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.

Cloudstone Castle welcomes visitors – bring a sword

Sometimes it’s about the design, sometimes it’s the techniques, sometimes it’s the colour scheme, and then very occasionally there’s a LEGO castle that has it all. Cloudstone Castle is a collaborative build between Joel Tyer and Spartan Bricks, and it’s an excellent addition to the ranks of the larger LEGO castle creations. The texture and detail in the fortifications are nicely done, and a couple of off-grid angled sections prevent the structure from feeling too formulaic. I like the repeated motif of quarter-circle tiles used as decoration on the buildings. The island’s rockwork is detailed without being too busy, framing the castle and providing context rather than distracting the eye from the central subject, and the watery base is very pretty. Tying it all together, the overall colour scheme is well chosen, muted without being miserable, evoking the feel of an overcast day — clouds and stone indeed.

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Apache Helicopter go Brrrrrrr

You know, lore isn’t for everyone. The beauty of LEGO is that it allows us to build the world around us as we see it, and that doesn’t always require a backstory. Having said that, collaborating with others to create a fleshed-out world can be extremely satisfying. I recently talked with self-dubbed LEGO Dad, Simon Liu, about the Apache helicopter model he built for the world-building group, World in Darkness. He explained that the group is focused on factions in a world where the Cold War kept going and that each faction has specific color schemes and gear. Apparently, Oceania’s sand-blue vehicles proved to be a bit “fun” for him due to that color’s limited part diversity, I imagine. Nonetheless, the AH-64X is a beautiful beast. Tiles, slopes, and printed pieces decorate the entire body, carving out the curves and angular sections of the Apache design. Ample headspace is provided for the pilot and gunner in the cockpit. Armed for close aerial support on the front line, this helicopter can protect Oceania’s soldiers day and night. The excellent sticker choices elevate the model, emblazoning it with the Oceania logo and striking lines along the body, wings, and tail sections. The detailed rotor is topped off with a radar dome made with two large dishes, and the turboshaft engines cleverly make use of rotation joint sockets as the intakes.

Simon Liu is a legendary builder and godfather to the upcoming SHIPtember tradition. A master with LEGO, familiar with many secrets of the system, this builder clearly loves his community. Groups like World in Darkness, and many others, give plenty of builders the opportunity to explore their concepts and create new worlds with others. Simon will tell you, he’s happy to see groups like these thriving and loves to see the growth, mentorship, and inclusion shared between the older and younger generations. I personally agree and have long said that the LEGO community is one of the most positive and uplifting groups I’ve ever been a part of. Keep up the good work, LEGO fans.

Lando’s Treadable from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker at LEGO UCS scale

While Star Wars may be known best for epic spacecraft like the Star Destroyer and the Millenium Falcon, there have been more than a few vehicles of a more humble design, like the Sandcrawler. The new sequel trilogy had perhaps more new ships than previous movies, but Jürgen Wittner, has set his sights on one of the most interesting new vehicles, the Treadable, the tank of a mobile home owned by Lando Calrissian.

Check out more photos of this most unusual vehicle

The Muppet Show or bust

For me, The Muppet Show was the perfect in-between show for those in-between years. It wasn’t quite a cartoon, and it wasn’t quite as boring as those serious shows the grownups watched. It came on in the evening, so you felt just a little bit grownup watching it without going into Murder, She Wrote territory. A LEGO builder who goes by the name j-p-30 his us right in the between childhood and adulthood feels with these three clever busts of some of our favorite Muppet friends. We have poor Beaker, whose scientific experiments tend to end in fiery calamity. Gonzo was the weird bendy-nosed Muppet Show pianist, and the less said about Animal’s outrageous antics, the better. All together, you’ve got the makings of a trio that could make us giggle even if Trapper John M.D. was totally your jam. Well done, Mr. j-p-30!

Imperial Soviet Nuclear TIE Bomber

Yes, you read that right. And your eyes are not deceiving you. LEGO builder Ghalad managed to combine an obscure nuclear seaplane from the Soviet Union with a classic Star Wars TIE fighter. The resulting digital build is something you could have expected to appear in the sequel trilogy of Star Wars films.

It’s unlikely you’ve heard of the Lun-class Ekranoplan, a Soviet-era seaplane capable of launching nuclear warheads through tubes based on top of the plane. It was developed before the age of ballistic submarines, filling the gap between land-based nuclear bombers and sea-based launch platforms.

From Wikipedia

Click to see more pictures

Build your own LEGO Transformers Optimus Prime [Instructions]

Four million years ago, a young dock worker named Orion Pax lived on the planet Cybertron. At the start of the great Cybertronian War, Orion Pax nearly died after an attack by the evil Megatron. Thankfully, he was re-built into the powerful Optimus Prime by an ancient robot known as Alpha Trion. Now you can dispense with Alpha Trion and build a fully transformable Optimus Prime of your very own, thanks to this tutorial by Tiago Catarino.

Click here to check out the instructions

Full-size LEGO Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII is six feet of awesome

I’m not much of a modern gamer. Somewhere around the release of the Playstation 2, I stopped trying to keep up with the latest video games. Nowadays, Dr. Mario on my NES Classic is all the virtual thrill I need. But one of the last major video game phenomenons before I bowed out was Final Fantasy VII, and I have an intense love of it. Not as intense a love as Brick Ninja, as evidenced by the fact that he built a life-sized replica of Cloud Strife’s Buster Sword and I didn’t.

Six feet long and over a foot wide, this majestic build floods me with some late 90s nostalgia. (Even though it’s technically based on the sword’s appearance in the recent FF7 Remake.) Brick Ninja has done an amazing job getting the angles of the blade just right. Check out the video below of the builder himself wielding the sword to get a better sense of its weight and stability. It’s such an impractical weapon, but that’s part of what makes it so cool. And when your name is as awesome as “Cloud Strife,” your weapons need to be cool.

Pimp my landspeeder

This low-riding LEGO landspeeder by SweStar has all the stylings you need for a sweet Star Wars ride, from a big scoop up front to smooth engine nacelles and an orange windscreen. The color scheme is particularly intriguing here because it’s the oddest of combos and yet it works somehow, combining a sand green body with lavender and magenta stripes, and sand blue and bright light orange highlights. The best just might be that plush cockpit though, which uses macaroni pieces and a car hood to give it a comfy and curvacious interior.

The soundtrack to a simpler time [Instructions]

While many of us are vaccinated, the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus is circling the globe faster than a bean burrito through a dachshund. Trust me, you do not want to get in the crosshairs of the virus or a woozy dachshund, so in anticipation of maybe hunkering down indoors again, we have a LEGO model by Kosmas Santosa that should take you back to a simpler time. This brings back fond memories of making mixed tapes for that special someone in high school. It’s like the soundtrack to a time when all we had to worry about was the Cold War, MX missiles, and acid rain. Soothing, right?

If you too would like to be whisked away to a simpler time you can build your own audio cassette tape. Check out the video to see how.

Don’t look a gift varactyl in the mouth.

When you think of Star Wars, I bet your mind goes first to the Millennium Falcon and X-Wings. But that franchise has brought us just as many beloved weird creatures as it has spaceships. I mean, who doesn’t love a tauntaun? Or a rancor? And my house is full of plush porgs. But one Star Wars creature that doesn’t seem to get enough love is the varactyl, a reptavian creature from the planet Utapau. Koen Zwanenburg is attempting to make up for that with this excellent rendition of Boga, the varactyl mount that helped Obi-Wan chase down General Grievous in Episode III.

Koen began the build inspired by the NINJAGO Jungle Dragon set, and kept modifying until the results looked enough like Obi-Wan’s helpful steed. Personally, I’d never have guessed this model started as anything other than an attempt at a varactyl. The stance is a perfect match for the movie character, and the use of blue and green plant plates does a fantastic job of replicating Boga’s feathered back. In fact, the only varactyl detail that this build lacks is the lizard’s trademark cry. And, really, it’s better for it.

Lamborghini Countach: an 80s icon

The Lamborghini Countach is what I imagine when I think of Lamborghini. The trendsetter of the “Italian wedge” cars that are still the golden standard to this day, and the original 80s supercar before the 1980s. Builder Barneius Industries painstakingly recreated the Countach LP-5000, which was a popular variant produced in 1985, making it a true 80s supercar. This small, yet detailed build is in current LEGO Speed Champions scale, which is also minifigure compatible. Barneius carefully selected 325 pieces to best represent all the angles and fine details of this supercar.

A minifigure can fit in the driver seat, as configured by the windscreen piece from the Ferrari F8 Tributo set. Barneius also uses custom stickers for some of the details of the Countach, such as the iconic wheel rims. This isn’t different from official Speed Champions sets using stickers for headlights, racing decals, and everything in between. Seeing an 80s icon built from LEGO pieces makes me appreciate its more angular nature. As many curved pieces, LEGO has introduced, they can’t exactly nail some of the more recent supercars.

In other news, Lamborghini just announced a brand new iteration of the Countach to celebrate its 50th anniversary. I wonder if Barneius timed his build to coincide with the reveal…

Check out a few more builds of the Countach we have featured! If you want other Lamborghinis, we have plenty more!

Microscale metropolis is a masterpiece in minimalism

A great LEGO model is not just about building techniques or choosing the perfect part. Lighting and composition are equally important. And sometimes the unexpected little things make the biggest impact. In this skyline by Geneva Durand which is made up of a collection of mostly distinct individual elements, along with just a few small builds, the lighting is one of the best parts, as it fills the city with a sort of golden hour vibe.

I do want to give props for a few very nice parts usages. First, the bridge is made up of ice 2 axes clasped in the middle by a single Minifig hand. A roller skate perfectly fits a brick at the top and a tile at the bottom on the left edge. and right next to that is a large tooth/claw element that reminds me of that famous London skyscraper, The Shard. But my favorite part by far is the vintage sci-fi ray gun.