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.

Thrusty, red spaceships go faster...

Thomas W. has built a ship; and not just any ship, but a heavily armed scouting ship called New Horizon. Thomas tells us that it is designed for long distance flights, so it has lots of propulsive power. But let’s not forget the importance of weapons to protect it from any naughty people. New Horizon has a nice, aggressively angled cockpit and a host of lovely details across the ship’s body work.

Thomas’ use of stickers is spot on, with just enough to give it identity markings but without distracting from the lovely shaping and greebles. It is definitely worth taking a look at the rear view to see the ‘horsepower’ behind this ship …deliciously ‘thrusty’ for such a compact design.

I’m just not sure where the lavatory is located for those essential breaks during long distance flights…

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A vibrant Greek city on the sea

The annual Kockice Brickstory Contest attracted a lot of talented builders this year including jaapxaap’s Hanging Gardens of Babylon that we posted on Wednesday, but Simon Schweyer‘s Greek Polis is the most massive entry I’ve seen so far.

There is so much to take in! Four unique homes, an amphitheater filled with tiny citizens, a vineyard, a goat herder, a temple, an Oracle inspired by the one in Delphi, and even a man-powered war galley.

You can check out even more details on Flickr.

Once Upon A Brick: Disney characters as LEGO bricks

Chris Adams has developed a series of Disney characters based around the shape of the basic LEGO brick. Entitled Once Upon A Brick, his collection currently has at least 18 Disney characters from Mickey Mouse to characters from Frozen. The concept is simple: The body shape of each character is based on the basic LEGO brick with specific colours and added features to really identify the character.

You can see closeups of each character on Chris’ album Once Upon A Brick on Flickr. So come on, everyone likes a bit of a quiz, how many of the Disney characters in the photo can you name?

4-foot-long LEGO Technic ER-1250 bucket wheel excavator [Video]

The ER-1250 was a massive bucket wheel excavator designed for surface mining in the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century. The tracked vehicle stood taller than an 8-story building. Brilliant Russian Technic builder Kirill has built a minifig-scale version of this behemoth that stands 56 cm tall and 123 cm long, and weighs 7.8 kg. That’s over 4 feet long, nearly 2 feet tall, and more than 17 pounds.

Even more than with his previously featured Ice Planet “Elephant” and snow rover, Kirill has built a huge amount of functionality into his vehicle using 14 Power Functions motors, 6 IR receivers, 2 regular battery boxes, and 2 rechargeable (lithium) battery boxes. Working features include fully steerable tracks, superstructure rotation, rotating bucket wheel, conveyer belts, elevating booms, and more.

Click through to watch the video and see more photos!

If you can’t hang with the big dogs, you stay on the porch!

Here is an adorable couple of Chihuahuas by delayice to celebrate the start of the weekend. Take a moment to note how adorably grotesque both dogs are and how recognizable the overall shape is. How can one not fall in love with these silly eyes and enormous ears?

Perfect home for a melancholy samurai

Some beautifully sinister and gloomy Japanese-style micro architecture on display from Tim Schwalfenberg. With it’s moody black and silver color scheme and wonderful levels of detail, this fortress could be a piece of concept art from 47 Ronin. (And that’s intended as a compliment – although the film as a whole might not have lived up to expectation, it looked very pretty indeed).

The fortress walls are impressively detailed and the curved roof is an obvious highlight, but it’s the neat little bridge and the base which add the finishing touches of brilliance. This could be the first set in a new LEGO theme of Fantasy Architecture. (If LEGO were to launch such a line they could literally take all my money. All of it.)

Beneath the surface of an alien landscape

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is one of the main non-destructive techniques at the disposal of modern archaeologists. While Tyler Sky says that this crew of LEGO space scientists are on a geomorphology survey expedition, I like to imagine that they’re xenoarchaeologists hoping to discover buried alien civilizations. Built in realistic grey, the GPR vehicle evokes the retro-futuristic vibe of Classic Space LEGO, while the shape of the sensor array on the front appears to be eminently practical.

Artificial Intelligence will make the world efficient and set you free

The short independent film Keloid depicts a very different world from the one we know. In the film, society has come to rely on an intricate network of artificial intelligence devices designed to bring efficacy and then control. Devid VII has recreated the Militech Weapons Platfom and accompanying drones from the film in LEGO.

Devid’s weapons platform is a fantastic combination of menacing robotic features, weaponry and the intimidating sense that ‘Big Brother’ is watching. I particularly love the use of Mixels joints at the ‘ankle’ as it looks cool, adds function and also accurately reflects the film.

This second view uses depth of field nicely to focus on the impassive drones in front of the weapons platform. The use of minifigure parts mixed with brick heads is perfect to mimic the film’s drones who have big metallic blank faces and eyes that never really look at anything.

With sci-fi, artificial intelligence, a 1984-esque oppressive future and LEGO, Devid has served me a perfect cocktail …cheers!

18,000+ piece LEGO Fortress of Solitude shames all other vacation homes

Sometimes one just needs to fly away from all the hustle and bustle of a city constantly in danger — and sometimes an artist decides to step out of their comfort zone for the challenge, and in the process, produce amazing results. That was the intent behind JanetVanD‘s latest build: the famous “Fortress of Solitude” from the 1978 film Superman. In stark contrast to Janet’s previous creation, the equally gorgeous Her Majesty’s Theater, with its detailed interior, this build focuses largely on the natural icy exterior while the famous crystal-pyramid structure that makes up the fortress itself gleams in the background–but nonetheless commands absolute attention.

Superman’s vacation home took Janet 160 hours to complete and required 18,684 pieces in total. All of which were put to good use creating a realistic landscape that really sells the necessary ‘solitude’ requirement. No doubt only a person with the fortitude of Superman would choose such as place as this to have some uninterrupted downtime.

If you want to dive deeper into Janet’s latest and arguably coolest (pun intended) creation, check out more images of the Fortress of Solitude at Janet’s DeviantArt gallery.

The cutest LEGO Star Wars base you ever will see

Boba-1980 wanted a way to show off his LEGO Star Wars Microfighter X-Wing, Millennium Falcon, and TIE Interceptor, so he built this scene of a Rebel base under attack. The whole model has a great chibi vibe, perfectly blending minifigs and microscale just like the official microfighter sets.

Rock across the galaxy in The Astrosurfer with The Highway Stars

Every colorful rock band needs a colorful ride in which to clatter from gig to gig. There are few bands more colorful than this group of space rockers (though I miss my favorite green space man, who must have been relegated to be a roadie), imagined by the eccentric mind of Julius von Brunk, and Julius has built The Highway Stars an appropriately garish purple space jalopy.

While the band certainly provides an entertaining distraction, the real star here is their space car, The Astrosurfer, which has a detailed interior and even a brick-built engine under the hood.

Check out lots more groovy photos in Julius’ photoset on Flickr.

1930s Fire Truck is ready for your parade

You’ve been there, I’m sure — on the sidelines, snacking on your candy tossed from other floats. Then here they come: The classic cars of days gone by. All beautiful, to be sure, but who doesn’t love when the old fire trucks come out of retirement, fire up their diesels, and head down main street in their bright red glory? Tim Schwalfenberg has captured this beautiful moment rather spectacularly. The classic hood shaping, the wood grates and that delightful ladder all make this an instantly recognizable build.