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.

We are sailing

Not content with crafting beautifully curved brick-built hulls, Felipe Avalar has clearly spent ages getting the rigging and sails perfect on these two boats — the Amberle and the Eritria. Felipe says the below-decks areas on each vessel are stuffed full of Technic gears keeping all the lines at appropriate levels of tension. Such painstaking attention to detail is the hallmark of the best LEGO scale modelling — and these craft are great examples. I marvel at the skills of builders who create brick versions of real-world vehicles and buildings. Personally, I tend to build made-up fantastical things, because then nobody can tell me they’re not accurate!

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A dialogue with the Man in the Moon, steampunk master Guy Himber [Interview]

This week we were fortunate enough to track down Guy Himber. Guy has worked extensively in the film industry with credits for special effects, creature mechanics, makeup and more. He is a prolific Steampunk builder and has authored a book on the subject entitled LEGO Steampunk. He runs the Iron Builder LEGO competition and has founded his own company, CrazyBricks, which manufacturers quirky, short-run, custom pieces compatible with LEGO. Let’s dive in and raid his brain!

TBB: What can you tell our readers about how you got into building with LEGO?

Guy: Like most folks I grew up playing with LEGO as a kid. Countless were the hours I spent building and rebuilding and sorting and blowing up my favorite plastic bricks. The dark ages kicked in around middle school and I didn’t do much with the bricks until I started using them to do some mechanical prototyping for animatronics in the Film Industry (mainly Technic bricks from my old collection). When my son was old enough I got him his first LEGO set and he took to the bricks like his old man and the two us started building more and more sets and then creating massive environments and Jurassic Parks. The fateful AFOL day arrived via a special trip to BrickCon in Seattle many years ago. That was the Con that got me bit by the LEGO bug again and started me building at a serious level.

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It’s elementary: uncanny character busts from Tyler Clites

We love the art of Tyler Clites for its bold style and perky colors. The way he treats common LEGO pieces always makes his characters vivid and lively, whether it’s some Star Wars protagonists or Tintin’s space rocket. Tyler’s every build has its own mood and a story to tell. And Tyler’s latest set of busts are simply jaw-dropping. This time it’s not just skillful building with LEGO bricks, but the pairing up of characters that makes these works so outstanding…

Click here for more characters

Come out, come out, wherever you are! [Instructions]

Even after six years, I still get requests for instructions to build the large Totoro that was part of my 2010 homage to the work of Japanese animator Hiyao Miyazaki. Sadly, that model is too large and complex to offer instructions, so instead here is a building guide for the medium Totoro that accompanied him. Of course, you don’t have to build him in the original medium blue; you can make him any color you like (or that your LEGO collection allows). I imagine this would make a lovely desk ornament for yourself, or gift for the anime-slash-LEGO fan in your life.

Click here to see an embiggened copy.

Designate a target and the Nautilus will light them up

Two years of hard work went into the construction of this 1.75 meter long spacecraft/gun platform built by Alexander Safarik. The size is impressive, but the plentiful interesting details and beautiful lines make his build one of the best LEGO spaceships I’ve seen. I don’t know how long I’ve scrolled back and forth studying the craft at the highest resolution, noticing another great parts usage or detail with each pass.

Be sure to explore Alexander’s Flickr album showing more views of his massive creation as well as photos detailing the building process over its two year construction.

Calls by candlestick

This elegant Candlestick phone looks well-suited to one of those very fancy, expensive offices, decorated in dark mahogany. Brick Classics has created this beautiful stylized phone, making great use of the ornate pearl gold wagon wheel as part of the receiver on the phone. The scale is deceiving, too – it’s fairly small, sitting on a small base.

Always pay attention when playing Pokémon GO

Pikachu better watch the road, since the outcome of Pokémon vs car generally doesn’t end well, as illustrated by Cecilie Fritzvold. The whole scene is well done. I like the (unfortunately very flat) Pikachu next to the line in the road. The tire gets great texture from the modified 2×3 pentagonal tiles. Let this stand as a PSA: pay attention when playing or walking in traffic!

Beer after wine, feel fine

At least, that’s the theory. I think. By the time I’ve had some wine I can never remember what I’m supposed to move on to next. Jimmy Fortel‘s latest might serve as some form of LEGO-mnemonic on my next night out. Regardless of its future usefulness, this creation sees bent tubing held in place with clips, giving a wonderful impression of line art.

This is a brick-built version of the logo of Jimmy’s local bar in Perpignan, France. Apparently they hosted a small exhibition of some of Jimmy’s artwork recently. As such, I think they deserve the LEGO community’s support — the next time you’re in that part of the world, swing past and buy some wine. And then some beer.

Get it off your chest

This wordplay-inspired creation by Simply bricking it is both unsettling and funny. While skeletons are spooky and scary in their own right, this one is actually quite cute and cartoony with its round skull and large pelvis made of shells. On the other hand, the colourful pile of blood and internal organs is far from cute.

I love how simple yet imaginative the whole concept of this model is. The use of seemingly random pieces is inspired. My favourite part would have to be the unidentified yellow organ made out of the ice cream pieces, which may be the large intestine or a very deformed pancreas.

Holy bust made of bricks, Batman!

If 1960s Classic TV Robin saw this build, he’d say the same thing! Batman fan Havoc has done a beautiful sculpt of the Caped Crusader. I particularly like how Batman’s pointed ears are made from 16×4 Triple Curved Wedges. It gives Batman a pointed, sharp, brooding look that fits his persona.

Quickly Robin, to the Batmobile!

Ghost in the Shell’s intimidating Fuchikoma

The climatic scene when Kusanagi fights the huge think tank in the science fiction film The Ghost in the Shell is one of the most iconic, indelible scenes in animé history. Cole Blaq has built the impressive 6-legged Think Tank (Fuchikoma) from this scene in LEGO with all the intimidating features of the original. The white getaway car peeks out form underneath the huge mecha, helping to emphasise its scale. The mecha itself has some lovely smooth, shapely legs, but my favourite area is definitely the ‘head’ with the impressive weapons system.

One of the other great details are the manipulator arms made from clips, pneumatic t-pieces and minifigures hands. In the film, these arms grab Kusanagi and begin to crush her skull before Batou shows up and destroys the tank with some heavy weaponry. Phew.

This is actually an updated version of Cole’s Think Tank. Back in 2013, we blogged Cole’s custom Kusanagi minifigure standing with the Think Tank from Ghost in the Shell. After some newly released LEGO parts and redevelopment, this Think Tank is a whole new level of awesome.

Little space rover packs a big punch

Sometimes big things come in small packages — especially highly explosive things. This adorable little space rover built by Pascal for FebRovery no doubt packs a serious wallop with its integrated missile launcher:

The smiling minifigure is absolutely fitting. As the builder suggests, who wouldn’t be happy driving a rocket equipped go-kart?