King of Pop, Michael Jackson, is known all over the world for his unique style. From his outfits to his dancing to his unmistakable voice and catchy tunes. He was and still is an icon of popular culture. Today you’ll continue to find him all over the place, even in LEGO models. Taiwanese builder Vakaisme has paid tribute to the musician with one of his most famous dance moves. That moonwalk mechanism is indeed smooth!
Malaysian Sit Tat Wai is a newcomer to the pages of The Brothers Brick, with a debut that’s equally inspiring by day or night.
Click here to continue reading…
The mustachioed surrealist artist Salvador Dali inspired this stunningly spindly pachydermal presentation from Dutch builder Jaap Bijl. This was an entry for Innovalug’s ongoing Style It Up! LEGO building contest. This category restricted creations to maintaining 4 studs’ worth of contact with the display surface. Dali’s “Les Elephants” features just the sort of delicately balanced build many of us actively try to avoid. Thanks to the plethora of newer curved slope pieces over the last few years the Daliphant’s shape is well represented, and I’d almost wager it took longer to get the thing to safely stand in place than it did to build.
Need more LEGO Dali in your life? We’ve featured a few creations in the past, including Lin Kei’s own “Les Elephants” take which earned him a spot in the LEGO House’s Masterpiece Gallery.
While you’re enjoying mechs, Star Wars, castles, Classic Space or whatever else amuses you here on Brothers Brick, here is a rather cute, rather chibi RoboCop. It was built by John Cheng and acts as a reminder that we should probably rewatch that 80’s gem now that we have a lot more time on our hands. Resistance is futile. I mean seriously, you should rewatch it.
But before you do, here is some other stuff of John’s that we liked.
Some of the best LEGO builds are the ones that move without moving, and like a picture, say a thousand words. This monochrome scene by Duncan Lindbo is one that says it all. A giant, insect-like robot, loaded with guns aimed at a sliver of concrete brick wall? I’d say we know how this one turns out, but maybe we’ll give that little guy a chance. He’s obviously doing something right if he survived this long…Then again, somehow that curious head tilt makes the mech look kinda cute. Maybe we’ve got it all wrong! Maybe it just wants to play! But either way, with the bullet holes on the ground, and the crater in that wall… Yeah, my money’s on the bug.
This creation wouldn’t be the same if it was in full color. There’s just something about monochrome. Click this link if you want to see a few more single-color builds.
Have you ever had the kind of day where you end up in a muzzle and straightjacket chained to a handcart? Hannibal Lecter certainly has. For those too young to know what this is about, he specializes in the kind of culinary delights that would warrant the aforementioned muzzle and straightjacket. My spot-on Hannibal Lecter impersonations are probably what ended a few relationships in college. Some people just don’t know a good thing when they have it, right? But skcheung730 is clearly a LEGO builder after my own heart…or liver. This clever creation is just brimming with quiet menace. In their Flickr photostream I’ve also spotted a BrickHeadz Ghostface from Scream and Chucky from Child’s Play. Skcheung seems like just the type of builder I’d love to have over for dinner and maybe pick their brains over their great techniques. Whaddaya say, SK? I’ll provide a fine chianti, you just bring your marvelous scrumptious self.
Today we get to see one of our favorite LEGO artists might have fared as a more traditional user of ink and paper. We’re quite familiar with the work of 2016 TBB Builder of the Year Grantmasters as a LEGO artist: sometimes it’s an adorable kung fu panda, other times it’s a lifesize steampunk pistol, or even primeval anatomy. Grant is a master of scale and always brings excellent, inventive parts usage to the table.
As related by the builder, this “drawing” is meant to represent the start of the drawing process, the rough shapes and lines only just starting to come together as opposed to a completed, clean rendering. Swooping curves are achieved with whips, katanas, and even a high-pressure sprayer.
Call it fate, call it karma, call it luck…whatever name you hang on it, destiny is a force to be reckoned with. And while it can be a scary thing, it can also be beautiful. I mean, just look at First Order LEGO‘s Hand Of Destiny. This monochromatic vision in bluish-grey LEGO may not evoke feelings of giddiness, but it still is a lovely thing to behold.
There are a lot of great textures in play in the base and fingers, but to me the real star of this build is the tree’s foliage. Those are hundreds of 8mm wheel rims. If you look very closely, you can see that they’re attached using various 1×1 clip plates. There has to be some very interesting architectural support hiding under those rims, too.
I’m always struggling to find good uses for all the LEGO wheels that accumulate in my parts bins. Maybe the techniques in play here can help inspire some creations of my own. And if not, that’s got to be the case for some other builder. Destiny demands it!
This LEGO render by Steven Howard is a stunning sight to behold. The lighting, the dark shadows within the room, the textures, the central figure peering out into the brightly lit exterior are all handled beautifully. Buuuuut the title and the shackle around her ankle clue us in that not all is right with this. Steven tells us that he supports an organization called Rapha International that helps children who are being exploited and trafficked in Cambodia and elsewhere. Obviously, this is a subject close to Steven’s heart and if you’d like to help in some way then visit rapha.org to learn more. He’d also like to encourage other LEGO artists to build or render something that brings light to a cause you believe in and to use the hashtag #buildabetterworldwithlego. Who knows, doing so just might make this world a little better in some way or another.
When you’re traversing the unstable surface of an alien world, it’s important to have appropriate transportation. Luckily, SweStar has provided us with the rover we need to navigate transparent green rubble. The rear wheels are paired to offer steering control, and toothed for peak propulsory power. The front wheels, on the other hand, are smooth and broad for stability and speed. Riding high above the ground, our exploring hero is safe and sound, confident that the sensing sensors will sense any danger, the grabbing grab arms will grab on to anything that needs grabbing, and the slick hull will ensure that striking alien assailants will slide right away.
Symmetry in art is a funny thing. It is the cause of much disagreement. Some find it fascinating and perfect, while others see it as unnatural and repetitive. I fall squarely in the first camp. I find symmetry and the attention to it in art to be fascinating. Two of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick, deal heavily in symmetry to great effect. Builder Markus Rollbühler taps into this form with great aplomb and gives us a LEGO creation that is quite beautiful and fascinating to examine.
At first, I thought perhaps there was some visual tricky going on here, but closer examination reveals this to be a fully realized, symmetrical model brimming with detail. There is some really fun parts usage, like Minnie Mouse’s skirt for the planters in the front and those beautiful purple potion bottles. The treasure chests as table legs are another nice touch. It should also be noted that those brick walls aren’t just stacked bricks! They are actually tiles placed on SNOT (Studs Not On top) pieces, providing a much more dimensional and realistic look to the walls. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go stare at this photo some more and revel in the perfect symmetry of the world between those walls.
Minnesotan Hypolite Bricks gritty Coruscant Level 1313 diorama exhibits his penchant for dynamic, textured LEGO dioramas.
For those not familiar, Star Wars 1313 was a promising but ill-fated video game focused on the darker underworld of the Galaxy Far Far Away’s capital planet Coruscant. The concept has recently been revived on the final season of The Clone Wars. This model appropriately features Imperials, aliens, droids, Quarren and Twilek artwork (ads or graffiti?), and -of course- death sticks. There are some neat greebling and detritus strewn about, and you can imagine the sort of shady dealings going on in each alcove.
Check out prior featured works from Hypolite Bricks like the N1 starfighter in Rebellion hangar, and the bounty hunter attack on Republic senators. In all models, you can really feel the hustle and bustle of the “used universe” that is so instrumentally Star Wars.
