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.

Enjoying amazing street food in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of my top five favorite cities in the world, and my strongest memory of traveling there is definitely the food — not just excellent Cantonese cuisine but also some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had. CK Tsang has built a massive, Miniland-scale version of several dai pai dong, traditional open food stalls in Hong Kong, evoking delightful memories for those of us lucky to have visited the city. Whether you’re in the mood for noodles, congee, or milk tea, it’s a safe bet you can find it at a dai pai dong.

Check out CK’s album on Flickr for more photos.

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TBB cover photo: August 2016

Summer is a time for fun and games! But when the weather won’t cooperate (as sometimes happens up here in Seattle) then the fun has to move indoors – whether that involves playing video games, or building LEGO scenes from video games as Gabe Umland has done here with this recreation of Super Mario 3D World:

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.

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Antique wooden LEGO Pluto pull-along recreated with LEGO bricks

Back when LEGO was still making wooden toys, the company produced a wooden pull-along toy styled like Mickey Mouse’s pal Pluto. LEGO historians these days have argued that this was LEGO’s very first licensed product, ultimately leading to LEGO Star Wars, SpongeBob, Ghostbusters, and many more. Today, that wooden toy is vanishingly rare. BrickJournal Editor-in-Chief Joe Meno has built this adorable version of that vintage toy using modern LEGO bricks.

Like his wooden predecessor, LEGO Pluto’s legs move when you pull him around by the string attached to his collar. Check out this video to see more of LEGO Pluto’s play features.

On your marks, get set...

…go! With the 2016 Olympics just around the corner, this LEGO sculpture inspired by legendary sprinter Usain Bolt is perfectly timed. It was created by Joe Perez, and you can read more about this build in an upcoming issue of Bricks Culture magazine. The anatomy of the figure is convincing, and a sense of motion is perfectly conveyed perfectly in this piece. The color scheme also evokes the style of ancient Greek pottery that often portrayed competitors in action at the classical version of these games.

Execute a counter strike with the LEGO PP-19 Bizon

Some people, understandably so, may not like the use of LEGO bricks to construct weaponry. Others, like myself and YouTube LEGO builder Bricks n’ Guns find it an interesting subject for a build and an extension of fandoms; in this case, it’s LEGO and gaming. Bricks n’ Guns built an incredibly life-like replica of the Russian submachine gun PP-19 Bizon as it appears in the first person shooter game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The realism doesn’t stop at its appearance; watch him demonstrate the working trigger, sliding charging handle, removable cylindrical magazine, and folding wire stock in this short video.

Majestic giants of the African plains

Legostrator‘s latest creation is a fabulous scene of sub-Saharan Africa — featuring wonderful brick-built elephants traversing the dusty plains.

The elephants themselves are great examples of brick-sculpting — with complex organic shapes well-rendered. However, as with all the best LEGO scenes, the central models are elevated into something special by the surrounding attention to detail. The feel of a hot, dusty plain is captured perfectly with the depiction of scrub vegetation and the color choices. The lighting for the photo adds immensely to the atmosphere as well. Great stuff.

The Vitruvian LEGO Cat

You may be familiar with the Vitruvian Man, a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci showing the human body’s proportions, but have you seen flambo14‘s Vitruvian LEGO Cat?

According to the text of da Vinci’s original:

“if you open your legs enough that your head is lowered by one-fourteenth of your height and raise your hands enough that your extended fingers touch the line of the top of your head, know that the centre of the extended limbs will be the navel, and the space between the legs will be an equilateral triangle”

In the case of flambo14’s cat:

“if you look cute and purr, then no one will notice that you are out of proportion”

Classic sci-fi movie Silent Running brought to life with LEGO

Before his work on more widely-known sci-fi movies such as Bladerunnner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, legendary visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull directed the 1972 sci-fi movie Silent Running, a beautifully written, performed and photographed tale of one man’s fight to preserve the last remnants of Earth nature.

In creating a LEGO version of the Valley Forge (the ship where the movie’s action takes place) Cornish builder Louie Tommo clearly felt that only a larger scale would do it justice. The result is this very accurate digitally designed LEGO version that perfectly captures the ship’s functional looking design complete with its distinctive cluster of domed forest habitats.

Even though the movie has plenty of action and some first class visual effects for the era, the characters of astronaut Freeman Lowell and his robot companions Huey, Louie and Dewey are central to the story. So it’s a nice touch that Louie has created LEGO versions of them as well, and even portrayed them at work on the outer hull of the spacecraft.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people...”

Oh you can’t help that — we’re all mad here. So much so that we love these Alice In Wonderland figures by Brick Blue Wren very much indeed. We’ve featured a couple of Alice-themed LEGO creations recently, and personally I never tire of seeing Moko’s brilliant Alice and the White Rabbit model, but I thought these figures were very cool too…

The details of the Mad Hatter’s outfit are simply spot-on, and the shaping on the female figures’ outfits is excellent. I particularly like the turntable bases on the Red Queen’s dress — simple parts use, but creating a realistic impression of an embroidered pattern. I want a White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat at this scale now please. Oh, and a drug-smoking Caterpillar while you’re at it.

So you wanna upgrade your podracer eh?

Usually a clutter of detail in a LEGO creation can be a bad thing, dragging the eye around the image and distracting attention from what should be the scene’s focus. However, Patrick B.‘s excellent recreation of Watto’s Workshop from The Phantom Menace takes surrounding clutter and turns it into the main event.

As well as some smart brick-built greebly things lying around, Patrick has also made use of individual LEGO elements with interesting textures. Okay, this might not be actual building as such, but the carefully-haphazard arrangement of these bricks adds nicely to the overall sense of detail and depth. And don’t miss the lovely touches like the use of textured grille bricks for a cross-hatched floor effect, and the conical equipment built of “cheesegrater wedges” standing towards the rear.

Original Star Wars movie poster recreated in LEGO

Gamabomb‘s latest model is a fantastic recreation of the original 1977 Star Wars movie poster. While the large figures of Luke and Leia have been effectively crafted using bricks (check out the abs on Luke!), the builder has also cleverly used minifigs of C3PO and R2D2 to represent the famous droids as they appeared in the original print, while the sinister Vader looms out of the background shadows. All in all, this is an excellent version of an iconic image, immediately recognisable even as a thumbnail, yet rewarding of a zoom-in to catch all the details. The Force is strong with this one.

Across the wine-dark sea in his swift, curved-hull ship

Last autumn we featured some adorably tiny Greek galleys, and I noted how unusual Classical LEGO creations are, despite several Greek and Roman soldiers featured among Collectible Minifigures. Rat Dude has built a beautiful forty-oared Greek galley named the Hyperion. While this armchair archaeologist might quibble with the double masts (for a such a small ship), the overall effect from stem to stern is gorgeous. I particularly love what appears to be rams’ heads on the bow, along with the metal ram. The Greek marines on deck look ready to board an enemy vessel!

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