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 narrow miss with this LEGO Mandalorian vs Krayt Dragon

One of the main appeals of Star Wars is its homage to classic genres like serialised westerns, samurai movies, and Arthurian legends. The Mandalorian presents that very well, with the titular character being a rugged gunslinger with a heart of gold helping various people in each episode. Thomas Jenkins captures one instance during one of his visits to Tatooine where he helps defeat a massive Krayt Dragon. Presented in a simple way: the Dragon bursting out of the sand, and the Mandalorian escaping its jaws.

The Krayt Dragon is complex in its angles and techniques, but captures the organic shape of a reptilian head. The floating sand and rubble is a nice addition and conveys a sense of motion from the rising beast. But the way Thomas got the Mandalorian to float is just ingenious. Using skeleton and droid arms to create columns of smoke from the minifig that is firmly attached to the rest of the build. Just like that, these few elements capture a simple moment. In a way, it is quite minimalistic, with very little need for anything else.

See more amazing Star Wars themed builds by Thomas Jenkins here.

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This model’s the bomb (squad)

When the bomb squad has to get up close and personal with an explosive device, the technicians will don an explosive ordnance disposal suit (AKA, a bomb suit), which is a highly reinforced set of body armor. LEGO builder Djokson has crafted a high-tech version using a variety of odd LEGO parts. The black bits are mostly rubber tires turned inside out, while the top of the helmet and the chest are opposing sides of an X-pod canister from 2004. One particularly clever bit is the knob on the chest, which is a LEGO magnet held on purely by magnetism, thanks to another magnet inside the suit.

I generally pride myself on being a parts guys and can generally recognize most LEGO elements quickly. But there’s one that’s throwing me for a loop here, so I’m going to crowdsource the answer from all of you. The green ring for the neck has me at a loss. It looks very familiar but I can’t quite put my finger on it enough to locate it on a resource like Brickset or Bricklink. So leave your guesses in the comments!

Tex Wrangler hits all the sweet spots

Matt Goldberg’s latest LEGO creation is challenging me to step out of my comfort zone. I am a fan of LEGO but bionicle and technic LEGO are just not my cup of tea. My knowledge of parts in these themes is very limited too. But Matt’s creation is so damn perfect that I just have to cover it! LEGO western was my favorite theme when I was a kid and the Tex Wrangler hits all the sweet spots for me. From the spurs to the big golden revolvers to the bullet belt. The Hero Factory Chest Badge makes him look like the town sheriff and the Ben 10 flexible shoulder neck piece partly turned inside out works perfectly as a cowboy hat.

Time for some serious shredding

Radical! School is over for the day so it’s off to the skate park, as seen in this LEGO creation by Chi Hsin Wei.

What’s not to love about this? From the kid poppin’ an ollie to the stair rail grind, everything about this super rad. I especially like the detail given to the individual skateboarders. The pink socks on the girl are fantastic, as are the Converse high tops on the kid in the air. Perhaps the best part of this, however, is the ghetto blaster at the base of the stairs. For those of us who used to rule the concrete slopes, no skate session is complete without some fresh beats.

The legendary big three – the ’96 Chicago Bulls

If you were growing up as a kid in the 90’s, without a doubt you had to be a fan of the Chicago Bulls, at least I felt that way during the time. Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, and Scottie Pippen weren’t just great basketball players, they were icons of the sport and the era. Takamichi Irie brings back some of the vibes of those days through his figural LEGO builds of the dream team.

Irie shapes the bodies of the big three completely out of bricks, with musculature utilizing sloped pieces. Smooth pieces such as tiling, slopes, and 2×2 round bottom plates also help in rendering the legs and arms of the figures while articulation is provided by 1×1 modified plates with clips. The Nike swoosh on a couple of the players’ shoes are portrayed by claw pieces. The heads of the players are given some definition with 1×1 tiles and cheese slope pieces. While the bodies are blocky, human figures are extraordinarily difficult to render using bricks, especially at this scale. I believe Irie’s combination and configuration of elements really produced the closest one can get to recreating these figures in LEGO at such a size. Looking at the build as a whole, I remember the glory days of the Bulls’ past, but I am also reminded that I need to check out the Netflix docuseries on the Chi-town bulls – The Last Dance, which may have inspired these awesome models

Levitating Bonsai Balance

Ever since the release of the LEGO 10281 Bonsai tree, there have been a lot of LEGO Bonsai trees appearing on my socials. I do not recall an official set ever-inspiring so many fans to create their own versions of (except for maybe the BrickHeadz). This one by Hoang Dang is the cherry on top of the cake. Not only does it come with a custom base and pot it also appears to be levitating, hence the title.

Let’s get straight to the tree which to me is te main highlight of this creation. There are so many cleverly used parts hidden in this creation. Hoang was also kind enough to post a break down of his creation, making my life as a writer a whole lot easier. For the trunk the following pieces were used: mammoth trunks, mammoth heads and a Scala horse saddle. I kid you not. There also is a lot of attention to detail when it comes to the flowers in the Bonsai tree. The flowers appear to have 3 stages. Starting as a small bud, which slowly opens until it is in full bloom.

Moroccan Riad Courtyard

Some people do not mind having studs showing in their creations. Some people strongly dislike having studs showing in their creations. Some people, like Andrew Tate, decide to have the studs showing with a purpose. In this latest model by Andrew, the studs are meant to represent the tiles on the wall. The effect sure is stunning. I am also a big fan of mixing the different shades of blue. LEGO has been pushing out a lot of softer colors ever since the release of LEGO Friends. And it sure is nice to see these colors getting incorporated into non-Friends builds. When it came to the flooring Andrew decided to go full studs-not-on-top which means that most of the floor is held on by gravity and willpower. It must have been quite the challenge to lay this intricate floor pattern. There are a lot of details to discover and this most definitely is a creation that deserves to be zoomed in on.

That’s a lot of bull

2021 is the Year of the Ox, and to help us celebrate, LEGO builders are constructing a breadth of bricky bovines. Pistash challenged himself to use only pearl gold elements, and the result is this mechanical bull that’s actually not very brickish at all. With a mess of bars and ornamentation pieces surrounding a core frame of fence gates, this golden calf is one of the odder creations I’ve seen recently, and I am loving every bit of it.

Check out other LEGO Year of the Ox creations in our archives.

It takes a village to raise up good builders

Back when I was first exploring the world of online LEGO fandom, years ago now, one of the first places I landed was the Guilds of Historica, a medieval fantasy-based role building forum on Eurobricks. It was an eye-opening experience for me, then just a novice builder fairly fresh out of my dark ages, seeing all the incredible castles and villages that talented builders the world over had contributed. I quickly joined up and contributed my own creations, getting invaluable building and photography feedback along the way, and Mathijs Dubbeldam was one of those helpful folks giving me feedback and support. His latest build feels like a medieval piece of Ninjago City, with the blue water and grey walkway along with the tower and colorful buildings. The varied roofline and angled walkways give it a wonderfully organic feel, like a real city. Fancy a visit?

Don’t forget to browse other LEGO fantasy builds while you are here! Perhaps you’ll be inspired to build your own, especially with the new LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith shop out now.

Mooove over, Year of the Rat

As the Year of the Ox is approaching next week, Ian Hou (AKA DOGOD Brick Design) blesses us with a new LEGO creation. He wishes us a happy, healthy new year and tells us to be as strong as an ox. And thinking about the positives of having gotten through this past year, let’s look into Ian’s brick cow. All throughout you’ll find excellent part usages and slope shaping. The legs are formed by angled wedge plates and the hooves with 2×2 corner wedges. Ian also uses a 6×6 train roof for the cow’s thigh and a half arch for the subtle shaping of the cow’s neck.

Read on to see the close up details

“Houston, this is Platform 7”

From a galaxy likely not too far away comes a creation from LEGO sci-fi building genius Tim Goddard.

This is incredible. The amount of detail here is off the charts! Just look at those stairwells (yes, the external stairs and the internal yellow stairs), the airlocks, the lines on the landing pad! But that antenna on top, that takes the cake. Clearly, it can send messages all the way from Pluto to Earth.

Also, is that the Death Star as a fuel tank?

You’ve done it again, Mr. Goddard. Keep up the great work!

Breaking ground and building models

Of course on Instagram and Flickr or wherever else LEGO collections and cities are shown off, one can find plenty of completed modulars and cars, maybe even some small construction vehicles, but Fuku Saku presents us with a highly detailed model of a construction site complete with a skeleton frame of a building and some great vehicles.

Saku’s vehicles are pretty detailed and are comprised of both large and small parts; an interesting part used in his dump truck would be the battle droid arm utilized on the truck’s backend. Overall both trucks make use of bricks and wheels in addition to a lot of slopes and tiles to achieve a smooth and completed look. The building frame behind the vehicles is notably comprised of many different types of plates but also includes bricks and tiling. In any case Saku’s model is a break from the usual completed buildings.