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 toy-like tower showcases tremendous LEGO technique

Pan Noda has only been active sharing original LEGO creations for a few short years, but they’ve quickly cementented themselves as one of the most exciting builders around. Pan Noda’s creations are united by a love of texture, patterns, verticality and liminal spaces. Their latest work, simply titled “Castle of building blocks,” is an architectural wonder existing in limbo between earth and sky, childhood and sophistication. The red slope rooftops evoke a nostalgia for the earliest LEGO buildings, only these are weathered from age with a rash of studs popping out. The red door (taken from Isabelle’s House Visit) and poofy brick-built clouds evoke a safe Nintendo childhood, in contrast to the pokey brown technic frame (building on a technique from another of their vertical marvels) that almost says “Don’t touch!” Once again, Noda floors us with a towering achievement in LEGO artistry.

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There will be blood (and relaxation!)

We all need to unwind and blow off some steam sometimes. And if someone’s form of recreation involves bleeding a caged victim to make a nice little wading pool, who am I to judge? Mihał Ch‘s creepy vampire pleasure den imagines such a scenario in LEGO. The scene itself makes my stomach crawl a little, but I can distract myself from the visceral reminder of my own fragile mortality by checking out those cool building techniques. I love the way simple 1×2 bricks are stacked at slight angles to make the columns, and the trans-red antenna stands in for the steady drip-drip-drip of the victim’s blood into a viscous pool below. I hope that poor victim gets out soon, but it doesn’t look good.

Massive LEGO spaceship is over 5 feet long

Canadian LEGO builder Jean-Philippe Leroux has built a massive LEGO spaceship with a suitably impressive name! The Empress took over 24,000 parts to build and weighs over 43 pounds. If you like sci-fi bits and bobs, The Empress has it in spades; so let’s look at the engines back to front. For sports fans its got minifig skis and snowboards. For the handy-folk there’s saws. After the robot arms, there’s stud shooters and the old 1×8 bar. Finally, towards the front, there are robot binoculars and zipline handles. And that’s just the engines!

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Chinese lake in LEGO brings memories to life

Earlier this summer, our old friend Nannan Zhang recreated a the quintessential American playground of the sort he’s experienced as a new father. For his latest LEGO achievement, Nannan draws on his childhood memories of growing up in China in the 90s to create “A park from yesteryear.” Even though it’s an amalgam and not a recreation of a specific park, the traditional architecture, weeping willows, lotus plants on jade water, and swan boats make Nannan’s memories so specific and tangible.

Nannan pulls his usual magic trick of making clever technique look effortless. The hexagonal pavilion, where older residents share snacks and gossip, is a lovely build on its own. The balls stacked on rollers skates make for excellent decorative elements, and the heart tiles in the eaves are a great detail. One of my favorite techniques is seen along the bottom of the railing where curved slopes fit neatly under window arches, adding a subtle texture to the stonework. The cotton candy machine is a very clever and instantly recognizable mini build. I also admire the attention paid to the lotus plants, with leaves popping from the water at angles, and some flowers and leaves aloft on long stems, differentiating them from lilly pads. But the stars of the show are the swan boats, which hold a secret…

See the swan boats in action!

A triple transformer that’s too tiny to transform? Try again...

In his review of 10338 Transformers Bumblebee, Kyle mentioned that the yellow Autobot’s large size was likely down to the transformation requirement in LEGO form. Clearly, Grantmasters read this and took it as a challenge. He, too, has created a LEGO Transformer. And this one is tiny! It depicts Blitzwing, a Decepticon with as many personalities as he has transformations (three). He is depicted the way he appeared in the animated series rather than in the 2018 Bumblebee film, which results in a snazzy purple-and-tan colour scheme.

But is he too tiny to transform? No! Now he can’t do all three transformations – even for a builder of Grant’s skill, that’s almost attempting the impossible. But still, being able to transition Blitzwing between his jet and robot forms is seriously impressive at this small scale!

A Star Wars palace fit for an evil emperor

The Emperor’s personal residence hasn’t appeared in any of the films (well, unless you count its prior incarnation as the Jedi Temple, according to current canon), but it still looms large in Star Wars lore. A little forced perspective helps it loom even larger in this great LEGO diorama by r_t_zan, where its appearance is inspired by its classic Legends description. The build concentrates its minifig-scale details up front and lets the eye drift toward the rear, where its forbidding spires reach for the stars. Other than a statue, we never see the Emperor himself, and the build is all the better for it—Palpatine’s air of mystery is preserved as we imagine which of those lofty spires might house his evil presence.

Opulent LEGO “goldfish” doesn’t play coy

Last year Swedish builder Rickard Stensby (@stensbylego) wowed us with his ingenious technique for layering round plates around a frame to create a perfectly-shaped chicken. How to follow up on one of 2023’s most admired LEGO creations? Rickard plumbed the depths and hooks a gold-plated anglerfish, mounted and ready for its gallery debut. This time it’s the 2×3 flat tile with angle that gets the layering treatment, giving the fish its sleek yet pokey finish. The jutting teeth, cartoon eye, and glow-white ball dangling on a pearl gold hose round out the briny personality. Don’t let the flat presentation fool you – the model captures nearly the full spherical body of the fish (which you can appreciate in Rickard’s video). The black tile backing and gilded frame let the deceptively simple model shine. Rickard says there were two unfinished attempts at creating this difficult form but the third time is a charm worthy of a LEGO Master.

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly, what a build

Robin Hood and Little John are taking a break from runnin’ through the forest as they hide from the schemin’ sheriff and his posse in this charming LEGO build by Isaiah Kepner. The thing that really makes the vignette fun, aside from the brick-built Little John and the sheriff’s minions, is the variety of textures that make the trees and foliage of Sherwood Forest come to life. It’s like one of those I Spy books you may have read as a kid: I spy a rifle, a broomstick, minifig hands, a whip, a halberd, a battle droid arm, and more. Are you able to track them all down?

That time I threw up in a Beetle

Famed LEGO builder Joey Klusnick has found a nightmare scenario in me that I never knew could exist. At my age, I’m happier sitting on a shady bench and watching youngins go on amusement rides rather than going on myself. Getting jostled around just doesn’t have the same appeal as it did when I was younger, plus I’d spill the cocktail I’d inevitably be enjoying. Enter the nightmare scenario, which is part gravitron, part mech-beetle and all vomit-inducing. Plus, there is no passively sitting on a bench with this thing around. No siree! This beast grabs its victims and plants them into its spinning gravitron compartment and spins them to death. To death, you hear me? I told you kids those amusement rides were dangerous!

You can even see the Gravitron Beetle in action if you’re brave enough. Not me though. I’ll just sit here with my Vodka Tonic and contemplate where my life went so wrong.

The eyes tell the story

Disney content has provided inspiration for LEGO builds since time immemorial. Builder Gregory Coquelz has recreated the main characters from Disney Pixar CGI short film For the Birds using the brick, adding to this long tradition. The builder’s depiction of the big, overly-friendly bird in the center with big, bulging, and naïve eyes. They’re only looking to be included despite being quite the nuisance. Even if you’ve never seen the source material, you can sense the annoyance of the two smaller birds from their heavy side eye, ingeniously made from minifigure helmets. But just like in the cartoon, it’s probably best for everyone if the big bird doesn’t step off the wire.

Celestial love finds poetry in motion

What is love but an irresistible attraction between two heavenly bodies? Legonerdphotos brings the metaphor to life in LEGO with an anthropomorphized sun and moon locked in each other’s orbit. Like a high-concept PIXAR project, the builder manages to turn an abstract idea into deeply relatable characters. Who would have guessed that a cold grey meteor and a trans orange tridax pod could convey such emotion? The figure designs are a perfect mix of alien and intimate, especially the tendril arms that hold each other so lovingly. The photography is stellar, perfectly staged, using compositing to achieve the slight glow around each figure’s head.

Dancing of the Spheres is legonerdphotos’ interpretation of the theme “Gravitational Energy” for the BioCup. We’ve seen blessed with some truly out of this world creations in this year’s lineup. I can’t wait to see what legonerdphotos and the other advancing builders come up with in Round 2.

Battling Atlantic waves

During WWII, Britain could only continue fighting Nazi Germany thanks to constant foreign imports and weapons shipments from the US. To stem this flow, the German “Kriegsmarine” employed hundreds of submarines, that sank 3,500 Allied merchant ships and 175 Allied warships. Besides enemy action, ships, the submarines, and their crews they also had to deal with atrocious weather, particularly in wintertime.

My latest model, for a Battle of the Atlantic display at BrickFair Virginia this summer, represents a German submarine riding the waves. Originally I was going to build just the conning tower, but that left me with a problem: visible lines are running from the conning tower to the front and aft of the boat’s hull. By building more of the boat and the waves thrown up by its passage, I could attach them. As a result, I spent more time building the waves than the model of the boat itself. This was far from the easiest thing I have ever done, but I hope you agree it was well worth the trouble.

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