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.

The explosion heard ’round the world

The volcanic eruption in 1883 that destroyed most of the island of Krakatoa was so violent that instruments recorded the blast wave traveling around and around the world several times. Scientists estimate that anybody within 10 miles would have been deafened immediately. Emil Lidé captures this catastrophic natural disaster in LEGO with a beautiful microscale diorama. A bright blue sea and tropical jungle encircle the doomed peak, while flames erupt from the top of the mountain.

Emil demonstrated his mastery of miniature LEGO landscaping with the LEGO tree instructions we featured a few months ago, and these even tinier trees look fantastic.

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Taking LEGO airports to new heights with a full-scale hangar

Fans of LEGO City will always feel something is amiss with the small airports LEGO releases as sets, thanks to the absence of full-sized hangars. That seems to have inspired James Zhan to take his LEGO City airport to new heights by constructing a minifig-scaled, full jet plane-sized hangar. Despite the sheer size, what’s truly impressive are the mundane yet often overlooked details in the construction of the folding doors that are tucked in when wide open with a simple yet almost grand motif at the top.

The icing on the cake and my favourite aspect of the build is the curved skylight structure that holds up well against a full windowed, panelled wall at the back of the hangar.

Now if we only we could get both Chi Hsinwei’s airport gates and James’s hangar together, we’d be a lot closer to an amazing, large-scaled, operational, full-service Airport! Anyone up for a runway?

Five arms are better than two

This truly alien-looking creation from Tremah comes courtesy of a great mix of System, Technic, Bionicle, and Hero Factory parts. Qlauflus the Handyman is a marvel of low-parts-count versus overall shape. There’s skillful use of larger LEGO pieces, coupled with bars and tentacles to create those spindly appendages.

The color scheme is also working well — relatively rare lime green pairs up nicely with the white. I think there’s some “cheating” going on, with concealed elements to keep the model balanced upright for the photo, but they’re so well hidden that I’ll let it slide.

Street Sharks? I haven’t heard that name in years

Well, even if it’s been said thousands of times, it bears repeating here: One of the best aspects of LEGO is the ability to come up with a completely bonkers idea and turn it into a physical creation. One such idea from Tora is “Spec Ops Commander Hammer Shark… a hammerhead shark that can actually walk and eliminate assigned targets with his harpoon rifle”. I wonder what that would look like, hmm…

Using a truly mixed bag of parts from Bionicle to the Star Wars buildable action figures to, if I’m not mistaken, the often-mocked Galidor, this build is a true showcase of what LEGO is capable of.

Make sure you also check out this back shot of the build, which shows off the suit which allows this shark to breath while on land.

Time to tip the scales

Robin, a playable character in Fire Emblem: Awakening and Super Smash Bros Wii U, has been constructed beautifully by Eero Okkonen. The build in its entirety is full of excellent techniques that capture the character’s likeness, especially in her long coat and hair, and her jagged Levin Sword is simple yet effective.

If you enjoyed Eero’s Robin, you may also like his other fighters in Super Smash Bros, such as Varia Suit Samus, Zero Suit Samus, and Palutena.

Massive LEGO diorama of The Last of Us built from 20,000 bricks is a thing of haunting beauty

If you haven’t heard of The Last of Us, it’s a third-person action-adventure survival horror game set twenty years after a plague decimated civilization. Tim Schwalfenberg has captured the tone of the game perfectly with this tribute, including anti-hero smuggler Joel, as he escorts teenager Ellie through the post-apocalyptic United States.

Tim worked on the build for around a month, putting in well over 100 hours, He estimates he used around 20,000 bricks (although I think it may be more). Measuring 3.5 by 2 feet (100cm x 60 cm) and featuring custom 3D printed bricks this masterpiece is a thing of decrepit beauty.

See more photos of this beautifully haunting build

LEGO Ninjago 70621 The Vermillion Attack [Review]

One of my favorite parts about January is new LEGO sets coming into stores. I love seeing all the awesome new pieces and new sets. Picking one out is often the hardest part! To help with that, we’re bringing you reviews of some of the new 2017 sets so you can make decisions for your own collection, and last week we looked at 31065 Park Street Townhouse. Today we’re turning our gaze to 70261 The Vermillion Attack, which has 83 pieces and retails for $9.99 USD.

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Aeronautic adventures await

Take to the skies in style with Ted Andes‘ latest LEGO creation. This single-seater aircraft has a dieselpunk feel, with an impressive level of detail for such a small creation — much of it down to the intelligent repurposing of Bionicle armor pieces. The brick-built clouds around the plane give the whole image a wonderful cartoonish sky effect, but the highlight of the model for me is that slight downward angle on the nose turbine — a lovely touch.

Beware the marauders as you scour the wasteland for supplies

Tiny Turbos were a series of 4-wide vehicles LEGO released between 2005 and 2011, but they have lived on as a popular style of custom LEGO creation. Jonas Obermaier has been building some great custom Tiny Turbos, and this latest showcases some great details, from the overpowered engine to the large machine gun and spiky rear wheels — a perfect vehicle to raid the Bullet Farm. The presentation is also excellent, with stunted sticks surrounding a warning sign on an otherwise blank tan base.

If you like Jonas’s post-apocalyptic truck, we expect you’ll love his LEGO Red Rocket truck stop from Fallout 4.

Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York in LEGO microscale

If you walk along Front West Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario you will see the impressive Fairmont Royal York Hotel. On June 11, 1929, the hotel officially opened. The Royal York changed names and ownership a few times since its humble beginnings as the Ontario Terrace, which consisted of four brick houses, in 1843. Jeff Van Winden has captured the architectural essence of the hotel in LEGO microscale. The sense of scale is emphasised with the busting street below with adorable little microscale vehicles.

I particular like Jeff’s clever solution to the intricate arched windows on the three main blocks at the front with this upturned minifigure basketball stand. Just be sure to book early if the Royal Family are in town, Queen Elizabeth usually has an entire floor reserved for her and her entourage and occupies the Royal Suite herself.

Life-sized LEGO Batmobile made from over 300,000 bricks [News]

Apparently Batman drives a Chevrolet, as LEGO and Chevrolet have teamed up to build a life-sized version of 70905 The Batmobile complete with Chevy bowtie emblem, and it is exactly as awesomely black (and very dark grey) as the Dark Knight might hope.

This huge “Speedwagon” from upcoming The LEGO Batman Movie was unveiled today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It was built as a life-sized, 1-1 scale replica of the LEGO Batmobile, much like the Star Wars X-wing from a few years ago.

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LEGO 31065 Park Street Townhouse 3-in-1 [Review]

LEGO’s latest set in the Creator theme is 31065 Park Street Townhouse, which was recently released in both the UK and the US. This set contains 566 pieces and retails at UK: £44.99 / US: $49.99 / EU: €49.99. The main build is the townhouse, but there are alternative instructions for a city café and a suburban home. The set comes with 2 minifigures, a moped, and the parts to build a little blue bird and a white dog. This type of Creator set is often called a “mini modular” and interestingly one of the images at the back of the first instruction booklet shows this set linked with 31050 Corner Deli to form a mini street scene. Other examples of so-called mini modulars include 31026 Bike Shop & Café or 31036 Toy and Grocery Shop, both of which are now retired.

Read the full review of 31065 Park Street Townhouse