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, roved by rovers for 40 years

Brickshelf user (yes, Brickshelf still exists) legofrik has recently built a cute boxy rover in the colours of Classic Space. He says the inspiration was a coincidental discovery that small treads fit around 6×6 dishes to create a unique wheel design.

The build has a very boxy shape, and yet avoids looking rectangular and simple. The colours are not only blocked visually, but also by purpose; blue as the main bulk of the vehicle, gray for radars, hoses and other technical doodads and translucent yellow as the iconic Classic Space window and windscreen colour. The rover also has working suspension and a detailed interior.

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Lond Daer, the Númenorean shipyard in Middle Earth

There have been many great LEGO creations from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise over the years, including a recent epic collaboration which we were proud to feature here on TBB. The other ages mentioned in the book, however, tend to be overlooked. Well, there is a new collaborative project underway and Barthezz Brick has built an amazing model of the Númenórean ship-building port of Lond Daer.

This model has so many details worth mentioning, including some very nicely built arrow slits in the tall tower in the back, which starts with a fairly common technique using cheese slopes but repeats the pattern in an interesting way. The buildings on the right also show a neat architectural design for the arched windows made from loosely connected plates, and this minifig neck bracket to attach tiles on top. Click to see more of Lond Daer

Exclusive LEGO Star Wars 75227 Darth Vader Bust [Instructions]

Last month, LEGO revealed the exclusive 75227 Darth Vader Bust set for Star Wars Celebration 2019. Convention exclusives are usually very hard to obtain and command a high price on the secondary market from scalpers. Thankfully, LEGO is somewhat addressing that since this set will also be available to Target REDCard members online starting April 11th until supplies run out (which we expect will be very quick).

(EDIT: Target did not make the bust available on the 11th and instead posted it early in the morning on the 12th. It appears to have sold out in less than 15 minutes. We have reached out to Target to see if any other batch will be made available but have not heard back.)

While we celebrate that the set won’t be entirely exclusive to the show in Chicago, it will still likely prove to be a hard-to-get collectors item elsewhere around the world. We know many of our international readers have bemoaned the fact they can’t get the set, so we are happy to report that LEGO has published the instructions and parts list for the Darth Vader Bust online. You can download the instructions from LEGO here (the file is 23 MB).

Our very own News Editor Dave Schefcik has already searched through his collection and built the Darth Vader Bust with only a few pieces needing to be substituted with alternative parts. Behold Lord Vader!

Dave also discovered that the Darth Vader Bust contains two new unique pieces: a pair of 4×6 right/left plates in black that help shape the back of the helmet. These wedge plates are relatively new and are only currently available in white on Bricklink (also available in red on LEGO Bricks and Pieces). Dave substituted them with the more common 3×6 right/left wedge plates and got close to the final look.

Luckily, the two new black pieces are currently available on LEGO Bricks and Pieces if you need your bust to be perfect. Dave actually priced out the entire set since 100% of the inventory is currently available from Bricks and Pieces, and it came to a total of $50.90 USD plus tax and shipping for all of the parts brand new from LEGO. (It may even be cheaper with used brick on Bricklink, though not nearly as convenient.)

That total cost is only $10.91 more than what the set will retail for ($39.99) so it is a pretty good deal if you want to just build the Darth Vader Bust with new sorted brick from LEGO using the digital instructions provided. Yes, you wont have the box or printed instructions–but for many fans who won’t be able to get their hands on the set mint-in-box anyway, we are happy there’s a way for everyone to enjoy building it.

Good luck and May The Force Be With You!

This custom modular building is bananas!

Modular buildings, whether they’re sets or custom creations, are very popular in the LEGO fan community. They can be admired as standalone creations or as parts of larger town layouts, but there is something in every modular for every LEGO fan. Kofi says this is his first modular, but he does not seem to have struggled at all.

The first key feature to note is that while the two adjacent houses are quite dissimilar, they feel like they fit together perfectly. A modular building is not a true modular building without clever repeated part use for architectural detail. Kofi uses clips and wedge plates for these purposes, but the real star of the show is the houses’ “accessories”, namely the drains, built using everything from medium dark flesh bread pieces to different sorts of lightsaber hilts. Look closely and you may even spot a banana.

A bookmobile to behold

Some vehicles are more than meets the eye. While this 1959 Salem Ameriliner Library Bus by Chris Elliott doesn’t change into a walking, talking robot, it has been transformed on the inside, from a passenger carrier to mobile library with a fully detailed interior. Even without the interior, the bus is a beautiful creation. The combination of slopes used on the roof place it indisputably in the 1950s, and the other details are seamless: doors on their side as luggage compartment doors and zip line handles as side view mirrors.

If you’re not impressed by the exterior, open it up and be prepared to be blown away. The interior of this bookmobile is spot on to the last detail. It starts with enough books to actually be called a library, stowed everywhere they could possibly go: on the walls, in the luggage compartment, and even in the floor. There’s even a comfy couch in the back to curl up with whatever good book you’ve found on the shelf!
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Entire Ace squadron from Star Wars: Resistance in LEGO

Each new installment of the Star Wars franchise typically comes with a fleet of new spaceships large and small to allow ace pilots to show off their skills and fight for peace and justice in a galaxy far, far away. The new animated series Star Wars: Resistance is no exception. The story takes place shortly before the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and follow the adventures of a pilot recently recruited from the New Republic into the titular group of freedom fighters. LEGO fan creator Mansur Soeleman has brought a group of fighters known as Ace Squadron to stunningly detailed life.

When compared to the on-screen source material, Mansur’s meticulous attention to detail is too good to be contained in a single photo, so read on to see each fighter of the squadron in detail.

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A small fire engine for a large city

Home to almost 40 million people, greater Tokyo is the world’s most populous metropolitan area. Space is at a premium, so houses tend to be small and built closely together. To fight fires in the dense urban areas, the Tokyo Fire Department has a large fleet of exceedingly small fire engines. They are narrow enough to fit the streets between the houses. They also have a relatively short wheelbase, so that they can navigate tight corners. In preparation for a visit to Japan Brickfest later this year, I’m building a small collection of Japanese emergency vehicles. I’ve been looking forward to building the fire engine the most, so I’ve kept that for last.

At a first glance, it may not look all that small, especially if you are used to LEGO minifigure-scale builds. However, if you compare the pumper to the two fire fighters, it is obvious that it is a lot smaller than pumpers from Europe or the US. It is only about as wide as a typical American car and not all that much longer. Nonetheless, it has everything you’d expect from its larger counterparts and a little more. It is nice and red, obviously. It has pump control panels with connections for fire hoses, a few ladders stored on top and lots of compartments for tools. Typical for Japanese pumpers, it also houses a little separate wheeled cart in the back. Fire fighters use this to transport hoses down even narrower alleys. The model is like a miniature version of a miniature fire engine.

Get all your LEGO Klämtares at this tiny IKEA

Need more Klämtares, Kuggises, or Ivars for your LEGO collection? Look no further than IKEA, now in minature form thanks to cubo31. IKEA announced a new partnership with LEGO last year, and we still haven’t seen many details on what that is. But we can only hope that it will include an awesome micro model like this. This Micropolis module is loaded with accurate details, from the incredible brick-built logo to the carefully crafted curbs and even an underground garage. There’s just one inaccurate detail that bothers me, though: there are open parking spaces within sight of the front doors. I’ve never seen that at my IKEA.

The best pancake toppings? More pancakes!

I could have pancakes smothered in syrup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and then some in between as well. With such a healthy diet, it may not be long before I need to pay a visit to the dentist though. But having a bite out of this will require immediate attention! If I end up with any broken teeth, the only person I’m going to blame is builder LittleJohn! The use of those minifigure caps for blueberries are wonderful, but that sliced orange with transparent cheese slopes takes the (pan)cake for me! Knowing that not everyone is a fan of pancakes, you may want to know that chef LittleJohn can cook up a few other breakfast dishes. Try some of these other delicious savory foods, including waffles, or eggs and tomato.

The castle of the dragon

Builder Corvus Auriac takes us to a magical place with this amazing render of a microscale castle. The towers are exquisitely detailed with just enough randomness to look real, while still feeling like an absolutely massive structure perched atop a rock. The dragon, named Beowulf, is one of the better microscale designs I’ve seen, actually have four legs like a proper dragon (and not a wyvern, which only has two). The frog for a head is perfect. As with all great microscale models, you’ll be rewarded by spending some time poring over the minuscule details to see what parts have been cleverly repurposed.

Time to destroy dolomite

I am not a miner, but I imagine that it is not quite as fun and exciting as the 1990s Rock Raiders LEGO theme made it look. Nevertheless, I have fond memories of this action-packed adventure theme. My nostalgia was somewhat dormant for a long time, until I had the privilege to write about a Rock Raiders tunneling drone here on the Brothers Brick. The creation made me feel so good that I felt compelled had to make my own Rock Raiders-themed model. And here it is; the “Dolomite Destroyer” (named in the honour of the iconic 4940 Granite Grinder LEGO set).

I have experimented with proportions a bit for this model. Just a simple colour scheme would not cut it for a Rock Raiders build. It had to be bulky and rough. The whole thing started with a Throwbot/Slizer shoulder/hand piece as the mech’s arms and continued from there. The second central part was an Atlantis minifig helmet within the body. I finished the model off with a little crane because I think cranes look so cool and industrial. While this model was fun to build, I will be scrapping it to build another creation in this style later on.

A LEGO Bubble Tea shop that looks good enough to drink

Bubble tea is a drink that was originally conceived in Taiwan back in the 1980s. Since then, it’s popularity has spread throughout Asia and even major Western cities. The sweet drink is perhaps best known for the black tapioca pearls lining the bottom of the cup, which are easy to sip with the aid of a large straw. Great B.W. (大黑白) built a deliciously adorable LEGO bubble tea stand, cleverly designed to resemble the classic drink.

Check out what’s inside this bubble tea stand.