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.

Don’t eat purple mushrooms unless you are a certified mycologist

I suspect that any self-respecting mycologist would eschew chewing on any purple mushrooms; a bright color like that probably screams “I’m poisonous!” That’s not to say a purple mushroom is not edible. All mushrooms are edible, after all; it’s just that some can be eaten only once. This purple mushroom mansion built by Jaap Bijl can be viewed as many times as you like but, like a real purple mushroom, I would not recommend eating it – ABS plastic doesn’t go down easy. Built for the Parts Festival hosted by our friends at New Elementary, there is an abundance of lovely parts usage, as well as plenty of Jaap’s favorite color, purple.

In particular, the new projectile launchers make for nice columns to flank the stairs. You’ll also find some stars, hearts, and splats for flowers and archways, and who doesn’t like some clever carrots in builds? The large flowers to either side give the scene some scale; either the house is small, or the flowers are huge! I like to imagine that there are little imps or faeries about. There seems to be a budding theme of tiny fantastic creatures growing, with some recent examples here and here, and I am a big fan.

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Hunt for pirates on the HMS White Card

When I was a kid, pirate ships (as I called all boats with sails) were one of my favourite things to build with LEGO bricks. While I thought mine were OK, I wish I’d been able to jump forward in time and see some of Gerard Joosten’s ships, especially his HMS White Card.

While childhood me and adult Gerard’s ships are similar in that they start at the bottom with boat hull pieces, that’s where the similarities end. Though we’ve featured his builds before, Gerard pushed himself to take his shipbuilding to another level with this one and it shows. The two aspects that jump out the most to me are the shaping of the hull and the intricate rigging. Those large sails, coupled with small details like the brick built wooden stock on the anchor cement the HMS White Card as quite the stunning ship.

Not a drab grey brick in sight

If there’s one thing that sets today’s LEGO elements apart from those of the past, it’s the wide range of bright colors found in modern sets; they expand upon the original LEGO primary color palette with stunning diversity. Many of these colors are only available for a limited assortment of parts. This digital model by Pau Padrós uses some great new parts like this brick with a half arch first released in 71043 Hogwarts Castle, and this rounded brick in colors LEGO has not released yet, but we can hope that maybe someday, they will. The model features an angled facade and plenty of unconventional construction that orients the LEGO stud in several directions within a single structure.

Nevertheless, Warsaw persisted

It’s safe to say that Warsaw was a dangerous place to be in 1944. Already oppressed for five years by both Soviet and Nazi forces, the Warsaw Uprising was the resistance movement led by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate the Polish city from German occupation. This Home Army mostly consisted of volunteer civilians and a faction called “the Gray Ranks” who were merely the Polish equivalent of young Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Despite being severely outgunned and outnumbered, the Home Army fought like the damned and while eventually obliterating 85% of the city’s structures, Nazi forces didn’t quite establish a comfortable foothold there. What I find particularly intriguing about this build by H2brick is instead of a sprawling World War II layout, he offers just a well configured slice of what it must have been like to be in Warsaw at that time.

The wide black band flanked by two rows of 1×2 Medium Dark Flesh plates establishes a solid stand for the scene and I rather like how some of the 1×1 bricks and tiles along the stairs and wall are not quite clicked into place, thus offering a more broken, haphazard texture to the terrain. The advancing Nazi forces clearly outnumber the fighting citizens in this diorama, and the one officer without a helmet; his blonde hair offers a striking visual contrast to everything else and somehow implies that he is the one in charge. As foreboding as this scene is, the builder (maybe knowingly) offers just a glimmer of hope for both the Home Army and the viewer. The solitary tree, with its roots exposed, is a life form that may hang on despite the tragedy surrounding it. The bit of graffiti on the wall, while not entirely intact, is the Polish flag and serves as a symbolic reminder of what the citizens are fighting for. While things didn’t go entirely well for the Home Army, their efforts were not for naught. The nation of Poland still stands long after what was supposed to be a “Thousand Year Reich” was wiped from the Earth.

Lounge in this library with style

Libraries are more than book repositories; they also provide educational services and activities for their surrounding communities. Thanks to Łukasz Libuszewski’s, the little citizens of LEGOLAND can now enjoy everything a library has to offer. It looks both modern and inviting, complete with enough glass to let the sunshine in. The library sports a modular design, in which sections can be removed to reveal the service desk and bookshelves. Especially impressive is the motorized glass elevator. Be sure to watch Łukasz’ video to view the library from all angles, the interior and elevator in action. You might even want to sign up for a library card!

Baby got Dewback

From the giant rancor to that thing in the Death Star’s trash compactor, there’s no shortage of interesting creatures in the Star Wars universe. One of the most memorable for me is the dewback, a reptile found on the desert world of Tatooine. Over the years, LEGO has released a few minifigure scaled versions of this creature. Some were very movie-accurate in appearance, but were constructed of giant molded parts without much hope for reuse. The recent Escape Pod vs. Dewback Microfighters set features a brick-built dewback, but the adjustments needed to meet the microfighter theme meant that the creature wasn’t particularly movie-accurate. Luca S Projects has given us the best of both worlds with a brick-built dewback that looks just like the real thing.

Despite the necessary evil of the occasional blue-grey connection brick, the sand-green creature’s curves are very accurately reproduced. The use of the Legends of Chima crocodile eye tile works well, as do the minifigure arms and hands used as part of the bridle. It’s also worth mentioning the diorama as a whole; the base is subtle but enough is present to set the scene, and the use of the dusty stormtoopers is certainly apt. Now, when can I expect to see a nice 1:1 model? Someone’s got to be working on that…

We all float down here, Georgie

With their exaggerated features and over-the-top antics, clowns can inadvertently scare children and more than a few adults, rather than entertain them. Couple this with the notion that, prone to depression, alcoholism and criminal misconduct, real-life clowns can sometimes be an unsavory lot. If that doesn’t give you just a touch of Coulrophobia already then leave it to Stephen King to hammer that fear into the rest of us when he wrote It in 1986. Tim Curry first frightened television viewers in 1990 when he gave Pennywise the Clown a savage, sneering malevolence and a Bronx accent in ABC’s two-part miniseries. In 2017 a new generation of moviegoers were scared out of their wits when Bill Skarsgård portrayed a redesigned Pennywise with a childlike curiosity and a seething maliciousness. Now, just in time for It: Chapter 2, City Son recreates Pennywise’s likeness in LEGO.

His signature red balloon and string seems to be the only non-LEGO elements here, but red puff balls adorn his Shakespearean outfit while what we commonly call “cheese slopes” comprise his Elizabethan ruffle collar. The whole getup sort of implies he’s been doing this evil clown gig far longer than any of us has been alive. A closer look at his mug shows that a hot dog makes up his sinister smile while several horns in red and white and a flower denote his make-up design.

If you haven’t seen the movies or read the book, I don’t want to spoil much for you, but you can file this next bit under good general advice and not so much a spoiled plot point: if a clown tries to lure you into a sewer with him, it is probably best you don’t go. And now you know.

LEGO Technic’s biggest set ever now available for pre-order: 42100 Liebherr R 9800 Excavator [News]

LEGO Technic is getting bigger this year, with the Liebherr R 9800 Excavator (42100) clocking in at a massive 4,108 pieces, making it officially the biggest Technic set ever. It’s now available for pre-order from LEGO.com for US $449.99 | CAN $549.99 | UK £399.99. Although the site doesn’t list its release date, we expect it to be Oct. 1 based on the previously released catalog. Using a customized version of new Control+ app that we just featured in our review of the brand new LEGO Technic 4×4 X-treme Off-Roader (42099), the giant mining excavator has not one but two smart hubs and seven motors.

Check out all the details of this huge new set below. Like Technic? Be sure to check out the just-announced 2,500-piece LEGO Technic Range Rover Defender (42110).

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Heh-heh heh-heh heh-heh... Cool.

The incredible brick artist LEGO7 has brought these two teenage fools to ABS with perfect articulation. The 90s proved itself as an era of animated comedic satire with the likes of many cartoons, though none poked their finger as hard as Beavis and Butthead. The shaping of each grungy hairpiece is instantly recognisable, as is their position on their much-loved couch. His remarkable ability to construct facial expressions is not lost here either. The use of a pink 1×1 round plate as Beavis’s gum line is so perfectly placed, that I cant help but hear the sniggering laugh coming from these two delinquents. The colour scheme used in their attire has been excellently chosen, showing their worn out AC/DC and Metallica T-shirts. Even the slight twist of each inner leg, brings these two socially inept teens to amazing brick built likeness. All they need now is a decrepit lounge room and some headbanging play features.

To experience some of LEGO7’s other excellent characters, check out his Animal Music Box.

Which is the space pirate’s favorite letter? The C!

Frequent The Brothers Brick readers will be familiar with Dave Kaleta’s ongoing Alphabet Squadron of letter-based starship designs. The saga continues, as it is wont to do, and another ship is zipping through the stars this week!

Comet, cosmic, …coral? These words all have something in common and this latest starfighter is shaped just like it.

This is one of my favorite of Dave’s series because I love the new coral color (that splat gear!) and that he managed to make a ship durable enough for his young son to play with while still maintaining that challenging hinged crescent shape.

A generation ago some of us marveled at and hopelessly tried to emulate the great Jon Palmer Alphabet fighter project. Dave gets to be that torch-bearer for today’s generation of LEGO fans.

Get your motor running, head out on the highway

Having built a car or two(hundred) myself, I get a kick out of it when someone else does this good a job showing the automobile some love. This one may be unique because we might be dealing with a young builder here, or at least someone with a cool, supportive mom. Carrie Kokoska is not the builder, however, she just created a new Flickr account to showcase these photos on behalf of her oldest son. “The Bend City Auto Garage” gets its inspiration from an old pharmacy in their local town. We are looking at a builder who is passionate about LEGO and working at his grandpa’s garage, where he restores vintage cars. The posters and stickers both inside and out were designed by the builder’s mom, making this truly a family project.

See more of this highly detailed garage and vintage car

A perfectly balanced blade is a beautiful thing

The blacksmith shop is a staple of custom LEGO creators, and while we typically see blacksmiths from medieval time periods or fantasy worlds, the art of metal crafting spans many time periods. This is evident in Ayrlego‘s model showing a swordsmith honing the blade of a soldier in the British military with a spinning stone in a charming colonial outpost.

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with your faded bricks, check out the collection of faded white elements throughout the model. Along with some tan and dark tan parts, they give the building a nicely weathered look. Combined with the tile roof, it fits right in with the colonial architecture.