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.

Under the cherry blossoms

The cherry tree in blossom has a particular significance in Japanese culture, acting as a metaphor for the Buddhist idea of the transience of life. As a result, Ayerlego’s choice to showcase the vibrant pink blooms in his LEGO recreation of an elegant Japanese garden adds an extra level of authenticity to his build. The tree is expertly constructed, carefully arranging its multiple flower stem elements to create the symbolically significant firework-like burst of colour. Setting it against well-selected additions such as the ornamental fish statuettes at the bridgehead, and kimono girl mini-figure completes an aesthetically pleasing display of traditional Japanese life.

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New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about block music

Are you ready to rock? That’s what David Liu is asking with his latest LEGO creation — a selection of excellent brick-built musical instruments. There’s a classic Flying-V electric guitar and amp, a synth, a full drum kit, and an acoustic guitar. Now the band might be lacking a little in the bass department, but this is still an impressive line-up of gear. The guitars show nice shaping for the scale employed, and the keyboard is packed with details — don’t miss those black keys, raised and correctly spaced!

The full line-up of instruments is great, but the highlight for me is that drum kit. Worthy of a closer look, especially the sweet parts use for the tripods and drum kit legs…

Microscale tribute to the Tale of the Three Brothers

Prolific model builder Aaron Newman is back with another foray into the (LEGO) Wizarding World.

This microscale scene is itself an homage to builder Aaron’s own minifigure scale Tale of the Three Brothers from back in April of this year. The pieces Aaron’s chosen to replicate his own work in a smaller scale are spot-on: bullwhips replacing flex tubing, statuettes replacing minifigures, and perhaps the funniest and most appropriate detail is the microscale Elderwand represented by a minifig-scale wand now grasped by the formerly-larger-than-life figure of Death.

I suppose the only question I’m left with is whether Aaron will attempt this scene in yet another scale in the future?

This LEGO model was built as an entry for TBB’s Microscale Magic contest. Coverage on TBB of an entry will not be taken into consideration during judging, and will have no effect on its ability to win, either positively or negatively.

Letters from the Front

Many military-themed LEGO creations depict exciting battle scenes or the machinery of war. However, a select few touch on the quieter moments and prompt reflection on a conflict’s human cost. This WW1 scene by Pixel Fox, called Letters to Loved Ones, does exactly that — showing a French and a German soldier, hunkered down in their respective trenches, taking the opportunity to pen a letter home during a moment of calm. The diorama is well done, the trench setting clear from a relatively simple structure, and there are some nice touches in the scenery, with a rat burrowing a hole, and various pieces of equipment scattered around. The French sniper rifle and German machine gun are particularly good. The soldiers themselves are excellent, the helmets and uniforms immediately recognisable as WW1-era. More importantly, they are built to a scale, and in a Mixel-ey style, more commonly employed for comic effect, enhancing the poignant effect of this model.

The gelatinous wonder from space

We may sound like broken records here at The Brothers Brick every year when SHIPtember rolls around, but I really do believe that spaceships people build are getting more and more imaginative. Inthert‘s contribution to this year’s event is a prime example of that.

The spaceship looks almost alive, like a mix between a jellyfish, a mushroom and pure mechanical evil. Shapes are nothing LEGO bricks naturally support, but the builder has managed not only to make the dome at the front look good but also to make it open, with a beautiful mechanical interior. General consensus for conservative spaceship colour schemes suggests fewer colours used, carefully separated by clean lines, but somehow Inthert has managed to make his build look great even with multiple grays, black, brown, gold and green used in very intense combinations. The secret here is that each colour has a strongly defined role and makes sense in the build. As far as details go I could not even begin to cover all the ingenious little parts, but my favourite by far is the central section, where mechanical tentacles can be seen through transparent panels.

TBB Cover Photo for October 2018: Enjoy the high life in the skies!

We at TBB always take pleasure in seeing builders take their creations to new heights. Here we have Marcel V. execute on that quite literally, with these structures dubbed “Giap-Towers,” where minifigures and their humble abodes float amongst the clouds. After featuring this floating steampunk cityscape just a few days ago, we loved their simplistic charm and have chosen this to be TBB’s cover photo for October 2018.

Want to see your own LEGO creation featured across TBB social media for a month? Then read the submission guidelines and send us your photo today. Photos that do not meet the submission guidelines will not be considered, and will be removed from the group.

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A taxi worth hailing

We’ve featured Martin Redfern‘s impressive retro-styled vehicles previously, notably this 50s Police Cruiser, and more recently a cool LEGO dispatch bike. This curvy taxi makes an excellent addition to the fleet — a delicious yellow and black colour scheme complete with checkerboard stripe, beautiful chrome trimmings, and all executed in Martin’s trademark chunky aesthetic.

The model features opening doors and trunk, a detailed interior, and an engine lurking beneath the bonnet. As well as including all this, the builder has gone to the trouble of putting together an appropriately atmospheric poster for his taxi service. I don’t care what price he’s charging, I’m a willing passenger on this ride.

The LEGO Star Wars GR-75 Transport is away

Adding to an impressive line-up of spacecraft for SHIPtember 2018 is Anders Horvath with his LEGO replica of a GR-75 Medium Transport from The Empire Strikes Back. Choosing to build a Star Wars spacecraft so iconic and recognizable is challenging, but Anders nailed it with excellent contrast between the cargo containers, central greebling, and relatively slick hull panels. Best yet, it’s even got an interior.

The layered elliptic paneling of the hull is built beautifully. The original seen on screen is segmented unevenly, and this is reflected well in the LEGO rendition. The layering of tiles create the divisions between panels and suggests curvature down the length. Continue reading →

Maintenance mech may move minifig materials

It’s a delight to be in a position where we can watch certain builds (and builders) evolve over time and improve on past designs. Today’s example is from Devid VII who has tinkered with his LEGO Ideas Exo Suit-inspired mini mech.

This “maintenance mode” rendition follows Mini Exo-Suit 1 which Devid unveiled back in January. You can compare the variants by checking out our previous coverage of Mini Exo Suit 1, but I also want to zoom in on a couple of points specifically to show how the model has been refined and upgraded over the earlier model. Many studs have been covered up generally across the model, but the chest has seen the most refinement. Take a look at versions 1 and 2 here:

You could say it’s splitting hairs, but I appreciate that even a piece or two can make a difference in the final appearance of a model.

A spellbinding tour of Dumbledore’s office

“It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke.” That’s how J. K. Rowling’s described Dumbledore’s cluttered office, and it’s the sort of evocative prose that gets the LEGO builder’s creative juices flowing. Jonas Kramm certainly seems inspired, creating this amazing model for TBB’s Microscale Magic contest. It’s a detail-perfect build: there’s the sorting hat on its shelf, and there’s a tellurium that cleverly utilises a microphone element, and over here a magnificent orb represented by a Bionicle Zamor. The crowning accomplishment has to be Fawkes the Phoenix, whose feathers are inspirationally shaped from plume and mechanical claw pieces to great effect.

The spindly threads of humanity among the stars

Hard science fiction spaceships often conform to a few venerable aesthetics, key among them a predominance of NASA-like white. However, in LEGO builder halfbeak‘s timeline, a group of disgruntled astronauts have broken ties with NASA and formed their own space agency, so it makes sense they’ve inverted the usual colors. This marvelously gangly spacecraft is powered by antimatter, which it captures in huge nets.

It’s rare that a spaceship can rival a sailing ship for rigging, but the wiry electromagnetic nets surrounding the vessel are a truly fantastic bit of LEGO engineering, painstakingly pieced together with string and a variety of thin LEGO elements, such as fishing rods. The repetitious use of LEGO radar dishes throughout the craft brings a unifying motif, and they make for an especially interesting texture along the ribbed twin prongs on the front.

Star Striker, for when the flying gets rough

LEGO fans are frequently inspired to give life to Star Wars-inspired builds, but even though builder Shawn Snyder may not have had Star Wars front of mind when building this slick ship, we’d like to think it could have happened in an alternate timeline. The robust, industrial design paired with the classic windscreen makes it look a bit like an Incom T-47 that’s been seriously souped up to give it a buffed up, mean and rugged look suited for spaceflight. Of course, it’s different some pretty significant ways, but the color theme certainly strikes a familiar chord with last years 75144 UCS Snowspeeder. There’s no sign of obvious canons but I’m pretty sure there’s some heavy weaponry hidden inside just waiting to take the next AT-AT down, or whatever their equivalent is in the universe where this ship exists.

If you like this, check out some true Star Wars-inspired ships that look like they could have been lifted off the pages of a galaxy far far away.