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.

An icebreaker, but not the desert-island-album question kind

I have an icebreaker for you. No, I don’t mean one of those icebreaker questions like “what is in the trunk of your car right now?” (Eldritch Horror game, reusable shopping bags) or “what childish thing do you still do as an adult?” (Well, duh!). I’m talking about a roughly 2,000 piece LEGO Antarctic icebreaker built by Luis Peña. This is the new icebreaker of the Chilean Navy, currently under construction in Asmar, Talcahuano, and should be set to sail by 2022. Equipped with two SH32 Cougar helicopters, it will be the most modern icebreaker in South America, and the largest and most complex ship ever built in Asmar. The ship itself still has no name, but the project is called Antarctica 1. Perhaps they will let the internet decide a catchy name for this vessel. I mean, what can go wrong?

Oh, I thought of an icebreaker question that I can’t see backfiring in any way: Which Brothers Brick contributor annoys you the most? What can go wrong, indeed?

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Looks like Voldemort learned Diminuendo!

It appears that He Who Must Not Be Named has few more unusual spells to use, and he’s got the heroes of Hogwarts down on their luck. These tiny characters by LEGO builder gonkius are the perfect representations of their larger selves. How many pieces do you need to build a great character, after all? It looks like the answer is about seven, and they couldn’t be cuter! The use of the rollerskate wheel for Harry’s glasses is particularly inspired.

And just in case you’re still struggling to figure them out, from left are Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Harry, and Hedwig. Honestly, I’m kind of wishing the official LEGO microscale Hogwarts Castle had used these!

Fight the power! Protest tyranny! Remember the fallen.

Two hundred years ago on August 16, 1819, eighteen persons lost their lives when British yeomanry hacked through a crowd of protesters with their sabers. The event was named the Peterloo Massacre, which Dan Harris has built in lovely LEGO form for our edification on its 200th anniversary. The crowd had gathered to protest the Corn Laws, tariffs on agricultural products that helped powerful British landowners by keeping prices high but hurt common British folks who bought food by…keeping prices high. As an American, I appreciate the sign that says “Taxation without representation is unjust and tyrannical,” as that sentiment was instrumental in our own protest movement against the Crown several decades prior. But unlike the British subjects in the American colonies, the poor folks of Manchester (where the protest happened) did not get to see an increase in liberty; ironically, the massacre of innocent civilians by out-of-line cavalry resulted in more crackdowns on reform (until 1832, when reform laws were passed that finally gave them representation in parliament).

Nothing needs to be changed in Dan’s build, however. The most striking thing about it is the excellent minifigure posing, coupled with an abundance of angry and scared flesh-toned faces. The layering of the figures and the angle of the shot give the impression of a large crowd as well as the panic engendered by a charge of horses and sabers against unarmed civilians. The man laying down in the middle of the front of the build seems to be breaking the fourth wall and entreating the viewer for help, too. As far as the LEGO build goes, the buildings in the back look great with their cheese slope roofs and nicely textured walls. The best part, though? That has to be the Star Wars helmets used backwards for the women’s bonnets; it looks perfect, almost as though it was designed for that purpose rather than for an Imperial pilot. It is perhaps slightly ironic that the women wearing the Imperial helmets are the ones being attacked by uniformed soldiers of the Empire, a reminder to all of us to stand up to those in power in defense of what is right and just.

Why don’t you come along with me...on a Magic Carp(et) Ride

LEGO builders have often explored the theme of “speeder bikes” – flying motorcycle-esque vehicles with a grand and glorious racing tradition. (Or, for those looking for the possible origins of the trope, a callback to the forest chase scene in Return of the Jedi. Although usually built in minifigure scale for maxium swooshability, there’s no reason that one couldn’t make a larger version. In fact, Eero Okkonen has done just that in Kiirus Ögonblick and The Carp Speeder, mixing skill in large figure builds with…a fish. Not just any fish, though, but a carp. A blue and orange, jet powered, mechanical-hybrid carp….Because why not?

See more of this fishy speeder bike.

The devil’s in the details. No, wait. That’s just a chicken.

In many fantasy tropes there’s that moment where the heroes gather to set off on their grand adventure. Maybe it’s in a tavern, maybe it’s the king’s audience chamber. Sometimes it’s in a mystic glade or just a chance encounter. If you’ve seen this scene once, you’ve seen them all. However, what you might not have noticed was the world happening around the heroes. There are common folk who exist outside of the main narrative, living their fantasy lives as best they can. ‘Sergeant Chipmunk’ brings us a LEGO moment in time that captures the momentous as well as the mundane.

This epic recreation of Deep Space Nine is so huge, I can practically fit inside!

Ok, so not quite, but it is approximately eight feet in diameter, and I am only a little over six feet tall, so it is bigger than I am. And if I curled up around the central core between the docking pylons, I could probably fit. Thus, the title is not entirely hyperbolic. But I could wax hyperbolic about the eponymous space station from the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine, built by Adrian Drake from over 75,000 pieces, including an absurd amount of dark bluish grey. It took over two years to build, and I can see why.

We came, we saw, we kicked its bricks!

When there’s something strange in the LEGOhood, who you gonna call? Darren Thew, that’s who! The Ecto 1 has been modeled in LEGO bricks many times before, but Darren takes things to a new level with a massive version of the beloved vehicle from Ghostbusters. He has taken great care in striving for authenticity, from every minute detail on the roof to the use of System and Technic parts to form the curvaceous shape of the retrofitted 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor.

See more of this ghostbusting ride.

Life, uh, finds a way...to eat you.

Even before LEGO’s recent release of 75936 Jurassic Park T-Rex Rampage, dinosaurs have been a popular subject for builders. ZiO Chao has apparently found the historically-based thunder lizards a bit too tame, though. Why just recreate a single species when you can add in a bit of mad science to remix the most fearsome aspects of three of them? ZiO has combined the raptor, T-Rex, and spinosaurus into a reptilian death machine named Spino-Tyraptor. This model is highly poseable, including some creative arm joints using pneumatic T-pieces. The head is expertly shaped, and the use of a spoiler for the tongue really works well.

Just as nature intended, the most eye-catching part of the creature is the fin. Carrying the dark red of the head along the spine, it reaches up with brighter reds highlighted with grey and orange 1×1 round plate and capped with quarter-round coral tile. We may not know what the true function of spinosaurus’ fin was, but I’m guessing here it’s a combination of threat display, heat regulation, and wi-fi antenna. Hey, if you’re going to genetically mix something like this, why stop at what nature thought of?

Hovercars don’t have to be bright to be beautiful

Visions of the future have been promising hovering cars since the 1960s and we are still waiting. But with LEGO creations like this hovercar by GolPlaysWithLego we can imagine ourselves whooshing down the floating freeways of tomorrow in style. Rather than build a flashy, bright-colored hovercar inspired by the video game franchise Wipeout, this one is made using monochrome shades of spaceship gray, and it looks great. The way the windshield part fits so smoothly into that arch, it’s like it was made just for that purpose.

What’s grey and green and shaped like a rover?

The answer is this awesome LEGO Classic Space-inspired vehicle by Alec Hole. Boasting an incredible 32 wheels across 8 axles, this monster moon buggy is one of the greebliest vehicles I’ve seen recently. (If you don’t know what greebles are, be sure to check out our glossary.) Alec says he was inspired by a similar-looking vehicle by Piotr Turecki, which was built using a 1980s palette of LEGO elements. All I can say is, I would have killed to have this thing as a kid.

This construction pod just might ruin your bacteria

As contributors for TBB, we see a lot of very interesting LEGO creations, and their sources of inspiration are as diverse as the parts used to build them. If you were to ask what the most unusual source was, I would have to say that real-life viruses would be near the top of the list. Take this model by Dwalin Forkbeard which depicts the AP32 Phage, of the Tectiviridae family. You don’t have to know what this means to appreciate Dwalin’s masterful construction using a bunch of the Nexo Knights hexagonal panels to craft a near-perfect sphere. But if you are curious, a phage is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria. Sounds like the stuff of nightmares.

The pod also features several manipulators in three different designs to help the pilot complete its assigned tasks. The interior is surprisingly roomy, despite the use of more panels loaded with instruments.

If you like Dwalin’s Phage model, check out another virus-inspired creation we featured previously on TBB.

It’s a wild, wild life with these jaw-dropping LEGO jungle animals

Travel deep into the jungle and pay a visit to its denizens with City Son‘s stunning LEGO wildlife model. Tigers, parrots, a mandrill, and even a skunk inhabit this overgrown temple.

Figural modeling has always fascinated me. I am always blown away by builders who can create organic models that really capture the essence of living creatures. This is a prime example of how to do it right. Each animal on its own would be a model worthy of notice. Combine them together with some beautiful scenery and you have something truly spectacular.

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