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.

James Cherry’s Tomcat is big and beautiful

It is no secret that I think the Grumman F-14A Tomcat is the most beautiful jet fighter ever to grace the deck of an aircraft carrier. This is something that I share with James Cherry, who unveiled his massive 1/15 scale Tomcat model at the Great Western Brick Show in the UK little more than a week ago and who posted pictures today.

The Tomcat was also one of the largest carrier-based jets. The end result of building a large-scale model of a large jet is obviously going to be large. The LEGO model is 127 cm long, uses roughly 8000 parts and has taken nine months to build. James has included Power Functions to control the wing sweep as well as various control surfaces. Like on James’ older F-4J Phantom II, the complicated and subtle compound curves are mostly built using carefully angled surfaces and, to get closer to the look of the real jet than is possible with LEGO alone, he has used custom-made vinyl stickers and a vacuum formed canopy.

The jet wears the colourful markings of the US Navy’s first operational Tomcat squadron, VF-1 ‘Wolf Pack’, when it sailed aboard USS Enterprise in the late ‘seventies. One would think that it would make sense for a jet fighter to be painted in colours that are a bit less conspicuous, but that was never really the Tomcat’s style; it’s big and beautiful.

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This penguin packs a punch

The Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K) themed Ma.Ktoberfest continues with this great entry from Marco Marozzi. The orange and tan give this mecha an industrial flair, but I wouldn’t want to be caught by its left hook.

The backhoe piece as the mech’s head is a particularly ingenious parts usage, complemented by excellent sticker application throughout.

Repair, refuel, reload — replete with awesomeness

Frequent readers will know that we at Brothers Brick love in-situ LEGO shots, with the background presentation also being brick-built. Here’s a fine example by Brazilian builder Gilcelio Chagas of a nifty mech being serviced in a hangar bay. I love that this mech’s design incorporates the huge cockpit windscreen from the Slave I to give the pilot a fantastic view of the battle, and the refueling ports on the wall made of 2x2x2 turntable bricks makes for a great detail. And of course, I can’t overlook the terrific use the upside-down baseplates for the cool textured floor.

Chris Foss meets Star Wars

One of the stranger vessels to emerge from this year’s SHIPtember build challenge is this bulbous oddity by F@bz. At 112 studs long, this is a proper SHIP. The builder says he built the underlying frame early in the month, and then it sat there for two weeks before he started adding the structure around it, with nothing more in mind about the end result than that he wanted to use stripes. What’s particularly striking about this spaceship is the contrast in textures along the interior sandwiched between the upper and lower hulls — from a mass of greebles to two large domes and then a smooth section. Reminiscent of the rebel transports that escaped Hoth, the stripes evoke sci-fi artist Chris Foss.

Walk through time with a LEGO history of Roskilde Cathedral

I am fascinated by how buildings change through time. It’s so interesting to see how they are built, rebuilt, and modified as the needs of a community change. Lasse Vestergård has built this evolution of Roskilde Cathedral, a beautiful cathredral in Denmark. It serves as the final resting place for Danish royalty, and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 1995.

Lasse has provided a ton of history and backstory for each iteration of the Catherdral, starting with the Danish King Harald Bluetooth in 980 CE all the way up to 2016. I invite you to view each build and read its history!

Click here to take a walk through time

Somewhere over the rainbow

If you were at BrickCon this year, you probably saw this colorful creation by Adam Dodge. Adam’s LEGO rainbow island features a collection of monochromatic landscapes, buildings, and minifigs that would impress Roy G. Biv himself. The chunks of bright colors and smooth transitions in this creation are very artistic. And the overall effect is super dynamic. Be sure to zoom in and check out all the details of Adam’s build including one minifig that is up to no good.

The classic BMW motorcycle

I do love a good bike with a classic look, and the late-50s/early 60s BMW R60 is a fine example. This LEGO version by Taiwanese builder Maxime Cheng shows off all the great lines of this old-school German bike. My favorite details are the twin bicycle seats, though Maxime’s done a fantastic job with the detail work on the engine also.

And I love this image of the work-in-progress model next to its reference image.

LEGO Othello board

LEGO is a good medium for recreating board games, and over the years we’ve covered brick-built versions of everything from Clue, to Settlers of Catan, and everything in between. Not to mention a plethora of LEGO chess sets, both historical and themed. Now jtheels has recreated one of my personal favorites, Othello. Not only is the LEGO version completely playable and accurate in every detail, the builder has even used it to recreate the original game’s box art!

Paint me a better world

The artistic builder who goes by Why not? presents an untitled work depicting a painter creating his own world of tranquility amidst a menacing cityscape. Is this a stark vision of the future or a grim reminder of the past? Either way the message is strong!

OASIS-class deep space exploration ship

We’ve grown used to seeing precarious cottages and luxurious modern architecture from talented Portuguese builder César Soares, but a large-scale spaceship was not something I expected to see in his photostream — even during SHIPtember. César has built a near-future interstellar colonization ship full of believable details — all pulled together with a great schematic that points them out.

See more photos of this great LEGO spaceship

LEGO purists beware, this ship may not conform to your ideals

This SHIPtember Avari-class carrier by Pierre E Fieschi is incredible. Without resorting to a wacky shape or an extreme color palette, Pierre has managed to create a stunningly detailed and realistic-looking sci-fi vessel. It’s got an awesome military green paint job, an open hangar bay, and a cargo bay filled with futuristic semi-truck containers. However, some of our readers may be horrified to learn that this build features a large amount of Mega Bloks and 3D printed parts.

Now before you start flipping tables, just hear me out. Some of these Mega Blok pieces are downright snazzy! The wedge tiles, in particular, contribute to this ship’s clean lines and dynamic design. While I’m not suggesting everyone run out and buy Mega Blok, I do think some healthy competition between name brands can’t hurt.

LEGO Viking chess board

We’ve seen a ton of brick-built board games over the years, including an earlier LEGO Hnefatafl board, but we are nowhere near getting tired of these LEGO-fied games. At first glance, Simon Pickard‘s version of Viking chess doesn’t even look like it is made out of LEGO. The pieces are stylish and practical-looking and the board itself is quite ingenious, using both studs-on-top and studs-not-on-top (aka SNOT) techniques to create a smooth, gridded playing surface. I imagine many board game connoisseurs would be proud to have this creation sitting on their gaming table.