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 Jurassic sized collaboration

One of the most enjoyable aspects of LEGO is the fact that anyone can build with it – either alone or with a friend. Collaborations between builders often yield tremendous results, and this collaboration between Paul Trach and Markus Aspacher is the perfect example of successful team brick-building. Coordinating from 600km away, Markus in Austria and Paul in Germany divided the four films of the Jurassic Park franchise – including the recent blockbuster Jurassic World – into a massive and stunning dinosaur display.

Paul and Marcus recently displayed their collaboration at the Bricking Bavaria Munich convention, where it rightfully took home the coveted Best in Show award. Although on site it appeared to be one single piece (as it does above), the layout is actually four sections. Each builder constructed two portions representing two of the films. The first section, Jurassic Park, was built by Markus:

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NERDvember 2015: All your contest are belong to us

For LEGO builders with a competitive streak November is a busy month, with the Colossal Castle, Vic Viper and our own Pimp Rey’s Speeder contests now in full swing. But if castles and spacecraft are not your cup of tea, you do have another option: NERDvember, brought to you by our pal Tommy Williamson over at the BrickNerd!

Indonesian builder Kosmos Santosa tried to keep things classy with his interpretation of Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring. But then not surprisingly things got a bit Star Warsy, as you can see from this R2-N2 by Palixa And The Bricks and NERDcrawler by captainsmog:

On second thoughts make that very Star Warsy. Behold, Jabba the Nerd by Gregory Coquelz…

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Oh rats!

The tomb of Sir Richard, one of the Knights of the First Crusade, is buried deep under the streets of Venice, and the shield that marks his tomb can help you discover the location of the Holy Grail. Well, at least according to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Legophthalmos has cleverly recreated the iconic catacomb scene from the film, complete with Richard’s tomb, ossuaries, and of course, piles and piles of rats.

Just looking at this build makes me feel like I walked face-first through a cobweb. *Shudder*

The evolution of a mech

kenny_yan brings us a new mech in the form of the m.k.007-01. Somehow, this mech manages to look both agile and extremely bulky at the same time.

Wonder how it was made? How the angles were pulled off and how a model like this is even created? Thankfully you’re covered by a set of progression shots that show how the build came along. It’s really interesting to see what aspects were kept and what was junked as time went on.

Lacking the V, but still an awesome spaceship

Since it is NoVVember, and it has become tradition, people are making (and we are posting) a lot of Vic Vipers. To shake it up a bit and still get your required dose of interstellar machines, here’s a build called “Gravitator I3” by David Steeves. Proving that one of the best aspects of flying around in space is that you don’t need to worry about pesky air resistance, this starfighter has some outrageous curves and shapes, and we love it. This is definitely one of those models that could easily be mistaken for a regular model that isn’t made of LEGO.

He’s Popeye the LEGO Man!

Very few characters lend themselves to being made out of solid, usually rectangular bricks without some amount of artistic interpretation. But Popeye, with his cartoonish proportions, actually lends himself to being made in brick. Eh, it must be the spinach.

Kosmas Santosa brings the character to life with a faithful build that manages to nail every aspect of the famous design of the sailor. Some custom stickers give the spinach cans their labels and that massive forearm an anchor tattoo, but the rest is straight LEGO and all Popeye.

Tiny tanks advance to victory!

I’ve been following the recent builds of Thomas of Tortuga with interest and expressing little yelps of delight whenever a new creation pops up. He’s embroiled in a Flickr-based LEGO wargame called Divide And Conquer which I’m not even going to pretend to understand. However, the creations he’s putting together to represent his fictional nation’s military are fantastic. I particularly liked these armored tractor tank things…

I must admit to a certain ambivalence about rendered LEGO creations – I generally like to see builders put bits of plastic together in the real world. And I’m a firm believer that restrictions on quantity and color drive creativity, pushing builders to develop new techniques. However, these vehicles are absolute class, and I figured I’d let the handful of “impossibly colored” parts slide this time. (Those are pieces which LEGO has never produced in that particular color. But digital parts, of course, can be any color.)

The rest of Thomas’ photostream is stuffed with similarly cool and slightly steampunk military creations – well worth checking out. I’m loving his series of naval vessels (especially this dreadnought), although again some of the “impossible part” use does make me twitchy.

I know some people say rendering isn’t “LEGO building” at all. I’m not sure I’d go that far, and builders like Thomas are making me pay more attention to rendered works. I reckon LEGO creativity shines through, regardless of medium. What do you think?

Drop in, restless traveler! (if you’re brave enough...)

Seems like dark blue color is in command on The Brothers Brick this week: not only is it the tinge of time-travelers, but also stands for sapphire. Jaapxaap made a great decision by choosing it as the prime color for his latest Haunted Inn, which was created for this year’s Colossal Castle Contest. I must admit these flat tiles with eye pattern make me feel as disturbed as I do from that “friendly” ghost in the doorway.

This customizer’s always right

It’s no secret that I’m not much of a customizer myself. But, like most LEGO fans on either side of that customizing fence, I can still enjoy a beautiful bit of customizing when I see it. And Terry Jeffries’ customs are nothing if not beautifully and exceedingly well executed. Clean paint lines and smooth transitions between original LEGO plastic and added-on bits are hallmarks of good customization, and it’s hard to find any mistakes with either in Jeffries’ work.

This golden neo-Samurai warrior is just plain gorgeous, bringing together sci-fi and feudalism with just a dash of steampunk. This and the left model below remind me vaguely of the titular character in Desert Punk.

We will remember them

Guns along the Western Front fell silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Using LEGO as a medium to acknowledge Veterans Day, Armistice Day or Remembrance Day wherever you are, is just our community’s way of remembering all of those who sacrificed for their country.

Lest We Forget by Simon Liu

Remembrance 2015 by Luc Byard

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Deborah Higdon

Poppy by Fujiia

Lest We Forget by JK Brickworks

We Will Remember Them by Nick Sweetman

Delicious Designs from the Speeder Custom Body Shop

The Speeder Custom ~~Body Shop~~ Kitchen is getting busy as our Pimp Rey’s Speeder Contest picks up speed. We welcome all interpretations, but these two delicious builds got our taste buds watering.

First, straight from the freezer, is Koen’s ‘Ice Pop Speeder’. Koen was clearly concerned about Rey coping with the hot deserts of Jakku and pimped her a chilled ice pop complete with Ice Cream vendor… not sure how she will feel about him taking a quick bite first!

Next comes the ‘Hot Dog Speeder’ dished up by Jabberwokka. Hot dogs are always a tasty fast food, and this Hot Dog Speeder is served in a neat napkin with some condiments. Let’s see if he can mustard up the speed to ketchup with the other pimped Speeders!

Life-size LEGO TARDIS materializes in Sydney, ready to transport the Twelfth Doctor [News]

Australian LEGO Certified Professional Ryan McNaught and his workshop team have built a life-sized replica of the TARDIS from Doctor Who. Images of the LEGO TARDIS on Bondi Beach in Sydney started circulating on the web yesterday, but you can see it in person at the Zing Pop Culture Store in Macquarie Park through the 18th this month, and then at the Doctor Who Festival in Sydney on the 21st and 22nd of November.

We reached out to Ryan and the BBC to uncover some details and exclusive photos not shared elsewhere. Ryan tells us that his team of 5 builders spent 45 hours just to design the LEGO TARDIS, and then 206 man hours to build it. Everyone is sworn to secrecy on the part count, since the BBC will be holding a contest to guess the number of LEGO pieces used to build it — suffice to say it’s a fairly insane number of dark blue LEGO all in one place! Built to exacting specifications provided by the BBC archives, it stands 316 bricks high (303 cm or nearly 10 feet tall).

The front of the TARDIS features a brick-built notice and fully functional door, which will enable Peter Capaldi himself to emerge from the LEGO TARDIS at the Doctor Who Festival later this month.

The light on top works, and Ryan’s team even built a matching Sonic Screwdriver.

To enable the BBC to transport the LEGO TARDIS to various events, it incorporates an internal steel frame. As to other secret details, Ryan tells us, “It may in fact be bigger on the inside, it certainly felt like it when we were building it!

UPDATE: Ryan has added some more photos to his Flickr photostream, including this great photo of the team behind this epic build.