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.

LEGO ribbon memorializes Orlando shooting victims

On Sunday, June 12, an armed individual walked into Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and opened fire. When the attack was over, 49 people had lost their lives with another 53 injured. There are many things that make this tragedy terrible: the loss of life; the fact the nightclub was meant to be a safe place for the LGBT+ community; and the clear preparation the shooter took prior to walking into the club that night. Many questions remain unanswered about the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

As the days pass, we’ll see many conversations surrounding this, but today, I encourage you to take a moment of silence for the 49 young people who never went home that night.

Ryan Howerter has built a ribbon of mourning. It is simple and profound. It is a memorial to the lives lost.

For those that wish to help the injured and families of the victims, please see the resources below:

Blood Donations
While immediate need has been met, there is still a need for blood donations for the upcoming weeks. Check OneBlood or call 1.888.9Donate for more information on what their needs are.

Monetary Donations
Equity Florida has established a GoFundMe page, as well as the GLBT Community Center of Florida (GoFundMe). Funds will go to the families of victims. Additionally, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has created the OneOrlando fund, with funds also helping victims and providing ongoing support. Before donating, check with your employer to see if they have a funds matching program available.

Local Needs:

Volunteers
Please click here to check with the City of Orlando to see what assistance they may need.

Mental Health Volunteers
There is a need for mental health professionals; The Center is accepting information from licensed clinicians here.

Translators
Many of the victims were people of color. Their families coming in are in need of translators. If you can provide translating services, you are encouraged to reach out to info at hispanic chamber dot net.

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Knights of the Cute Republic

In what might be one of the more interesting (and perfectly executed, and beautifully presented) mashups that I’ve seen in a while, David Lee, inspired by the excellent design of Herbert Lee’s Stormtrooper puppet, has reimagined Captain Phasma and a First Order Stormtrooper from Star Wars: The Force Awakens as chibi samurai. They’re so adorable, and stabby!

Classic television star fighters get the LEGO treatment

Some of you might feel that there are contributors at The Brothers Brick who have an unhealthy and self-indulgent obsession with nostalgia for 70s and 80s pop culture. And that those should contributors be stopped. And you would be absolutely right, on both counts.

Unfortunately we cannot be stopped, so please enjoy this latest LEGO-themed slice of retro goodness from SPARKART, who put together this microscale collection of ships from the Glen Larson TV shows Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica. These look totally swooshable, and each one is instantly recognizable as I peer at it over the rims of my half-moon spectacles.

“Hard Six” mech will hit your soft spot

The only thing better than alternate history is alternate history with big stompy mechs. Matt Rowntree must agree with me because his “prototype heavy walker, model 3, mark 3” (or “Hard Six” for short) certainly fits the bill as a Japanese war machine from 1949.

Be sure to check out Matt’s photostream for other shots including a really cool Jungle platform supply station and the fact that the nose features a sticker from LEGO set 7701 Grand Titan.

Big, black and beautiful: The Blacktron Behemoth

This huge Blacktron-themed tank by Adrian Drake measures a whopping 104 x 48 studs. Complete with a rotating turret and articulated corner treads, this LEGO tank is an absolute necessity for any Blacktron fleet worth its salt.

Adrian explained that his build was inspired by the artwork of DeviantArt user Duskie-06, but of course modified for LEGO building and tricked out in black with yellow trim and red transparent pieces in order to be a true Blacktron vehicle. According to Adrian, “The entire thing is basically a giant technic framework that, when I take the treads off, I can pick up and swoosh quite easily. It is, in reality, a SHIP with tank treads.”

If you’re looking to build a Blacktron Behemoth of your very own, be forewarned, to complete a tank like this you will need to spend countless man-hours in R&D and manufacturing. It took Adrian nearly two months to complete this build and that was even with the assistance of child labor: Adrian’s 9-year-old son designed the gun on the top of the turret and his 12-year-old son tirelessly mass-produced the tank’s treads. Without minions of your own, you’re looking at a much longer timeline before your tank rolls off the assembly line.

To see the up-close details of this build, be sure to check out more photos of Adrian’s massive Blacktron tank on Flickr. You can also see this tank in person at Brickworld Chicago or BrickFair DC.

Brick Ops

While I still actively buy and play with LEGO, Spy vs. Spy remains a part of my childhood exclusively. Due to import charges and weak local currencies I could never afford to buy Mad magazine, but the hours I spent hiding from store employees while I read Spy vs. Spy are etched into my memory. Andreas Weissenburg does the characters justice in this vignette. I don’t know what I love more, the little tank being driven by the white spy, or the fact that the black spy is wielding a brick separator! My money is on the black spy…

New 10252 Volkswagen Beetle LEGO Creator Expert set revealed [News]

Update: Read the full review of 10252 Volkswagen Beetle here on TBB!

One of the most iconic cars of all time is returning to the brick. Today LEGO has unveiled a spiffy new version of the famous bug, 10252 Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle comes fully outfitted for a day at the beach with a surfboard, cooler and even a beach towel. It includes license plates for the USA, UK, Germany and Australia, as well as new large curve elements for the wheel arches and loads of new parts in azure. The set will retail for $99.99 USD when it goes on sale Aug. 1, and contains 1,167 pieces. The LEGO Beetle’s larger sibling, the VW Camper Van, is one of the longer running products in LEGO’s catalog, though it will likely be retiring soon in favor of this new addition to the LEGO VW family. Read the full details about the new Beetle set after the jump.

Click to see more of the Volkswagen Beetle

The heavens arrayed above the glassy cockpit

What a magnificent view the pilots of this stellar craft must get as they soar among the stars! Builder aido k says the spaceship was inspired by the sweeping curved windscreen from the UCS Slave I, and the wings from the Creator Blue Power Jet, but the marriage of the two brings forth this a sports car for the next century—a luxurious vehicle for the elite.

The cat is back! A LEGO 1/36 scale Grumman F-14

It has been thirty years since Top Gun hit the big screen, and the true star of the movie, the charismatic Grumman F-14 Tomcat, was retired from US Navy service almost ten years ago. I built my first LEGO Tomcat more than 20 years ago and I have kept making improvements, as I learned new tricks and as new parts became available. Usually the changes were fairly small, with the core of the model changing very little.

Ever since I completed my 1/22 scale model a few years ago, I’ve been eyeballing my three smaller 1/36 scale models, no longer liking what I saw. They looked very crude compared to the bigger model and they lacked a few essential features. The intakes on the Tomcat are cranked and the vertical tail fins are canted outward. These sort of things may not seem important, but they make a big difference to the look. Furthermore, the undercarriage never really worked properly, the nose was a bit long, the angles of the wings weren’t quite right and there were a host of other little things that could be improved. Of course, I had to avoid messing up the things I did like about the existing model, but small incremental changes weren’t going to hack it any more.

I started with a new model, albeit with the old one nearby for comparison purposes. The first jet I decided to rebuild has the famous skull and crossbones markings of Fighter Squadron 84 “Jolly Rogers”, like they had in the ‘seventies. I don’t care much for stealth fighters. My Tomcats are probably the closest thing I have to a signature build, which makes me proud to say that the cat is back!

A better proportioned Ultron

While we all love the iconic minifig, it does occasionally have its shortcomings. This was apparent in the Ultron minifigs from sets like The Avengers Quinjet City Chase or The Hulk Buster Smash. That version of Ultron was just too stubby and cute to be the monolithic, metallic machine that was the Ultron we saw in the movies. Luckily, takamichi irie does the character justice with this fan-made brick-built figure.

Fully transformable LEGO version of Sideswipe

Building LEGO versions of Transformers has always been a massive task from both the builder’s skill and the bricks’ limits. Joe Perez has already shown his mettle with a frankly unbelievable Soundwave, and now he’s gone and done Sideswipe too.

It goes from this:

To this:

In around nine steps which require nothing to be added or removed from the model. Impressive!

I’d rather be a pig than a fascist

One of my favorite Miyazaki characters is Porco Rosso, and we’ve seen many LEGO versions of Porco’s iconic red plane before. But this character portrait of the gruff pig himself, in all his metaphor and charm, is something special. It’s no surprise that it comes from the hand of Eero Okkonen, whose fantastic brick characters regularly grace our blog.

Check out some of the fantastic LEGO models of Porco’s red Sovoia S-21 we’ve featured, by Uspez Morbo, Mike Psiaki, Jon Hall, Sydag and Stephen 趙(Chao).