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 name “Thunderjaw” doesn’t exactly sound cuddly...

Michał Kozłowski has built a fantastic LEGO creature from the popular Horizon video game series. I’m reminded of two things: one, what a talented builder Michał is (this looks great!). Two, how epic the creature names are in this universe. This one is called a Thunderjaw, but you’ve also got things like Deathbringers, Glinthawks, Ravagers and Corrupters. You’re not going to pick a fight with any of those! Well, OK, you might. That is kind of the point of the game, I gather. But if you get hurt, you can’t say the mechabiologists who named them didn’t try to warn you.

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This Hollow Knight collaboration bugs me quite a bit

I have a special place in my heart for LEGO collaborations; collabs, as the cool kids call them. We have a bevy of cool kids in this article collab-ing on characters from the Hollow Knight video game, so get out your pencils and take some notes. First up is the Watcher Knight, a blue beetle guy built by (I presume) the coolest kid of them all, Sandro Quattrini. I like his stance and there are surely some neat parts usage here. Truth be told, I needed the help of Wikipedia to clue me in on the Hollow Knight game but I’m well aware of its influences such as Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and Mega Man X. Incidentally, the heyday of those games precisely mark the end of my coolness and my foray into being a middle-aged schlub and occasional public nuisance.

Click to see what the other cool kids are into

Some scary-good geometry in LEGO

Over on Instagram, Zachary Steinman has a reputation for creating some phenomenal geometric forms out of LEGO. So much so that LEGO House in Billund, Denmark has even noticed his art and put it on display in their LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery. This skull-shaped cube ditches his usual symmetrical design and instead depicts a bony grimace through some wild texturing. It’s a build that combines an onslaught of 1×2 curved slopes and rounded 1×1 tiles with a stark color difference to make something that feels very Jack Skellington-meets-Minecraft.

A LEGO Victory ISD worthy of the Empire

While the original Imperial Star Destroyer first seen in the opening scene of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is much more recognizable, there are other less famous versions of the triangle-shaped warship, like the Interdictor, equipped with 4 large gravity well generators, and the Victory class like this LEGO digital render by Mm0nu. This model included large missile batteries on both sides, as well as additional turbo laser cannons along the dorsal edge.

Don’t be afraid of this LEGO shadow

Shadows in the dark can be scary at times, and this LEGO shadow creation by Patrick Biggs may seem ominous at first glance, but you could also think of it as an ever-present guardian. The many curved elements used to sculpt the tail of this shadow wolf holding a red lantern is very atmospheric, and the murder of crows launching into the night is a nice addition. Black is not the easiest LEGO color to photograph, but the warm light used here helps to set the tone.

LEGO announces financial results for 2023 calendar year [News]

The LEGO Group has today announced their financial results for last year (2023). On the whole, it was a fairly positive year for the company, as they outperformed the struggling toy market to increase their global market share. Direct-to-consumer sales and revenue both improved relative to their 2022 benchmarks; the former growing by 4%, the latter by 2% to DKK 65.9 billion. Despite this, TLG’s operating profit dropped to DKK 17.1 billion from DKK 17.9 billion the year before (although the second half of 2023 saw 7% growth compared to the same period in 2022). According to LEGO, this was driven by additional investment in diverse strategic areas. Chief among these is a 60% year-on-year increase in their spending on environmental initiatives. The total spend in this area is projected to double by 2025.

These are the headline figures; more details can be found after the jump. But in the meantime, here’s what LEGO Group CEO Niels B. Christiansen made of the results:

“We are pleased with our performance given that 2023 was the most negative toy market in more than 15 years. We continued to grow on top of three years of extraordinary growth and saw strong momentum in the final quarter of 2023. We significantly outpaced the market, growing share and proving the appeal of our strong, diverse portfolio and the LEGO® System in Play.”

“Despite the external market conditions, we continued to invest for the future and made good progress on digital, sustainability and retail initiatives that will support long-term growth. We are grateful for our dedicated colleagues who remain committed to our mission to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.”

From the depths... of space!

Ahoy LEGO Pirates fans! If this terrific scene of peril an’ plunder rings familiar, it should, especially if ye’ve been hitting the bricks since at least 2009… Still not seeing it? Take off your cosplay patch and feast both eyes on Ben Spector’s loving redesign of 6240: Kraken Attackin’ built for the Eurobricks “Space Pirates – Back to the Caribbean Galaxy!” competition. Every bit of character from the original is represented here, with added spicy space-y flavour – from the crate full of loot about to be lost to the deep, to the colourful plumage on the pirate’s flighted familiar, handsomely reimagined and lending a little air support here as a faithful mount. (A weather eye will have already spotted the repurposed scooter chassis element. No lubberly LEGO builder here!)
Ben really didn’t miss a detail from the original, all of them amped up and expertly crafted as you’d expect from both a contest entry and a modern LEGO set redux from a skilled builder.
If this cracking creation fills your sails, cast yer’ deadlights on the Brothers Brick archives by clicking the links below, for more ship-shape Pirate and Space-themed builds.

A tiny LEGO home to evoke cozy feelings

What makes a house a home? Mostly the people living in it, I’d argue. But if the house is too small to actually fit people inside it, outstanding architecture – like that found in Geneva Durand’s microscale LEGO home – will suffice. I’m particularly drawn to the use of various flat bricks in dark orange, dark red, and two shades of brown to evoke the rougher brickwork at the front of the house. I’m a little concerned about those dogs though; I estimate they may be over 6 feet tall. They’re liable to eat you out of house and home!

Plastic peril: Unveiling greed in LEGO form

Greed can be a divisive topic: what one person sees as greedy can be viewed as merely desire or the pursuit of success by another. In this model, TBB regular Andreas Lenander employs artistic expression, using the ubiquitous light bluish gray LEGO to depict a hand drained of its life essence. Contrasted with red and maroon bricks, it shows the negative result that can arise from gripping the pursuit of wealth too tightly. The builder skillfully incorporates sought-after LEGO parts to emphasize the object of greed: the pearl gold ingot and chrome gold ring, which most LEGO enthusiasts recognize as “The One Ring” from the Lord of the Rings theme. With all that gold, is this perhaps a retort to a treasure chest we covered recently?

And we’ve got plenty more of Andreas Lenander’s LEGO creations in our archives.

A city with its head in the clouds

Once you get above 300,000 ft in the atmosphere, there’s nothing around to cloud your vision. Thus, the views from this micro LEGO city by Redverse must be outstanding. With micro building, the choice of parts makes all the difference. I particularly like the use of paint rollers to suspend the outer ring, and the bush with foil connector used on the front-and-center tower. I wonder what the stars look like from that highest height?

A complicated combine combination

A while ago I wrote that I feel that my Lego models keep getting more complicated due to new parts and new techniques, while building something small and simple can be a lot more fun. The flip side is that those parts and techniques allow building things I could not have built years ago. Case in point: my new combine harvester transport. For years I mainly built larger-scale models, in part because I struggled to build a recognizable make and model of the vehicle at a scale suitable for Lego minifigures.

Despite new parts, it still is not particularly easy. This is one of the reasons why even Lego’s own designers resort to using stickers for the cars in the Speed Champions range, for instance. And those are pretty complicated, certainly for sets. Furthermore, their scale really stretches the definition of what is suitable for minifigures. Of course, I could have built a truck carrying a combine years ago. It would have looked like a generic European truck, though, while this model is recognizably a Dutch DAF truck, thanks to parts such as brackets. Obviously, I did use some stickers, but only for the company livery. What kept building this fun and relaxing, despite its complexity, was looking at it as a combination of smaller projects.
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You can’t step on LEGO if you’re stepping around in LEGO!

Famously, stepping on LEGO is one of the most painful experiences known to humankind, second only to stubbing your little toe. (Woe betide you if you stub your little toe on a LEGO creation.) But what does stepping in LEGO feel like? We should ask Takamichi Irie. He has made the bold choice of creating a red Nike sneaker out of bricks. They say you need to suffer for your art, but even so, it’s a brave builder who willingly makes something where you’re always stepping on studs!

Thankfully for Takamichi’s feet – or one of them, at least – he has got a normal shoe to complete the pair. And to be fair, the brick-built one does compare very well to it! It’s so well shaped, it actually looks kind of comfy. And you wouldn’t need to worry about finding one in your size: you can always build it a little bigger. You know, maybe there’s something in these brick-built shoes after all…