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.

Ready for Mammoth tasks with the Liebherr LTM 1350

It may be less than two weeks ago since I blogged a build by Maksymilian Majchrzak ( [MAKS] ), but it seems he very much likes the same sort of things I do and he builds them well. Case in point: his latest crane.

For those of you who are crane geeks, this is a Liebherr LTM 1350-6.1 in the colours of Mammoet (Mammoth) — a famous company from the Netherlands that specialises in heavy lifting and heavy haulage. This behemoth is built to my favourite scale of 1/22, which makes it roughly 100 studs long in road-going configuration.

The model is very detailed and has numerous working features such as steering, a telescopic boom that can be raised and lowered (which does involve inserting an extra part to lengthen the hydraulic ram), side supports that extend and retract, and he has included a brick-built figure. If there were a checklist of things I like, he has ticked almost all of the boxes.

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Issue 16 of Bricks Magazine now available [News]

Bricks magazine issue 16 is now available, and this month the main theme is LEGO Castles, with some added Steampunk for flavour, and a little VW Beetle action for variety.

The 124-page magazine has a range of exclusive articles and fan built creations, including a delve inside the magical walls of LEGO’s new 71040 The Disney Castle, and a dangerous encounter for the LEGO Elves as they try to save the baby Princess dragon egg in 41180 Ragana’s Magic Shadow Castle. The magazine explores Michael Kalkwarf’s modular castle system, while James Pegrum illustrates how to build circular towers in his builder’s masterclass. Whilst not medieval but definitely within the realm of fantasy, Rod Gillies explains the Victorian-inspired alternate universe of Steampunk with steampunk-style Ultra Agents MOCs and a look at LEGO’s own take on this genre.

Bricks is available in both digital and print format at a cost of £4.99 or US$6.60 (approx. due to variable exchange rates). Shipping and packaging costs for the print version are £1.50 for the UK, £4.25 for the rest of the world.

Click here for the full press release and sample pages

A tiny but amazing LEGO fortress — and how it’s built [Video]

Grant Davis has built this spectacular little microscale castle. Like most LEGO microscale creations, it’s awash in terrific creativity, with lots of unusual pieces used in new ways, and the finished product belies its complexity. Fortunately for all of us curious viewers, Grant made a short video that shows some of the techniques he employed as he walks us through the disassembly of the model.

May the world of old awaken to my song, and its dragons with it!

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen has built a fabulous character model of Excela Noa Aura, an Imperial Princess and Dragon Knight from the roleplaying videogame Shining Resonance. Whilst I don’t know anything about the source material, I know a great LEGO creation when I see one. This model is packed full of nice touches and detail — don’t miss the hinges and arches used on the unmistakably anime hair, the smart use of “big fig” pieces for the rather shapely legs, and the near-genius deployment of a neck ruff from the collectible minifig Shakespeare for the lacy cuffs peeking out of the sleeves.

Recon satellite has acquired its target

Dead Frog Inc builds great mechs and spaceships, and presents them in a stark style which has become something of a signature. This satellite model makes great use of the still-relatively-new balloon pieces to create smooth flowing lines around a central core of functional-looking details. I like the satellite’s “face” — the central curved grey eye and the flanking lenses (provided by minifig binoculars) are excellent. I have no idea if this is meant to be a recon satellite, but I imagine it panning slowly round in low-Earth orbit, keeping an unsuspecting target fixed in its implacable gaze.

Watching your back with LEGO Ana’s Rifle from Overwatch

When Ana Amari was revealed as an addition to the Overwatch hero roster, I knew I wanted her rifle added to my LEGO arsenal. It was an interesting short rifle design, had bolt action that would be fun to build, and even the concept of a healing sniper was a rad idea. The most challenging part of the build was the bolt action itself. There were countless iterations of the bolt itself that can simulate chambering the biotic round, the chamber walls hiding the bolt’s slots inside the body of the rifle to reduce gaps, and the trigger mechanism that released the bolt. All this design work led to a LEGO rifle that has realistic looking firing action, despite not actually firing.

Watch this firing action, as well as other functions including a folding stock, removable magazine with opening mag cover, and glowing biotic round powered by BrickStuff lights, in the video below. You can also view all photos of the biotic rifle in my Flickr album.

X-Wing! X-Wing! X-WING!!

Томас Чижаускас mixes Star Wars and LEGO’s Classic Space to great effect in this X-Wing-inspired build. I can just imagine the arguments between Luke Skywalker and Benny The Spaceman over who got to take this out for its maiden flight.

I’m sure LEGO builders have mashed these themes together before, but I don’t recall having seen it done, and certainly not with this level of impact. The combination of that signature shape and the nostalgic color scheme is ticking all the right boxes for me. There’s some smart greebling but it’s not overdone, and I’m enjoying the builder’s work on the “anti-stud” surface of the lower wing — those turntable pieces make for some cool detailing. The only thing missing for me is the Classic Space black and yellow striping — whilst there’s a hint of it in the Technic wing-opening mechanism, it might have featured as a more prominent nod to the theme’s conventions.

I’d love to fly this model around and make engine and pew-pew noises — it looks eminently swooshable. Judging by the facial expressions on the guys in the cockpit, everything is obviously awesome when it comes to piloting this wonderful spacecraft…

A pretty place to park your wares

Gabe Umland brings us this nifty vibrant LEGO floating rock, topped with a warehouse for steampunkery. Never underestimate a mundane subject for your models — nearly anything can look magical when built with skill, even an industrial warehouse in the middle of the sky. Don’t miss Gabe’s great technique for paneled siding using stacked and twisted 1×1 bricks, and be sure to scrutinize the hodgepodge of goods for sale; scenes such as this are a way to find uses for that pile of unusual pieces you have.

Hey Chappie, the coolest robot in South Africa

Neil Blomkamp’s movie Chappie may have had some misteps, but the fantastic effects work in bringing the titular android to life was beyond reproach. Chappie, a disaffected robot in a future South Africa, is one of the more endearing robots to find its ways to cinema screens in recent years, and LEGO builder Pilation Pilation has made this awesome rendition of the wannabe gangster robot, fully poseable to throw some street moves, and he’s even built a great motorcycle for Chappie, which has hints of Bat-bike in it.

We are LEGO, we are Overwatch

Overwatch has spurred builders into a frenzy of creativity, and Tim Schwalfenberg has spent the last couple of weeks building a series of characters from the game to display at his local comic convention. Tim’s character builds include Mercy, Pharah, Reaper, Roadhog, Soldier 76, Tracer and Winston. I’ll start with my favourites: Mercy, a healer and staunch advocate for peace; and Reaper, an extremely volatile mercenary who is a ruthless and remorseless killer. Reaper’s face shaping is spot on and captures this intimidating, cold blooded faceless character to perfection.

Click here to see more heroes

Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts in LEGO

As Hagrid mentioned way back on his second day with Harry, “…yeh’d be mad ter try an’ rob it.” And because we long identified that Harry doesn’t always listen well and the first couple of books are chock full of foreshadowing, our heroes do in fact successfully rob Gringotts. I mean, it totally helps when you ride an angry dragon’s back out of the vaults.

Jared has recreated the scene of the dragon breaking out of the top of the bank, right before the last mad dash for freedom. The poor thing looks properly emaciated and pale from all its time in the dungeons.

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REBRICK contest winner: build your dream Porsche [NEWS]

The LEGO REBRICK website has just announced the grand prize winner and runners-up in their Build the Porsche of your Dreams competition that ended on 07 Sept. The Grand Prize winner was Tamás Juhász with his Porsche 962 C.

Tamás’ model was very detailed, including the engine, exhausts, turbos, racing seat, seat belt, radiators, detailed cockpit, mirrors all made using LEGO.

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