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.

Back when a press photographer needed a camera, not a smartphone

It’s time to put your smartphone camera back into your pocket and embrace the wonder of the Graflex Speed Graphic camera. Back in the 1960s, Graflex cameras were the standard camera used by press photographers (before some were renamed paparazzi). Milan CMadge has built a LEGO version of this famous camera that is remarkably accurate compared to the real thing.

The method of building the flash housing is particularly clever, as Milan has used 3mm flexible hose to shape the reflector and a couple of curved cockpits for the bulb. Interesting bit of trivia now: the 3-cell Graflex flashgun was modified and used as the prop for Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber in Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

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Hot diggety-dog!

For most people in my part of the world, grilling season is over. But nobu_tary brings back a taste of summer with this little treat. It is a deceptively simple build but the builder nailed it. I really like the use of bananas as the drizzle of mustard and the subtle curve of the “dog” in the bun. I may need to fire up the grill today and chase away the November rain!

Paris skyline in microscale

Cecilie Fritzvold has once again been inspired to create a microscale city skyline in the style of the skyline sets within the LEGO Architecture theme. LEGO released 21028 New York City, 21027 Berlin and 21026 Venice as part of a trio of new city skyline sets earlier this year. Cecilie has chosen the beautiful French capital, Paris, a city full of impressive architecture and grandiose buildings. Cecile’s build includes (from left to right) Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Dômes des Invalides, Notre-Dame, and Colonne de Juillet (Place de la Bastille). The small strips of transparent blue on each side represent the River Seine.

Notre-Dame is my own favourite in this build — I think that the combination of ingenious parts use and the textured stonework for such a small build are fantastic. If you like this type of build, you will also enjoy Cecilie’s Tokyo skyline build that we blogged a couple of months ago and Michael Jasper’s microscale model of Dortmund.

Hair of red, gown of black

This brick-built figure by simply bricking it is really very striking. The choice of colors to highlight the hair of this figure is perfect, and the builder incorporated just the right number of greebles and unexpected LEGO parts into the build. It surprises without overwhelming and achieves the desired effect without overcrowding. I love it!

“It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of the Force, but by our skills with a lightsaber...”

Last month we featured an impressive Lite Brite-style LEGO creation by British builder Jonathan Gale. Apparently that build was just the beginning of Gale’s lightsaber balancing escapades. Like Picasso, Gale won’t be satisfied to leave this building style behind until he’s mastered it. So far, he has experimented with both hexagonal and grid-based light-saber arrangements. His most recent build uses 2695 lightsaber blades to create the iconic LEGO logo.

Take aim with the Saboteur 66 Ultra Wave Equaliser

Grantmasters has recreated Greg Broadmore’s Saboteur 66 in LEGO form and it’s beautiful. The builder uses a variety of subtle techniques to maintain the elegance and sleek design of the original. I want one of these sitting on a shelf in my LEGO room!

Patapon character brought to life with LEGO

Leonid An LEGO-fied this adorable character from Patapon, a video game for the Playstation Portable (PSP) that makes use of Japanese onomatopoeias. Although the character is only two-dimensional in the game, An’s 3D version looks surprisingly spot-on and captures the fun spirit of the game.

Blast from the past: TDN-Mecha

Lately I’ve been a bit obsessed with LEGO’s greatest failure of all time. So much so that my wife has threatened to plan an intervention if I don’t stop. Those fans who have been around for a while know the horror of which I speak.

Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension was, and is, the worst thing ever created by The LEGO Company. The deeper you dig into it, the worse it gets. Action figures with little to no LEGO connections, a failed television show and video game, electronic figures that “interact” with said show/game and European exclusives issued to areas where the show wasn’t available. Galidor was a failure of epic proportions. However, while stomping about in the bottomless muck, I stumbled across an old jewel that we never featured here:

Created by Steve Puckett, this build features the Galidor TDN module as the cockpit of a rather awesome mecha. I can’t believe we missed this because I blogged one of his other Galidor-esque creations back in 2008. I love the amount of tech that the builder has crammed onto this Mecha and how he has managed to make the juxtaposition of Galidor and real LEGO work. It’s a thing of beauty!

Check out the whole gallery of pictures here.

Join the famous 800 feet club

Did you know there are no more than 40 people in New York city living higher than 800 feet? Obviously, the view from above is the main perk of choosing such a dwelling. Finnish builder Heikki Mattila – who definitely has an eye for classy hi-tech interiors – invites us to have a look from inside one of those apartments. I can’t tell you why, but the purple background goes extremely well with skyline made of sky-high towers. The interior is exactly what you expect to see in such a luxurious residence: a comfy chair near a fashionable glass coffee table completed with a cut-glass chandelier.

Stunning scale model of Mi-24 attack helicopter

Daniel Siskind, creator of many advanced military scale models, has revealed his latest Mi-24 helicopter. Just look at this beauty!

There are so many awesome features of this helicopter, but the best of all is its perfectly balanced design. No matter which part you’re examining, every single piece, slope, or tile was meticulously chosen and placed. Canopies of rather peculiar shape work perfectly for the Mi-24’s cockpits, while a smooth row of tan and dark-green slopes along the body of the helicopter is aesthetically pleasing. Of course, the presentation wouldn’t be complete without a close-up shot of the rocket launchers — a perfect use of the most common of LEGO parts.

And yes, this particular LEGO model — unlike nearly everything else we feature here on The Brothers Brick — is available for sale, from Brickmania (at least until it sells out).

Mount Rushmore, not of stone, but of LEGO

There’s an election going on — but you don’t want to hear about that. Instead, how about some famous Presidents from the past? Better yet, how about making them out of LEGO? The faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt are carved in stone on Mount Rushmore, and this sculpture by Dave Guedes captures remarkable likenesses in brick form of the heads of state.

LEGO Tow Truck gets an upgrade

What’s not to love about a big American tow truck? EROL‘s latest vehicle is a beefy behemoth of a truck, inspired by the official LEGO Tow Truck set 60056. The shift to “7-studs-wide” rather than the “6-wide” standard gives the builder plenty of space to play with, adding smart detailing and shapes whilst preserving the interesting color scheme of the original set.

I really enjoy when builders take on this sort of challenge. Getting the balance right is tricky — using your fan building tricks and wide brick collection, but not straying so far from the source material that it becomes unrecognisable. The air horns on the cab roof, the addition of chrome exhausts, the functional-looking chunkiness of the tow bar itself — this is a great reimagination of a set.

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