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 steam-age, animatronic wonder

Sometimes you just want to sit back, enjoy a delicious meal, and watch animatronic robots gyrate and pivot in place to cheesy music. Well, I guess some people like that kind of thing. Those of you who do are in luck because Charis Stella has built a stunningly detailed, steam-powered display! This build is chock-full of interesting details and best of all, it actually moves! Can’t you just hear the music?

Charis built her steampunk contraption and her Buhar spider walker for the Bricks & Boilers Exposition contest over on Flickr. The contest has some amazing prizes, including Ninjago sets, Crazy Bricks accessories, and signed copies of the Empire of Steam trilogy written by TBB’s own Rod Gillies! The contest runs through midnight on May 1st so there’s still a little time left to join the mayhem.

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LEGO Ninjago 70602 Jay’s Elemental Dragon [Review]

This spring the sky is the battlefield between good and evil. Skybound, the theme of the new Ninjago sets, brings the action high above the ground. Our team has already reviewed Zeppelin Raid, Misfortune’s Keep and Tiger Widow Island, which introduced our readers to all the evil characters. Now it’s time to take a look at what good ninjas have to respond with. 70602 Jay’s Elemental Dragon is a medium-sized set of 350 pieces, which includes 2 minifigures and a monkey, and its retail price of $29.99 seems appropriate.

Pieces are distributed between 3 bags: the first one contains parts for the flyer and the body of the dragon, the second bag allows building of the dragon’s head, while the third one contains the largest parts which form a pair of wings and a tail. Surprisingly enough, the instructions are provided in two rather thin booklets, though one medium-sized book would be more convenient to use and to store. Last but not least is a sticker sheet with 14 stickers on it.

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Virtual reality on the verge

I always thought the digital world was sucking out our brains along with our souls. But I never imagined the process as vividly as Tremah has. This amazing creation foresees a dark future which may await us. You wouldn’t want your brain to be drained by these red cables, would you? So get a grip on reality and taste this plastic perfection!

Benny’s big blue house

Ever wonder what Benny the Spaceman’s house looks like? Well wonder no longer because Wayne Yeh has built the home of everyone’s favorite side-character from The Lego Movie. It’s blue and grey, of course, and filled with lots of classic space details including: a bacta-tank-like shower, a space toilet, a flat-screen, glass television, a greebled surround-sound system (or is that a space-lamp?), some kind of liquid food machine, and plenty of tiny habitats for growing food. What else could a Master Builder like Benny ask for?

This spider is not afraid of a little steam

Steampunk is usually associated with Western civilization. But what about other regions, with countries that where once part of an ancient empire? The Buhar Walker by Indonesian builder Charis Stella may provide the answer:

This build mixes the impeccable attention to detail required for any steampunk creation, and an exotic design inspired by foreign lands, with a touch of luxury and royalty. Not only a great build, but maybe the start of a new steampunk sub-theme?

Adam Bomb explodes in LEGO

Garbage Pail Kids began their lives as trading cards way back in 1985, just as the Cabbage Patch dolls were peaking in popularity. The Garbage Pail kids were a parody of the ‘nicer’ cabbage patch dolls with catchy names such as ‘Joe Blow’, ‘Moist Joyce’ and ‘Barfin’ Barbara.’ Damoncorso has chosen the explosively named Adam Bomb to build and has captured the character animatedly in LEGO.

If anyone else is looking for inspiration from the Garbage Pail Kids, there are about 660 of them in total so there are plenty more gross images to chose from.

The height of good microscale

This lovely towerblock by delayice is a great piece of microscale building. The blue and grey color scheme creates a sense of modernity and style, and there’s good details in the lower lobby building at the tower’s base. Check out the offset “headlight brick” providing wall texture and window detailing — nice work.

A chinese street in Jakarta

We often see modular buildings with European architecture, but the world is a much bigger place and offers many other forms of beauty. Kosmas Santosa from Jakarta decided to take matters into his own hands and built three modular buildings with Indonesian/Chinese architecture. The diorama is comprised of a tea house, a pharmacy and a residential building which are all inspired by actual locations. Despite the fact that these inspiring buildings look ruined, Kosmas took a nostalgic step and reanimated the street as a lively place.

You can find more detailed pictures on Kosmas’s own website. He built this diorama as part of a Bhinneka LUG display and even made a few trucks and carts to live up the scene.

Rusty rail truck gets the job done

There’s a real art in depicting decay and dilapidation in LEGO. The solid colors and straight lines of our favourite construction system tend not to lend themselves well to such subjects. But Maciej Drwiega has nailed it with this rusting rail truck. Smart color combinations and a clever sideways construction technique have created a convincing impression of battered and bruised metal.

Whilst I’m not really a train guy, I’d heartily recommend a visit to Maciej’s photostream, where you’ll find excellent photos of more lovely railway models and layouts. I particularly like the images shot with tilt-shift.

A belated dragon dance for Chinese New Year

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen admits that he’s not sure why he built this Chinese dragon dance scene (several months after the Lunar New Year), but I for one am very glad he did. With stellar use of transparent Bionicle flame pieces and a Ninjago “Dragon God” banner tile, I can almost hear the firecrackers and smell the smoke.

You can read more from the builder himself on his blog, Cyclopic Bricks.

Italy’s il Duomo di Milano

Sometimes great things take time to create, as is the case with the Milan Cathedral. Construction began in 1386, with the final details (a gate) being completed in 1965. Renovations on the magnificent building continue even today. Hopefully brickbink‘s version did not take six centuries.

This inspired version is recognizable as the famous landmark, with its beautiful doors and statues. The only thing missing is an exorbitant amount of pigeons.

I am the Walrus: The Adventures of Pingu

Pingu the penguin was a staple of Swiss children’s television throughout the ’90s, and builder LegoJalex brings us one of Pingu’s many adventures. Here Pingu encounters a giant walrus in a nightmare. You can watch the clip LegoJalex based this on via Youtube — scary stuff, if you ask me.