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.

Merry Christmas from this classic Ford pickup truck

We all know Jordanian builder Firas Abu-Jaber as a great car builder, but for me, the star of the show this time is the great Christmas tree in the trunk. The perfect cone shape and the vibrant colours of the decoration make for great eye candy. And the photo’s angle just adds to all of that. This LEGO creation captures both the holiday spirit and the aesthetic of classic cars perfectly (the red colour of the car helps a lot!).

The builder also provides a photo of the pickup truck in a very festive environment, being surrounded by gifts and Christmas icons:

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The LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures Feel Guide [Review]

A few days ago, we brought you our hands-on review of The LEGO Batman Movie 71017 Collectible Minifigures. These 20 unique figures are due to release Jan. 1 for $3.99 each, but a few lucky fans are already starting to find them on store shelves. Like other Collectible Minifigures, the Batman Movie minifigs are packed in sealed bags so you don’t know which characters you’re buying — unless, that is, you use your dexterous digits to determine the contents by feel.

And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. We’ve stayed up late working our fingers numb sorting a whole case of blind packs, so our Feel Guide is based on actual experience finding and verifying figures. Not every piece is easy to determine by feel alone, and some pieces are easily confused with others, so use this guide to help you find a complete set of 20 figures, or to get extras of your favorite character.

The LEGO Batman Movie 71017 Collectible Minifigures are available now on Amazon and on the LEGO Shop Online.

Click for the full Feel Guide

Cruise the Grid with a remote control LEGO light cycle [Video]

Sariel’s LEGO Workshop takes inspiration from the visually stunning movie Tron: Legacy with his LEGO model of the film’s light cycle. The model itself looks good, enhanced with custom non-LEGO lighting, but the fact that it can drive and steer using RC is rather impressive. Watch the light cycle ride around at night and take a closer look at the functions in this video.

Pentatonix’ Christmas classic “Up on the Housetop” is a VR-enabled LEGO movie [Video]

Famous a capella group Pentatonix gets LEGO-ified in their new music video for the Christmas classic “Up on the Housetop.” The video uses YouTube’s new 360° functionality, meaning you can pan around in the video to see in every direction. While the graphic fidelity won’t be winning any awards, being able to see what’s “behind” the camera is pretty cool even without VR, and will look even better if you have Google Cardboard or another VR device.

2016 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 15

Welcome to Day 15 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. There are two days left!

Click here to see Day 15!

It’s the 10th anniversary of Brothers-Brick.com! [News]

In 2015 we marked the 10th birthday of The Brothers Brick, and today marks 10 years since we launched the Brothers-Brick.com domain. I promised we were making some changes here at TBB, and I highlighted a few of the changes in our 11th birthday post six months ago.

But rather than focusing on the improvements we’ve been making — not least of which are several new contributors who just joined yesterday and the server migration that will be complete by the end of the year — I wanted to go back to something I’d shared with our readers in years past.

Brace yourselves for website analytics! Oh wait, that’s not very interesting. Ahem. It’s all about you, our readers!

(There will still be charts and graphs. And numbers. Maybe just a little bit of metadata. Mmmm, metadata…)

Continue reading →

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzip!

There isn’t much to say about Dead Frog Inc‘s “Zzzzzzzzzzzzip!” that’s not described by the title. Built for the ABS Builder Challenge, this ingenious use of the required piece as the zipper teeth looks like the real thing. With no visible studs save the ones on the angled pieces at the top, from a distance it looks like the real thing, the studs only adding to the affect by creating the illusion of crumpled fabric.

Sculpt a golem then freshen up in this Warcraft mana pool

Paul Trach takes inspiration from the World Of Warcraft movie for his latest LEGO creation — a scene depicting The Guardian Font. Here, Medivh, the titular Guardian, takes a break from creating a stone golem for a refreshing dip in the rejuvenating Mana Pool. Or at least that’s the story I’ve made up in my head around this fabulous model.

The tan and sand green colors work beautifully — a pleasant change from the traditional gray and brown of much Castle and Fantasy LEGO building. And the curved wall and double staircase are obvious highlights. But that backlit pool and the floor command all the attention. Normally I’m not a fan of the loose-brick “crazy paving” flooring style, but when it’s used like this, allowing the creation of an epic circle of runes, then I’m all in favour of it.

New digital LEGO building software, BrickLink Stud.io, now available [News]

Those of you who build with digital bricks now have a new option. BrickLink launched a CAD-like digital LEGO building software earlier today called Stud.io to compete with current programs such as LEGO Digital Designer and LDraw. The software was demoed for builders at BrickCon 2016 and is now available for free on both PC and Mac computers.

We have a review of the software coming, but at first glance, there are quite a few features to get excited about.

Direct integration to BrickLink’s catalog to make finding LEGO parts easier
Color check as you build to see if a part even exits in the color you want
Continuous price estimates to see how a part affects the total estimated price of the model
Simultaneous real-time building with multiple people
CAD-like controls to allow for building in any direction (including illegal connections)
Ability to import your current projects from LDraw and LDD
Integration with BrickLink to export a digital model to a wanted list

The Stud.io software is an open beta test right now, so you can expect a few bumps and more updates to come, but we’re always excited to see a new tool for the building community.

Himeji Castle, Lighthouse of Alexandria, and other Wonders in LEGO

LEGO Certified Professional Ryan McNaught and his team recently created several Wonders of the World in LEGO, ranging from Himeji Castle in Japan to the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt.

Ryan and his team member Troy Walker built a huge minifig-scale Himeji Castle, one of the last remaining feudal fortresses in Japan. I lived in Himeji for three years growing up, and my family visited the “White Egret Castle” frequently, including the year it celebrated its 650th anniversary. Ryan and Troy’s Himeji Castle includes the distinctive curved stone slope at the base of the castle, built by pressing LEGO bricks in sideways. The whole castle is built from over 71,000 bricks.

Climbing the many flights of stairs to the top floor and looking over the modern city was always the highlight of each visit, unless a samurai movie was being filmed on the sprawling castle grounds. Not only is this LEGO castle impressive from the front, it also has a full interior — even a deep well that extends through the castle’s base.

See more of these LEGO Wonders of the World

2016 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 14

Welcome to Day 14 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 14!

These shoes rule!

(These shoes suck) No really, these LEGO shoes by Aaron Newman rule! Aaron based his design off of a super-expensive and ultra-rare pair of Nike high-tops from the 1990s. These kicks are stylish enough to impress even the most hard-core of sneaker heads. And for those of us who can’t afford the originals, these amazing LEGO replicas would suit us just fine.