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.

Snow Piercer, but this time in space

You don’t normally think of “round shapes” as a highlight of a NoVVember Vic Viper, but Sheo, as usual, refuses to be bound by conventional building styles. The Blue Piercer is a twin-fork starship with enviable curves. My favorite detail is the thin Technic pulley tires nestled inside arch bricks. I also like the small detail of the half-circle tiles, adding another subtle bend to things. And those rear thrusters are pretty sweet, too.

If you like your spaceships (and other LEGO creations) with a heavy dollop of curved building, then be sure the check out the other creations of Sheo’s that we’ve spotlighted.

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A turn of a wrench and a dollop of grease et voila!

LEGO creations are true to the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” in that they can tell amazing stories without any text. And even though Bart De Dobbelaer has provided a story alongside his creation, this one can speak for itself.

The backdrop of rusty and grimy metal – effortlessly conveyed with simple colour choices (dark grey metal, dark orange rust, and sand green algae) – tells you a lot about where we find ourselves. This isn’t a peaceful, pristine repair shop. No, it’s a rough and tough place. Those walls have seen some stuff. The bold colour choices extend to the numerous bots as well, with their rusty metal frames being complimented by a smorgasbord of fun parts usages in red and yellow. If you’re a LEGO parts monkey like me, you’ll have a heck of a fun time trying to identify everything used to build these bots. Lost in the chaos is the titular repairman himself, doing what he can to strap these bots together and keep them running. While I have hope he can fix some of these robot folks up, the story might not have a happy ending for all of them, as the smattering of loose yellow and red parts tell the story of those bots that didn’t make it to the party.

A LEGO Master’s medieval masterpiece

Former Swedish LEGO Master Peter Ilmrud is known for detailed, colorful, and occasionally intricate works of art. Often times his builds feature subject matter of fantasy and bygone days. It’s hard to choose, but I think I enjoy his microscale castles best. This will be featured in a LEGO brand retail shop in Sweden, and it’s easy to see why.

The build catches the eye and takes you on an adventure from sea to castle spires. The real triumph is the parts usage in the castle itself. For the most part, the techniques aren’t new, but when they all come together the result is beautiful. I particularly like the techniques used on all the towers, especially stacking modified round plates and tiles back to back to achieve windows and the “stone” look. I also admire how the central helmet piece connected to the lantern element creates a particularly striking feature.

You can see more builds by Peter in our archives. While you’re at it, check out all the incredible previously featured builds in both the microscale and medieval categories.

Hang a left at the giant anemone

LEGO fan themes come and go, waxing and waning with the tides. But sometimes they burst back up from the ground like the nightmarish worm they are. The Black Anemone by Sebastian Arts (Aliencat!) harkens back to the simpler times when the old gods roamed the Earth. This build features organic curves, a splash of red in the extended tongue(?), inverted LEGO tires…everything you could ask for in a subterranean monster. But there are two small details that make this build fun for me. First is the LEGO minifigure skull cradled in the rings of the beast like a tiny teddy bear of death. The second is the road sign advising a hard left hand turn. That’s one detour that I think most people would be happy to take.

It’s been a few years since our last spotlighted Black Fantasy creation. Could this be the beginning of a revival? If so, is that a good thing? I’m honestly not sure.

Burnouts in the parking lot

Living near a school that hasn’t housed actual kids in several months, I am sometimes subject to seeing or hearing vehicles doing burnouts in the school parking lot. It’s a bummer because usually, the vehicle in question is a big honkin’ pickup truck with flags supporting a certain recently ousted public figure. I’d be slightly more thrilled if the neighborhood nuisance had a vehicle that looked a bit more like this LEGO chopped drag rod by Faber Mandragore. I love the use of Modulex bricks in the building in the background. The plate-built smoke plume is so convincing, I can just about hear the squeal of burning rubber on asphalt. No, wait, that’s actual burning rubber outside. It seems our neighborhood nuisance is back! While I deal with that, go ahead and take a gander at this builder’s archives.

Wonder what the tide will wash up today

One benefit of setting up your post-apocalyptic outpost on the beach, aside from the abundant food source of the ocean’s bounty, is the wondrous things that wash up in the surf. In this scene by Tom Loftus a lone soldier stands watch as the low tide washes in. The outpost is built from shipping containers, which are plentiful if you live near a major shipping hub. The model is part of an iron builder challenge using a dark red Minifig shield part, which you can see in the timbers of the bunker half-buried in the sand.

Dystopian novels are so 1984.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Conventional wisdom says “no,” but John Snyder may have a different opinion. The elegant book binding here is complemented by some slice-of-life details that are every bit as charming. This creation is part of the Iron Builder contest, and this round focused on the challenge of incorporating modified 2×3 plates into the build. We can see them in action in the book bindings on the cover, and in the dark red flowers. The golden carriage wheel on the cover matches the yellow centers to the flowers as well as the gold coins, but did you know that the black cloth bag there is (probably) also a LEGO element? It looks to me to be a Wolfpack Pouch. Now there’s a part you don’t see every day.

If you’re in a literary mood, why not check out our book archives? You just might learn something new!

In space no one can hear you hiss

Do you know what’s scary? Velociraptors. While the Tyrannosaurus is all teeth and ignorant brawn, the Velociraptor is a smaller, nimble and cunning creature capable of working together to hunt down kids in a laboratory. At least that’s what Jurassic Park has led us to believe anyway. Bob DeQuatre takes the already scary raptor and puts it in a spacesuit; one with opposable claw finger technology. You may as well just kiss your tookus goodbye by this point. Not only are the kids toast but the director and camera crew won’t be around to make the slew of blockbuster sequels. It’s a bummer, really. But all kidding aside this is a really cool idea. I particularly like the expression of the raptor’s face under the protective space dome.

He may be Gandalf the White, but he’s looking rather grey today

Tragically underused in LEGO builds is the immersive, cinematic shot. Sure, it’s vastly easier and faster to build a vignette, or a stand-alone building, but I deeply admire builders who can move their creation beyond plastic bricks and into an entire world filling the frame. Nathan Smith is one of those builders, playing with light and camera angles to put the viewer in the scene in a believable way. Are there many mind-blowing building techniques on display here? No, not really, though that door does look quite nice. But nothing is out of place, with meticulously arranged leaves and crates, and the smooth walls of the citadel allow the lighting effects to shine. And shine they do, illuminating a ruminating Gandalf perfectly.

Love LEGO builds inspired by The Lord of the Rings? Then check out the TBB LEGO Lord of the Rings archives. They’re epic!

Save money on flowers to buy more LEGO

I think most of us will agree that a nice LEGO set or custom creation can spruce up your interior decor quite a lot. I personally am also a fan of adding flowers to my home. After all, they look good and they smell good. However, after about 10 days they have to be replaced and they cost quite a lot of money. Money I could also spend on LEGO. James Zhan offers a solution to this problem with his lovely creation called ‘Flower and zen’. And to me, the title says it all! Now all I have to figure out is how to get my LEGO to smell like flowers.

Do what must be done

Any time I see LEGO creations relating to Order 66 from Revenge of the Sith, I feel the emotional tension rising. As painful as it is to see clones turn on their former Jedi comrades, you have to admit that builder First Order Lego does a painstakingly good job at depicting the ultimate betrayal.

From the clones’ march into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to the younglings hiding in the background, this build perfectly captures the epic darkness of the moment. The only word I have for the level of detail, especially in the Holocron bookcases and the statue work, is beautiful.

Oh, and did I mention that this build is literally lit?

A morning in Paris

Start off the day by taking a stroll through the colonnade, grab a croissant and magazine from the newspaper stand, then head down to the underground metro. Now I could spend an endless amount of time imagining that I’m walking around in this LEGO modular row by Jean Macou. This delightful set of buildings is like Parisian Restaurant meets Assembly Square, but with an unlimited budget. Each building is more decked out than the next. Some of my favorite details include the gold and nougat color palette on the pub and small restaurant at the front. I’ve also been eyeing that sand green masonry brick building to the right and its gorgeous white trim and tan ground floor.

Remove the floors to peek into the detailed interiors of the build. Here’s an inside look of the pub– its layout and color scheme achieve a next-level realism for architectural builds.