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.

Your studs are showing

While some LEGO builders want to hide the studs on their LEGO as much as possible to create a smooth-looking creation, Luka often has their studs on display to add texture to their creation. The studs are not only facing upwards; they are facing right, left, and center. The effect is quite nice.

One thing I always struggle with when building with LEGO is making trees. Luka reminds us that it doesn’t always have to be a struggle. The trees in his build are quite simple but also quite stunning. There are a lot of droid arms used in this creation for various purposes; for the roof of the house and the base of the trees. Fun thing, in both situations, they are meant to represent wood. It is nice to see that the wood for the roof was probably bought locally, which has to be better for the environment. The foliage of the trees is made by using flower stems with and without leaves upside down.

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The last (tiny) homely house east of the sea

Rivendell – the mention of the name already evokes a feeling of home. A location in J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it appears as a sanctuary, a last respite to characters who are on a journey into “the wilderness.” Builder Elias (Brickleas) built the Last Homely House in all its peaceful glory in microscale in just 100 LEGO parts. While the elven buildings are tiny among the large cliffs, they are instantly recognisable thanks to clever parts usage.

I love the way Elias uses books as the angled roofs, and one stickered book is actually very fitting here. It is the Red Book of Westmarch, the book that Bilbo Baggins wrote during his retirement in Rivendell. The battle droid torso also works very well, since its skeletal nature represents the open-air feel of those buildings. I found the small waterfalls very impressive, using Hero Factory claw pieces which perfectly hug the large wedge used as a cliff. Elias perfectly demonstrates that when building something with a small number of parts, use the best parts.

This alternate model is ALIVE – Johnny 5 made from a 42100 Liebherr R 9800 Excavator

Making alternate models from released LEGO sets is a challenging hobby, but Rogel Dela Fuente (RJ BrickBuilds) takes things to an impressive extreme with their transformation of a 42100 Liebherr R 9800 Excavator into Johnny 5 of Short Circuit fame. This is more than just a static creation – RJ has made a Johnny 5 that is truly ALIVE.

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Because flying fish are the best kind of fish

True story; one of the best days of my life involved flying fish. I was in the Navy and got reassigned to gyro school while we were deployed out in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of waiting until we pulled into port, they hired a small craft to meet our ship. I was (carefully) hoisted over the side, and onto the craft. Usually, the captain gets a series of bells to announce his or her arrival and departure. Little enlisted schlubs like me didn’t get the same treatment except during our final departure from the ship. So they rang me off with bells and headed for shore. Here’s where the flying fish came in, jumping over the craft in droves as we sped through the water. I felt like freakin’ James Bond on a special mission! Once on shore at Panama City, Florida, I was reverted back to common schlub transportation but for an hour or so, I felt pretty special. Thanks for the memories, James Zhan! It would have been extra-cool to depart on a piloted flying fish like this.

A mosaic as proud as a peacock

One of the coolest things about LEGO building is how it can cross over with other art forms. This stunning mosaic by Deep Shen was inspired by a cross-stitch pattern. Translated into LEGO, it uses about 6,700 pieces to cover 160×104 studs (that’s about 50 inches x 32 inches) and took two weeks to build. The end result was definitely worth the investment in time and parts, as it really captures the majesty of the peacock.

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When remote learning is really, really, remote.

LEGO Master Builder Tyler Clites dips his toe into FebRovery waters with his Space School Bus. Tyler’s image description gives us some nice context for the theming – “I think having a kid has me thinking less about weaponry and more about the more mundane details of life in space.” Mars is far enough away for socially distanced learning, right? There are a lot of great details to enjoy here, but my favorites are the smooth curves in the rear cabin and and the dark red structural beams. And those frying pan details in the center of the layered wheels are just *chef’s kiss* levels of quality.

If space school busses aren’t your jam, then maybe you’ll like this awesome chopped rusto-mod version from our archives!

Nothing a coat of paint won’t fix.

There’s a lot going on in this sculpture by Adam Betts. Gravity defying, drippy, creepy, and undeniably imaginative, Paint Pouring On A Minifig Skull is a creation that deserves a close look. I like how the underlying skull is a great match for the suggested bone structure of a minifigure head, and how the fondant-like paint overlay perfectly captures the “skin” and facial features as the paint covers the superstructure. The suspended paint bucket is also well done, and I love the tiny touch of the banana splashes.

If you like this build, be sure to check our archives for more skullful creations.

Working telescope built from LEGO

LEGO is truly beautiful in the way that it allows people to recreate real-world objects with both form and function. LEGO themselves have made working models of a grand piano and a Nintendo Entertainment System. Builder Victor continues the trend by creating a working telescope in the same style, though slightly smaller than life-size. Needless to say, it is welcome to see such objects completely remade from LEGO bricks, especially ones that function.

This model telescope works the same way as a real life one – peeking through the eyepiece lets one see the stars and planets, though not the real ones. Victor solves this problem with pictures printed on small window pieces backlit by a light brick. This imitates LEGO’s light projection techniques in their official sets like the Stranger Things: Upside Down and the Haunted House. Victor also provides four separate interchangeable prints, one of them being an easter egg reference to LEGO’s own Bionicle theme.

A vintage racer from automobile history

Back in the 1920s and ’30s, when Ferdinand Porsche and Enzo Ferrari were not heads of exotic sports car companies but mere racecar drivers, Mercedes-Benz pushed the limits of racing using supercharger technology developed from airplane engines. One sports car that utilized this enhancement was the Mercedes-Benz SSKL of 1931, which LEGO Technic and Model Team expert Pawel Kmieć (Sariel) faithfully replicated. This old roadster jumps out from black and white photographs with a clean white livery, custom-chromed parts and the laurel wreath of champions.

Pawel is a master of building accurate vehicles that are also packed with functions. He includes everything an essential large-scale LEGO vehicle needs: suspension and steering. In addition, he often crams the body of these vehicles full of LEGO electric motors, allowing remote control. This display model becomes a real-life racer, pushing a top speed of 5mph. Watch Pawel’s in-depth video of the build process, and the speedy drive outdoors.

Check out more builds depicting LEGO Mercedes-Benz vehicles!

The unknown horror

Sometimes you don’t have to understand exactly what you’re looking at to appreciate how awesome it is, and how well-built it is. This LEGO creation by Bart De Dobbelaer is called the Glarburg Horror, and I think it fits into that category. Bart’s written a short story on this Lovecraftian monstrosity, but I’m afraid I’m still no closer to figuring it out. Nevertheless, I like the repetitious use of elements on the “creature” to create an unnerving texture. Meanwhile, the broken stone columns have an almost technological feeling, while the whole scene is subtly overgrown with sickly black shoots made mostly of connected droid arms.

Keep out Inky and Blinky

One of the things I love about writing for The Brothers Brick is that I learn something new with every article. For instance, I never knew the ghosts from the arcade game Pac-Man had names. Apparently, they do. In this creation by Mikael Montelius Inky and Blinky are featured. Inky is the blue one, Blinky the red one. Somehow LEGO is a great medium to make 2D Arcade Games come to life. One of the things that always amazes me is how perfectly the 2×2 curved slopes fit together to make a (half) circle. These pieces are used to create not only Inky and Blinky, but also our beloved hero Pac-Man. I’m also a fan of the use of dark blue and black tiles to create the maze on the floor of this creation.

LEGO Ideas reveals 21326 Winnie the Pooh 1,200-piece set, bringing Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and more [News]

Today LEGO has revealed the latest set from its Ideas crowd-sourcing platform. 21326 Winnie the Pooh will feature the popular characters from A. A. Milne’s book series along with Pooh’s home under the tree in the Hundred Acre Wood, as interpreted by Disney. The set will include five characters: Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, and Eeyore. The 1,265-piece set is slated to be available for LEGO VIP members starting March 18 with general availability on April 1. It will retail for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99. Be sure to check back for our full, hands-on review of this set, which will be coming very soon.

The Winnie the Pooh project was created by fan Ben Alder in March of 2019, and hit the requisite 10,000 votes in July of that year. It was approved by LEGO in February of last year, joining the Medieval Blacksmith as the two projects from the first 2019 LEGO Ideas review to be turned into official sets.

Having a hard time keeping track of which LEGO Ideas projects are coming? The Winnie the Pooh set is the first to be revealed of the 8 approved projects we covered last month: Upcoming LEGO Ideas Projects.

Click to see more images and read the official press release