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.

Mum says it’s my turn to fly the X-wing!

It seems that Star Wars is experiencing a baby fever. We’ve had enough of surprise fathers, sisters, and *tries not to throw up* grandfathers, so I welcome the new and unexpected. Recently a certain cute green gremlin took pop-culture by storm, and replaced Minions as the default for Facebook mom memes. It’s 2021 and I still see the words “chiccy nuggies” and “choccy milk” in the same sentence. But whatever, babies are cute. Andreas Lenander has caught the bug and built a babyfied X-wing and some baby rebels.

All jokes aside, I really like this babyfied idea for being a new unique take on Star Wars. Just a few weeks ago I wrote about a small build by my friend Ross, where baby Greedo confronts baby Han over a bottle of blue milk. And Andreas’s build is really well done. The walls of the Yavin base offer plenty of variety in detail to keep it from becoming bland and boring. Andreas keeps the X-wing as accurate to the source material as he can, despite the small size. It’s a really difficult ship to get right, even in larger sizes. So big applause to Andreas, he won me over with this build, and not because of the babies.

Caught the baby fever? There are some more baby creations to see…
Or had enough of babies? Check out Andreas’s other builds that we’ve featured. No babies in those, I promise!

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And boy, have we patented it!

Every year on January 28, we celebrate the day the LEGO brick was born. On that day in 1958, LEGO submitted the world-famous patent for the new brick design. Despite having an iconic meaning for the worldwide community, so far, hardly anyone has tried to recreate the document with plastic bricks! BrickinNick is here to fix the situation with an awesome rendition of one of the patent’s pages. A flat “paper” piece includes all the notes and comments combining both brick-built and printed ones. But the best part, of course, is the 3D bricks in various angles and cross-sections. Nick perfectly captures different drawing styles on the patent documents, like crosshatching, placing plates the other way around. The contrast between the surfaces is spot-on, and I wish a model like this one would be turned into another LEGO House exclusive set.

Not your average farmer’s market

No matter what day of the week it is, it’s always nice to go to the local farmer’s market. Not only are the food and goods top-notch, they also have a nice atmosphere. Not unlike Andrew Tate‘s village grocer, which has a charming house rather than tents and food stalls. No doubt the fruits and vegetables sold outside in crates are locally grown, given the small-town feel of the build. The ground floor has a small convenience shop, and the rest of the house must be where the owners live.

Andrew pays homage to a more famous LEGO grocer, a popular Modular Building set from 2008. The green and tan awning is similarly to the blue and white awning of the LEGO set, and both share the same white Fabuland lamp-posts. Andrew also references LEGO’s Winter Village series with this village grocer’s alpine architecture. It fits right in there, minus the cold and snow. Come to think of it, what’s Winter Village like when it’s not winter?

Surfer bike pays homage to a pioneer in LEGO racing

As a 90’s kid, I have an unironic love for early 2000’s LEGO products. The classic trendsetters, Star Wars and Harry Potter are well-liked. Others, like Bionicle, may be questionable by some but have their niche following. And then there are Galidor and Jack Stone, which most of the LEGO community looks down on. I love it all since it shaped my childhood and adulthood, and I’m thankful that builders like Djokson feel the same way. His latest creation, Smog Ocean Surfer, looks like just an ordinary, colourful sci-fi bike and rider. It doesn’t have anything to do with the themes I mentioned, right? Maybe a reimagining of Roboriders? Or maybe it’s more obscure…

I hope I wasn’t the only one who recognised the blue and yellow colour scheme with the grey, monster-like, and cute rider. I’m surprised I remembered the long-forgotten Xalax racers… This build is a reimagining of 4567 Surfer, a set from the first wave of LEGO Racers back in 2001. These small Xalax racers were LEGO’s answer to Hotwheels and similar McDonald’s Happy Meal toys with their outlandish nature. With their element and weapon-themed colour schemes, They felt like a non-Technic successor to Roboriders. The pilots were small, goofy chibi monsters were head and shoulders, and the cars had a slammer system to launch them.

Some assembly required indeed

I was an avid model kit builder as a teenager and young adult. There’s one hobby that brought my model building days to an abrupt end and that involved the rediscovery of LEGO. Still, it’s neat to see a builder like Kale Frost illustrate the love for my old hobby with pieces from my newer one. The cutting mat, paint tubes, pencils, the Exacto blade, even the plastic parts on the sprue are all built from LEGO. With sanding, gluing, and painting there certainly were a lot of steps involved in building models. I still have a few kits in my art room closet. Perhaps this might inspire me to rediscover the hobby. If not, it at least provided fond memories of building models in the basement while listening to my parents’ Black Sabbath tapes. Yes, I said tapes! And Black Sabbath. And parents.

Spending quarantine in outer space

I think everyone can agree that when lockdown started last year, it was the best time to get out our LEGO bricks and start building. I mean, what better things are there to do? You might as well build something big like a spaceship! That’s what Italian builder Tommaso Ferrarese did, with his aptly named FR2020 Quarantine.

This spaceship consists of over 4000 pieces in Classic Space colours, and is suited for prolonged voyages in the distant reaches of space. The double large windscreen gives the two pilots plenty of social distancing room to spend a long time in isolation. The two massive engines have enough fuel to last… however long lockdown goes for. I certainly wouldn’t mind spending lockdown inside this ship, as long as I have some LEGO pieces to build with!

Check out some more spaceship creations that people built during lockdown!

We come from the land of ice and snow...

Back in 2005, LEGO came up with a stunning Vikings theme that captured our imaginations for years afterwards. I wish they would (ahem) revisit the line again (ahem). Are you listening, LEGO? I wish you’d revisit the Vikings line. (Cough, cough COUGH!) Pardon me, it must have been one of those dry prickles you get sometimes. Anyway, Ivan Martynov takes us back to a simpler time when I had other haircut options and the world seemed full of possibilities. This stunning Vikings-inspired Krakenveiðar creation looks like it would be fun to play with. That’s because it is a reimagining of a prototype of a set that never came to be. He even used the Vikings logo of yore. Care to have your minds blown? Check out the prototype. Care to have your minds blown again? Then check out the other times we totally freaked out over Ivan’s stuff.

A breath of fresh air. Sorry. I meant fire. A breath of fire.

Transparent LEGO elements are the best LEGO elements. Fight me. Or better yet, fight this amazing flaming dragon by Markus Rollbühler . Using only 64 bricks, this is one build that’s hot hot hot. The flame elements in the wings are easy to recognize, but there are also some more uncommon parts in there, too. Look close and you can spot a saw blade in the base, snakes, more snakes, and a minifigure flame headpiece.

This is an entry into the third round of this year’s RogueOlympics, a contest that challenges builders to stay under a 101 part count. We’ve seen a lot of really clever creations coming out of this competition, so check our archives for even more featured builds!

Time with a child is time well-spent

As a parent, I love spending time with my kids. Builder Felix Jaensch‘s “Orang-Utan with Child” creation is a beautiful tribute to those who play with LEGO with their kids.

There is so much that I love about this. Let’s start with colors: it’s incredible how accurate the orangutan is, with the parent having orange marking around the mouth and the child showing lighter colors. I’m equally stunned at the layering Felix did in replicating fur with bricks. It looks so real!

The tree itself is worth mentioning. Small color splotches help identify the tree as being in a weathered environment.

I hope to see more amazing builds like this from Felix this year!

Greek Revolution or bust!

Our readers of Greek descent can rejoice. Talented LEGO builder George Panteleon is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the 1821 Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire in style.
Theodoros Kolokotronis was a prominent military leader and one of the key figures of the Greek Revolution. Frankly, I had to Google him but once I did I had learned that George’s rendition is spot on! The mustache, long gray hair, and helmet are particularly inspiring but my favorite detail is the gold filigree on his jacket. He tackles the gentle slope of the shoulders; not an easy feat in LEGO. Even his epaulets accurately depict the gold lion crest that the real revolutionist wore. George is well-versed as a builder and no stranger to our pages. Check out our archives to see for yourself.

Jammin’ with an 80’s icon

There are very few things that are more “Classic 80’s” than the WALKMAN. When it came out, it was the birth of compact tech that allowed you to easily bring your music with you anywhere. We take it for granted today, but it was fairly novel at the time. Along with it came a new era of music. Digital recording allowed for electronic effects, which has shaped the majority of popular music today. LEGO builder Jarek Książczyk (Jerac) pays homage to one of the icons that started it all, with this excellent scale model of the Sony WALKMAN.

What makes this retro build most awesome is the fact that the player opens up to hold a “cassette.” Additionally, he snuck in some electronics to make it seem like it actually is functional.

While you’re here, check out some of Jerac’s other great builds, including Mando’s Razor Crest!

Who knew you could build big spaceships all year round?

Most people who have spent much time around the LEGO fan community have at some point encountered the phenomenon known as SHIPtember, that crazy building challenge every September to construct a spaceship that is at least 100 studs in some dimension (a SHIP being a seriously huge investment in parts). But what if it isn’t September, and you only want to build a spaceship that’s exactly 99 studs in length, featuring copious amounts of teal? Well, then you must be Markus Rollbühler. And then you build something like the Liu’s Inspiration to celebrate your new challenge month, MARCHtember.

Yes, I know, MARCHtember doesn’t make sense. Markus knows it, too. But it gets the point across, I suppose. And speaking of points, the large disassembled lime catamaran hulls make for some great greebly forward bits. And then there’s the teal: teal hot air balloons, and teal 3×3 dice, and just too many other teal elements for Mark Stafford’s peace of mind. But it couldn’t be inspired by Simon Liu without teal.