Leonid An is running awesome building experiments on some of the new parts. The result is this gorgeous handheld portal device from the Portal video game. I am guessing this build started with the white large figure armour piece, which has the same shape as a part of the original portal gun. However, the rest of the weapon is no less excellent and features a couple of great building solutions including these three minifigure hammer pieces on the other end. Take a moment to appreciate the peculiar scale of the gun; it is not too large, but has enough details which make it instantly recognizable.
Category Archives: Models
Wonderful Chris Foss-style LEGO spaceship
We’d only just covered one fabulous LEGO spaceship which reminded us of the work of Chris Foss when up pops another. This cool Military Shuttle craft from Gamabomb is clearly inspired by the influential illustrator. It’s got all the signature Foss elements — bold color schemes, chunky striping, chequered patterns, and a wonderful greebly realism in its surface texture. Great stuff.
If IKEA was Danish, and made of LEGO
Norwegian builder birgburg creates fantastic scenes of brick-built domesticity and then takes excellent photos of them. The resulting images remind me of IKEA catalogs. I loved this kitchen viewed from outside, although the title — “Sneaking around in the garden at night” — suggests more sinister goings-on than you might expect.
A scroll through birgburg’s photos will be rewarded with further gems, like this sun-dappled porch scene. I want to be slouched in that seat, soaking up the rays, and sipping an ice-cold Cuervopolitan from that glass…
Fan makes awesome LEGO Game of Thrones house sigils, and Hodor
LEGO builder Omar Ovalle has spent the last two years working on and off recreating the iconic house sigils from Game of Thrones, from House Stark’s iconic wolf of Winterfell, to House Lannister’s majestic lion of Casterly Rock, and on to some of the lesser known sigils such as House Baelish’s mockingbird. The collection is still a work in progress, but Omar has also taken some time to build a few cool LEGO busts of characters from the series, including the ever-faithful Hodor. Check them all out below!
Click to see the rest of the house sigils
Exploring where classic spacemen have gone before
As one of the most popular LEGO themes ever, Classic Space continues to be a source of inspiration for builders even to this day. This all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and various accoutrements is a lovely space scene created by SweStar. The ATV is quirky and utilises a more unusual part for the trans-yellow cockpit windshield, the x-pod barrel. Although I love the vehicle, my favourite part of the build are those little crates stacked on the left hand side. I wonder if they are for the collection of alien life-form specimens?
A closer look at the ATV confirms that it is definitely a more unconventional vehicle with its use of technic rotation joints for suspension and ingenious brick-built wheels.
A way of life
Capturing the human form in LEGO bricks is challenging at the best of times, which is why builders either plumb for a combination of complex parts and techniques, or go the other direction and use basic bricks but scale up their creations. However, the work of British builder David Hughes seems to lie somewhere in between these two extremes, with sculptures that require relatively few bricks and relatively little detail to capture the essence of their subject. Here, in a memorable pose, is Jimmy from the classic 1979 “angry young man” movie Quadrophenia:
Knights of the Cute Republic
In what might be one of the more interesting (and perfectly executed, and beautifully presented) mashups that I’ve seen in a while, David Lee, inspired by the excellent design of Herbert Lee’s Stormtrooper puppet, has reimagined Captain Phasma and a First Order Stormtrooper from Star Wars: The Force Awakens as chibi samurai. They’re so adorable, and stabby!
Classic television star fighters get the LEGO treatment
Some of you might feel that there are contributors at The Brothers Brick who have an unhealthy and self-indulgent obsession with nostalgia for 70s and 80s pop culture. And that those should contributors be stopped. And you would be absolutely right, on both counts.
Unfortunately we cannot be stopped, so please enjoy this latest LEGO-themed slice of retro goodness from SPARKART, who put together this microscale collection of ships from the Glen Larson TV shows Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica. These look totally swooshable, and each one is instantly recognizable as I peer at it over the rims of my half-moon spectacles.
“Hard Six” mech will hit your soft spot
The only thing better than alternate history is alternate history with big stompy mechs. Matt Rowntree must agree with me because his “prototype heavy walker, model 3, mark 3” (or “Hard Six” for short) certainly fits the bill as a Japanese war machine from 1949.
Be sure to check out Matt’s photostream for other shots including a really cool Jungle platform supply station and the fact that the nose features a sticker from LEGO set 7701 Grand Titan.
Big, black and beautiful: The Blacktron Behemoth
This huge Blacktron-themed tank by Adrian Drake measures a whopping 104 x 48 studs. Complete with a rotating turret and articulated corner treads, this LEGO tank is an absolute necessity for any Blacktron fleet worth its salt.
Adrian explained that his build was inspired by the artwork of DeviantArt user Duskie-06, but of course modified for LEGO building and tricked out in black with yellow trim and red transparent pieces in order to be a true Blacktron vehicle. According to Adrian, “The entire thing is basically a giant technic framework that, when I take the treads off, I can pick up and swoosh quite easily. It is, in reality, a SHIP with tank treads.”
If you’re looking to build a Blacktron Behemoth of your very own, be forewarned, to complete a tank like this you will need to spend countless man-hours in R&D and manufacturing. It took Adrian nearly two months to complete this build and that was even with the assistance of child labor: Adrian’s 9-year-old son designed the gun on the top of the turret and his 12-year-old son tirelessly mass-produced the tank’s treads. Without minions of your own, you’re looking at a much longer timeline before your tank rolls off the assembly line.
To see the up-close details of this build, be sure to check out more photos of Adrian’s massive Blacktron tank on Flickr. You can also see this tank in person at Brickworld Chicago or BrickFair DC.
Brick Ops
While I still actively buy and play with LEGO, Spy vs. Spy remains a part of my childhood exclusively. Due to import charges and weak local currencies I could never afford to buy Mad magazine, but the hours I spent hiding from store employees while I read Spy vs. Spy are etched into my memory. Andreas Weissenburg does the characters justice in this vignette. I don’t know what I love more, the little tank being driven by the white spy, or the fact that the black spy is wielding a brick separator! My money is on the black spy…
The heavens arrayed above the glassy cockpit
What a magnificent view the pilots of this stellar craft must get as they soar among the stars! Builder aido k says the spaceship was inspired by the sweeping curved windscreen from the UCS Slave I, and the wings from the Creator Blue Power Jet, but the marriage of the two brings forth this a sports car for the next century—a luxurious vehicle for the elite.