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.

Just your typical day surfing the hydrothermal acid pool

“Hydrothermal”, “acid”, and “pool” are three words that give me the willies. I don’t love them singularly but when combined it invokes a unique feeling of “oh, hell no”! For not the first time, The Brothers Brick alumn and world-renowned LEGO builder Nannan Zhang has me in awe and just a bit unsettled with this new creation. He doesn’t tell us much other than “Running errands on My’laar pays well if you don’t fall in a hydrothermal acid pool”. Nope, too much risk for me! I’d rather be an armchair adventurer with menial pay, thank you very much! Still, though, the bubbling marsh and that unnatural color are admittedly quite striking. I can only imagine the molecular makeup of any plant life that can exist there without withering away. Check out why Nannan Zhang is among the most interesting LEGO builders on this planet or otherwise.

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This stunning 93-pound LEGO turtle kingdom was nearly 20 months in the making

Everyone knows that an Archelon is a species of marine turtle that went extinct during the Late Cretaceous period. What this LEGO build supposes is, maybe they didn’t and then a hermit community built a castle on one’s back. Archelon Castle by Fraser Ratzlaff is a fanciful, Mindstorms-powered, articulated creature with 4 independently swaying appendages, an anatomically correct mouth masticating a lobster, and oh yes—the entire beast (and affixed castle) slowly rotates 360 degrees. Hitch a ride as we explore the intense environmental storytelling of this build that took almost two years to create.

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Something wizard this way comes!

Following last week’s episode of The Mandalorian season 2.5—I mean The Book of Boba Fett, LEGO builders across the galaxy got their grey bricks out to recreate a certain starfighter. Builder Jonas Kramm took a different route and built a follow-up to his previous vignette from the series. In this small diorama, The Mandalorian is offered a new ship in Peli Motto’s garage. While he didn’t build the entire vehicle, Jonas focuses on the discovery of a partial ship hiding under tattered cloth. What starfighter could that be?

Is it a Porax-38, a variant of which we saw in the “prison break” episode of The Mandalorian season 1? Or is it what we think it is? Jonas keeps the mystery and suspense alive by only building a dismantled engine hiding under a Silent Mary sail piece. Various clutter complete the diorama, such as grey and silver greebly pieces representing spaceship parts and two droids, one of which is a BD unit that people who have played Jedi: Fallen Order will recognise.

As The Book of Boba Fett is about to wrap up, we wonder what other scenes Jonas will build next.
Check out more builds we’ve featured: Jonas Kramm on TBB

How the other half lives

These amazing brick-built trophies by Markus Rollbühler are for the winners of “The Rich and the Poor” category of the Brickscalibur castle-themed LEGO competition. What is so striking is the many layers entwined in these two figures. From a purely aesthetic approach you can marvel at the creative use of brown scarves for crumpled pant cuffs, the One Ring to accent the boots or the pearl gold beard plate for some dazzling epaulets. From a metaphorical perspective, appreciate the contrasts: the goat as a helper vs the goat as a pet. The gold coming from the land vs the gold coming from currency. Then notice what each man extends in their hand and think of what they are plotting. Whoa! Sorry to get so deep there but I can’t help it with such a great build.

Ice Planet Skimmer Scout skis the slippery slopes

Decades ago Spyrius and Blacktron’s attempts to steal rocket technology from Ice Planet 2002 were thwarted by the combined efforts of the civilian crew and the Space Police. The scientists tunneled deeper into the caverns to continue their work in greater safety and isolation. Now the crew of Ice Planet 2022 is emerging from Krysto’s caves. The Skimmer Scout is first out of the base to begin recon work on the surface.

I built this model in December of 2020 and briefly teased it on social media. Fast forward a year and we’ve had a couple more good dumps of the frosty stuff providing for a better photo backdrop, and now that we’re in 2022 I couldn’t resist further embracing the twenty-year thematic time jump.

Come explore the evolution of this model design with me!

The Soviet ZIL-E167 can handle any terrain you throw at it

It’s a little cold in my LEGO room so I turned up the heat and put on a sweater. That leads me to believe that I probably don’t have what it takes to handle the real cold like what they have in Siberia and Urals. There’s a reason there are so many jokes about vodka drinking you in Russia or whatever. Tough terrain means tough people and tough vehicles. Thankfully, SarielLego has what it takes to handle any terrain as evidenced by this remote-controlled ZIL-E167. I’m loving the beefy tires, the orange color, the overall rugged shape, even the little moose decal is rather charming.

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LEGO Marvel Infinity Saga 76209 Thor’s Hammer revealed as life-size replica you can build [News]

Today LEGO revealed the latest Marvel Infinity Saga set, 76209 Thor’s Hammer. The life-size model of Mjolnir is 18-inches tall, made of 979 pieces, and will retail for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £104.99 when it’s available March 1. It will be sold through LEGO and Target. The hammer includes a small display stand with a printed tile, and the hammerhead is hollow and includes a cubby for storing the included Thor minifigure and minifigure-scale versions of the Infinity Gauntlet, Tesseract and Odin’s Fire.

Check out more pictures of the set below, and don’t miss the other new LEGO sets for Spring 2022:

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A rocking ride for some outer space ore.

As part of a Space Jam collaboration with some fellow builders, jnj_bricks has crafted a transport ship designed to carry aurum from an asteroid to a refinery. And no mined rock has ever traveled in such grand style before. This ship is an elegant blend of sharp edges and rounded corners. And the black and white color scheme, accented by medium azure and yellow, is gorgeous. Which should come as surprise, since it’s a color scheme that’s worked for this same builder before.

The Birchwood Baron

We all know that Steven Erickson is capable of great things. I was very pleased to see his latest LEGO creation based on his and his brother’s winning model from the finale of LEGO Masters US S2. This revamp of Warden of the Woods is named the Birch Baron. It is about a quarter of the size of the Warden of the Woods, which makes it way more compatible with LEGO minifigures. I love how the wood pattern is integrated in this figure and there are just enough black lines to make it read birch wood. Too much would have made it look like a zebra. The bright yellow and light orange add a wonderful contrast to white central figure.

There is so much eye for detail in this build. If you were to zoom in on the staff, you’ll notice purple half circle tiles used to represent, what I think are, shelf fungus. In the Netherlands we call those elf benches, which sounds way more romantic and in the theme of this creation. Steven made several small bases to go along with the Birch Baron and each one depicts a different theme. I like the fallen leaves on the ground and the use of the old school flower to represent the mushroom stalk and gills of the mushrooms. If you’ll excuse me now, I feel like going on a walk in nature.

TBB Cover Photo for February 2022: Architecture legacy of Taiwan

Lights, bricks, action! This month’s social media cover photo is Zio Chao‘s massive and detailed build of an ornate mansion. The Residence for the Governor-General of Taiwan is a central government building in Zio’s hometown of Taipei, Taiwan, built in a European architecture style at the start of the 20th century.

read on to see this magnificent building all lit up

You can take the leftovers home in a BYGGLEK box

Can you spot the LEGO IKEA BYGGLEK box in this creation by lego_nuts? Neither could I until I watched their video on youtube. The storage box is used as the base of this wonderful creation. All lego-nuts had to do was create four walls to hide the box properly. My mind is completely blown. This technique could be used to create mountains without them getting too heavy and parts-consuming. I didn’t know I needed the storage containers, but now I am sure that I do.

I love to see people make creations inspired by Chinese Architecture using LEGO Monkie Kid aesthetics. For one of the buildings in the background curved train rail is used for the rooftop. Which is brilliant if you ask me. The Monkie Kid crew is having Chinese hot pot during their Reunion Dinner to celebrate the Lunar New Year and I would just love to join them in this lovely setting.

The bats on the bus go round and round

If any version of the Batman was going to drive a modified VW bus, it was going to be the 1960’s Adam West incarnation. 1saac W. has created the ultimate hybrid with this Bat Bus – a tricked out version of one of 1saac’s other great automotive recreations, the Volkswagen T1 Westfalla. (Westfalla. Get it?) This model uses stickers and some parts from the 76188 Classic Batmobile set to great effect – Bats is ready to hit the road in style.

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