proposed future, with the classic blue, white and neon orange colours paired with some more utilitarian rusty metal. Perhaps the intrepid minifigure explorers got stranded on the Ice Planet, and have had to use their increasingly out-dated vehicles to try and find a way home. I cannot wait to see more!

A lavender dream over turquoise waters

Ralf Langer is a master when it comes to making bulky LEGO creations. He also is very capable of making builds look very delicate and fragile. In this creation it is almost baffling to me that he manages to make this massive tower look light and airy. The hexagon shaped towers are created by sticking hot dogs into 1×1 round plates with holes. Ralf’s builds always look quite part intensive so my guess is that these two towers actually weigh quite a lot. Yet he still managed to make it look like they are just floating in mid air. The window in the middle part of the build looks quite interesting and Ralf himself is quite fond of it, so I hope he ventures further into that style of architecture because I am most curious what he’ll come up with.

The pagoda and the dragon tree

Sometimes little details get lost on big LEGO models. This is not the case for Marius Herrmann’s latest LEGO creation. This one is big! At least 50 bricks high not counting the antenna. We are looking at a model loosely inspired by ‘The Legend of Anchin and Kiyohime’. I am not at all familiar with the story so I’ll just take Marius’ word that it is about unrequited love. After being rejected one of the characters transforms into a dragon to trap the other in a temple. This is beautifully translated to this build where we can see a tree with lavender foliage violently wrap itself around a Pagoda. I love how subtle yet evident the dragon shape is hidden in the tree. If you focus on the temple you’ll lose the dragon. But if you focus on the tree the dragon is most definitely there.

You don’t need a massive base to fight the Empire

It can be hard to capture the majesty of some of the larger Star Wars locations at a scale that matches LEGO’s own sets. We have seen a few variations on the Masasi temple on Yavin IV at minifigure scale, but they all only feature a small section of the enormous rebel base. Anders Horvath has found the solution: downsize! This tiny temple appears to have been scaled around an X-wing polybag. In fact, make that several X-wing polybags! The benefit of microscale is that creating a rebel fleet is much less parts-intensive. The temple detail doesn’t suffer at this small scale though. There’s still plenty of texture in the ruins, as well as the paraphernalia that comes with running a rag-tag organization of misfits in the fight against evil.

I’m no botanist, but I know a pretty build when I see one

He might be better known as a Star Wars builder, but I’ve really been enjoying Amado Canlas Pinlac‘s floral builds of late. The quality is super consistent and super high – they’ve even been exhibited at the LEGO House in Billund! The latest addition to the garden is this Amazon Exotic Flora. I’ve no idea if this is an accurate representation of the real thing, or if it is even a real plant at all! All I know is, it’s beautiful, and I would love one on my mantelpiece…

A car repair shop that has all the right parts

While this section of downtown by EMazingbrix has definitely seen better days, it certainly can’t have seen better LEGO part usage! I’m absolutely in love with the front door of that apartment building, utilizing a 1×1 bracket for a hinge plate, and a white rubber band to frame the window. The steps leading down from the door are fantastic, as are all the textures on the buildings walls and roof. And the blotches of moss along the sidewalk and structures provide an excellent run-down feel. But my favorite bit of this build has got to be the roof of the repair shop, with its latticed slopes poking out the top. The shop sports a clean finish compared to its neighbor thanks to some superb use of sloped bricks laid on their sides.

A crusade to distant worlds

While knights in armour might often be associated with big grey castles, they did venture much further east in the (often ill-fated) crusades. Andreas Lenander has applied this scenario to LEGO’s own Black Falcon knights. Despite the sun and those hot-looking outfits, they look quite content to be living here! To be fair, it’s much more colourful than their typical monochrome abodes. This style of architecture does require some different techniques than you might expect in typical castles. I’m drawn to the domed roofs on the two larger buildings, each made using half a planet — specifically, I believe it’s Endor and Bespin. Talk about an out-of-this-world idea!

A teeny-tiny Typhoon airstrike

LEGO builder Greyson proves you don’t need a metric crap-ton of bricks to build something neat. Here’s an adorable RAF Typhoon built from seemingly just over twenty parts. We salute you, Grayson!

Miniature motorbikes in multiples

Some LEGO builders make spaceships, and some construct castles. RGB900 makes motorcycles, and a lot of them. To be sure, there are a few other excellent builds among their oeuvre, but the bulk of it is motorcycles, and they’re darn good ones at about as close to minifigure scale as it’s possible to get. Let’s take a look at a few, ranging from the classic to the futuristic.

When building at this scale, every piece is at a premium and must be carefully selected to fit the finished result, as there are very few hidden structural elements. Everything from minifigure hands to robot arms and binoculars is transformed into motorbike machinery.

And let’s not overlook the beautiful presentation, without which I likely would have skipped right past these tiny bikes. The low angle enlarges their size, making them feel much larger than the 3-4 inches that they are.

It’s like a window into my paunchy, balding soul

Felix Jaensch has used about 14,500 LEGO pieces to build this rather unflattering fellow and now I wonder if he has caught a glimpse of me checking the mail. Paunchy, check. balding, check. Coffee stains, socks, and sandals, disheveled appearance, surly attitude; check, check, check and check. I don’t recall giving you permission to build me in LEGO, you jerk! Upon closer inspection though, Felix tells us this figure is 175 cm tall, which is slightly taller than I am, so we can now add short to my list of qualifications as a slovenly malcontent. At least he didn’t swipe my total likeness after all. This dude bears a close resemblance to Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force but it isn’t quite him. Felix doesn’t state a specific person in his write-up but he’s a fairly average representation of what a lot of us are like.

See him in his full, coffee-stained, grumpy, socks and Adiletten-wearing glory.

Building life-sized sculptures are pretty much Felix’s thing. Check out our Felix Jaensch archives to see what I mean. Now get off my lawn, you ingrates!

The face of the last Toa

This model hit the feed and gripped the mind of every Bionicle fan that saw it. Builder Sandro Quattrini took brick-built figures to the next level with this fresh take on that iconic Toa face, sans Kanohi. The builder’s take on this warrior’s body varies slightly in their recreation of classic figure-building pieces but pays proper homage to the original nonetheless. Nice parts usage abounds throughout the design as Sandro adorns a brick-built Bionicle with the remains of the Jungle Dragon. Surviving the Ninjago apocalypse can be pretty brutal but not so much for the Toa.

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