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.

Classic space never looked so..... long

LEGO themes present creative builders with endless opportunities to mash multiple themes together into the ultimate, ultimate LEGO creations, like zombie pirates, zombie army, zombie spaceships, and zombie cowboys. (what is up with this guy and his obsession with zombies? I blame Halloween). Anyways, back to mash-ups, this wonderful SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) by Hans Dendauw brings together the fan challenges of SHIPtember and Novvember (an homage to the Vic Viper, one of the racing spaceships from the 1995 video game Gradius, distinguished by a two-pronged fuselage), and does it all in Classic space style. Benny would be proud.

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First to the flames

Fire engines are serious business, with each one being built to the specifications of the fire department placing the order. When building a LEGO version of a fire apparatus, you almost have to see it in person to analyze all the details that make it unique. Last year, Sven’s vacation in New York City landed him the opportunity to ride around in the Harlem Hilton firehouse’s Engine 69. The experience left such an impression on him that he had to make his own version of the truck and, as you can see, it is packed with plenty of detail. The proportions feel just right, as does the greebling of the gauges and switches. Finishing off the model are some phenomenal custom decals, allowing the LEGO truck to faithfully represent its real-life counterpart.

Flipping the engine around reveals that Sven’s model can be appreciated from multiple angles. The only thing that’s missing are some minifig firefighters! Perhaps they’re taking a needed break from fighting fires to fire up the grill and eat some burgers.

Using LEGO to show the inner workings of fear and anxiety

It might be an accurate statement to say that Jason Allemann is having the best month ever. First he was our keynote speaker at BrickCon, where he also designed the commemorative model that we featured here. And now he…or rather JK Brickworks, has completed a series with this model. Why the distinction? Jason is merely the “J” half of JK Brickworks. “K” stands for Kristal and she is the driving force behind this model that is the final part of a trio of sculptures that explore the human mind. The first model, which can be seen at The LEGO House in Billund, explores the mind of an artist. The second sculpture explores the mind of an engineer. This third sculpture, however, might be the most therapeutic for a lot of us. It delves deep and gives us a peek inside a tortured mind.

Click here to delve deeper.

The late 90s called, and Tony Hawk wants his video back

Skateboarding video games may have fallen out of favour since the heady years of Tony Hawk’s regular domination of the console charts. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have fond memories of practising ollies and flips for hours on end, with sore thumbs our only risk versus real-life skater injuries like broken wrists and shattered elbows. It seems Nick Jensen also has a soft spot for skateboarding videogames as he’s put together a LEGO version of one of Pro Skater‘s key collectible items — the hidden VHS tape which featured in every level. The tape is nicely done, built to scale with a real VHS cassette (although how many of us still have one of them lying around to check the measurements?!) The light-up frame is perfect, a smart re-creation of the highlights around the tape in-game. Sweet building dude.

Rocket man, burning up his fuse out here alone

LL166, this is Moonbase Control, you are clear to begin your approach…

Time to run through the LEGO Classic Space checklist: Transparent yellow canopy? Check. Blue body plating with light grey greebly-bits? Check. Yellow and black striping? Check.
And yet, this spaceship by ZCerberus manages to look fresh and new whilst still complying with all the Classic Space “rules and regs”. That’s at least partly down to those twin engines, with the cogs in the mountings implying the thrusters can rotate, making this a neat little VTOL craft. The fuselage angles are sharp too, with more than a little whiff of an Apache helicopter, making this look somehow dangerous despite the lack of obvious armament.

Chugga chugga choo choo! All aboard this awesome LEGO train display!

When I was a kid, I loved riding in the car on the way to my grandma’s house, watching the railroad tracks that were along the highway for much of the way. It was the peak of excitement when I saw a long freight train chugging along, with what seemed like miles and miles of boxcars or coal cars or tanker cars. The best part was always the graffiti on the sides, full of vibrant hues and indecipherable words. The trains I saw were all diesel, as I am waaaaaaaaay too young to have seen steam engines out there in the wild, but I did watch a lot of Shining Time Station on TV, so you might say I am an expert. One can learn a lot about trains from Thomas the Tank Engine! One could also learn a lot about trains from Alexander, I bet, based off this huge display that he and his crew put together for a LEGO show. It’s got everything, with every sort of train, houses, roads, terrain, and even a massive roundhouse. Check out this slick shot of two engines rounding a bend; they’re so pretty!

Click to see the full display

Lazing on a sunny afternoon

We’re big fans of the stylish architectural LEGO creations of Swedish builder Sarah Beyer. She has a knack of turning our favourite plastic building material into classy modern homes we’d love to live in. On top of the undoubted building skill on display, the presentation of the models is always immaculate. This image of her newest build is a case in point. It showcases the use of textured bricks and tiles to create a smooth-yet-detailed look, and the quality photography is reminiscent of imagery you’d find in a high-end homestyling magazine. Who wouldn’t want to spend a few hours lounging in those chairs, enjoying a cup of tea and taking in the garden view? Lovely.

V is for Visitor, and Virtual, and Very Nice

Nostalgia time! Let’s travel back to the early 1980s and the classic sci-fi TV mini-series V. If you’re unfamiliar, the basic plot is that friendly human-looking aliens visit Earth. Yep. Just some run-of-the-mill totally benign alien pals. Totally legit. The fact that any more summary would require a “spoiler warning” tag should give you an idea that things go downhill from there. But I digress. We’re here to look at a great LEGO creation, after all. Huw Gwilliam has recreated the iconic Visitor Tanker Shuttle. This sleek craft has lines very similar to the Eagle-One from 1975’s Space: 1999. What? You haven’t seen that show either? *sigh* It’s probably streaming somewhere. Go watch it. You’ll be glad you did. Even if 1999 didn’t play out quite the same way in our reality.
Anyway. Huw’s model. It’s cool. Check out the Technic toothed plates in white on the cargo pods and in grey in the landing gear. The custom graphic work on the windows, Visitor logos, and minifigures is also top-notch.

Retro-TV-Space is totally a theme, right? Because I could sure use more of this sort of thing.

What is this, a mall for ants? It has to be at least...three times bigger than this!

When laying out my list of things I would love to build someday from LEGO bricks, a shopping mall would be far down the list. Just kidding, it would not make the list. Malls are good for one thing, in my opinion, and that is serving as locations for LEGO stores. However, if a shopping mall wanted someone to build a LEGO version of it, and was paying for it, I’d be all over that. And that is what happened for architectural wizard Rocco Buttliere. He built this stunning layout of the Hawthorn Mall, showing the expansion that they are planning to do with mixed use commercial/residential units. It looks sleek and epic, and dare I say sexy, despite being a mall.

See details of the mall below

Tim dropped a Deuce and a Half

The M35A2 is a powerful military truck aptly nicknamed the “Deuce and a Half” for weighing in at two and a half tons. However Tim Inman’s rat-rodded version has shed some considerable weight. It’s been lowered, chopped, channeled, stretched and bobbed (removed second rear axle). The result is a mean rat-rod that loses its military function but retains its color and some of its prior identity. Maybe it’s more of a peace offering now?

But before you go thinking such silly ideas a rear view reveals a gas can, fifth wheel for towing and a skull taillight cluster letting any would-be peacenics know this ratted-out deuce still means serious business.

Who says electric vehicles are slow?

Building fast cars in LEGO has always been a popular theme, and that only sped up with the launch of the Speed Champions theme. And while the creation of racecar models isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, there are some LEGO fans giving this genre a serious boost. One such builder is Malte Dorowski, whose newest model off of the assembly lines is this beautiful Porsche 99X Electric. I am a big fan of the 3-color scheme in stark black, white, and red, with my favorite part being the front fenders made from panels found in 1980s and 1990s space sets.

A LEGO builder builds a LEGO builder building LEGO

It was a pleasure to meet Jason Allemann a few weeks back at BrickCon. He was our very funny keynote speaker and if you don’t know him by name, you may certainly know him as the builder who specializes in feats of engineering such as his now famous Sysiphus model and the two times his LEGO Ideas submissions became actual sets; once with the 21305 Ball Maze and the 21315 Pop-Up Book. If you were lucky enough to attend BrickCon this year, you may have had a chance to get your grubby little mitts on the exclusive convention model, which is of this LEGO builder building LEGO, built by Jason, also a LEGO builder. See, it’s totally meta! Like all of Jason’s models, movement is a key feature with this one. You turn a crank and this little fellow toils busily on his LEGO model of the BrickCon logo.

Also, if you happen to have a Power Functions motor you can hook that bad boy to it and this little guy will really cook! But don’t just take my word for it, watch this build video of the designer building the model, then later hooking up a motor to it. Brothers Brick’s own Chris Malloy did the graphic design for the packaging. Neat!