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.

A true whale of a spaceship

Called the Celestial Barracuda, this marine-inspired vessel by LEGO designer Niek Van Slagmaat (most recently of 21311 Voltron fame) is one of the more uniquely designed spaceSHIPs of recent memory. Traversing the inky deeps of space and reality as an interdimensional transport ship, the ship takes the form of a sinuous fish. Niek expertly strikes a balance between placing tiles for a smooth exterior and strategically leaving studs exposed to create a textured, weathered hull. He’s also used a sprinkling of dark tan among the orange bricks, highlighting where the orange paint has peeled over eons of space travel.

The ship’s fish-like features aren’t just for show, though, as they serve a more utilitarian purpose in supporting the small fleet of nimble craft that surrounds it like pilot fish. Continue reading →

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Tinker around with this tantalizingly tiny T

In continuous production from 1909 through 1929, the Ford Model T became an automotive industry leader in the U.S. and abroad. Even LEGO’s founding father, Ole Kirk Christiansen, reportedly owned a Model T and used it to transport wooden toys to market. Building a LEGO Model T in minifigure scale can be challenging, in part because of the body’s large number of curves and angular details. These issues have been expertly overcome by builder mmurray, whose 1920 Ford pickup is one of the best renditions of the T that I have seen. The builder makes clever use of the wheelchair wheel elements, which look at home on an early automobile and allow it to be built in such a small scale.

The Model T was available in a wide variety of body styles and, in the spirit of Henry Ford, mmurray has also built a roadster version. I can’t stop drooling over the level of detail in this tiny car. The running boards are simple yet tight, and the thin windshield helps sell the front end. However, it is mmurray’s ability to capture so many subtle angles in such a small model that makes his 1920 Ford feel authentic.

If these bite-sized Ford’s were to roll off the assembly line, I would be the first in line to buy one!

This shiny LEGO Mercedes Benz W196 is ready to win the race

The Mercedes Benz W196 was built for the Formula 1 circuit in 1954, and famously carried a very simple livery of silver paint with big red and white numeral badges. A tiny car with the narrow, bulbous body of yesteryear’s racecars, the W196 is a difficult car to capture in LEGO at any scale, let alone minifigure scale. And yet that’s exactly what Pixeljunkie has done, and boy does it look great. Featuring a very large percentage of LEGO’s metallic silver pallette (plus some custom chromed wheels), this remarkable little car looks ready to win the world championship one more time.

Big on character, small on parts

It’s amazing how a builder like R197 can take a simple LEGO brick and find a character in it. The way he uses a boombox element for eyes, and bent knees formed from technic braces, can conjure up the poise and gait of an arthritic robot.

See more adorably tiny robots.

Tiny LEGO model of Hagrid’s hut is truly magical

Nestled at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, this iconic dwelling from Harry Potter by Jonas Kramm is instantly recognizable. There are so many great details to talk about that make this model come alive, starting with the landscaped base, using sloped parts and tiles at alternating angles. And don’t miss the new wand sprues planted in the ground to form the perfect fence. Aragog lurks on the left corner below some trees made with this shoulder armor element. Another surprising technique is the way the 1×1 plate with clip nestled in the anti-stud gap in the cone used for the hut’s roof.

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.

Now you see it. Now you don’t. Voltron’s green lion is in its element.

If you are a huge fan of the Voltron LEGO set, you might also be interested in the “Form Your Most Imaginative Voltron Scene!” contest on LEGO Ideas. The contest has produced some excellent entries, such as aido k’s breathtaking tribute to the green lion, “In its Element.” The entire scene is comprised of an excellent likeness of the lion’s head, which is split into mechanical and organic halves.

See more of this custom LEGO Voltron model

Make like a tree, and root out the zombies!

Strategy game Plants vs. Zombies became an international hit after its 2009 release, and it has been going strong ever since. A portion of the game’s success can be attributed to its colorful cast of characters, like Torchwood. Torchwood is a mean, green, shooting machine and this LEGO version built by chubbybots is a great character build. His model offers a nice balance of function and form, with articulated joints and expressive facial features.

The mouth opens and closes, which allows for some fun poses like this one. Together, the tilted eyes, open mouth, and outstretched weaponized arm all scream attitude.

He’s even ready to go head-to-head with the game’s namesake zombies.

Monorail, monorail, monorail [Video]

Hearkening back to the 80s LEGO Monorail with its centre-engine car and retro look, Jason Allemann has come up with another fantastic kinetic powered creation. This time he has built a motorised train for the new LEGO rollercoaster system.

Jason is using an ingenious design with Technic half bushes and rubber tyres to attach and propel the mini monorail. Watch the video to find out more about the challenges he faced and overcame to create this cute little piece of LEGO nostalgia.

The two staves — awesome life-size LEGO prop replicas from The Lord of the Rings

Staves may be little more than glorified sticks, but they have managed to work their way into the very heart of fantasy symbols. Some of the most famous examples are found in The Lord of the Rings, wielded by some of literature’s most famous wizards. Jon & Catherine Stead have recreated in 1:1 scale a pair of the wizard staves seen in The Lord of the Rings films.

The staff of Saruman the White is a remarkably clean model built around the Star Wars planet elements for the orb. Unless you zoom in, it might be hard to recognize the staff is actually LEGO. This is even more impressive if its mere five hours of build time are taken into account. The builders also share the exact piece count, which is 831 for this particular model, and it measures 91 inches in length.

The staff of Gandalf the Grey is an impressive creation in a completely different way. It is not quite as accurate to its movie representation as Saruman’s staff, but the complexity of the source material makes its recreation a much more impressive achievement. The spiraled headpiece is created using multiple arch elements wrapping around the shaft. The build was completed in an impressive four hours using 938 bricks. It measures 61 inches in length.

A different kind of cloud city

With all the clamour online surrounding LEGO’s new Betrayal at Cloud City set, it’s great to see a builder with a very different take on life in the sky. Marcel V has taken inspiration from the super-talented anime illustrator Chong Fei Giap, famed for his sprawling cityscapes. Wonderfully photographed with the nimbus mist swirling around the towers’ stilts and only a cable car system to get around, the model really captures an other-worldly quality. Still, the mind boggles as to how the inhabitants pin their clothes to the precariously hung washing line–I hope they have a good pulley system! Marcel plans to take the model to the Skaerbaek LEGO fan weekend in Denmark next month; for those of us who are not lucky enough to attend, you can still check out detailed images of each of the balanced abodes on his Flickr stream.

Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me!

Do you ever get the feeling we are living in a simulation? One of the greatest cinema moments of the nineties has been brought to life in LEGO by Douglas Hughes in this scene from The Matrix where Neo asks, puzzled, “I know Kung Fu?” Morpheus looks at him quizzically and challenges, “Show me.” Douglas has captured the simple complexity of the dojo beautifully, adding special lighting for the sword racks. With its stark lines and contrasting colours, Neo deftly dodges one of Morpheus’s relentless attacks.

The castle is small, but it’s perfectly formed

There are a bunch of classy LEGO microscale building techniques on display in this island castle put together by Henjin_Quilones. The island’s rockwork and sparse greenery are neatly-done, but don’t miss the sandwiched grille tiles creating tiny windows in the rock face, the Technic “weapon barrel” wheels to give texture to the larger round towers, and the clever use of half-plate gaps to create arrow slit style openings. The highlight for me is the use of angled grille bricks to provide the steps up from the little jetty — it’s a microscale technique we’ve seen before, but placing it front and centre adds a touch of detail at a scale which makes the whole creation feel much bigger than it really is.