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.

Real-life Destiny Sword made from LEGO

Check out the Arc Edge from Destiny, Bungie’s newest game, where it appears in the newest expansion, The Taken King. Nick Jensen, known for making super cool life-size LEGO replicas of video game guns, has switched it up a bit and brings us a full-scale melee weapon this time. It takes a good deal of LEGO engineering prowess to create something so long and thin without it warping when held, and Nick is happy to pose with his blade to show its strength and scale.

If you like Nick’s work, check out Creations for Charity, where you can buy one of your very own! Nick has donated his life-size Halo 2 Battle Rifle to be sold to raise money for the charity, which uses the funds to buy LEGO sets for under-privileged children for Christmas.

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Where we’re going, we don’t need roads: Back to the Future DeLorean

As you probably know, today, the 21st of October 2015, is the day that the DeLorean Time Machine from the 1985 blockbuster Back To the Future travelled to.

Back in 1985, the makers of the movie imagined a rather cool-looking future in which we’d have flying cars, self-drying clothing, hovering skateboards and lots of fax machines, among other things. The hoverboard may be on its way, but fashion fortunately went in another direction and there are no flying cars either or at least none that work reliably. Instead we have smart-phones and social media.

We also have LEGO parts that I certainly couldn’t have imagined back in the eighties, as well as lots of different third-party accessories. Brian Williams (BMW Indy) has put some of these to very good use on his version of the Time Machine, with parts with a matte metal finish as well as lots of LED lighting and “glow” wire. He first posted pictures of this beauty a few months ago, but now seemed a particularly fitting day to bring it to your attention.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Brick Man

We’re big fans of Chris McVeigh (powerpig on Flickr) here at The Brothers Brick, and we’ve been enjoying his brick sketches for a couple of years. But Chris hadn’t tackled a self-portrait until now. Chris’s signature mustache and resplendent beard come through wonderfully with just a few plates and tiles.

Superman’s The Bottle City of Kandor

I am going to be honest, here: I didn’t ever read the comics, nor have I followed a terrible amount of the Superman movies. I can, however, appreciate a gorgeous LEGO creation even if I didn’t recognize the reference.

I’ll let the builder, Ken Robichaud, do the explaining:

Once the capital city of Krypton, it and its inhabitants were shrunk and preserved from the planets eventual destruction by the villainous Brainiac.

Kept safe in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude after its liberation from Brainiac’s ship, it became part of the Last Son of Krypton’s collection of unique and precious items and lifeforms from across the universe.

I’d recommend checking out his other comic book builds, of which there are just too many great ones to choose from! You can find all of them here.

via BrickNerd

Dans la Lune

Laure (Fujiia) speaks to the daydreamer in all of us with her new piece, Dans la Lune. I love the whimsical atmosphere. The face on the character is simple and highly effective.

As always, I invite you to check out the rest of her gallery on flickr.

Waving the summer goodbye

Summer’s officially gone, but summer creations are always in. In this model by Italian builder Devid VII, a perfectly adorable little crab needs to beware lest he be swept away by the crashing tide.

Oscar Niemeyer’s Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasilia

Earlier this year I visited MoMA in New York City, where I saw a wonderful exhibit titled “Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980.” I was particularly impressed by the architecture of Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil built in a lightning blitz of construction between 1956 and 1960. Daniel Stoeffler has built a microscale LEGO version of the Metropolitan Cathedral, designed (as were most buildings in the city) by architect Oscar Niemeyer. I’d love to see Daniel extend this LEGO series with the dome and bowl of the National Congress Building, the president’s residence, and so on.

The Rivers of Hell

We’ve seen some interesting builds over the years from Mihai Marius Mihu, and we’ve seen some incredible busts from the talented Tyler (The Deathly Halliwell). So today I was stunned when the best of both builders were combined into one stunning series of builds, a merger of Mihai’s unique style and vision and Tyler’s execution.

Over the past four months, the two builders have worked together to create their own vision of Greek mythology. Mihai started them off with a series of sketches (linked to below) which both Tyler and himself based their designs on.

Hold on tight as we take a trip down The Rivers of Hell, the 5 mythological rivers of the underworld.

The first river that the dead reach is Acheron:

The dead can elect to take Charon the ferryman across, or wander the shores of Acheron shore for a century.

The Styx, river of hate, is next: On its shore stalk the Erinyes, visiting justice upon criminal souls.

After that is the Cocytus, river of torture:

And then the Lethe, river of forgetfulness, where the dead forget their mortal lives:

And lastly Phlegethon, in the deepest depths of the underworld, which holds the prison of the Titans, dreadful Tartarus:
And off to the side guarding the borders of Hell is Cerberus.

You can see all the creations, background sketches and character studies in the Flickr group.

SHIPtember: Judges award and people’s choice

Over the past week we have focused on the amazing builders who decided to build a SHIP within a month. We’ve looked at pop culture SHIPs, original and very unconventional SHIPs, realistic and near future SHIPs, the super fun minifigure scaled SHIPs, and finally SHIPs based off of one of the most influential games for SHIP buliders: Homeworld.

But before we dive in, I want to congratulate every single builder that participated in this year’s SHIPtember (even those who were too ambitious to complete their SHIPs). It’s an incredibly fun month of building and sharing your work in progress with everyone. You make SHIPtember special.

Today we wrap up our Week of Wonders: SHIPtember edition by revealing the overall best SHIPs, as chosen by the judges, and also the people’s choice.

Again, we have a great prize, thanks to several of members the development team from Homeworld Remastered who have generously signed and donated a copy of the Homeworld Remastered game to the builder of SHIPtember 2015’s Best SHIP – which tradition also dictates will be immortalized as SHIPtember’s 2016 poster boy (much like the 2014 and 2013 winners) and also be featured on next year’s event brick.

SHIPtember 2015 Best SHIP
This year’s Best SHIP goes to the infinitely talented Jonas (LEGOLIZE IT MAN) for his M.U.LLA Battle cruiser:

This SHIP is just a perfect combination of elegant piece usage. Jonas manages to add just the right amount of detail, while keeping it clean and stylized. Or as one judge put it: “This thing has the perfect balance of texture, clean lines, and just perfect color blocking”. And Jonas is not only gifted in the art of LEGO building, but is also quite the doodler and even pre-sketeched his award-winning SHIP.

Our runner-up for Best SHIP this year is Josh Derksen (armoredgear7) with his mammoth Demon’s Maw. It not only looks like some kind of demonic claw, but also has lights and motorized features!

Continue reading →

Working combination safe built from LEGO

Jason Allemann has used nothing but LEGO to build a fully functional combination safe. Not only does the safe lock with a three-number combination, Jason has designed the safe so that the safe itself cannot be removed from its outer case and opened without either knowing the combination or physically breaking LEGO pieces!

A picture doesn’t really prove it, so here’s Jason’s amazing video.

If you want to build you own LEGO safe, you can download instructions from Jason’s website.

It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.

Seb Toutouille has been posting cute “blockhead” versions of iconic characters for several months now. His latest is Link from The Legend of Zelda, with posable arms and quizzically tilted head.

I also love Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Finally, a wee Yoda and even tinier Artoo.

Be sure to check out all of Seb’s great Blockheads on Flickr.

Antisocial media

In the space of barely 20 years, the Internet has transformed human society to a degree probably not witnessed since the invention of agriculture, or electricity. It invades every facet of our daily lives, every corner of our collective consciousness. French builder 74louloute put together this little scene that reflects our new global obsession, and the way that it seems to have taken on a life of its own: