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 Brothers Brick is now a tween! Happy 11th birthday to us! [News]

11-year-olds are notoriously problematic — or at least I think so, having worked with unruly preteens as a lifeguard and summer swim instructor back in the day. Now that The Brothers Brick is a tween, you never know what trouble we’ll get up to. One of the things that frequently lies ahead of the tween LEGO builder is that he or she will enter what adult builders in hindsight call the “dark ages,” that time in your life when LEGO matters a whole lot less than, well, all the other things that teenagers typically do.

The thing is, The Brothers Brick has already been through a bit of a LEGO dark ages, as real life caught up with many of our long-time contributors back in 2013 and 2014. Hey, it happens — we’re all volunteers and our families and day jobs always take priority over LEGO. The good news is that we’ve made a number of significant changes to how we run things around here, and we think you’ll agree.

After we wrapped up the Battle of Bricksburg at BrickCon in October, we recruited a cadre of 10 new contributors, from all over the world. Over the years, TBB contributors have hailed from the US, Canada, UK, the Netherlands, Australia, Croatia, South Africa, Turkey, Russia, and Mexico. We feel that it’s important to reflect the diversity of the global LEGO fan community — while we write and publish in English, there are TBB readers everywhere. A few weeks ago we even interviewed a group of LEGO builders and TBB readers in Antarctica! About only bits in the following coverage map that aren’t blue are North Korea, Eritrea, and Western Sahara. Globally, that’s more than two million people who visited Brothers-Brick.com over the past 12 months.

Click through for more about you and everybody else who reads TBB

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Hispabrick Magazine 25 is out now [News]

Hispabrick Magazine issue 025 is out now and is packed full of articles. As always, this magazine is free to download and is available in both English and Spanish.

This issue includes:

An in-depth review and test drive of Set 42056 Porsche GT3 RS.
The creator of series of Star Wars Maxifigs talks about his ‘larger than life’ creations.
Reviews of
- 75098: Assault on Hoth
- Minecraft 21128: The Village
- 71012 – LEGO® Minifigures Disney™ Series 1
- 71011 – Collectible Minifigures Series 15
- 21305 – The Maze
- 76052-1: Batman™ Classic TV Series – Batcave
- Energy LEGO® Tablet 8”
Exhibition of LEGO® constructions at the XIV Collectors Fair in Mungia
A look at fan creations, this time the theme is sailboats.
A review and photos of Nathan Sawaya’s touring exhibition “The Art of the Brick”.
The team take a look at the updated WeDo 2.0 robotics set and compares the new educational robotics sets to their predecessors.

This latest issue can be downloaded in PDF format – Hispabrick Magazine 025 PDF (English)

The Force Awakens in Miniland

Larger than minifig scale, Miniland scale is a scale used in Legoland theme parks around the world, and it places a character about 5 inches tall. It’s become a popular scale for fan builders wanting to create brick-build characters. TBB Contributor Ralph often uses this scale to create iconic vehicles and their drivers, such as his recent Ghostbusters Ecto 1. Builder Casey McCoy used this great scale to build the cast of The Force Awakens, and he’s done a lovely job. I particularly love the details on Poe’s flight suit. Check out the flickr album for individual shots of the cast.

Down the rabbit hole

Since the release of the Collectible Disney Minigures earlier this year, I’ve been waiting to see the adorable Alice figure put to great use. And that’s exactly what The Knit Knight has done here! Knight built the iconic scene where Alice falls down the rabbit hole in her quest to crash the white rabbit’s party. This LEGO scene is truly complete, including excellently-built, falling furniture, striped wallpaper, sweets and fizzy drinks (presumably all labeled “eat me” and “drink me”), a miniature rabbit-sized door, and even a tiny Dinah waving goodbye to Alice from the real world.

The future of law enforcement

Here’s a new twist on an old set: Central Precinct Headquarters from 1993. The old black and white color scheme has been updated to a futuristic black and green, and all the flowers are gone. But the rooftop technology bits and the safety railings are still around. Most of the original vehicles are here too (helicopter not pictured). Big_Sal_224 also has a full backstory and script available, featuring a lot more gender diversity than the original set. I wonder what other old sets are ripe for re-imagining?

Back in the Red

Hang in there Red Dwarf fans, only a couple more months before Series 11 airs! In the meantime, feast your eyes on this totally spot-on Red Dwarf custom LEGO play set designed by Bob Turner. The dance-ready Series 8 version of Blue Midget shuttlecraft is definitely the star of the show here, but it’s the smaller details that really make this scene a real fan-pleaser:

Of note are the brick-built scutter, the inclusion of the Holly Hop Drive from Series 2, and most importantly a set of custom Red Dwarf minifigs. Each one is accurate and immediately recognizable. And in addition to the main crew, Bob has even included minifig versions of popular alternate characters Duane Dibbley and Ace Rimmer.

Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast!

Microscale office looks like the perfect place to work

Modern architecture might appear to be the perfect subject for recreating in LEGO. However, many of the angled planes currently in vogue amongst building designers actually make for difficult modelling in bricks. Polar Stein pulls it off in style with this microscale version of an award-winning office complex in New Jersey.

The model is beautifully simple, with excellent lines, much like the building it’s based on. I’m a particular fan of the angled supporting columns at the open corner. Also, at this scale, the use of multiple trans-clear bricks manages to suggest an internal structure. The builder suggests they’re going to have a go at this in minifig-scale. Interesting challenge, and they’ve already set themselves a high bar with this lovely microscale version.

LEGO Spaceman is made of LEGO Spacemen

aido k has created a fabulous tribute to LEGO Space — a classic blue space figure created from a multitude of classic space figures. I’m not normally a fan of rendered LEGO creations, preferring to see models and scenes created within the restrictions of regular part availability. However, I dread to think how expensive this idea would have been to recreate “in the brick”, and besides, as far as I can tell, there are no weird part/color combinations used here, just spacemen… lots and lots of spacemen.

It’s sheer steampunk balloonacy

Lego Fjotten continues to be one of the most interesting builders in the steampunk genre. Hot on the heels (wheels?) of his recent LEGO steampunk creations comes this cracking little hot air balloon. There are great details on display here — particularly the use of droid arms for an effective basket texture, and the mechanical boiler elements are simple yet believable. However, it’s the clean composition of the image and the cobbled base which elevate this model out of the steampunk norms. Plus, I love how the builder isn’t using the “same-old same-old” minifigs which constantly seem to show up in steampunk creations. Long may this builder’s refreshing foray into the genre continue.

Life’s a LEGO beach

Michael Jasper has pulled off a difficult trick with this image. I’m not normally a fan of minifigs and models appearing in the natural environment in photos. Having real foliage or objects tends to destroy any impression of scale within the models, making it obvious how small they really are. However, this beach scene is enhanced by the sandy setting. It obviously helps that the beach chair model is a sweet little build, and don’t miss Michael’s inspired parts-usage for the bikini top…

Edit: This relaxing scene is actually 10 years old, and it happens to be the very first LEGO creation not built by founder Andrew blogged here on The Brothers Brick! We’ll call this post a “classic rewind.”

New LEGO Dimensions sets, including E.T., Sonic the Hedgehog, Gremlins, and Fantastic Beasts [News]

Today LEGO and Warner Bros are giving us our first look at the actual sets from the new round of LEGO Dimensions sets, featuring a wide range of licenses. Last month we got the press release and a CG trailer of the new characters, but here you can check out all the details. The new packs will be available Nov. 18.

71253 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, $49.99

Click through to see all the new sets!

Discworld’s Lu-Tze brought to life in LEGO

Eero Okkonen (Pate-Keetongu) continues his series of LEGO characters from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. This time round we’ve got an awesome rendition of Lu-Tze the fighting monk. Check out all the fabulous details in this model — the moustache and beard, the knot on the belt, the use of a snake as cigarette smoke, and the split-toe sandals. This is character-building at its absolute finest.