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.

When you gotta go, you gotta LE-GO

I suppose derjoe has just created another public space like a museum, library or cafe. But this is the first time that I’ve seen public toilets used as the theme for a LEGO ‘playset’. The builder has cleverly captured some of the common findings in a male public toilet block, such as urinals (and some pee ewwww), wash basin, toilet brushes, toilet rolls, and cisterns complete with their seats left up!

The playset is hinged and opens out to allow the paper towel dispenser and waste bin to be revealed. Thankfully the stalls all have their door closed in this view and the brown frog is not visible, although I find the fact that the toilet paper is placed the wrong way much more upsetting.

Overall, a quirky, fun build and I really like the colour scheme used, although it does not reflect the average public toilet here here in the UK. Also, for us females, a long queue of minifigures patiently waiting while the male toilets are empty would seem about right.

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Nexo Knights recon outpost

LEGO’s Nexo Knights line has brought us some great new pieces and some cool recolored parts, but aside from a few isolated examples, the theme hasn’t sparked a wave of fan-built creations. This recon outpost model from Henry F. stood out as a result. This scene captures all the elements which excite me about Nexo — a perfect blend of medieval castle and hi-tech, the bright color scheme, and the robots. I like the asymmetry of the base, with the composition balanced out around the shield at the center, giving the image a focal point.

The texture in the castle wall is really well done, with attractive splashes of blue to break up all that light grey. It contrasts nicely with the brown and green of the terrain. Where the contrast isn’t working quite as well is with the figures — they’re a little lost in amongst that stonework. Maybe next time the minfigs should be some of the non-grey ones?

New LEGO Star Wars 75159 Death Star unveiled at LEGO Store in Maryland [News]

UPDATE: LEGO has now officially announced this set, and you can find the full press release with set details, pricing and photos right here on The Brothers Brick.

Our friends over at Brickset have just shared new photos of a previously rumored new Death Star, as LEGO Store employees in Arundel Mills, Maryland build the set in advance of displaying it in their store. We’ll share the usual high-res photos and press release once we have them from LEGO, but in the meantime, here are the first photos of 75159 Death Star.

Click through to see more photos of 75159 Death Star, including the minifigs

Charming medieval cottage

A few weeks back, Graham Gidman wowed us with his LEGO barrel-riding scene from The Hobbit. Now he brings us this wonderful little diorama. The stonework on the cottage walls is fabulous, and the curved roof with its spattering of studs makes for a lovely shape.

The smooth flow of the roof is reflected in the curve of the fence, and the whole thing sits on a nicely-built landscape base making effective use of multiple shades of green and earth tones. There’s some lovely touches of detail on show too — check out the little log pile under the cottage’s eaves. The only thing which doesn’t quite work for me is the continuation of the round stonework up into the chimneystack. However, that’s nit-picking — overall, this is a cracking piece of building.

Steampunk biplane takes to the air

This steampunk aircraft from Andreas Lenander has a smart white and gold aesthetic — a pleasant change from the genre’s usual hackneyed brown and grey color schemes. Beyond the colors, the smooth curves of the air intake on the nose work nicely, and those gold props look great. Couple a good model with an interesting low-angle POV and some decent photo-editing and you’ve got a steampunk LEGO flying machine which I wouldn’t mind taking out for a spin.

LEGO Star Wars 75147 StarScavenger [Review]

The new animated show Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures has only gifted us with two sets, despite being a TV series based on LEGO. Those sets are the 75145 Eclipse Fighter and this, the 75147 StarScavenger. This sets portrays a vehicle used in the show to collect space salvage. The first time we see it is during an X-Wing / TIE Fighter battle as it flies around scooping up debris.

But how does it translate into LEGO?

Starting off with the build and it’s not a particularly exciting one. There’s no real innovative building techniques and most of the set is mirrored. If you decide to pick this set up, skip ahead in the instructions and build both sides simultaneously, you’ll save yourself time and unenjoyable building. Once it’s done you get a moderately-sized set that looks very respectable as a space freighter or otherwise utilitarian spacecraft. What you build is divided into three parts: a forward cockpit, a hollow containment area for storage, and a mech.

The cockpit, complete with “wings”, is probably the best part of the set. It looks great, walking the fine line between futuristic machine and tough workhorse. Inside the cockpit you’ll find a small printed console piece and enough room to fit two minifigures. It’s a bit tough to get them in but it’s far-removed from the puzzle you needed to solve every time you wanted to get two figures into the cockpit of the 75105 Millennium Falcon.

Read the rest of the review

Echo Base, this is Rogue Two... I’ve found them!

Let’s play a simple game: How fast can you count all LEGO sets that contain a model of a T-47 snowspeeder? Well the problem is that there are too many snowspeeders — not only in official sets, but also built by a huge number of talented fans. And each time I see a new iteration of this iconic spacecraft, I tell myself “It can’t get any better, this is perfect!”. But somehow Brickdoctor made his own snowspeeder too outstanding to be mistaken for any other build.

It’s not the choice of pieces or the shape of the speeder, but its awesome wings that make it so cool. Bricks placed with their studs not on top (a technique commonly referred to as SNOT) doesn’t make the wings look heavy, but tiny gaps between the pieces create a stunning pattern as if the speeder is covered with reflective armour plates. If you’re interested in how this T-47 looks inside like, visit the builder’s Flickr stream.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire recreated in LEGO, chapter by chapter

Thorsten Bonsch has been hard at work all month recreating scene after gorgeous scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in LEGO. Each build is packed with interesting details and clever building techniques. For example, the stone fireplace in Chapter 19 was assembled using 1×2 tiles connected by minifig hands. To see how he accomplished tricks like this and enjoy other behind-the-scenes photos, check out Thorsten’s Twitter page. All the finished scenes are also on Flickr.

And in case you missed them, here are similar LEGO versions of chapters from the first three Harry Potter books. Expecto patronum!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by Marvel V.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by Markus Rollbuhler
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by Kevin Wollert

Here are some of our favorite scenes from this latest Goblet of Fire collection:

Click here to see more of our favorites

“This most beautiful SYSTEM” – Isaac Newton in LEGO

One of the wonderful things about the LEGO system is that you can build things at many different scales, in immeasurable combinations, much like the mind-blowing complexity of the universe itself. VAkkron has built this lifelike, instantly recognizable bust of the great physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, with his flowing hair and distinctive chin.

Click through to see a LEGO orrery and Newton’s life in microscale

Modern architecture gets prettier and prettier (and smaller)

Paul Wellington‘s latest microscale building uses the still relatively new Mixel joint piece to create a fabulous pattern effect. Sometimes I think repeated elements like this can be overdone in microscale buildings — cool techniques but failing to capture the feel of real world architecture. That’s not the case here. I could totally see Paul’s building sitting downtown in any modern city.

Of course, Paul doesn’t need this building to show up in your city. He’s got a LEGO one all of his own that he’s been adding to over time. I’d heartily recommend a visit to his photostream for lots of pictures of his brick-built metropolis — current piece count sitting at around 19,000 parts!

Microscale space racer is a stickered beauty

Luc Byard uses all-official LEGO stickers to bring an impressive level of texture and depth to this microscale space racer. The choice of stickers, mostly featuring thin-line detailing, coupled with some decent macro photography turn this model into one of those creations which, on first inspection at least, appears much bigger than it really is.

This thing just looks mean. I love it. Luc describes this creation as what happens when you cross a Spitfire with a muscle-car, strap it to a massive engine and send it into space. Sounds pretty cool to me. Where can I buy one? I wanna race.

Hefty futuristic ride is ready to roll out

There’s an effective mix of Technic pieces and regular LEGO bricks, coupled with smart color-blocking in this interesting vehicle from chumuhou. That’s a battery box lurking behind the cab there, and from the looks of it, those front wheels are motorized. I’d love to see a video of this bad boy in action. The visible suspension springs and cogs on this rig lend it a chunky sense of functionality, and the icing on the cake is the rear ball wheel, fashioned from Death Star halves.