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.

Baikinman the bacteria man

Anpanman was a popular Japanese children book series that ran from the early seventies until 2013, and among its record-holding 1,768-character roster was the main series antagonist, Baikinman. A devious bacteria man from the Germ Planet, he fought the title character in endless battles. Depicted here in a more serious (and deadly) manner by builder Moko, Baikiniman is clearly a monster you don’t want to mess with. That is, unless you have his one weakness on hand, soap, which causes him to shrink down to the size of a fly.

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There are many LEGO chess sets, and here’s another excellent one

At this point, chess sets made of LEGO are old hat. Heck, there’s many official sets too, so it’s not limited to custom models. But there’s something elegant in this version by Bartosz Sasiński. Not only are the designs of each piece worth taking a look at, but the white faction pulls off a faux wood effects by incorporating brown into the white and tan.

Cuda Dragster is a slick LEGO car

ER0L has brought us some fantastic vehicles in the past, like a police tumbler and the famous submarine Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me, but today’s model may be my favourite. It’s a dragster version of the classic Plymouth Barracuda. Althought the real car is known for its curves, this models seems to pull them off with long tiles. It truly is majestic.

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway

Our very own Elspeth has combined her passion for LEGO and Broadway theater to create iconic scenes from the stage. She’s picked four classic productions and created scenes of one of the climactic moments.

To start us off, let us journey beneath the Opera Populaire with the Phantom of the Opera. I absolutely love the candelabra. The build wonderfully matches the iconic scene of the Phantom taking Christine to his lair for the first time.

Click for admission to your favorite production!

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a boat?

Here we go with a couple more brilliant vehicles inspired by the concept art of Ian McQue. I think there are two great reasons builders seem to love McQue’s work. First, it looks “dirty,” like something you could find in the industrial zones of any city — near the water or not. Industrial spaces are functionally the opposite of luxury spaces. And second, McQue’s hovering boats represent a kind of palpable halfway point between now and later. It’s obviously the future in his paintings, but it doesn’t look too much different than now. It’s easy to get a feel for what belongs in that world and what doesn’t.

British builder redfern1950s has captured the airship feel very well with his two latest models. The orange one fits the industrial style very well, featuring plenty of lights, sirens, and other safety devices protecting simple hooks and pulleys. The red one is more of a throwback to a previous generation, more steampunk than dieselpunk. But both have the flaps and chains and lamps that make the skies seem a little more weird than they used to.

There goes the neighborhood

Have you ever seen abject poverty up close, where it lives? The brain almost doesn’t want to accept it: you literally cannot believe it. People can’t possibly live like this: but they do. And ironically, there is a kind of beauty there: colors that a designer would never choose, patterns that leave the eye wanting. The humanity of it cannot be contained. Shannon Sproule perfectly captures the heartbreaking chaos and vitality of economics gone horribly wrong in this wonderful vignette. And the presentation, spoofing the classist bias of the LEGO Architecture line, really hits home. Don’t expect to see this set in the next catalog.

A lineup of well-known Simpsons characters

The characters from America’s longest running animated series The Simpsons have been immortalised by LEGO already with two series of collectible minifigures. Now SuckMyBrick has brought them to life once more in brick-built form. Naturally, the main Simpson family members are all here along with a few key characters from the show such as Mr. Burns, Krusty the Clown and Groundskeeper Willie. The 1×1 round eye tile and the larger 2×2 round eye tile equivalent are perfect for the cartoon features depicted in the tv series.

You can see close up views of each individual character on SuckMyBrick’s The Simpson’s album. Brick-built characters from The Simpsons have also been featured before on The Brothers Brick, as you can see in previous posts like The Simpsons made from LEGO bricks.

A rather less scary terrarium

Terrariums are a big thing recently, but are not always suitable for the faint hearted. Imagine all those monstrous insects crawling out of their housing and eating your nose while you sleep. That’s definitely a no-go for me! Luckily soccersnyderi found a comforting way to own a terrarium without any risk of major heart attacks. Everything is much cuter in LEGO form, so this terrarium can host a beetle, two ants, a millipede, a butterfly, a ladybug, and a stick bug in your living room. I personally guarantee the safety of your nose!

A windswept hobbit escape

This diorama by TBB’s own contributor Jen Spencer depicts the scene from The Fellowship of the Ring at the Prancing Pony Inn just after the wraiths swoop in and stab the beds that the Hobbits are supposed to be sleeping in. The windswept atmosphere and dishevelled room is beautifully illustrated by the thrown-open window with curtains blowing, the overturned stool, pictures awry and—my own favourite part—the mattress that is askew.

This diorama really captures the imagination. Even if you have not seen this scene in the movie, it is clear that someone has left the room in a hurry and something sinister is going on. Jen’s diorama is actually an entry into the 2016 Middle Earth Lego Olympics over on MOC pages. Good luck to all the competitors currently flexing their Middle Earth muscles!

Instructions for Laputa: Castle in the Sky LEGO music box now available [Instructions]

Korean builder Hwang Byeong Jun has released step-by-step instructions for the amazing Laputa: Castle in the Sky music box that we featured last month, complete with details on how to integrate the music box into your LEGO build.

You can see each step in the instructions in the builder’s photoset on Flickr, and you can download a PDF as well.

All your tiny space base are belong to us

Karf Oolhu does it again with his unique blend of stripped-back style and clever parts usage. The little flyers are lovely, but the highlight of the show is the pyramid structure built with old-school printed logos.

Little LEGO flower cart is overflowing with nice touches

de-marco has built a cute little flower cart which wouldn’t look out of place in an official Town set…

There’s good use of different varieties of LEGO flower stems and petals here, and the baskets and hanging buckets are nice touches. But it’s the canopy and the handles/stand which are the best bits for me – nice and simple techniques which do a great job in the minimum amount of space. Just goes to show a model doesn’t have to be large to showcase quality building.