Category Archives: LEGO

You’d probably expect a lot of the posts on a LEGO website like The Brothers Brick to be about LEGO, and you’d be right. If you’re browsing this page, you might want to consider narrowing what you’re looking for by checking out categories like “Space” and “Castle.” We’re sure there’s something here that’ll fascinate and amaze you.

First look at the new 2017 LEGO sets from Nuremberg Toy Fair [News]

Germany’s Nuremberg Toy Fair is the largest Toy Fair in the world, and where toy manufacturers go to show off their new products to potential buyers. As in previous years, LEGO has a large presence with a lot of new sets. Thanks to our friends at Promobricks, we’re able to bring you the first look at some of what LEGO has planned for the rest of the year, including Architecture, Creator, Technic, City and more. In a few weeks we’ll be covering the New York Toy Fair and bringing you close-up, hands-on coverage of these new sets and more.

LEGO Architecture 2017

Don’t miss other upcoming LEGO sets we’ve announced, including:
Summer wave of The LEGO Batman Movie sets
21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Marvel & DC Superheroes LEGO Brick Headz
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 LEGO sets

Click to see the rest of the new sets

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Vignettes from How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother, for those of you who don’t know, is a romantic comedy about 6 friends and their everyday stories told from Ted’s viewpoint. The entire premise (surprise!) is Ted telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. It took him 9 seasons finish telling that story! It kept viewers guessing who was Ted’s wife all along. Builder Sascha is clearly a huge fan, and he’s built a series of vignettes from a few key scenes that fans should love and remember.

That famous yellow umbrella in the final episode

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2017 Speeder Bike Racing League Contest sponsored by The Brothers Brick [News]

The LEGO Speeder Bike Group is hosting their annual Racing League Contest. Any minifig-scale speeder bikes are welcome to enter. Check out the group’s photo pool for examples, if you aren’t familiar with the genre.

There are three Grand Prize sets up for grabs, as well as individual category prize sets, donated by The Brothers Brick!

Click here to read all about the prizes!

Architect of style

This architectural gem by o0ger depicts a cultural center you can catch a performace by an indie band or play some giant chess. One of its most captivating features is the clever use of the wing plate for the roof. The builder even took advantage of the cutout in the center of the wing to add a dormer.

The ancient ruins of a forgotten civilization

If the builder of these ancient ruins seems similar, you would be right, because Mark Erickson is one of the best castle builders out there, and very active to boot. There are a bunch of details to see in this with architectural texture being the most important one. I am fascinated how well the builder managed to make all the buildings look similar, even with different techniques used throughout. The palm trees also deserve a closer look, as they get thinner towards the top, an effect achieved by transitioning from palm trunk pieces through brown fez pieces to 1×1 cones.

All aboard the micro Hogwarts Express!

Everyone dreams of heading down to platform nine and three quarters and jumping aboard the magical train waiting there. But for those of us who never received our Hogwarts invitation (Obviously, my owl got lost on the way to my house) however, ForlornEmpire‘s amazing microscale LEGO Hogwarts Express is as close as we are going to get.

Empire’s microscale English countryside scene is quite lovely and the mini Express is spot on. All that’s missing from this adorable little scene is some billowing smoke from the egnine.

LEGO Batman Movie 70909 Batcave Break-in [Review]

I don’t know about you guys, but I am super pumped for The LEGO Batman Movie coming out on February 10, 2017. We already know that Will Arnett as Batman is hilarious and there’s bound to be plenty of LEGO jokes hidden in the background. So while we count down the days until the hilarity ensues, let’s review one of the The LEGO Batman Movie sets: 70909 Batcave Break-In.

Overall, this set has a lot going for it. There are a ton of interesting play features built into the design and the two vehicles are phenomenal. Best of all, the set comes with 9 great minifigs, several of which are exclusive to this set. Continue reading →

Summer 2017 wave of LEGO Batman Movie sets revealed [News]

The LEGO Batman Movie’s Feb. 10 release is right around the corner, but LEGO isn’t done revealing all the tie-in sets yet. Last week we got a look at the new LEGO Brick Headz collectible figures line, which includes 4 characters from the movie, and today we’re getting our first look at the summer lineup of film sets, due out in June.

70916 The Batwing, $89.99 USD

Includes Batman, Robin, and the Batwing with seating for two minifigures. The Batwing can transform from flight to landing modes, and features a rear compartment with a small car. The Batwing is 18 in. (48cm) wide and 12 in. (31cm) long. The set also includes Harley Quinn and her cannon. We reviewed the Batwing mini set recently.

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Frogs, Monkeys and Cthulu, Oh My: We interrogate that builder of the bizarre, Fedde Barendrecht [Interview]

This week we were able to track down Fedde Barendrecht to his Australian hideaway in Brisbane. Fedde, who goes by the handle Karf Oohlu, works from home, uploads another crazy LEGO creation almost daily and dreams of world domination. Somehow lots of monkeys and frogs are involved. Let’s dive into his mind but keep your wits about you. Once he has us in his tentacled embrace he may not let go again.

The Brothers Brick: Hey Fedde! What can you tell us about yourself? How did you get into LEGO and what keeps you there?

Fedde: Hi, I’m an old fart, my name is Fedde Barendrecht, Dutch born, Australian raised, and now living in Brisbane Australia. I blame a certain AFOL, Aaron Andrews (aka Darkspawn)—it’s all his fault. The first time I’d visited his place, I saw all the castle MOCs he was working on. (These days, family life—kids—is burning up most of his spare time, and cost him his Lego room.) It got me interested, so I first got into Bionicle, thinking they seemed restrictive and so would feed the interest but not get out of hand. A few System sets eventually got bought, some more—things got out of hand.

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Keep Up! Time is running away!

What would a clock say if a clock could talk? (say that three times fast!). Leonid An brings us a very charming character of time and named him Tony the Talking Clock. His expression is familiar to many of us–an exasperated blue-faced look that says, “I ain’t gonna wait for you if you’re more than a second late, buddy!” I’m still in awe at how Tony is able to stand without falling over with that top-heavy build! I suspect the magic behind that is that time does not stop, and if you’re always in motion, you’re not going to fall.

Celebrating the Year of the Rooster with abundance, good fortune, and joy

Builder Samuel Ho celebrates the Year of the Rooster this Chinese New Year with a little table standee featuring none other that this year’s zodiac animal, the Rooster! The build features a few other key elements to highlight the celebration of a new year in many parts of Asia and around the world. Red is the color for the New Year symbolizing joy and fortune. The potted plants featured on both sides are mandarin oranges, which are also symbolic of good fortune and abundance. If you’ve not guessed it yet, the characters translate to “Chicken” in Traditional Chinese characters.

Look at the starfighter, look how it shines for you

The wedge is a classic shape in LEGO starfighter designs, and that can mean a pointy model needs something eyecatching to stand out from the crowd. mrutek‘s Arrow does exactly that, through a combination of beautifully-shaped brickwork, and a retina-dazzling yellow color scheme. I’m a particular fan of the use of “bow” curves down the ship’s sides to create a lovely smooth section.

Sometimes LEGO creations using one predominant colour can see the details get washed-out and lost, ending up a little bland. The builder escapes that trap here through some judicious striping, and depth of texture added through the use of smaller tiles. Personally, I might have gone with blue rather than black for the stripes to create a bit more visual jazz, but that’s nitpicking at an otherwise lovely little spaceship.