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.

NASA’s workhorse: the Crawler Transport

It’s 3.5 miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launchpad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. It was quite the feat to figure out how to transport a moon rocket from point its assembly point to the launch site, since rockets weigh QUITE a bit. The solution? The crawler-transport. This workhorse of NASA’s fleet moves a stunning 1 mile per hour, and uses over 100 gallons of diesel fuel per mile when fully loaded. The crawler transport goes under the mobile launch platform; the vehicle is assembled on top. Then the crawler goes on its merry way to the launchpad, and off it goes.

These beauties are massive, and dorian glacet brings us his fabulous version along with a modified orbiter from 60080 Spaceport. He’s extended the shuttle, fuel tank, and boosters, which give the whole build a better sense of scale.

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Turn anything into LEGO bricks with some VFX

What if you had the Midas touch, but with LEGO bricks instead of gold? Popular action/VFX YouTube channel CorridorDigital created an entertaining short video to answer that. Watch the effects of this magical power in this short, funny video flexing CorridorDigital’s 3D effect talents. (Mild language warning)

If you want to see a bit of how they created the LEGO effects, check out the behind the scenes video.

League of Legends’ Blitzcrank in brick form

League of Legends is populated by multitudes of fascinating and unusual characters, both in real life and in the game. One of the game’s more steampunky characters to be found in the game is Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem, and Eric Tsai’s LEGO version looks positively smashing and ready to crash your lane.

LEGO Batman’s so awesome he gets two movie trailers in one week [News]

The first teaser trailer for the new LEGO Batman movie was only released 4 days ago, but apparently Batman is impatient and couldn’t wait for us to have another hilarious look at the brick-built world of Gotham’s battiest hero. The film, which is a spinoff of 2014’s The LEGO Movie, is slated for a Feb. 10, 2017 release.

LEGO Angry Birds 75824: Pig City Teardown [Review]

The first wave of Angry Bird sets have already been released here in the UK, and consists of six sets ranging from Set 75821 Piggy Car Escape (Price UK £11.99/US $12.99) to Set 75826 King Pig’s Castle (Price UK £74.99/US $89.99). You can see the full lineup in our initial news coverage of the Angry Birds sets, and we also got a first-hand look at them at Toy Fair New York last month. The Angry Birds sets are due for release in the US in April and are not available online or within the US LEGO Stores at present. The Angry Birds sets are all colourful and enticing for the ‘recommended’ age range, between 6-12 or 8-14 as the set size increases. For those of us who are perhaps slightly older than this range, fear not…there are a host of new moulds, re-colours and great new printed tiles that will also bring great joy.

Click to read the full review

Get abs like bricks

Looks like someone is still trying to fulfil their new year’s resolution. Kosbrick has created a perfect brick-built gym scene for his current Iron Builder contest, and the use of the paint roller handle is genius.

On his blog, Kos explains the build was a reminder of official modular builds, and I’ve got to say it does. It also reminds me that I do have to hit the gym really soon!

George R.R. Martin sits upon the Iron Throne with these LEGO Game of Thrones characters

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin takes his rightful place in the Red Keep atop the infamous Iron Throne, from whence he will cast judgment and pronounce life or death upon the world’s inhabitants (mostly death). This magnificent entourage of LEGO characters by Callum brings many of your favorite characters to brick form, from Eddard Stark and Jon Snow, to Jaime and Tyrion, and Daenerys and Khal Drogo.

Click to see more Song of Ice and Fire characters

Celebrate Easter with beautiful LEGO jewelled eggs

Dutch builder Koen has created a set of beautiful Faberge-style jewelled eggs. What better way to celebrate Easter weekend with your favourite construction system?

These creations are packed with nice parts usage to get the details and sparkling metallic effects. Check out the stands too — great stuff. We’ve previously featured the beautiful red egg in the center; the green and blue ones are being featured here for the first time.

Even better, the eggs open up to reveal appropriate minifigs for each egg’s theme: Spring, Love, and Ice…

Spacetank! Spacetank! SPACETANK!

Norton74 has built a maintenance bay, home to a chunky tank decked out in Classic Space livery. Round here we love it when people build interesting new creations that pay homage to retro LEGO themes. This scene totally fits the bill.

The expected mix of blue and gray, and the trans-yellow windows, are all present and correct, plus there’s an excellent sense of activity with all those minifigs bustling around. However, the undoubted star of the show is the tank itself, and I’m pleased the builder posted a “hero shot” to showcase it in all its glory…

Terrifyingly good LEGO horror movie scene

Letranger Absurde brings us a great little recreation of the signature scene from The Exorcist.

The diorama is just stuffed with neat building — the dangling bedsheets, the tiny lamp, the door — all good stuff. But it’s the floating bed and the sinister figure at the heart of the scene which command all the attention. The only thing that could make this better is motorised elements making the head spin round.

The builder says this is the first in a series of horror movie scenes. I can’t wait to see the rest.

Space Chefs contest – Winners Announced!

There were some amazing entries cooked up for our Space Chefs contest. It took us a while to narrow the field down to our absolute favorites. But the votes are in, the judges have decided, and here are the results.

First place in the Cosmic Kitchen category goes to IamKritch with his fabulous Intergalactic Sushi stand…

We loved the compact kiosk, the clever use of curved pieces to create a space-age feel, and all the fun and detail — in particular, all the printed tiles and the bin monster!

And first place in the Space Chefs On-The-Go category goes to Ted Andes for his Gruel Wagon…

This made some of the judges laugh-out-loud. It’s a great idea, well-executed. The flow of the gloopy gruel from the hose is particularly good.

Click to see the runners-up & the Master Chef winner!

Builder spotlight: Aaron Newman and his alternate LEGO Castle universe

Set 64044 Ardun Observatory is part of the new wave called Mythic Machines in the Dragon Lands theme, and features a semi-circle three-tiered castle with astronomical equipment in the tower. Arrayed around it are the forces of evil, orc-like creatures with a battering ram, small catapult, and a fearsome red dragon. Play features include hidden passageways, spring-loaded catapults, a working drawbridge and portcullis, and breakaway walls.

Not familiar with LEGO set 64044? That’s because you can’t buy this set from the LEGO company, or anywhere else — it comes from the mind of Aaron Newman.

64044 Ardun Observatory by Aaron Newman

Aaron Newman doesn’t simply look at his LEGO collection and wonder what he can create; instead he looks at his bricks and asks, “What if LEGO sold different sets?” A 21-year-old UCLA theater student, Aaron’s got a knack for designing LEGO creations to fill his own alternate universe where LEGO produces the sets he’d like to see. And he’s got a fantastic sense of style. Aaron’s models center around a castle theme called Dragon Lands, which is a hybrid of LEGO’s official Vikings and Fantasy-Era Castle lines. He creates sub-themes to mimic LEGO’s habit of releasing sets in waves, and includes a set designed for each price point. His latest sub-theme, titled Dragon Lands: Mythic Machines, features crude orc siege machinery pitted against dwarven and elven strongholds. And, of course, there are lots of dragons, because no Castle theme is complete without them.

I recently had the opportunity speak with Aaron about his unique style and learn a bit about how he designs fan creations that look like sets.

Click to read the full interview