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.

Bonding over Modulex

When taking a deep dive into LEGO history, you’re bound to run into Modulex – a spin-off line from LEGO started in 1963. Designed for architectural planning, these tiny bricks can be hard to come by–but they certainly do work well to create images of the workplace. Elspeth De Montes noticed two of the human figures in this classic line were also very reminiscent of another classic series. Naming this image Good Morning Moneypenny transforms this well-built office into a tiny slice of life from a James Bond film.

My favorite detail is Moneypenny’s computer. I’m certain the Modulex team didn’t have a desktop workstation in mind when they made those parts!

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We haven’t seen the last of Darth Maul just yet

I had such high hopes for Darth Maul. Everything from his double lightsaber, to his black hooded cloak, to his red and black tattooed face, exuded seething menace. However, just as quickly as he was introduced, he was sliced in half at the waist by Obi-Wan. He was fighting like a boss right up to that point but then it was like he forgot his super-jitsu skills for a minute there. Just like Boba Fett’s unceremonious demise, I was rather disappointed in how Darth Maul went down and imagined him piecing himself together again to seek unholy revenge on those Jedi do-gooders (and it seems those running Lucasfilm/Disney agreed). Apparently Jarema had a similar notion for the fallen Sith Lord that takes an even more menacing stance.

Here we see a shirtless Darth Maul flexing his Deltoids, his snarling face like some kind of voodoo tomato. His bottom half is a horrific mechanical six-legged spider body with each leg terminating in a sword blade. A complex network of chains seem to fuse his upper and lower body together. The end result is madness, which incidentally is what the builder calls this piece.

Have carrots, will travel

Sometimes something so different comes along that you can’t help but smile. Oliver Becker calls this “The Wandering Temple of the Last Flame” but I call it the coolest mode of transportation ever. Speed, performance, practicality, safety; all are unimportant when you’re riding in this much style. This viney bit and this other leafy bit make for excellent gold filigree while the sloping roof and red and black color scheme embodies an exotic Asian feel to the traveling temple.

The pièce de ré·sis·tance, however, has to be the tortoise’s head which utilizes a Euripides Galidor torso. See, we all chuckled when the infamous Galidor sets came out but who is chuckling now? Still us, but for different reasons.

It turns out, this is far from the first time Oliver has made us smile or even chuckle. Be sure to check out his previously featured Donald Duck roadster and fabled stork creations for more whimsy and wonder.

Build, plug, work

On a day like today, when most of my colleagues are on their annual vacations, I dream about a desktop assistant to help me with all the increased workflow and put a positive spin on the daily grind. Now, I know exactly what I need: a cute VectroCo. SMILEY office companion as designed by Djokson. The inner structure of this tiny robot is nothing out of ordinary among the similar LEGO creations, but there is a lot of character in this build. Its funny face peeking through the blue screen, cute pointy ears and its natural posture create an image of a very joyful and chatty colleague. But, of course, the best thing about SMILEY is that it can be plugged into a USB port. Obviously, a USB Type-C connector is the one that you’d expect in 2019, but, well, it is just a prototype.

This Crossy Road-inspired claw machine will grab you

If you’ve spent any time in arcades, you’ve likely been tempted by those crane games where you can win a handful of candy (or sometimes bigger prizes). H.Y. Leung has taken that temptation to the extreme by making their own working version from LEGO bricks.

The base of this build is 80×64 studs (roughly 64×51 centimeters); pretty close to 1:1 scale to a real-world crane game. The arm design comes from LEGO set 42043, the Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3245, with a modified claw. The first control on the left side rotates the arm left and right, moving it through a 200-degree arc. The next three switches handle positioning of the boom and outrigger and opening and closing the claw. To the right of the controls is a slot that accepts tokens, and a switch to activate a pneumatically-controlled horizontal security bar, intended to keep people from reaching up and into the game when it’s not in use.

This claw-machine creation incorporates just a touch of non-LEGO parts in the custom plexiglass, external air compressor, and edible treats. I personally would have liked to see this machine filled with LEGO parts, but I suspect bulk candy is a lot cheaper to refill it with.

Speaking of arcade games, the colors are inspired by the prize machine in the mobile game Crossy Road. Not familiar with that machine? Happily, H.Y. has also recreated a LEGO version to add some context. I like the inversion of the red/yellow styling between the two games.

In space, no one can hear you scream, unless you are in a TIE fighter

Nyeeeeyaw! C’mon, you know what I mean. Any Star Wars fan will have to admit to swooshing their TIE Fighter toy through the living room making that signature screaming sound of the Empire’s mass-produced cheap and disposable one-man flying coffin. This midi-scale replica by Pascal Hetzel has a ton of great parts usage packed into a compact design.

Pascal uses some of the newer curved wedges to sculpt the cockpit, and the two solar panels manage to capture the look of its on-screen inspiration without being too bulky for its scale. I have to admit that I would love to see the entire line-up of TIE Fighters in this same scale…

Mr. Potato Head butters our nostalgic appetites

Things that entertained kids in the ’50s were simpler. The original Mr. Potato Head came with accessories but no plastic potato body. Since potatoes were a staple of the American diet back then it was assumed each household had scores of actual potatoes you could pin plastic eyes, noses and ears into. Complaints of rotting vegetables and stricter food safety regulations put a kibosh on all of that and so Hasbro began including the plastic potato body within the toy set starting in 1964. Modern diets have changed, and thanks to my ever-expanding, aging waistline, I have not had a heavy starch in my house in maybe years. Mr. Quinoa Head or Mr. Tofu Head just doesn’t have the same ring to it but thankfully Elijah Bormann buttered our nostalgic appetites with this LEGO version of the iconic toy.

If you liked this you should check out Elijah’s other stuff as he tends to tickle one’s nostalgic fancy. Mr. Potato Head’s silly face takes me back to a simpler more care-free time when…whether fried in oil, baked with butter and chives or roasted and seasoned with salt and rosemary, I could eat potatoes with impunity. Man, I miss potatoes!

GLaDos is doing science and she’s still alive

GLaDos is back and she’s serving up some vengeance on Chell and Wheatley in this Portal vignette by hachiroku24. Way back in 2007, the video game industry was taken by storm by Portal, a mind-bending game that pitted a human test subject against technology run amok. A sequel followed in 2011 and the series proved popular enough that LEGO included it as a playable world in LEGO Dimensions, even producing an official Chell minifigure and the beloved Weighted Companion Cube. Hachiroku24 has taken that Chell minifig and built this spot-on recreation of a scene with the evil GLaDos and Portal 2’s friendly AI, Wheatley.

GLaDos is perfectly rendered here utilizing a variety of visible Technic parts to create that feeling of exposed machine technology. The hoses and wires are especially effective and add a touch of realism that make the whole machine seem plausible. I’m very fond of the combination of pieces used to create GLaDos’ elegantly curved “face”. Comical sidekick Wheatley, in contrast to his larger relative, gets a similarly ideal treatment but using only a small number of parts. As a builder, I like “breaking the square” so I really love the use of hinges and angled plates to create a more irregular shaped base for this scene. Although 12 years may have passed, thanks to hachiroku24, GLaDos is still getting the science done for the people who are still alive.

The future of space travel is looking good

We have already seen one Tesla launched into space last February when the SpaceX Falcon Heavy blasted off, but it looks like this super-sleek personal spaceship by GolPlaysWithLego just might be a Tesla from the future, that has traveled across time and space from a human colony on Mars. This stylish ship is the perfect blend of form and fashion and is full of great details. One of my favorites is the revolver between the two rounded white accents on the front.

The model makes excellent use of one of the windscreen parts from the Speed Champions theme. I honestly can’t decide whether I like the slim contours of the body more or the fin-riddled engine assembly. In any case, this is one sleek spaceship.

Need to take on something big, green and angry? Build your own Hulkbuster! [Instructions]

If LEGO instruction builders could be ranked, Hachiroku24 would be close to the top — both for his designs and the videos he uses to share those designs. His most recent set of instructions comes from the armory of Tony Stark: the Hulkbuster. This well-designed, fully articulated and heavily armoured power suit is a well-balanced build as well as an easy to follow instruction guide. Each section is beautifully structured, incorporating a great array of plates with ball joints and bars to give this Minifig scale behemoth some excellent functionality. The mid section, where we find the flat silver ingots and printed 1×1 half circle tiles really does it for me. It’s not just that silvery band of simplistic greebles, but the pivot articulation from the waist up.

See step-by-step instructions on how to build your own Hulkbuster

A chicken walker just waiting for Ewoks to crack it like an egg

Despite the vehicles from the Star Wars movies being built time and time again, from endlessly re-hashed official sets to uncountable builds from the LEGO community, sometimes a fan creation comes around that makes you say “Wow.” This Imperial AT-ST by GolPlaysWithLego is one such build, capturing the likeness of the scout walker impeccably. The hips have the wobbly look that is so distinctive of the aptly-nicknamed chicken walker, always sorely lacking in official sets, yet it still seems solidly put together while maintaining excellent proportions — it’s certainly the best I have seen.

See more of this excellent LEGO Star Wars AT-ST

Two tapirs to tickle your fancy

Animals always makes my day just a little brighter. My case in point, Marco Gan has built this pair of endangered Malayan Tapirs (Tapirus indicus) and I am tickled pink…or tickled black and white as it were. The adult looks dashing with its striking black and white piebald pattern but the baby steals my heart away with its horizontal stripes. The artist palette in green make for excellent lily pads while a nearly hidden pushbroom and paddle heads adds neat textures to the jungle flora. Marco tells us that in the Malay language, the tapir is commonly referred to as cipan, tenuk or badak tampung. No matter what you call it, this duo just might be the best thing I’ve seen all day, and I’ve seen a guy in an inflated dinosaur costume bouncing on a pogo stick.