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.

Paul puts the Funko in LEGO

If you’re ever in Everett, Washington be sure not to miss the Funko Headquarters Store. It’s like a museum of fun and pop culture. While I am not into Funko Pops per se, I still bring out-of-town friends there on occasion to see the sights and even I couldn’t resist buying a Godzilla boardgame and a Jiangshi hopping ghost figure. There’s likely something there for everyone. Paul Hetherington is a major Funko Funatic so he built the Funko Headquarters Store in LEGO. He has accurately portrayed the outside of the building with their retro Funko sign as well as their secondary sign stating that they are “purveyors of pop culture”.

Just like the actual building, the real feast for the senses lies within. Here Paul has accurately recreated the MARVEL room complete with Hulkbuster Ironman, the Hulk, and even the Green Goblin, Spider-Man, and Deadpool. It’s neat to see so many minifigues shopping for their favorite Pops. Paul has integrated several Funko Mystery Minis to emulate the large-scale POP characters both in and outside the building. But before you LEGO purists have a conniption fit about it, if you’re an adult fan of LEGO, chances are you might have a few other toys lying around too. So why not integrate them? There’s plenty of custom sticker work here to upset the purists as well. The last time we upset LEGO purists we received a record number of complaints from folks with AOL email addresses. Fun!

Another amazing section of the store that is also a treat for the senses is the fabulously retro Pop Factory. Here you can create any Funko Pop you want. Why you could even Funko Pop-ify your own curmudgeonly mug complete with a 90’s-era-heavy-metal-guy goatee, steely gaze, and devil-may-care attitude. But I definitely didn’t think about doing that so don’t get that idea in your head!

The Funko Headquarters Store also has a Harry Potter room, Star Wars room…OK, I won’t spoil it all for you but definitely go there sometime to see for yourselves. But before you do, check out why Paul Hetherington is among our favorite LEGO artists.

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.

Locked up in Tower #7

Continuing his series of architecture inspired designs, builder F@bz adds this futuristic tower. Suitable for a scene from a superhero movie, the multiple levels are created with the clever use of Minifigure handcuff pieces. Layered on top of each other and overlapping between levels around the structure, the cuffs are nestled as close together as they can. This repetition leads to a satisfying result, especially when contrasted with the colorful, picturesque landscape of the base. The well-manicured hedges and trees line either side of a pink and gold road leading right up to the ground floor of the tower.

Continue reading →

I love putting the gin in gingerbread

There are a few things that really get me in the Christmas mood. One of them is a LEGO gingerbread house. Over the years, LEGO has produced more specialized LEGO parts, and they often come in white. It never stops to amaze me to see how fans use these pieces in their gingerbread houses. This however is not the case for John Snyder. They have been getting creative with the toy winder key for a seed part challenge. If this build is completely symmetrical, which gingerbread houses often are, more than 50 winder keys are used in this build. But it’s not just the use of the winder keys that is very creative. The inclusion of the old window is very nice and makes it look like there is no physical door; it’s just outlines piped on with icing. The house comes with candy canes, gifts, pine trees covered in snow, and lollipops that use a dish that to me at first was unfamiliar. At first, I thought it was from a Belville fairy set, but it turns out to be a Friends part.

Check out more LEGO gingerbread houses here.

Paint the world as you see fit

Being an artist has some perks. If you can imagine a world that doesn’t exist, simply invent it through art. As Bob Ross advised, just paint in those happy little trees! That is, in a sense, what First Order Lego has done here in LEGO. With a paint palette and brush in the composition, we see just a hint of color with a Mediterranean-style village at the base of a massive tree. It is just enough to clue us in that this builder is pretty good with color but the real star of the show here is what is not “painted”. Monochrome is notoriously difficult to draw or paint. It relies heavily on texture for great effect and that is what is done here in spades. Hundreds of mini wheels make up the leaves of the tree which creates breathtaking visual effects.

There are even more little houses going up the slope of the trunk that are just like the other ones except “unpainted”. He tells us it was all built-in under two weeks and had won the top prize at Bricking Bavaria, a LEGO convention in Germany. A well-deserved win, in my opinion. Here we see the artist “painting” his world with beautiful happy colors. The closeup makes it clear that the entire sculpture stands on Death Star halves. What brilliant details!

Mysterious shapes swirl in the mask of Rorschach from Watchmen

“Rorschach’s Journal. December 3rd 2021. There is a foul stench in the city tonight. Crime oozes out of shady alleyways. But I take comfort in one thing. Pistash has built me in LEGO form. Gives me hope. Now I have to go eat some beans.”

In Watchmen, the patterns of Rorschach’s mask change due to the application of an ink which reacts to heat, causing the style to alter. Pistash has accurately created these strange shapes by using of circular quarter tiles. Rounded angled pieces portray the details of the coat, such as the turned out collar. But the ultimate question is, what do you see in the peculiar patterns of Rorschach’s mask?

Harry’s Pottery shop accident

Someone just had to make a LEGO pottery shop called Harry’s Pottery. It just had to be done! It somehow surprised me it took this long, but it is here! And it looks lovely. This building by Maxim Baybakov features a lot of grey walls. Thanks to the architectural details added the walls do not look dull at all. This LEGO building reminds me of some of the stores in older European cities that have glass façades with elaborate wooden frames. From the first floor up, the building style changes and the house from that floor up looks completely different.

Making round bay windows to accommodate the corner round window part looks like it was quite the challenge, and I would love a breakdown of that part of the build — it is either made with interesting building techniques, or it is full of cleverly used parts and the build is actually quite simple. Speaking of cleverly used pieces, the quarter round tile for roof shingles works perfectly. What really makes this build special is the little humoristic scene in front of the window. Although the minifigure in question might disagree with me on that.

An ominous oasis in the desert is full of charm

This Egyptian temple at the edge of an oasis is more than just a stack of tan bricks. Sebeus I makes good use of stickers from the Pharaoh’s Quest LEGO theme for the tall pinnacle in the foreground, but the star of this build is the large hieroglyphics across the front of the temple, constructed using slopes and some clever sideways-facing plates and tiles. The entrance uses some simple textures to create visual interest, and those statues of Anubis flanking the doorway are very accurate.

The military mech with the gleaming eye

Armed and ready for combat, this mech has a menacing stare with its single prominent eye. Created by Keith Espinoza, the build looks as though it can strike some dynamic poses with its articulated joints. The mech comes equipped with a rifle and jetpack, perfect for blasting off into the battle. Curved tube pieces form around the eye, creating a smooth robotic look around the head. There are also some sharp angles at the chest, which contrasts nicely against the rounded sections of armour on the mech.

If the mech needs a quick speed boost, it can hop onto a hover unit, most likely used for covering long distances. Seeing an army of these flying towards you would make for quite an intimidating scene!

Santa’s home away from home.

If you follow The Brothers Brick on social media, you might have noticed we just updated our cover photo to Santa’s house, a cozy A-frame cabin built by Andrea Lattanzio. But don’t be fooled by his jolly demeanor, Santa’s a big celebrity. And he’s living a life with all the perks, which includes multiple houses. This asymmetrical cabin, also by Andrea, is a little more stylish than the A-frame. No doubt this house is for when Santa’s feeling a little posher. That four-wheel-drive vehicle might not be able to travel as far as magic reindeer, but I bet it’s more expensive. And the brickwork on the deck couldn’t have come cheap. After all, it’s actually made from dozens of Mjolners.

Get away from it all at the Arrow Peak Shrine

Everyone needs an escape at some point. For Marius Herrmann it’s the game “Ghost of Tsushima”. Inspired by the beautiful world of Tsushima, Marius created the Arrow Peak Shrine in LEGO. There is a lot to love about this build. Making this creation took its fair share of time due to there being so many rocks that had to be built. There are a lot of fun little details hidden in this creation. Let’s look at a couple of them. The Wizarding World wand is one of the parts that LEGO fans have been getting very creative with. The same goes for Marius. In this creation, the wand is used as a fence in the temple. The pathway towards the temple has to be created with a LEGO net, I do not know how you would otherwise manage to create such an organic-shaped pathway. The shrine next to the pathway uses a minifigure shortbeard and there is a gingerbread skirt hidden in the torii gate. The tree in this build really is something else. It features almost everything except the kitchen sink. There is a Gallimimus body hidden in the trunk and one or two big giants lost their muscles. Quite worth it if you ask me.

The shadows of Shadar Logoth

The eerie city of Shadar Logoth stands in magnificent ruin in this large diorama by Brick Ninja. They’ve been slowly working their way through scenes from Robert Jordan’s monumental Wheel of Time series, presenting each snapshot completely immersively. Brick Ninja doesn’t show us the full build–or even if the structure is more than a facade. Instead, it’s built for the camera, to be seen from this angle, and it’s beautiful, with architectural details sculpted throughout. The detailing at the top of the large central doorway is especially nice, as is the huge domed roof.

Send the Republic Frigate...and also the entire Republic fleet

The star of the show here is clearly Fuku Saku’s 1:250 microscale LEGO Charger c70 Republic Frigate. It has all the right shaping and as much detail as a model twice or three times its size. However, let’s not discount the awesomeness of his Jedi Starfighters, Republic Gunships, and the LAAT/c Assault Carrier. In fact, I’m personally more enthralled with the smaller models. The new UCS Republic Gunship set is huge, even impressive. I voted for it but LEGO may be disappointed to learn that I may not get the set as it…I don’t know…just doesn’t have any more detail or playability than prior smaller Gunship sets. These microscale models, however, have as much detail and accuracy as they need and at just a fraction of the size. I can see myself hanging out with Fuku for a day, building several copies of these Republic Gunships and LAAT/c’s to pad out his Republic fleet over a couple of beers. It’s the kind of thing that makes us adult builders rather excited. What do you think of these microscale models?

Fuku is no stranger to making little things seem pretty awesome. Check out what I mean in our archives: Fuku Saku LEGO.