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.

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

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For the (LEGO) birds...

Join me as we go bird watching, courtesy of Joe Perez of Bright Bricks!

First, we see a beautiful example of a Peregrine Falcon. This record-setting bird of prey can reach speeds over 200 mph (322 km/h) and is found throughout the world. Joe’s rendition of this majestic bird is giving us some pretty impressive side-eye from its natural outdoor habitat.

To continue your bird-watching tour, click here

Weather forecast for tonight: dark

A snow-white plain background is taken by many builders as an essential part of presentation. However, Ryan McBryde uses artistic light to create the dismal mood of a dark night hour for his weather station tower.

Coupled with a good perspective, such a lightning scheme makes this fairly straightforward model look especially impressive. Of course, the sand green bricks and rocky tower base have no small share in creating the menacing atmosphere in this picture. Moreover, we have no idea what is inside the tower, so perhaps we’ll wait until dawn before revealing all the secrets of this creepy place…

A beautiful “serpent mecha guardian thingy”

The great thing about art (of which LEGO is a medium) is the ability to put something together with the greatest of care and effort, sit back, and whisper to yourself… what the hell did I just make?.

Builder Brian Kescenovitz did that here. Despite the creation having the stately name “Guardian II”, it’s description reads: “Some sort of serpent mecha guardian thingy.” And, well, that’s just what it is.

Super speedway is super exciting

Speed Champions is a relatively new theme to Lego, and while it has the backing of big car names like Porsche, Ferrari, and Ford, it has yet to gain much traction in fan community. Perhaps this is because there are nice cars but nowhere to go? Builder Brick Knight has built a large race track section for his Speed Champion collection, and in the process has suddenly made the theme far more interesting.

Featuring a pit lane, spectator stands, news crews, and a meticulously polished center field, this is one speedway bound to give everyone a fun day. Not only that, but the entire creation is jam packed with hilarious cameos …as if a high speed race wasn’t exciting enough already.

LEGO displays from SEALUG & more at Emerald City Comicon 2016 in Seattle [News]

For the last 5 years, LEGO clubs in the Pacific Northwest have put on a huge display at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, which will be taking place at the Washington State Convention Center in just a couple of weeks, April 7-10.

Emerald City Comicon Brick Nation

TBB’s own Iain Heath is hard at work right now putting the finishing touches on his talk, titled The Cult of the Brick: An Inside Look at the Secret World of LEGO Fandom.

Most ECCC tickets are sold out at this point, but if you’re among the tens of thousands of people who’ll be there over the course of the 4-day event, be sure to check out Iain’s talk and swing by the lower level across the street from the main WSCC entrance.

Click through to read more about LEGO at ECCC

The procession: an elegant church edifice

We recently featured a wonderful mosque from brickbink, and now he has come up with an amazing church! Although the diorama only presents the façade of the structure, it is so full of simple details that you don’t even notice the overall smaller footprint. The grand clock, stained glass, worn-out stucco, and pilasters all add up to an impressive build. The roof work, stairs, and floor tiles are simple yet effective additions to the scene and the result is made very charming with carefully selected minifigures.

For bricks, they flew pretty good

Take a look into the brick-built airplane cockpit built by kosbrick. With carefully selected printed LEGO elements and clever use of minifigure paint rollers as the throttle and steering wheels, the scene looks authentic and ready for takeoff.

Reminder: Win the new LEGO Batcave from TBB in March [News]

In case you’ve been living in a cave, here’s a reminder that The Brothers Brick is giving away the new 76052 LEGO Batman Classic TV Series Batcave. If you haven’t entered yet, you still have another week to enter. We’ll be picking and contacting the winner at the beginning of April.

And yes, we’ll ship it anywhere in the world that we’re allowed to ship things (our apologies to astronauts on the International Space Station and the citizenry of North Korea). Be sure to follow us on Facebook and other social media for future giveaways like this.

This month’s contest prize kindly provided by LEGO.

There’s no arch in architecture

Air, light, work, sports, hygiene, comfort and efficiency: these are the guidelines that governed the design of Villa Cavrois. This massive home in France was built by Robert Mallet-Stevens between 1929 and 1932, and is considered part of the International Style of architecture. The mansion has a storied past: it was occupied by the German Army during World War II, and most of the custom-built furniture was sold off in the 1980s. But now it’s a historical monument, open to the public for viewing. If you can’t make it all the way to northern France, at least you can ogle this model from Swedish builder o0ger, whose rendition is reminiscent of the LEGO Architecture theme.

This is Hallowe….wait, Easter

As a fan of horror movies, I know that a good monster has to have character. It’s why even if they’re scary, you can’t look away. The Harvestman, by the always intriguing Djordje, has character in spades.

The shapes of this LEGO creation are amazing and a great use of the new pieces released with the new buildable Star Wars figures, but the biggest draw here is the face — the shape, the fact that it only has one creepy yellow eye with just 3 fangs. It looks like it belongs in a Tim Burton stop motion film, and it was built with LEGO. In fact, I would love to see a stop motion horror film starring Djordje’s builds.

Issue 18 of Blocks Magazine now available [News]

Issue 18 of Blocks Magazine hits shelves in the UK today. This month, the publication celebrates all things Batman v Superman with an exclusive series of builds, reviews of new sets and the low-down on how to create the perfect Dark Knight Tumbler. Plus an exclusive interview with LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya on his new DC Comics exhibition.

Also in this issue, MOD Squad member Daniel Konstanski shows how to improve your Carbon Freezing Chamber, there are reviews of the new TT Games offering and the latest Frozen sets, and a behind-the-scenes look at David Pickard’s Blacktron project. Get it today!