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.

Bones-to-Brick collaboration celebrates prehistoric life in LEGO

From Johnny Thunder to Jurassic World, LEGO has a long history of sets featuring dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, but as much fun as it can be to pose a mighty molded Spinosaurus, we’re partial to brick-built dinos, like a Creator 3-in-1 T.Rex or the recent Mosasaurus Boat Mission. Of course, our favorite creatures of all are original creations from the LEGO building community, like those that were just unearthed as part of the Bones to Brick collaboration. Seven talented builders contributed an ancient creature in their own style, and we’re excited to share the full collaboration. These builders are also all veterans of the BioCup, the annual competition that also kicks off this month, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing more from this crew very soon!

J6Crash presents Ankylosaurus magniventris, an armored dinosaur of the late Cretaceous. Sand blue and black bricks make a pleasing combo, and the technique of laying claw elements flat to create ridges along the back is brilliant.

Benjamin Anderson is next up with Dimetrodon limbatus, a creature of the Cisuralian period, some 40 million years before dinosaurs showed up. There’s a lot to love about Benjamin’s creation, but I’m smitten by the spine sail with a colorful gradient created from alternating teeth.

The paleontology tour continues after the break

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.

Building a little help to clear up the table-scraps

A few days ago, I wrote about W.F Ikhasi’s efforts in letting an idea for a LEGO creation simmer for a while before finishing it. As I wrote that article, it’s a topic that was fresh on my mind. My desk is absolutely covered in table-scraps; little builds that never fully grew into a finished article. And when I say covered, I mean I’m starting to struggle for space! It’s about time I enlisted some help to clear them. Fortunately, one of those ideas – a frame for a folded net piece – did grow into a scavenger’s speeder. So now this guy can help me clear out things, like this old engine, that were sitting around gathering dust!

The crane/tow-rope was also lying around among the detritus and quickly became this speeder’s party piece. Of course, it folds up neatly for zipping around the mud flats, where you might spot some older builds too… This walker is an older MOC, but it’s far from being a table-scrap!

Brick art: Casting a MOC in concrete to stand the test of time

Every LEGO bricks begins its life being cast in plastic from a mold. For builder Olle Moquist’s last creation, bricks become molds for a new building material: concrete. Inspired by the concrete sculptures of David Umemoto, Olle started with a traditional LEGO build, used it to create a silicone mold, then poured concrete to create this incredible creation. A single red minifigure and dark blue microfigure offer a pop of color and clarify scale.

Up close, the subtle imperfecti0ns in the pour add an air of weathered beauty. Even though the cast is just days old, it looks timeless – a relic from an alternate brutalist timeline where grey-clad children play with concrete blocks.

See how Olle made this incredible concrete creation

Retro rovers bring dark orange highlights to Classic Space

Whether on Earth or the Moon, moving freight is a tricky business. While we made do with FedEx and bike couriers here on earth, carrier lost shows us how to properly move a container across the lunar surface. But where is our driver? We’re partial to the tank tread design and the Classic Space adjacent colors that add dark orange to the mix.

Rove on down for more rovery goodness

Build your own functional mini LEGO vending machine! [Instructions]

In a month absolutely stacked with incredible offerings, the must-have set of the moment is LEGO Ideas 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine. Maybe it’s out of your price range, maybe your local LEGO store sold out of copies, or maybe you just like building at an itty-bitty scale? In that case, Steve Guiness (aka the Brick Consultant) has you covered with instructions for a miniature (yet still functional) vending machine model that you can build using common pieces.

Here’s what you’ll end up with if you follow Steve’s instructions:

And a peek inside the mechanism:

Steve is no stranger to Ideas sets, having designed the incredible Typewriter set (sadly, now retired). If you’re inspired by this miniature mechanism, you might be interested in his Inventor Kit, currently on LEGO Ideas.

LEGO GLaDos congratulates Bousker on their Iron Builder victory and promises cake

If you have played either of the Portal video games, then the birthday-cake-obsessed GLaDos may fill you with some fear and dread, even in LEGO form. And if you have a keen eye for part usage, then you may recognize the Iron Builders seed part, 54097 from the last round of the Iron Builder competition. Bousker uses that aircraft door along with a lot of other beautiful part usage to create the terrifying GLaDos. That ingenuity helped Bousker win over the judges and come out on top as the newest Iron Builder.

Check out Bousker’s other Iron Builder entries as well as our interview with their competitor, Tim Goddard.

A hotrod with some hotdog parts usage

Sérgio Batista is known for his amazing trains and automobile builds. His latest is a low-sitting station wagon in a flashy lime green deco with lots of interesting parts usage, including a guide dog harness on the front grill. Sérgio says this car sits lower than a minifigure stands, so despite it being a station wagon, I’m not sure we can get the whole family inside.

Read our interview with Sérgio Batista to learn more about the builder’s journey and unorthodox building techniques.

Drumming up a dynamic LEGO musician mid-session

Steve ‘Rubblemaker‘ Marsh is well-known for his unconventionally-shaped spaceships. But he has more strings to his bow than just spacecraft! That’s proven by this snap of a robot drummer mid-jam. It’s deceptively large: red wheels, 4 studs wide in diameter, make up many of the smaller toms. But the drummer’s dextrous limbs are where the real complexity lies. According to Steve, achieving this dynamic pose required “independent movement in its neck, fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, waist, hips, knees and ankles”. So you know, just about every joint there is. Well, it was certainly worth the effort!

High fantasy? Or mere child’s play...

What at first glance may appear to be a LEGO creation with an identity crisis is builder Nate Chiles way of reminding us that a little imagination goes a long way. This 2-in-one LEGO creation “tells the story of that imagination that we all had (or have) by showing kids playing (on the left) and the stories imagination turns that play into (on the right).”

It’s a very relatable message, beautifully illustrated. The themes, shapes, and proportions of the two scenes mirror one another perfectly, and I love the way the clouds surrounding the tower suggest an impassible floor-is-lava -type scenario being played out in these young adventurers’ minds.

DORA and friends explore the post-apocalyptic wastelands

At last year’s Bricks Cascade expo, Martin Hulth shared a post-apoc behemoth on treads cheekily named D.O.R.A. the Explorer (DORA as in Deep Outpost Research and Armament.) This year, with encouragement and collaboration from Mark Cruickshank, Martin returned to Cascade with two new vehicles that expand on this emerging world that rests somewhere between Mad Max and the Mortal Engines. Leading the new pack is BIG BERTHA here. It’s a kid’s dream of a mobile base fused with a monster truck, backed with sophisticated techniques. You might call it a spiritual successor to the Rock Raiders theme. And the use of color, with bold yellow and red paired with muted sand green and blue, is striking.

Explore the wasteland with us and see more of Martin’s epic builds

Nintendo DS case finds new life in a LEGO sci-fi tower

There are so many LEGO-compatible products and accessories out there, so it makes sense that builders would find fun and interesting ways to use them in their own creations. Kevin H has done just that using a Nintendo DS case that includes some attachment points to decorate as the central element in this fun, sci-fi tower. The use of some stickers to add more detail was a great choice, as well as using a largely monochromatic palette of blue to match the case with some light green and transparent parts thrown in. Another fun detail is a pair of spring-loaded shooter bricks with dual-colored sides at the base, and those gray pyramid pieces add to the brutalist look at the base of the tower.

Ma.K.ing the most of LEGO’s wildest theme

Sometimes it pays to sit on an idea for a while. Occasional LEGO builder W.F Ikhasi tells us he had the fuselage of this Maschinen Krieger-inspired walker sitting around, unfinished, for no fewer than three years. Happily, it’s complete now – and thanks to… Galidor?! Yes, a piece from LEGO’s weirdest theme provided just the shape Ikhasi was looking for for the hind legs. So much so, in fact, that the front legs are a brick-built riff on the idea, and the end result looks great!

If you’re not familiar with the kitbashing dieselpunk world of Maschinen Krieger, why not get a taster in our archives?