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 Last Airbender’s Southern Air Temple

The Southern Air Temple was a location in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and the childhood home of the main protaganist in the series, Aang. Micah Beideman has built a LEGO version of the Southern Air Temple, capturing the impressive collection of blue roofed buildings and the tall tower dominating the centre of the white temple. The lower buildings have been built at a nice depth and varying heights to give the model a real ‘temple in the sky’ feel with their steep winding paths. I also like the use of the transparent 1×2 bricks, built up to form the clouds that encircle the temple.

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7-foot Venator Star Destroyer built by LEGO Star Wars fan over 7 years

The Old Republic’s Venator-class Star Destroyer is a surprisingly popular subject for LEGO Star Wars builders, given its huge dimensions — and the fact that it’s a Prequel Trilogy vehicle… Nevertheless, several brave builders have created this huge ship in LEGO, including a 6-foot LEGO Venator by Alec Doede and a recreation of Master Model Builder Erik Varszegi’s 8-foot Star Destroyer by iomedes. The latest LEGO Venator is brought to us by Philipp Neumann, who has spent the past 7 years designing, collecting over 45,000 parts, building, and rebuilding.

Philipp’s Venator measures over 7 feet long, nearly 4 feet wide, and over 2 feet tall (that’s 220 cm x 117 cm x 68 cm) and weighs over 143 pounds (65 kg).

Click to see more of this enormous LEGO Star Wars ship

The Brutalist architecture of the surveillance state

The real world frequently inspires — or creeps into, imposes itself upon — the world of LEGO creations. The Brutalist architecture of many government buildings has inspired Swedish builder Magnus to create this Micropolis section. The building has narrow slit windows, concrete bollards, and an array of communication devices on the roof.

Magnus has incorporated a particularly interesting building technique into his slanted facade, enabling a smooth slope built from 1×2 “cheese grater” pieces.

Afternoon of a faun

They say that dance is sculpture in motion. It follows, then, that a frozen moment of dance is an ideal subject for sculpture. This exquisite LEGO sculpture of ballet dancers from David Hughes reminds me of physics class. When I look at it, I see little force vector arrows showing weight distribution, gravity, and muscle mechanics. As it would be in real life, the ballerina’s weight is fully supported by her partner: her toes touching the ground are a mere formality. Based on a famous photo of ballet star Tanaquil Le Clercq, who was tragically stricken by polio at a young age, this large sculpture contains over 3,000 bricks, and it’s amazing how few of them are attached to the base.

Do you have a reservation?

This hotel lobby, built as a 16×16 stud vignette by Sven Franic, is all ready for guests. You will be able to check in on arrival and have your suitcase taken up to your room by the smartly dressed porter pulling the luggage rack. There is everything a hotel lobby requires: tasteful wallpaper, a local map, comfy leather couch and a reception desk complete with bell to gain attention. I particularly like the wooden display behind the reception desk with pigeon holes for guests’ room keys or messages.

If you fancy trying out some of these builds as inspiration for your own creations, Sven has even supplied an exploded view:

2016 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 11

Welcome to Day 11 of your digital LEGO Advent Calendar! Each day, we’re revealing the day’s calendar model for the LEGO Friends, City, and Star Wars Advent Calendars. We know some of you want to be spoiler free, so you’ll need to “open” the day’s post to see the models by clicking below!

And if you want to build your own LEGO Advent Calendar, you can win big prizes by building tiny creations in TBB’s Create a Calendar Contest.

Click here to see Day 11!

The LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures 71017 [Review]

The LEGO Batman Movie, due out Feb. 10, is making waves in the DC universe as it dusts off villains old and new, and gives the Batman himself a plethora of new costumes. And there’s no better way to get your hands on a whole load of those new characters in minifigure form than with The LEGO Batman Movie 71017 Collectible Minifigures. The 20 unique figures will hit store shelves Jan. 1 for $3.99 each.

[Update] The LEGO Batman Movie 71017 Collectible Minifigures are available now on the LEGO Shop Online.

LEGO sent us a case ahead of time, and you can read our full hands-on review below, or read through our Feel Guide for The LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures to help you collect a whole set.

Click to read the full review

An insane hat trick

This bobble headed Mad Hatter by Julius von Brunk seems to contain both regular LEGO bricks and an element of madness. You might remember one of Julius’ previous works we featured back in September — a menacing set of aces from Alice’s Wonderland. According to the builder, this Hatter figure will be starring in an upcoming stop-motion animation parody. I can’t wait!

Time your jumps over a mechanical LEGO Piranha Plant

The latest kinetic sculpture from Jason Allemann is a classic enemy from the Super Mario Bros games: the Piranha Plant. His instantly recognizable model moves with motions that look straight out of any sidescroller Mario title.

Watch the Piranha Plant emerge from the warp pipe chomping away, followed by commentary and a breakdown of the mechanism, in this video:

Moon of my life, My sun and stars

Justin Chua nails it with this minimalist LEGO depiction of Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen from Game Of Thrones. The characters are immediately recognisable, despite the stripped-back simplicity of the models — from Drogo’s distinctive tattoos and beard, to Daenerys’ dress and hair.

I love the work on Drogo’s hair too — without his long braid (a record of victory in battle) he wouldn’t be able to command the respect of his riders.

This is an interesting scale and style for character building. I’d like to see more of the denizens of Westeros (and Easteros) rendered like this.

2016 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 10

Welcome to Day 10 of your digital LEGO Advent Calendar! Each day, we’re revealing the day’s calendar model for the LEGO Friends, City, and Star Wars Advent Calendars. We know some of you want to be spoiler free, so you’ll need to “open” the day’s post to see the models by clicking below!

And if you want to build your own LEGO Advent Calendar, you can win big prizes by building tiny creations in TBB’s Create a Calendar Contest.

Click here to see Day 10!

26 Dorset Street, a beautiful building on the worst street in London

Between 26 and 27 Dorset Street in Spittalfields, London, was a passageway that led to the home of Mary Jane Kelly at 13 Miller Street. Dorset Street had the reputation of being the worst street in London, which is a fitting description for the location of the brutal murder of Ms Kelly by Jack the Ripper on 9 November 1888. Mark Hodgson has clearly being doing his research for this LEGO build as he has accurately captured some lovely details. The ‘sand green’ creeping mold and the good use of old and new light grey for the discoloured paving really gives that dirty old London feel. Mark’s brick-built windows are perfect when looking at the only contemporary photograph and those window arches – well they are simply awesome.

There are many more detailed photographs of the full build (as well as some research images) on Mark’s Flickr album. The entire Millers Court scene includes a street, additional buildings, and a fully furnished interior that includes the unfortunate Ms Kelly’s bedroom and even a grocery business that was located in the same building.

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