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.

A chinese street in Jakarta

We often see modular buildings with European architecture, but the world is a much bigger place and offers many other forms of beauty. Kosmas Santosa from Jakarta decided to take matters into his own hands and built three modular buildings with Indonesian/Chinese architecture. The diorama is comprised of a tea house, a pharmacy and a residential building which are all inspired by actual locations. Despite the fact that these inspiring buildings look ruined, Kosmas took a nostalgic step and reanimated the street as a lively place.

You can find more detailed pictures on Kosmas’s own website. He built this diorama as part of a Bhinneka LUG display and even made a few trucks and carts to live up the scene.

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Rusty rail truck gets the job done

There’s a real art in depicting decay and dilapidation in LEGO. The solid colors and straight lines of our favourite construction system tend not to lend themselves well to such subjects. But Maciej Drwiega has nailed it with this rusting rail truck. Smart color combinations and a clever sideways construction technique have created a convincing impression of battered and bruised metal.

Whilst I’m not really a train guy, I’d heartily recommend a visit to Maciej’s photostream, where you’ll find excellent photos of more lovely railway models and layouts. I particularly like the images shot with tilt-shift.

A belated dragon dance for Chinese New Year

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen admits that he’s not sure why he built this Chinese dragon dance scene (several months after the Lunar New Year), but I for one am very glad he did. With stellar use of transparent Bionicle flame pieces and a Ninjago “Dragon God” banner tile, I can almost hear the firecrackers and smell the smoke.

You can read more from the builder himself on his blog, Cyclopic Bricks.

Italy’s il Duomo di Milano

Sometimes great things take time to create, as is the case with the Milan Cathedral. Construction began in 1386, with the final details (a gate) being completed in 1965. Renovations on the magnificent building continue even today. Hopefully brickbink‘s version did not take six centuries.

This inspired version is recognizable as the famous landmark, with its beautiful doors and statues. The only thing missing is an exorbitant amount of pigeons.

I am the Walrus: The Adventures of Pingu

Pingu the penguin was a staple of Swiss children’s television throughout the ’90s, and builder LegoJalex brings us one of Pingu’s many adventures. Here Pingu encounters a giant walrus in a nightmare. You can watch the clip LegoJalex based this on via Youtube — scary stuff, if you ask me.

Attending LEGO fan conventions, Part 3: Convention Time! [Editorial]

It’s convention Day One. Now what? (Spoiler: meet people!)

1. Get there!
It’s time to get to the convention. By this time, if you’re traveling long distances, you’ve already left home, and you’re in close proximity. Now’s the time to get to the convention hall, meeting space, convention center, etc. and follow directions for unloading what you’ve brought. If you’ve got smaller stuff that can be easily carried, park elsewhere and save the close spots and loading docks for builders who require crates and teams to carry in their builds. Make sure you have the load-in information, since details vary from event to event.

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Let’s hoedown to High Noon City

Monostrophic has built a real Western themed treat for LEGO fans with this large scale diorama called High Noon City. There are many fantastic details to be found in this huge creation from water towers, Indian lookouts, covered wagons, gold-diggers working in the gold-mine, a water mill and a busy railway platform. Of course, everything takes place around the railway line that encircles the entire build complete with steam train chugging along.

The water tower and railway platform are particular favourites of mine with the typical high roofed station building that also houses the sheriff. To the left, it seems that some naughty boys are being brought to the sheriff for some Wild West style justice. Don’t worry about too many wild activities though, the cavalry are just around the next corner.

You can see all the details in close-up views on Flickr in the builder’s High Noon City album.

Yee-haw!

A well-placed illusion

When I saw this sculpture by Chris Maddison, I didn’t think it was possible for all the pieces to be freestanding and connected. Even if supports were used, I couldn’t imagine how they could be Lego parts given the haphazard angles that the cubes were positioned. Even zooming on the photo and examining the gaps between the bricks revealed that each small cube is supposedly made out of a plain 2×2 brick sandwiched between a plate and tile. Just when I (and many others) thought the sculpture was impossible, Chris revealed the solution to this wonderful illusion.

Off with her head!

Alice gets her revenge on the Queen of Hearts in this light-heartedly macabre chibi vignette by Spanish builder Javier Soravilla. The scene features a lot of clever parts usage (and just a little custom paintwork) to create a variety of interesting dripping effects. Let’s hope Alice doesn’t get ideas and decide to pay a visit to the Mad Hatter’s tea party next!

A phantom LEGO Hero encased in silver

Meet the latest build from TBB favourite, Japanese builder Moko. This stunning figure is a unique blend of Bionicle and Hero parts. Moko has a real talent to get seemingly unrelated parts to attach and form a beautifully shaped mecha. The silver colouring of this build is perfect for the robotic shaping and the textured surfaces of the Bionicle and Hero parts.

This Bionicle-Hero hybrid is also highly poseable as you can see. And… lunge… 2… 3… 4.

LEGO Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS officially revealed + LEGO Designer Interview [News]

LEGO and Porsche have announced the brand new LEGO Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the new flagship model for the Technic line. It will have 2,704 pieces, and will be available starting June 1 via LEGO.com and select LEGO stores in Germany and Austria. It will see wider release in retail stores beginning in August. It will retail for $299 USD. Read our review of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS here.

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This is a Hobbit-hole, and that means comfort

Tolkien’s fantastical cities and landscapes have always fascinated me, perhaps none more so than Hobbiton. I’ve seen several LEGO versions of Bag End over the years, but Wookieeawarrior‘s most recent build, refreshingly, isn’t the iconic home of Bilbo Baggins. Instead, this cozy Hobbit hole belongs to one of his lucky neighbors.

The overall shaping of the hill and exposed brick walls make for a very lovely composition. I particularly like the small, dark tan bricks that stick out just a bit more than the rest of the bricks, the cobbled-looking chimney, and the beautiful, round front door.