As 2016 comes to an end, we wanted to take a moment and look at some of the most popular news posts this year. What theme made the most appearances on our list? Who took the number one spot? Where does 10255 Assembly Square fall on our list? Read on to find out!
Click through to read the rest of our countdown!
Every day Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO models from around the world. Just like our global readership, there are LEGO builders across the world creating fabulous things with plastic bricks. However, every year there are a handful of builders who take things to new levels, prove themselves masters of various building styles, and wow us with their LEGO skills.
This year, Brothers Brick is delighted to call out Grantmasters as our LEGO Builder of the Year 2016.
Grant’s LEGO creations range from the minuscule to the mid-size, varied across themes and styles — from characters to architecture, with interesting parts choices and excellent building techniques throughout. His models featured no less than 13 times on the pages of Brothers Brick in 2016, and as Andrew (TBB’s founder and editor-in-chief) pointed out, the creations of Grant’s we didn’t feature could just as easily have been blogged. He’s had a sterling output of work in the past twelve months, and here are some of the highlights.
Grant has used fantastic microscale technique to take us from domestic backyard scenes…
To the surface of the Moon…
Click to see more of Grant’s incredible models
Getting to a shortlist of the best LEGO creations of 2016 was hard enough, but narrowing it down to a single best model was a nightmare. However, after much deliberation, the Brothers Brick is delighted to highlight Paul Hetherington‘s Batman scene as our LEGO Creation of the Year for 2016…
This stunning model features a beautiful Art Deco-style building, fantastic action, fun motorised elements, an incredible background city skyline, and to top it all, a fabulous brick-built Batman logo. Check out Paul’s video showcasing his creation…
See more of this incredible creation after the jump
The Brothers Brick publishes so many interesting stories, that we’re giving you the best of LEGO news and reviews, as well as links to other interesting content. This is our Weekly Brick Report for the final seven days of 2016. (Woo-hoo! We made it!)
![LEGO Ideas 21308 Adventure Time [Review]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/30975899854_d5365b5018_z.jpg)
REVIEWS: TBB had its hands full with new sets from Adventure Time, the LEGO Batman Movie, and Star Wars: Rogue One.
TBB NEWS: We posted some cool instructions, our tribute to Carrie Fisher, and our create-a-calendar winners this week. Also, the LEGO Death Star set is still up for grabs!
OTHER NEWS: There was a massive amount of LEGO news from other places around the web this week. Here are a few items we noticed and thought you might enjoy.
2017 still has many LEGO sets left to reveal, and today’s news brings us the next wave of LEGO Speed Champions, sure to whet the appetite of any good petrolhead (or gearhead, if you need to be all American about it).
LEGO teased racing fans with a press release a few weeks ago highlighting the upcoming 75881 Ford GT 2016 & Ford 1966 GT40, which celebrate 50 years of victory at Le Mans. Now we finally have a proper high-resolution photo of this set. Personally, my only disappointment is that there isn’t a GT40 in lovely blue and orange Gulf Gasoline livery.
See more 2017 LEGO Speed Champions sets after the jump
Following our reviews of 75152 Imperial Assault Hovertank (SPOILER: NOT A HOVERTANK!) and 75153 AT-ST Walker, we’re continuing our reviews of the Rogue One LEGO sets released in October, now that the movie is out two months after the LEGO sets hit stores. 75155 Rebel U-wing Fighter includes 659 pieces with 5 minifigs, and retails for $79.99.
Now that the movie has been out for a couple of weeks, our reviews will reference character details and plot points, so come back again after you’ve seen the movie if you don’t want any spoilers.
See the full review. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Now that some of the holiday craziness is past, we’re diving back into our coverage of The LEGO Batman Movie sets, and we’re kicking off with 70903 The Riddler Riddle Racer. The 254-piece set will be available Jan. 1, and will retail for $29.99 USD. It comes with a whopping five minifigures.
LEGO released its first wave of LEGO Star Wars Rogue One sets in October, but we’ve decided to wait until both our readers and we ourselves have had a chance to see the movie, released in most countries on December 16. We’ll be reviewing all of the current Rogue One sets, starting today with 75152 Imperial Assault Hovertank, which includes 3 minifigs with 385 pieces and retails for $30.
Now that the movie is out, we’ll be talking about the movie’s characters and plot in our Rogue One LEGO set reviews, so come back and read our review later if you want to remain spoiler-free. But if you’re just interested in our recommendation now before you see the movie, this is a great value and I recommend the set heartily to any Star Wars fan.
See the full review. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Every year since 2009, Creations for Charity has sold custom creations donated by generous builders to raise funds and purchase LEGO sets for underprivileged kids during the holiday season. In 2016, they sold more than 100 creations and raised $13,877, which in turn helped them purchase and donate LEGO sets in nine cities in the US, Canada, Brazil, Hungary and Australia. You can see the massive amounts of sets they donated in the photo below.
TBB’s own Nannan Zhang founded Creations for Charity, which notably became a non-profit this year. This means future donations will be tax deductible, hopefully ensuring that such a worthwhile cause within the LEGO community continues for many holiday seasons to come.
Beloved actress and writer Carrie Fisher has passed away at age 60, after a recent heart attack. While she will be most fondly remembered for her role as the feisty Princess Leia Organa in the Star Wars saga, Fisher appeared in many other well-known movies including The Blues Brothers and When Harry Met Sally. She was also both an accomplished writer (often drawing upon her own over-the-top life experiences in Postcards from the Edge and more recently The Princess Diarist) and an oft-uncredited screenplay writer with involvement in movies like Hook and The Wedding Singer.
The iconic image of Fisher as Princess Leia will almost certainly be the one that stays with her fans, whether it be sporting the flowing regal gown and giant hair buns of A New Hope, or the metallic bikini “slave girl” outfit from Return of the Jedi. These images resonate with LEGO fans too, and over the years we’ve featured plenty of custom builds of the Leia character. Below are a few of them.
See more Princess Leia LEGO creations
Merry Christmas, dear readers! Here at the Brothers Brick compound, all the little doors on our three LEGO Advent calendars have now been opened, their bricky contents sit resplendent upon the mantelpiece, while the empty boxes burn in the fireplace, creating a warm glow upon our faces …or maybe that’s just the eggnog.
Before the Lemur began distributing our Secret Santa gifts (they’re all socks, they’re always socks) he reminded us to vote on the 46 entries in our Create-a-calendar building contest. As always, we were blown away by your ingenuity and skill. But there can only be three winners, and here they are…
SECOND PLACE
Futurama by Sam Beattie
THIRD PLACE
Classic Space by Andreas Lenander
Thank you again to everyone who took part. And to the winners, congratulations! We’ll be sending you your holiday-themed prize sets soon. We’re just sorry they can’t be sitting there under your tree already. And happy holidays to you all. (…bah, humbug!)
The Brothers Brick comes across so much LEGO-related news each week that we’ve decided to package up all the interesting stories we’ve written and the content that’s grabbed our attention into a Weekly Brick Report for your reading enjoyment. Some weeks there will be lots of links to share; other weeks there will be hardly any stories out there–that’s the fickle nature of the news. But these are some headlines worth sharing.
So without further adieu, here’s this week’s Brick Report:
REVIEWS: TBB’s hands got tired this week between building this massive modular and feeling out a full case of minifig bags.
TBB NEWS: We have the news you want (LEGO Gingerbread houses at the White House! Win a Death Star!) and the news you don’t (UK LEGO prices are going up, up, up!).