Category Archives: News

Stay current on the latest news and information about LEGO, from sales & deals to new set announcements. We also cover LEGO events and conventions all over the world.

April 2013 TBB Facebook & Twitter cover photo winners

Last month, we announced that each month we’ll be featuring a new photo by one of our readers on Facebook and Twitter. After TR kindly arranged everything, I had the privilege of picking the first month’s cover photo winners.

For Facebook, it only seemed fitting that I should pick a photo of the Cybercity collaborative build that RoninLUG & friends (led by Andrew Lee) put on for Bricks by the Bay 2011:

For Twitter, I picked this fantastic helium transport by Robert H. (Robiwan_Kenobi):

I’m really pleased by just how much participation we got, with over 170 photos from 130 builders. It seemed like everybody submitted their best work this first month, and that made my job incredibly hard.

(Pssst! With so many awesome photos, here’s a tip. Remove your photos from the pool and add them again. We’ll consider them again another month.)

Since this was our first month, here are a few random observations about what worked and what didn’t:

This isn’t how you get blogged, but we certainly found a few gems we’d missed otherwise!
There were scores of gorgeous photos that just didn’t work because of the composition, mostly because of where Facebook and Twitter put our logo and page text on top of the photo.
Vertical (portrait orientation) photos really don’t work at all. As much as I love looming medieval towers and tall sculptural figures, we can’t really use them on Facebook and Twitter.
With so many great buildings, vehicles, and dioramas, it’s extremely unlikely that we’ll ever choose to feature a photo of a single minifig for a whole month.
It’s a good idea to brand or watermark your photos online, but large branding is distracting when the photo is going to be used as the “face” of The Brothers Brick, so I skipped past photos with big logos or chunks of text.
We love microspace here at TBB, but since I’d been using one of my own microspace photos for the last year or two on Facebook, I excluded several remarkably awesome photos (like Pierre’s) for this first month. Looking ahead, we’ll definitely be taking into consideration the subject matter or theme of what we’ve recently featured in selecting the next month’s photos.

We hope readers and builders alike enjoy this monthly challenge, and I’m looking forward to what other contributors pick next month and beyond!

Finally, if you aren’t already following us elsewhere, be sure to Like TBB on Facebook and follow TBB on Twitter.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

HispaBrick Magazine 016 out now [News]

Issue 16 of HispaBrick Magazine is out now just in time for the 5th anniversary of the magazine. Here are just some of the articles you will find in the free download:

Tutorials on landscaping, leaf weaving, Mindstorms and POV-Ray.
Interview with Lego designer Jamie Berard
Interviews with builders including Konajra, Schfio_factory, Yoshihito Isogawa, and me.
Lots of set reviews and more!

The exclusive “Pigs vs. Cows” BrickArms crate has been unveiled

Guy Himber’s Pigs vs. Cows project is well underway, but still needs pledges! An exciting part of some the pledges is an exclusive PvC BrickArms crate that will be included with the Pig and Cow heads.

Also one of the $1000 pledges has been picked up so everyone will be receiving cat heads as well! As the picture states, the cat is still a work-in-progress.

Pledge now!

Ninjago discounts on Amazon

The highly popular LEGO Ninjago The Golden Dragon 70503 is on sale for 22% off at $23.49 on Amazon. This is the lowest price I’ve seen for this set since it came out. There is also a 28% discount on LEGO Ninjago Ultra Sonic Raider Set 9449. Keep in mind that prices fluctuate often and might change soon.

Announcing the Wrath of the Titans Contest

Are you already getting tired of the MocAthalon? Then I’ve got good news for you. Simon Pickard and James Pegrum, both active members of the Greco-Roman LEGO group, are organising a contest that strikes me as new and original. No, it’s not about wrestling; the aim is to create a LEGO scene that depicts an event involving the titans of ancient Greece.

If this has made you curious, see the contest rules on flickr and let’s get ready to rumble!

Custom Roundup: BrickArms, BrickForge, BrickWarriors & BrickFortress

Spring is upon us and the makers of custom accessories are coming out with more new items to tempt us!

First up, BrickArms just released 10 new guns that run the gamut from World War II to Sci-Fi. Fans will be excited to see the E-11 and DL-44 come to production. Personally, I’m pretty excited about the Mosin Nagant.

BrickForge has a number of new items. These include gas masks, ballistic masks, face shields, tactical masks, night vision goggles and chin straps.

Brickwarriors made Dark Blue and Lime items available.

Finally, BrickFortress doesn’t have any new items but all of their poseable, stubby legs are on sale for $1.15. They have been on sale for some time now, so this may be the new, standard price. They recently ran a poll, asking which colors people would like, so we may see something new in the future. See our review for an opinion on these items.

PIGS vs. COWS!!!

In preparation for the Pigs vs. Cows theme at BrickCon 2013, Guy Himber (V&A Steamworks) has launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce minifig-compatible pig and cow heads!

Head over to Kickstater and pledge to get some of these great heads to spice up your Pigs vs Cows creations! Keep watch here on The Brothers Brick for more news on the Pigs vs. Cows theme and BrickCon 2013!!!

Mad about LEGO

Completing a new model and posting the first pictures online is always a bit exciting. Seeing the model being blogged here is even more exciting. Now imagine getting the opportunity to contribute to this blog yourself.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce myself as the newest writer for TBB. I am a Dutchman and live in the Netherlands, but I spent several years living in the UK, where I was and still am an active member of The Brickish Association. Regular readers may know me as Mad physicist. I have been mad about LEGO since I could first put two bricks together and have built many different things, but nowadays I primarily build scale models of vehicles: cars, trucks, aircraft and helicopters.

For Model Show Europe (a show for scale models of heavy haulage and earth-moving equipment) that I attended yesterday, together with fellow Lowlug-members, I recently built this Dutch MAN truck with a step-frame trailer and a JCB backhoe.

With my aircraft building, I am currently having a bit of a Seventies kick and recently completed a US Marine Corps F-4 Phantom II in the bright markings that were typical for the period.

I will post about my own work now and then, but I am looking forward to seeing all the wonderful stuff all of you are up to, picking my favourites and sharing them with the world.

Save $32 on LEGO Star Wars 9516 Jabba’s Palace

Amazon.com has discounted 9516 Jabba’s Palace, down $32 from $120 (27% off). With free shipping and no sales tax in most states, it’s a pretty sweet deal.

(Via FBTB.)

And if you’re still looking to complete the current Tatooine collection, 75005 Rancor Pit is also 13% off.

TBB Cover Photo “Contest”

How would you like to have your photo featured on either our Facebook or Twitter page for an entire month? We’ve created a Flickr group called TBB Cover Photos to give you that chance.

It’s simple: Just add a high-quality picture of your LEGO model to the group. Once each month, we’ll select two photos for our cover pages, one for Facebook and one for Twitter. You then get bragging rights for a whole month!

Tips for success & glory:

Landscape photos work better than portrait photos for cover photos. We’re most likely to pick photos that have lots of detail across a wide part of the picture.
Regular readers will be familiar with our high standards for presentation. As the “face” of TBB for a whole month, the photos you submit should be something we might blog — even if we haven’t yet.

Here are some examples of the aspect ratios to keep in mind:

Legalese: Please keep in mind that by joining and submitting a photo to the group, you are granting permission to The Brothers Brick, Facebook, and Twitter to use the photo (with full credit to you, of course).

LEGO Iron Man 3 sets out now [News]

The movie doesn’t come out for nearly two months, but the Iron Man 3 LEGO sets are out now from both the LEGO Shop online and Amazon.com (though they’re coming and going from the latter).

Note: You might temporarily need to turn off any ad-blocker plugins you’re running in your browser to see the links.

LEGO Shop links:

Amazon.com links (make sure you don’t get gouged by third-party vendors; check MSRP before buying if it’s not available directly from Amazon):

And since they were out at brick-and-morter stores even earlier, check out Chris’s reviews of all three sets right here on The Brothers Brick:

SeaLUG display at Emerald City Comic Con

What do Hogwarts, the Batcave, the Shire, a four-foot Borg cube, and an eight-foot Space Needle have in common? They were all at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle this last weekend!

I spent three days immersed in nerd-culture and am only now beginning to recover. What an awesome time! This was the second year that SeaLUG has put on a display at ECCC and it was definitely a success.

There were many highlights throughout the weekend but a big personal highlight was getting my Patrick Stewart, Christoper Lloyd and Batman mosaics signed.

The display itself was like a “Who’s Who” of impressive builds. Alice Finch brought her incredible Hogwart’s. Wayne Hussey and Carlyle Livingston brought The Batcave, Shawn Steele brought his Space Needle, Dan Parker brought an enormous Borg Cube, there was a collaborative build of The Shire, a Miniland-scale BrickCon, DisneyLand, Mosaics, Space Ships (with Space Kraken) and much, much more.

The entire weekend was full of good times, good food, catching up with old friends (Hi Will!) and making new ones. Celebrity sightings were a common occurence. I’m told Felicia Day came by and checked out the LEGO display. I attended the panel she co-hosted with Wil Wheaton but missed her apperance at the Sealug tables. Panels, sessions and workshops are a huge part of comic book conventions. I attended several, including Patrick Stewart’s (yes, he is awesome). Mariann Asanuma got LEGO on the agenda running a panel on “Building with Lego – for a Living!”

The convention attendees seemed to be impressed with the display of LEGO creativity. There was a constant flow of traffic at the tables on Friday (the only day that wasn’t sold out), but Saturday and Sunday were packed. People were lining up around the corner to check out our LEGO creations. I heard cries of delight all the way down the display and quite a few people wanted to know how to get involved with the hobby. We passed out SeaLUG business cards and BrickCon bookmarks like they were candy and people wanted even more information.

For many it was the first time they had seen what adults could do with the amazing little bricks we play with and it was a whole new world to them. So, to sum up, SeaLUG had a great time at Emerald City Comic Con. If there is a similar event in a city near your LUG, I highly recommend getting involved. It’s a great way to spread the word about your LUG, show off your creations and to meet new people!