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.

Microscale temple is a miniature masterpiece

When building microscale, you need to look at parts a little differently, as evidenced by the very creative collection of curved and angled parts Nannan Zhang used on this Japanese castle. Front fenders, rear spoilers, and other small black parts usually found on cars create a tiered roof that reminds me of Nagoya Castle. A trio of cheerleader pom-poms make perfect cherry blossom trees, while a hot dog is used for a small arch. Almost as interesting as the castle is the green and gray landscape it sits on.

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Out of the Mouth of Sauron

You ever ask yourself “what if Lord of the Rings was a space epic?” Well, builder Steven Wayne Howard certainly entertained the thought. Another SHIPtember contribution, this space citadel was named for the dreadful Mouth of Sauron. Commanded by the lieutenant of the Barad Dur system in the Middle Space galaxy, this terrifying craft laid waste to planets and systems in the name of Sauron’s dominion. With a face like that, it’s no wonder it’s rumored to be the remnants of the galactic tyrant himself. The mouth, spinal cord, and brain are now repurposed under the watch of the black hole known as the Eye of Sauron.

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A ship of rafts among the raft of SHIPs.

The annual LEGO fan celebration of SHIPtember has drawn to a close, and that means we get to revel in some really great, and huge, spaceships! My personal favorite this year is the B.O.A.T. by Julie vanderMeulen. This Blockade Out-runner Agricultural Transport is more than just 102-studs of streamlined goodness, it’s also a really clever way to make use of all those rubber rafts that pile up in your collection. Julie describes their use here as “24 individual bulk cargo pods…capable of delivering anything from apple pies to live zebras.” Also noteworthy is is the use of old Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze printed 12×3 wedges. It’s apt, as it’s also very cold…in space.

Spaceships come in all sizes, too. Check our our archive of awesome LEGO spaceships for even more out-of-this-world creativity.

“Choose the form of the destructor…”

Brent Waller is no stranger to LEGO Ghostbusters builds. After all, it was his LEGO Ideas Ecto-1 project that brought the license to LEGO in the first place. When Brent saw the Harry Potter and Hermione Maxifig set, his mind began to ponder what other licenses could benefit from the Maxifig-style of building. And, of course, he couldn’t help it. It just popped in there. Something he loved from his childhood. Something that could never ever possibly destroy us. Mr. Stay Puft. And, unlike the Harry and Hermione Maxifigs, this build is to scale with the rest of the license. That’s because Brent has upscaled the LEGO Dimensions Stay Puft minifigure to a size more suitable for a climactic third act showdown on the roof of a skyscraper, which makes me want to build one of my own. In hindsight, we can all be grateful that Ray picked Mr. Stay Puft as the form for Gozer, or Brent might have been stuck building a giant LEGO J. Edgar Hoover.

Sometimes you just gotta make sacrifices around here

The kind of sacrifices we make nowadays involves a shorter lunch break to get more work done or maybe even buying a less flashy car in order to help put the kiddos through college. In the world of ancient Mesoamerica, however, sometimes their sacrifices involve blood, really cool pyramids, and serpent gods. Captainsmog has pieced together a LEGO creation called Sacrifice to Quetzalcoatl. With the dense jungle, imposing ziggurat, and the charming flying serpent it’s every bit as majestic as the name would imply.

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I have your word, now... not a scratch

When Lando promised to bring the Millenium Falcon back from the battle of Endor without a scratch, he pretty much guaranteed something would get knocked off. And sure enough, this minimalist model by Miscellanabuilds shows the Falcon barely escaping the destruction of the second death star in one piece, let alone scratchless. The model captures the details of the much larger exhaust port perfectly, while the microscale Falcon looks great, even without her signature deflector dish. The only thing missing is the enormous burst of flames that nearly cooked Lando’s goose.

I’m down with the swirl

At a quick glance, you might see this as a charming little fantasy LEGO microscale scene. And you’d be right in that assumption. But upon closer look, that is when you realized Tom Loftus has done quite the clever thing. He has used plastic dragon trim from the Raya and Sisu Dragon set to emulate swirls on the water. The two pieces are supposed to be removed from the foil along their perforated edges, but he has left the part intact in order to create the swirling river effect. I entirely overlooked the set for having pieces seemingly useless to my needs but Tom’s clever use of interesting parts has me rethinking that strategy. It just goes to show that even the most seemingly undesirable piece can be put to clever use in just the right hands. Check out all the other times Tom has dazzled us in one way or another in our archives.

It’s hammer time with this mech

Keith Espinoza has built this bold warrior mech, complete with the armaments of a hammer and shield. The guardian has a great colour scheme with subtle hints of turquoise and warm yellows. The head’s round shape is created by the use of a life ring which is partially hidden under the crest of the helmet. Elegant curves are shown along the border of the shield, possibly suggesting that the mech might even be a type of royal knight. The hammer looks ready to do some serious damage with its curved hook on one side. Probably best not to get on the wrong side of this mech or you might be in trouble.

The death of a fruit

Anything can be a LEGO creation, as proven by this little scene from byggi_l which depicts a fruit salad being created in what can only be described as a brutal manner. The anthropomorphized fruit look on in horror as the apple comes to an untimely end. The fruit themselves are simple little builds that employ modified Lowell Spheres to make their rotund, studded shapes, and the eyes and facial expressions are perfect. I can’t help but be reminded a little of those Veggie Tales videos I watched as a kid.

This 21,000-piece LEGO spaceship is almost too big for its own good.

They don’t just call it SHIPtember because it’s a time to build spaceships. It’s about a Seriously Huge Investment of Parts. And this spacefaring fuel tanker clocks in at more than 21,000 of ‘em. Even for a digital build, that’s a huge investment. In fact, the build is so big that builder ReD M’s computer almost couldn’t handle it. Attempts to render the image resulted in some programs crashing. Thankfully it all worked out, and we can admire all the work that went into this behemoth. I love how the orange and blue work as accent colors against the largely gray spacecraft. And there’s so much detail. There’s barely a surface on this ship that isn’t decorated with a bar or a clip or a paint roller. No wonder the computer struggled to bring it to life.

Tonight’s the knight for love – the love of a good fight!

Return to the distant past of 2004 and the theme of Knights Kingdom II with King Crusher – a hefty brawler of a character created by djokson. The most impressive trick in this build has to be the usage of King Mathias torsos for the Crusher’s giant fists. But don’t overlook the shoulder armor that forms the chest, or the protruding jaw made from a 2×2 spoiler brick. Yeah, this is one fighter who’s earned their crown – and is ready to tackle anyone who might even dream of taking it from them.

There aren’t a ton of entries in our archives yet for Knights Kingdom themed builds, but we can only hope this creation will stir other builders into a renaissance of clever part usage and brawling armored bruisers!

Blown away by this windswept floating castle

Floating rocks have become a staple of fantasy world-building, but this floating castle, designed in LEGO by Matthias Bartsch is a standout example. The castle itself, perched upon it’s levitating rock, is nicely detailed, and successfully pulls off the twin magic tricks of looking larger than it really is, and using grey, sand green, and dark tan parts without looking like a poor man’s Hogwarts. However, what really sets this LEGO creation above and apart from similar creations is the framing architecture to either side and the decision to include autumnal trees and scattered leaves. The resulting image goes beyond the typical fantasy model, conjuring up a feeling of windswept melancholy. The scene is a digital render, but Matthias says he’s only used bricks which are available in these colour combinations — great work.