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.

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.

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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.

LEGO Swamp Hut is anything but bog-standard

Medieval architecture might be a thing of the past, but it’s a wellspring of innovation for adult fans of LEGO. I’m constantly amazed at how members of the community find clever new ways to recreate decidedly old-fashioned aesthetics with the latest in plastic bricks. Builder david zambito, a long-time innovator in medieval techniques, returns from a lengthy hiatus with a singular Swamp Hut scene that shows he’s been honing those skills since we last saw his work.

The unusual choice of colors first catches the eye, with the wonderfully-mottled green walls of the hut echoing the mire of the swamp. By keeping to a narrow and muted palette, the few accent colors in the flowers and berries really pop. The stonework is perhaps the most impressive aspect of the build, both with the flagstone path nestled between brown stems (someone had fun at the Pick-a-Brick bins!) and especially the hut’s stony ground floor built from a truly eclectic mix of round parts in dark grey, from slide shoes to helmets, and even a frog. Nice parts usage (NPU) are sprinkled throughout the build; the Islander hairpiece topping the lantern and the arachnid arches over the windows are standouts and add to the witchy vibes.

Can’t find a good LEGO connection? Just add more!

I get a real kick out of seeing parts from the old Star Wars Planets line used in LEGO creations. I’m not sure why that is – perhaps it’s the round features juxtaposed with the often angular lines of other bricks, or the challenge of having only two connection points. Well, I say only two… Nuhvok_mok has come up with an inventive way to add more! In this somewhat sinister droid, the Death Star is used for the top portion, with the photoreceptors attached to it using LEGO magnets. Ingenious! Appropriately enough, the whole things reminds me of the Death Star interrogation droids from Star Wars: A New Hope. I wonder if there’s a tiny interrogation droid floating around in there…

A stout building for bitter warriors to cure what ails them

Dwarves of the Warhammer universe take their beer very seriously. No warrior worth his salt would get drunk on pig swill. Only barrel-aged stouts will do. Dwalin Forkbeard, builder of all things dwarven and steampunk, treats us to a proper Dwarven Brewery in his latest LEGO creation. Dwalin recreates a dry stone building technique of stones stacked without mortar – a tricky technique to pull off this well with LEGO bricks. The stonework is paired with a riveted rooftop, copper detailing, and a pearl gold brewing apparatus peeks out from the back of the structure to heat the wort for a heady brew. On this day, the brewery has guests of ~~dis~~honor, as Dwarven slayer Gotrek and his chronicler Felix look thirsty for a pint of Korben’s Finest.

Majestic Mayan Temple of Kukulcán towers in LEGO

The Temple of Kukulcán, dubbed El Castillo by the Spanish, is the heart of the Mayan city Chichén Itzá, now a UNESCO Heritage site and Mexico’s most visited archaeological attraction. Jakob Escher, no stranger to large-scale LEGO building ambitions, took on the challenge of constructing the sacred site at minifig scale. Jakob painstakingly recreates the 365 steps spread across the four sides, flanked by the toothy maws of Kukulcán. The massive model impressed visitors at the recent Paredes de Coura Fan Weekend in Portugal, captured here along with many other impressive creations from international builders.

Need a hand with your LEGO creation?

J6Crash has created this entry for this year’s Bio-cup LEGO building competition that looks straight out of a sci-fi movie or video game. The variety of LEGO elements used is fantastic – the use of the Toa Phantoka ball-shooters at the base being of particular note. But it’s the questions that this build asks which elevate it beyond an ordinary Contraction contest entry. Clearly this is some sort of synthetic hand, but why does it need to be supercharged with electricity like this? Is it completely synthetic? Is it – or was it – a human hand? And, er, where’s the rest of it? Surely there’s an equally cool-looking arm and body lying just out of shot. But its purpose is anyone’s guess….

No one out-carcinizes the Hut!

They say that evolution has tended to converge upon a common crab-like shape, and it appears this is true in LEGO as well. All over the brick-built internet, LEGO artists are coming up with crustaceans aplenty during this #TimeForCrab, likely spurred by the Cancer season on the astrological calendar. It’s in this vein that TBB regular Maxx Davidson shows us the carcinization of pizza, a work appropriately titled “stuffed crust-acean.” And that pun isn’t the only thing I’m jealous of here: check out the expert use of the minifigure hoodie part as gooey, melty cheese on this supreme slice of the seafloor. The pizza box is brilliant as well, swarming with baby crabs with carapaces of ‘za.

LEGO with an ego the size of the sun!

This LEGO build by Panuvara drips confidence from every stud! Panuvara has used so many great ideas that make this build shine, that there really is too much neat parts usage in this build to talk about. So, I’m going to rapid fire a bunch at you! Starting with the golden neck-and-head-dress; those chameleons are floating – not connected by studs, and did you know that micro-statue heads fit inside bar holders? I didn’t. There’s also plenty of Bionicle influence: the top of the Emissary’s head is the infected Hau Nuva, while its teeth are borrowed from one of the Piraka. There’s also a head under the Emissary’s right knee. The mottled colors of the Hau match perfectly with the pattern of the macaw used for the Emissary’s nose. Let’s move on the the Emissary’s seat. The rounded rectangular patches with grills are rubber band holders, the bricks holding the projectile triggers are bumper holders, and there’s plenty of minifigure legs and hips for you to spot. Finally I’ll point out that the face carved into the centre of the stonework uses a dinosaur cub and a clone trooper visor as parts of its nose. There’s more to see here the longer you stare at it. But be careful: while you’re looking at it, the Emissary is watching you!

Have a nice trip, see you next fall

I feel bad for Timmy, and I feel even worse for his LEGO Bionicle collection. Builder Magmafrost13 has taught this Constraction collector a lesson in gravity with this round 1 entry into the Bio-Cup competition. With all the excellent parts usage in this creation, it’s hard to pick a favorite. But the use of a pair of Kanohi masks to form Timmy’s surprised face and hair is truly inspired!