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.

But... will it blend?

Isn’t it funny that kids use LEGO bricks to build things that don’t exist in our world, but adult fans adore brick-built models of real-life objects? This pretties kitchen blender by Joffre Zheng has no ion engines, no laser guns, and does not breathe fire; still, it instantly captured my attention with its clean, neat look. And I know its secret! Did you notice the new corner bricks with bow 2×2? These are perfect for smooth transitions between vertical and horizontal surfaces. Although the bowl’s design may not be as perfect as the rest of the blender, I haven’t seen anything similar before. And now, here is the question… will it blend?!

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.

A little light amidst a lot of dark

Is it a Tim Burton movie set? Is it a miniature fit for a museum about Medieval times? No, it is another fantastic creation from Ralf Langer. Ralf always surprises us with his super realistic medieval Tudor-style buildings. His creations are filled with tons of interesting techniques which he kindly reveals in tutorials not long after posting a creation. His latest model is called ‘A light in the dark’.

As far as I can tell Ralf didn’t use any special lighting to make the archway light up. He created the effect by using a range of yellow tones amidst a lot of grey, dark grey, dark brown, and black. The effect looks stunning. Another effect Ralf managed to get across beautifully is the calm after a storm. The streets look like they are covered in puddles. This is achieved by using chain link for the pavement. The puddles are made with black brick shapes which are placed between the chain links. The difference between the textured chain links and the smooth bricks really looks like rain puddles.

The T-70 X-wing of Poe Dameron’s dreams

There is always one LEGO creation where it’s “love at first sight.” You never expect that build to leave you breathless, but when it does, it does. This UCS-scale T-70 X-wing by Jared Reisweber is the one that stole my heart. Instantly recognisable from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this massive model is the most accurate representation of Poe Dameron’s starfighter that I’ve seen so far. It helps that this build is larger than it appears, capturing even the tiniest, most intricate details, and replicating the complex shapes and curves, which even the best of builders struggle to get accurate. Sometimes all it takes to build the perfect X-wing is to go big or go home.

Click here to get a closer look at the starfighter…

Waia Konekta

Joss Woodyard shows us that he is not afraid of using color in his LEGO creations. His creation titled Waia Konekta is very vibrant and lovely. There are a few parts in this creation that are used very creatively. The wire connector is used to create a grass necklace of the Waia Konekta. Next to that the wing with feathers gets used quite a lot in a range of different colors. It is used in the grass skirt and in an elaborate headdress. The use of the 12 tooth gear for teeth is quite ingenious, and there is just something about those eyes. They appear to follow you, and it looks like the Waia Konekta can see straight through you. Did I mention this creation reminds me of the mask in Crash Bandicoot?

Cable Clip Chameleon

Builder Joss Woodyard has made a chameleon out of LEGO and it’s simply a small work of art. There are a lot of axle connectors used in this build for the tail and the spine of the creature. I love that it manages to stay true to the color scheme of an actual chameleon. White wedge plate create gaps that resemble the mouth and there is great part use with the pumpkin part used to portray the characteristic eyes which bulge out the side of their head and appear to swivel about in all directions.

Parfait por favor

Nobu Tary makes us long for summer with their latest LEGO creation. This built doesn’t use a lot of pieces and it is actually fairly small. The main piece in this creation, which is used beautifully, is the Ninjago tornado spiral. Which works perfectly as an ice cream coupe glass. The white swirl towards the bottom looks like slowly melting ice cream dripping towards the bottom of the glass. The classic baguette piece gets used as a ice cream wafer stick which to me is just brilliant.

Ten years of Ninjago in a single build

How’s this for dedication? Lee Chi Wing (city son) binge-watched all 14 seasons (160 episodes) of Ninjago to make sure the stories and characters were represented correctly in this amazing tribute. The build itself was accomplished in just seven days, too. Take a little time and treat yourself to a close look at this masterpiece.

Who can you spot? Can you name everyone? Identify the seasons? Want some hints? Lee Chi Wing has you covered with a host of images as an answer key!
Continue reading →

From animation to automata [Video]

In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge studied animal locomotion and took a series of pictures of a trotting horse to see every phase in a stride. How? He placed 24 cameras around a racetrack, each 27 inches apart. As the horse trotted past, a tripwire each shutter was snapped. Combined, those pictures became a precursor to motion pictures, and technically, the first GIF. In honor of this, Tobias Munzert has built a mechanical LEGO version that gallops in stride with the original animation.

The mechanics are timed really well to get that genuine look of a horse in motion. If you look closely, you can see that even the head pushes forward slightly. You should also take a closer look at the excellent parts usage on the neck, head, and feet!

While you’re here, check out some more cool horse builds, and other mechanical models.

Functional Febrovery

Febrovery – the annual event where people build space rovers from LEGO. I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) couldn’t say no to building a wheeled space vehicle this month. However, I decided to take a different approach: make it move, make it work, and make it Technical. The result is the Horizon Chariot – a massive, greebly shuttle transporter in a LEGO Classic Space livery. On the outside, it looks like a jumble of layers and pipes, but it’s merely a shell for a complex Technic frame with a working four-wheel drive with a double V8 piston engine, working steering, and soft pendular suspension. My favourite feature turned out to be a working tipping flatbed which launches the small LL-64 Arcade Hopper.

The spaceship belonging to the Horizon Chariot was more of a distraction than an afterthought. I wanted to incorporate a NinjaGo arcade pod into the build as the blue airtight section of Classic Space vehicles. I found it was too small for a big vehicle so why not make a smaller vehicle as part of it? That’s how the aptly named LL-64 Arcade Hopper was born. I just couldn’t stop myself from building a spaceship! With swing-down wings and a smooth underside, it’s really a step away from my usually greebly builds, but it turned out to be a beautiful two-seater shuttle.

Check out the Flickr album to see more photos of the rover and the spaceship!

A plucky little space patrol craft

Flying through space is not at all like dusting crops, junior. While any self-respecting spaceship tasked with defending a planet wouldn’t be seen without a decent cannon, there are other dangers outside the safety of the atmosphere. Alvaro Gunawan knows about some of these dangers, like solar radiation, and maintaining full power at all times, so they equipped their patrol ship with shields, solar fins, and a couple of big engines. This craft even looks like something NASA or SpaceX might come up with… maybe we’ll live to see something like this sweeping the space around our little rock someday.

You see cake, I see ghosts

There is a neat LEGO part that comes with the Friends Baking Competition set as well as a couple of others. It’s the 2×2 cake topper. Most of us see that part and may likely use it for what it’s intended for; a cake bit. But Seung Hun Park saw it as something a bit more unsettling. He artfully constructed a Candle Ghost using the cake topper as melted wax. It’s as is Lumière from Beauty and the Beast had morphed into something from Silent Hill. The single eye on each candle and the tongues made from minifig flippers make for a nice, creepy touch.

Lighting up the bad guy, in the future

While the future sure looks bleak in cyberpunk LEGO builds, and the entire genre of cyberpunk in general, it still looks awesome. There are all the greebles a space-lover could imagine, atmospheric lighting, folks with strange hair; what more could you want? Sebastian Bachórzewski delivers a great example of this, using some third-party lighting elements in a brilliant way (yes, that pun was deliberate) to set the mood. And the posing of the minifigures is excellent, with the two of them in mid-leap, blasting away with their guns. It reminds me of a still from The Matrix, which makes sense, since that was also cyberpunk.

It looks even cooler cropped closer, filling the screen with all the LEGO awesomeness and revealing the cinematography behind the build. And while you’re here, you should look at our collection of LEGO Cyberpunk builds.