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.

TBB cover photo: February 2016

We’re very enthusiastic about all things robotic here at The ~~Mechas Mech~~ Brothers Brick, so a mecha-themed monthly cover photo was inevitable. While a lot of the LEGO mech tech that we cover here is on the large side, this month’s moody mecha TBB cover photo by Italian builder Devid VII proves that sometimes it’s not always size that counts!

Want to see your own LEGO creation featured across TBB social media for a month? Then acquaint yourself with the submission guidelines and submit your *LANDSCAPE ORIENTED* photo today.

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Taiwanese LEGO fan uses 15000 bricks to build 4½ foot long SHIELD Helicarrier

The most anticipated LEGO set of 2015 was the enormous Avengers SHIELD Helicarrier. As we highlighted in our extensive video review, there was a lot to like about that set, except for the relative scales of the carrier, the microfigs, and the quinjets. And while some builders have explored more ambitious LEGO Helicarrier designs within the confines of a computer screen, no-one has dared tackle the challenge of building a more properly scaled and movie-accurate version of the Avengers’ flying fortress using actual LEGO bricks …until now!

Working with nothing more than reference photos from the 2012 Avengers movie, Taiwanese builder ZiO Chao and a his friends Dada, Kimura, Kuan-Wei, Stephanie, Tiger and Will from the Formosa LEGO club spent a month and a half (and many sleepless nights) constructing this enormous and fully detailed model of the iconic Helicarrier. At 140cm x 80cm it’s twice the size of the official LEGO set, and contains five times as many pieces. At last, those “swooshable” little quinjets now actually have room to move around!

Regarding the build process, which he photographed in great detail, ZiO told The Brothers Brick: “Before I started to build it, the most annoying thing was collecting parts and classifying them. Then we used Technic beams to sketch out the skeleton of the carrier, which needed to be strong enough to hold everything together. Technic beams were also a great solution for the supporting yellow columns, the front of the carrier, and the four turbine engines.”

Click here to keep reading

Tired and angry with the pressures of life

This diorama by Sad Brick is apparently simple…just a tire minding its own business, rolling along a road that cuts through the desert. For those who have not seen the French 2010 movie Rubber, this tire is called Robert and he is sentient. Robert has a few personality issues, perhaps related to being abandoned in the desert as a “young tire” and he soon teaches himself to kill. The violence starts to inflate and Robert goes on a bit of a killing spree using psychokinetic energy.

Sad Brick has used depth of field to good effect in this diorama, giving a sense of movement to ~~the tire~~ Robert. The setting is clearly the desert with the sand and the cute cactus add some colour. I especially like the simplicity of the railing and the hint of danger and death using the animals and skeletal remains.

Editor’s note: Our apologies to both the British author of the post and all our readers outside the U.S. for Americanising (see what I did there?) the spelling of “tyre.” Sadly perhaps, the tired pun (heh heh…) in the title just works better in “American.”

Announcing the Brothers Brick contest: SPACE CHEFS

This February, we’re turning up the heat with a culinary clash of cosmic proportions. Here come the Space Chefs! You have one month to cook up an amazing Space Chefs creation. Whip up something crazy! Show the universe you won’t be beaten!

There are PRIZES, including LEGO sets, and a copy of the quite fantastic LEGO Space: Building The Future book, kindly donated by the authors Pete Reid and Tim Goddard. Head over to the Space Chefs group on Flickr and check out the categories, rules and prize details.

Dracula’s den

Last year’s Colossal Castle Contest has been over for a month now, so naturally I was surprised to see a large castle Moc with the distinctive “CCC” in the title. The builder, Maciek (“Toltomeja” on Flickr), says that it is a re-build of his earlier CCC entry. I don’t know what the previous incarnation looked like but this one is a beauty!

Speaking as a castle builder, it’s very exciting to see the old but superb techniques of tubular gothic windows and minifig flipper roofs. The builder also included an excellently detailed interior, something you don’t always see in a creation this scale.

Maciek has uploaded lots of pictures so be sure to check them out in the Flickr album.

Only 19 Mondays more till vacation

Thanks to this lovely Tiki Fruit Hut I finally realized how tired I am of snow, biting wind and heavy winter coats. Miro Dudas created the hut to look like a sweet postcard from a faraway tropical resort. And even some fetching girls in the picture can’t make me take my eyes off this awesomely executed thatch decorated with reddish-brown carrot tops.

The cow jumped over the moon

Hey, diddle diddle! Anyone seen a cat playing a fiddle? And where on earth did the knife and spoon go? I’ll bet Jason Allerman knows, since he’s gone and built this lovely sculpture of the cow and the moon. I’m quite partial to the detail of the moon, and that sly grin.

The cow reminds me of a small chain of chicken restaurants who encourage us to eat more poultry. The ski pole as a tail is pretty neat.

TBB has featured a number of Jason’s builds in the past, including his holiday helper cookie robot and Sisyphus, and I’d encourage you to check out more from his flickr stream for other excellent creations.

Life-size LEGO BB-8 from The Force Awakens built from 11,000 pieces

Norwegian LEGO builder Henrik Lorentzen has built a life-size LEGO model of the wonderful droid BB-8 from The Force Awakens. Though not quite as adorable as a pug dressed in a BB-8 hoodie (which I saw at the dog park today), this LEGO BB-8 has all the charm of the droid in the movie.

Henrik started planning and designing his LEGO BB-8 last April, using Bruce Lowell’s sphere technique and Bram Lambrecht’s sphere generator. The finished model uses about 11,000 LEGO pieces — including a thousand white 2×4 bricks and three thousand white 1×2 plates — and weighs 10 kg (22 pounds).

With a LEGO event at his local theater in November and the movie coming out in December, Henrik gathered all the parts he needed in September and began building, finishing it just in time for the event on November 6.

Droneuary highlights

~~January~~ Droneuary is almost over and that means the special building month for all things drone is almost over too. There have been a myriad of stellar creations in this year’s challenge, but here are a few of my favorites:

The first is Olympus Mons from TBB’s own Simon Liu.

I just love the dramatic monochromatic feel this build exudes. It’s also interesting to note the religious undercurrent that Droneuary is known for. In this case the scene features Zeus instead of the usual “Dronezus”.

Next we have Markus Rollbühler and his trio of uniquely-colored Drones.

There’s nothing like some rare and hard-to-find colors to get out of the comfort zone, but Markus makes it look surprisingly easy to build in dark turquoise, light aqua and bright light orange.

Finally we have the perennial Tyler Clites and his U.N. vs. Spetsnaz Drones.

The cold war didn’t end. Or did it? Tyler utilizes his mastery of character and figure posing here to full effect. You can almost feel the mist as the Russian drone sneaks up on his target.

You’ll believe a dwarf can fly

Dwalin Forkbeard has built a cracking little Dwarven gyrocopter, packed full of fantasy steampunk goodness. The model takes inspiration from the Warhammer tabletop fantasy wargame, and I think it’s brilliant. A clanking, whirling, mechanical marvel with no chance of achieving lift in real life – this is my favourite kind of steampunk flying machine…

The dark green curved section sits atop a wonderfully greebly underside, studded with functional-looking appendages. The cannon at the front is nicely integrated and looks wonderfully stubby. The star of this show however, is the rotor assembly – a fantastic piece of machinery seemingly cobbled together from spare cogs and timber. Great stuff.

Who’s a cute little guinea pig ?

Who knew that hard plastic bricks could look so cute and cuddly? This pair of guinea pigs snuffling a strawberry by Chris Maddison is possibly the most adorable LEGO creation I’ve seen in quite some time.

I can’t help it. Here’s another picture. He even has pink toes!

Buggy class exploratory vehicle

FebRovery‘s come early this year! Ilya T.’s greyscale rover is just the thing to kick off twenty-nine days of rover-fueled madness. (That’s right everyone, 2016 is a leap year! So why not use your extra day to build a rover of your own?) I love the tight construction inside the small bubble-cockpit, the conical rear end, and the pop of color from the spaceman’s red suit. But the real selling point of Ilya’s build are those fantastic heptagonal wheels.