Where do LEGO bricks come from? Why, from the LEGO factory, of course. And in a bit of LEGO-ception, here’s a LEGO factory built of LEGO by BrickJonas. This model looks as if it just came off a designer’s drawing table in Billund, complete with a full interior, removable roofs and modularity. I wonder if this factory produces bricks to build a LEGO factory?
This enchanting little scene of a medieval market and town gate is packed full of great little details and vibrant colors. I love how builder Bricktease has captured the feel of a bustling crowd on a bright morning, and I can’t help but be reminded of one of my favorite bluffing games, Sheriff of Nottingham, in which the Sheriff sits at the market gate and inspects merchants’ bags for illicit goods. “Honest, good Sheriff, I’m only bringing in chickens! No contraband here!”
We’ve featured our share of mashups here at The Brothers Brick, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a convergence of Neo-Classic Space with Blacktron livery. Cole Blaq nails the NCS aesthetic with this “High Jack” fighter, featuring the expected blue and gray color-blocking and great parts choices for greebles. But in place of the yellow-black-yellow striping, Cole has included a complex, brick-built version of the Blacktron logo. What does it mean? Is this an NCS ship captured and pressed into service by the Blacktron villains? Why not just paint the whole thing black? It’s all rather mysterious…
You can read more about the build over on cole-blaq.com.
Hong Kong is one of my top five favorite cities in the world, and my strongest memory of traveling there is definitely the food — not just excellent Cantonese cuisine but also some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had. CK Tsang has built a massive, Miniland-scale version of several dai pai dong, traditional open food stalls in Hong Kong, evoking delightful memories for those of us lucky to have visited the city. Whether you’re in the mood for noodles, congee, or milk tea, it’s a safe bet you can find it at a dai pai dong.
Check out CK’s album on Flickr for more photos.
Proving that we can only go so long without giving away something Star Wars-related (with a break in August to give away the new Ghostbusters Ecto-1), this month we’re delighted to be giving away four copies of the new LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure. This is a particularly special giveaway, since TBB’s own Rod Gillies created all the models in the book, and will be signing each of the books you can win! To enter, click here.
We’ll also send each winner a snazzy TBB T-shirt and other cool swag, but thanks in particular to Rod and our friends at DK for the books!
The book will be available on August 2nd, and we’ll do our best to set aside our love of Rod to bring you a balanced review soon.
Summer is a time for fun and games! But when the weather won’t cooperate (as sometimes happens up here in Seattle) then the fun has to move indoors – whether that involves playing video games, or building LEGO scenes from video games as Gabe Umland has done here with this recreation of Super Mario 3D World:
Want to see your own LEGO creation featured across TBB social media for a month? Then read the submission guidelines and send us your photo today.
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Back when LEGO was still making wooden toys, the company produced a wooden pull-along toy styled like Mickey Mouse’s pal Pluto. LEGO historians these days have argued that this was LEGO’s very first licensed product, ultimately leading to LEGO Star Wars, SpongeBob, Ghostbusters, and many more. Today, that wooden toy is vanishingly rare. BrickJournal Editor-in-Chief Joe Meno has built this adorable version of that vintage toy using modern LEGO bricks.
Like his wooden predecessor, LEGO Pluto’s legs move when you pull him around by the string attached to his collar. Check out this video to see more of LEGO Pluto’s play features.
…go! With the 2016 Olympics just around the corner, this LEGO sculpture inspired by legendary sprinter Usain Bolt is perfectly timed. It was created by Joe Perez, and you can read more about this build in an upcoming issue of Bricks Culture magazine. The anatomy of the figure is convincing, and a sense of motion is perfectly conveyed perfectly in this piece. The color scheme also evokes the style of ancient Greek pottery that often portrayed competitors in action at the classical version of these games.
Some people, understandably so, may not like the use of LEGO bricks to construct weaponry. Others, like myself and YouTube LEGO builder Bricks n’ Guns find it an interesting subject for a build and an extension of fandoms; in this case, it’s LEGO and gaming. Bricks n’ Guns built an incredibly life-like replica of the Russian submachine gun PP-19 Bizon as it appears in the first person shooter game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The realism doesn’t stop at its appearance; watch him demonstrate the working trigger, sliding charging handle, removable cylindrical magazine, and folding wire stock in this short video.
Legostrator‘s latest creation is a fabulous scene of sub-Saharan Africa — featuring wonderful brick-built elephants traversing the dusty plains.
The elephants themselves are great examples of brick-sculpting — with complex organic shapes well-rendered. However, as with all the best LEGO scenes, the central models are elevated into something special by the surrounding attention to detail. The feel of a hot, dusty plain is captured perfectly with the depiction of scrub vegetation and the color choices. The lighting for the photo adds immensely to the atmosphere as well. Great stuff.
You may be familiar with the Vitruvian Man, a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci showing the human body’s proportions, but have you seen flambo14‘s Vitruvian LEGO Cat?
According to the text of da Vinci’s original:
“if you open your legs enough that your head is lowered by one-fourteenth of your height and raise your hands enough that your extended fingers touch the line of the top of your head, know that the centre of the extended limbs will be the navel, and the space between the legs will be an equilateral triangle”
In the case of flambo14’s cat:
“if you look cute and purr, then no one will notice that you are out of proportion”
Before his work on more widely-known sci-fi movies such as Bladerunnner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, legendary visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull directed the 1972 sci-fi movie Silent Running, a beautifully written, performed and photographed tale of one man’s fight to preserve the last remnants of Earth nature.
In creating a LEGO version of the Valley Forge (the ship where the movie’s action takes place) Cornish builder Louie Tommo clearly felt that only a larger scale would do it justice. The result is this very accurate digitally designed LEGO version that perfectly captures the ship’s functional looking design complete with its distinctive cluster of domed forest habitats.
Even though the movie has plenty of action and some first class visual effects for the era, the characters of astronaut Freeman Lowell and his robot companions Huey, Louie and Dewey are central to the story. So it’s a nice touch that Louie has created LEGO versions of them as well, and even portrayed them at work on the outer hull of the spacecraft.
