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 box full of nightmare fuel. How jolly.

Spooktacular builder Corvus Auriac is back with another creation determined to haunt your dreams. I’ve never liked the concept of a Jack in the Box – to me, they were always a thin veneer of playfulness over a dark core of “who hurt the toy designer as a child.” As such, it’s kind of refreshing that this one isn’t even trying to pretend to be friendly. There are plenty of complex techniques in use here, but the most chilling has to be the use of minifigure epaulets to form those terrifyingly real teeth.

The picture above is a computer-generated render, meaning this doesn’t exist for real. Yet. Corvis has said that a real-world version is on the way soon. We can’t wait. (Oh, wait, yes, we can.) If you’re looking for other builds that cross the line between reality and imagined, check out our render tag.

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A Vic Viper worthy of royalty

Oh, the depths of space have so much to offer. As vast as the human imagination itself, nothing tickles my soul more than a great spaceship, especially one built from LEGO. Seeing how builders mold their abstract forms, creating engaging structures and silhouettes under the constrictions and limits of the LEGO system, builds a sense of absolute awe. Gaming fans of the modern era can escape into any number of epic worlds from Mass Effect to No Man Sky or the vast realms of Homeworld, EVE, or Star Citizen. As such, there is a wealth of designs that inspire wonderful builders around the world. This model was built by Carter Baldwin as a homage to a Hiigaran ship from Homeworld 2, but he diverged a bit from the original design. Take a look at the Imperial Interceptor, a marvelous Vic Viper for the Royal House of Sol. The stand-out color blocking achieved in this model depends greatly on the triangular tiles that hug the sharp edges of the ship’s body and wings. Contrasting the dark blue slopes and tiles, the gold gives the ship an eye-catching allure worthy of royalty.

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Escape in a escape pod. Guaranteed almost completely Alien free!

The Aliens franchise has seen its share of high and low points, but there are certain moments that have been well and truly integrated into the pop culture world. One of them is Ellen Ripley’s escape at the end of the first film aboard the Narcissus, the escape pod from the larger USCSS Nostromo. Michael Steindl has created a truly remarkable digital scale model of the craft, full of complex angles and movie-accurate styling. My favorite touch is the 1×1 round brick used to create the textures on the rear quarter panels, with a close second being the use of 1×2 ingot bricks along the engine exhausts. In space, they say, no one can hear you scream. But maybe if you listen close enough you can hear some applause for this build. But probably not, since physics doesn’t play favorites like that.

If you’re looking for more extraterrestrial-ly inspired treats, check our our Alien tag!

I am Maktooti, the bionic man!

This is what happens in the Multiverse of Madness! Over ten years ago, the story of Bionicle was as convoluted as some of the Marvel comics – full of overlapping story threads and alternate dimension-hopping shenanigans. At one point, it is revealed that there exists a version of the Bionicle universe where Makuta – the franchise’s big bad – isn’t big bad, but big good. Matt Goldberg built this alternate version of Makuta, with a bright colour scheme and elegance that oozes raw not-evil power.

Matt combines elements of LEGO’s original Makuta set and a build by Yannick Godts that was inducted into official Bionicle canon. As both of those were over ten years ago, and recent innovations in building made it possible for this character to be refined. For instance, LEGO introduced most of the current “constraction” pieces after Bionicle’s ending, and Matt uses them to great effect. He also includes regular LEGO elements in gold which match golden armour pieces from Legend of Chima buildable figures. Despite Bionicle having an aesthetic of greebly details, the clean look gives this Makuta a slick yet ancient look. And this is why many Bionicle builders love revamping old sets and characters.

*title is in reference to an actual Bionicle commercial from 2003

Flames amongst the ocean

Myleth Dorei is under attack by a vicious dragon. His terrible flame breath has bisected the island, cutting off the small fishing village from the castle with a trail of charred forest. Will the islanders survive this brutal attack? Only builder Andreas Lenander knows for sure. Andreas has done an excellent job at rendering a complex story in a small space with this microscale vignette. It’s full of lots of clever details, like using some Harry Potter wands still connected to a spur as the castle gate. And the dragon is effectively rendered in very few pieces, so that it’s light enough to be suspended in the sky by the fire that its breathing. But my favorite detail is the hollow space in the center, covered with trans-clear plates that allow the light from an iPhone to shine upwards, creating a true sense of a raging inferno.

This huge Gundam is ready to stretch its wings

This epic build of the Freedom Gundam, from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, is a testament to the construction skills of LEGO builder Bruce Cheng. While the model is huge and should appear bulky, the large frame is blended into the sleek shaping of the mech. There’s a good mixture of brick and Technic-based building in just the right places, particularly in the shoulders where Technic panels are used to create smooth pointed angles.

See more of this huge LEGO Gundam mecha

The key thing here is that this is a key thing.

You have to wonder what sort of portal this eerie LEGO key from Mihai Marius Mihu is designed to unlock. Something tells us that it’s a door better left unopened. I love the organic curves in both the gold and black elements, and the chain wrapped around the shaft is a clever touch that adds some unusual texture. But the main thing that interests me is what appears to be an eye set into that golden Ninjago Spinner. Should this creation be winking at me like that?

If you’re in the mood for more spooky looking builds, check our our Horror Tag!

He’s a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head! Its kinda hard to miss him!

Sokka sure got it right when he pointed out this major flaw in Team Avatar’s main mode of transportation. Despite his lack of stealth, Appa proved to be an essential part of the team, carrying the gang and more all over the bending world. Fans of Nickelodeon’s The Last Airbender surely look back wantingly at the small line of sets that The LEGO Group blessed us with when the show was still airing and plenty of builders have expressed their dreams in brick form. Jay-Roon Bricks has joined in with this wonderful brick-built Appa, Avatar Aang’s loyal sky bison. Katara and Sokka look pretty comfy in that lovely saddle, while Aang looks ready for the next adventure. I’m glad they haven’t lost their supply bag yet either, represented here by the sand blue round plates and tiles behind the saddle.

This version models Appa’s body well and seems to be in scale with Toph and the rest of the gang. His face has some great details and seems very expressive, helping to capture the big guy’s spirit.

This picture from above also shows off the details of Appa’s tail and patterning. The rounded end and tight joints really match the character’s design and probably make this model very poseable.

Check out some more cartoon-inspired builds that we’ve shared.

The Amazing Spider-Man is amazing as a LEGO-built classic comic cover

I’m an artist but it may surprise some of you to learn that I wasn’t much into comic books as a kid. However, the few comics I had held a specil place in my heart. I had a few issues of Star Wars, Superman, The Hulk, even Spider-Man. Speaking of which, this mind-blowing LEGO creation by Bas van Houwelingen is made to look like a classic comic book cover. This uncanny technique uses both intentionally built sections as well as seemingly haphazardly poured elements to create an amazing cohesive image. Here we see a closeup of Spider-Man as well as Sandman’s fist creeping (or sifting) into the shot. As 3-D art goes, especially in LEGO, you’d normally build Spider-Man with parts of him red, other parts blue and call it a day. But as 2-D artists know, you can often use other colors in surprising ways to give the illusion of a 3-D image. Here we see white, yellow, pink, lavender, green and other colors used beautifully here to tell a complex story.

Not only that, but if you look closely, you may find LEGO elements you wouldn’t normally use to build Spider-Man such as flowers, boats, even a few minifigures. The builder tells us that this work of art took a week to design and is comprized of about 5000 LEGO bricks and utilizes nearly all the red and pink bits in their collection. This technique is a great way to use some of those less-utilized pieces in any collection.

If this already looks a bit familiar to you, then your sharp eyes may have seen that this was submitted to the LEGO Ideas Friendly Neighborhood Comic Book Hero Contest and it was the grand prize winner in the Brick category!

The Mandalorian and some Tusken Raiders encounter the Krayt Dragon

For decades now Tusken Raiders from Star Wars were understood to be desert-dwelling jerks hellbent on harshing everyone’s mellow. However, as we learned in The Mandalorian season two, if you speak their language, if you learn to communicate with them, they have a code of honor and can be cooperative. This stunning LEGO collaboration built by Jonathan Snyder and others (he didn’t specify who) depicts the pivotal scene in which Din Djarin, Cobb Vanth, villagers of Freetown and Tusken Raiders hatch a plan to slay a fearsom krayt dragon. The cavern and highly-textured sandy cliffside are recreated beautifully here. The krayt dragon is also depicted nicely with most of its massive form buried under the sand. I seem to recall the plan involved a sacrificial bantha loaded with explosives though. Oh well. What Jonathan lacks in bantha goo he makes up for in total awesomeness. Click here to see what I mean.

Greetings Earth sausage. Take me to your soup can.

One can forgive the awkward salutation in the title. With his four arms, bugged-out eyes and bulbous head, this creature built by Ivan Martynov has that not-from-around-here vibe. Meet Commander Viridigen. In regards to native fauna, his ethics may seem questionable and his grasp of the English language makes about as much gramatical sense as anything on 4Chan. In terms of LEGO pieces, some elements of this extra-terrestrial look a bit…alien. I mean, check out those feet, the chest armor, the shoulder pads. That’s not quite LEGO, folks! Even his head resembles something like a metallic ram. But you know what they say, a little alien integration into your LEGO collection never hurt anybody. Am I right? Right, people? Isn’t that what they say? Anyway, feast your ocular orbs on the other times we were totally flamboozled by Ivan’s krunk.

Avatars, Assemble!

The charismatic twitch star, CodeMiko, is presented in Lego form through these fantastic builds by TBB alumn Iain Heath. CodeMiko is famous for her highly detailed avatars which she portrays through motion capture. In this set of builds, we can see some of the unusual avatars she uses. For me, the fish costume really stands out, with its bulbous eyes and bright blue colour scheme. Miko is even shown in her motion-capture gear, known as the Technician (the one with orange dots). Hinge pieces represent noses throughout the models and the lower parts of the faces appear to have been built upside down. The playful style of the builds captures the energetic personality of CodeMiko and her characters. Let’s hope it all brings a smile to your face.