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.

Rome wasn’t built in a day – and neither was the Death Star

Of the many great things about the Andor series, one was a short post-credits scene which showed… Well, I won’t spoil it – go and watch the Narkina 5 prison arc, and you’ll see what I mean. Suffice to say it has a link to this LEGO build, created jointly by Stefan Johansson and Robert Lundmark. It depicts a couple of TIE fighters flying over an unfinished part of the Empire’s infamous Death Star. And very nicely built, too! I like how the shape of TIE’s wings are reflected in the surface the droids are building. But that gold really makes it pop, in contrast to the blacks and greys of both the Empire and space as a whole. And of course it’s reminiscent of solar panels in real-world space stations, really putting the science into science-fiction!

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The details run deep in this mine

Descend to the depths of imagination with “The Echoing Mines of the Mountain’s Heart” by syrdarian. This fantastic cross-section of some fabled dwarven caverns is a ~~gold mine~~ mithril mine of detail, conveying a sense of scale from the faint light at the top of the staircase all the way down to the rivulets of lava far below. A big part of any great model is presentation, and these mines are no exception, with superb lighting in the right places. Thanks to that light, along with the combination of natural-looking rock formations and easily recognizable dwarven architecture, it’s easy to see the dwarves’ masterworks deep within the earth. Let’s just hope these particular dwarves resist the temptation to delve too greedily and too deep.

Michael Jasper’s li’l choppers

The gearhead kid in Michael Jasper‘s latest vignette might not be ready for their first tattoo, but in every other way, they’re a chip off the old motor block. Dad’s ride is a masterpiece of minifig scale engineering, combining tools, droid arms, and precious chrome details to form a motorcycle of uncanny detail. Junior’s RC chopper, with its beanie propeller handlebars, is a six-element wonder. Of course, Michael’s minifig designs and expressions bring the scene to life.

While Michael Jasper hasn’t been as prolific of late, he was one of the most featured builders during the early years of this site and his skill at recreating furniture and objects at minifig scale continues to inspire builders to this day. He impressed us long ago with his mini motorcycles, like this sidecar duo from 2007 and this blinged-out chopper from 2009. A new Michael Jasper motorcycle build is a wonderful holiday gift indeed!

An audacious rebuild of a LEGO Porsche 911 into an Audi TT

When LEGO released the excellent Creator Expert 10295 Porsche 911 it came with two variants right out of the box. For auto enthusiast Nathanael Kuipers, other car models are always waiting to be found within the parts of official sets, like this alternate build Audi TT. As Nathanael explains in his blog, the biggest challenge is working with the limited selection of curves and wheel arches from one set to find the unique shape of another model. The results here speak for themselves as you’d be forgiven for thinking this alternate build was an official set!

The model features opening doors, bonnet, and boot, as well as a working steering wheel. Nathanael’s solution for the iconic Audi logo in the grille is especially genius.

Nathanael regularly shares alt builds of official LEGO automotive sets. We also loved his pickup truck alt of 10265 Ford Mustang. I wonder what set Nathanael will remix next?

All aboard the Autobot Express!

Alex “Orion Pax” Jones is a legend in the LEGO community thanks to his spot-on replicas of ’80s toys in LEGO form, especially the Transformers. A year after debuting his high-flying Aerialbots, the undisputed champ of transforming toy tributes is back to ring out the Transformers’ 40th anniversary year with his latest masterpiece: the Trainbots! It’s hard to imagine transforming locomotives picking up much steam with kids today, but if there’s anyone in the middle of the Venn diagram overlap of LEGO, Transformers, and trains, it’s our TBB readers!

Each of the six Trainbots is fully transformable and can couple together to run on LEGO tracks, with the red diesel engine equipped with a power unit to pull the others. The combined form, Raiden, towers at 65cm tall and stands atop a track base with cherry blossoms and a torii gate. Ever the master of presentation, Alex unveils the transforming trains on rails with all the pomp of a proper ’80s toy commercial.

There’s more to these bots than meets the eye. Click to read on!

Traveling tonics were once upon a time in a dream

Sometimes great ideas arise when you combine unrelated materials from diverse sources. That’s what is at play here with Isaac Wilder’s latest LEGO creation called Tabitha’s Traveling Tonics. He tells us his fiance was playing Fables III and within the game are these neat caravans. So naturally, he decided to try one of his own. He used the wise and diminutive Mrs. Castillo from the DreamZzz line, specifically the Turtle Van set as Tabitha. A reindeer and snow was added to his idea to create a rather dreamy wintery scene. Stir in a fanciful caravan wagon, a few unearthly light sources, and a dash of magic and you have yourselves a cure for foot fungus and a bevy of love potions; all delivered to you post haste!

A five-piece blast from the robo-past!

If Earth ever gets invaded by aliens, you’ll want to look to the LEGO Voltes V by Marco de Bon for the defense! This giant robot equipped with the Sword of Heaven (the hilt sits across its chest in the jagged red line) packs enough punch to defeat any monster the alien Boazanians can throw at it. But that’s not all – this LEGO creation holds a secret!

Come see what this robot can do!

Give that lizard a banana

Over at New Elementary, the results are in from the “Mind that Banana” contest that challenged builders to make creations featuring any of LEGO’s banana elements. Filbrick crawled into the bunch of first-place builds with this mellow yellow iguana. As the builder mentions, yellow iguanas do exist as the typically green lizards appear yellow if born with albinism. Bananas are featured as spines, toes, eyelids, and the tip of the tail. Speaking as a former Iguana owner, the anatomy here is spot-on.

Creating a lifelike lizard with limited colors is no easy feat. Here’s a behind-the-scenes pic of how Filbrick found this scaly friend in a sea of yellow.

The Crash Bandicoot tribute that we spotlighted last week also made it into the beautiful bunch of banana winners. Congratulations to everyone who participated, and thanks to New Elementary for such an a-peeling competition!

A holiday creation you’ll want to just eat right up

Mike Sinclair had a lot of medium nougat LEGO bricks lying around (probably leftovers from a gingerbread LEGO creation of his that was on display at the LEGO House in Billund), so he did what any festive-minded LEGO builder would and built an upscaled gingerbread person minifig. The “upscaled” part, of course, means it has the same proportions as a regular minifig, just a lot bigger. Such a scale allows for greater brick-built details, like the white croissants as dabs of frosting that serve as the gingerbread’s eyebrows. Greater detail in turn means greater expressiveness. All in all, they just look like a sweet gingerbread guy or gal. It’ll be a shame when it comes time to be ~~eaten~~ disassembled.

This cute reindeer really shines (you could even say it glows)

You know Star Wars and Harry Potter and City and Friends . . . but do you recall the most festive advent calendar of them all? Deborah Higdon‘s LEGO hearts calendar, a response to LEGO’s #BuildToGive campaign, yielded this adorable little wooden reindeer on day 7. The sweet little guy (or gal) looks ready to guide Santa’s sleigh tonight—or just hang on your tree. Take a look at the builder’s Flickr page to follow along as the merry advent calendar continues till Christmas.

What is love? Seriously, please tell me.

Love is a lot of things to a lot of people. To First Order Lego, it’s apparently a sword stabbing a metal arm clutching a white heart bursting with foliage. The artist declines to explain the meaning of the creation, instead inviting the viewer to take what they might from it. It’s the sort of thing that invites both inspection and introspection, letting you ponder the meaning of love even as you examine the clever parts usage. The dripping white elements in particular add a sense of motion and life to the piece. So is hope on display, or does the art reveal a more cynical view of love? That’s up to you.

An uplifting story that starts with LEGO

In 2001: A Space Odyssey the appearance of a black obelisk turns apes into tool users in a rather violent way. Victor imagines an alternate spark of inspiration – a 2×4 LEGO brick! Confronted by this mysterious object, would the apes be inspired to use their newfound reasoning for creative pursuits instead of aggression? Or is the evolution of the stud-shooter inevitable? Victor’s model is a clever tribute to the classic Kubrick film with an upscaled brick looking suitably imposing against a studless sky. Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a toy swapped into the iconic scene (Hi, Barbie!).