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.

Shrine of Polarized Birefringence

This build by WRme2 is simply one of the most brilliant creations I’ve ever come across:

We’ve featured many castle vignettes before, so what makes this one so special?
It’s the windows. That’s not fancy photoshoping, that’s science!

WRme2 has figured out that due to the manufacturing process of some of the earlier LEGO bricks, when photographed with a polarizer you get that amazing effect which he has so brilliantly used in this build.

Here’s what it looks like with portion of a brick under a polarizer (like sunglasses):

For those really interested, he’s also done an equally impressive job explaining the science behind these colourful bricks.

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.

A warm day in a villa on the Spanish Riviera

Really, I’ll take anywhere that looks like it has temperatures above zero degrees. No complaints from me if it’s a place as lovely as Gabe Umland‘s Spanish villa. His architecture and location is complemented by several small details, like the vines, hanging planters, and telescope on the balcony, to give the scene a lived-in feel.

60115 4×4 Off Roader [Review]

We’re taking a break from reviewing all those Star Wars sets to catch a look at something a little closer to home: a good old fashioned racing truck. 60115 4×4 Off Roader hit stores in December, and is currently available for $19.99. It has 176 pieces.

Click through for the full review

Creations for Charity donates over $18,600 of Lego this holiday season [News]

This year’s Creations for Charity fundraiser concluded with over $18,600 worth of Lego products donated to children around the world from USA, Canada, Brazil, Hungary and Australia. As the founder, I am grateful for community’s support in giving back and I’d like to give a huge shout out to everyone who contributed to this record-setting year of donations. You can see the results of this year’s fundraiser and the smiling faces of the kids on creationsforcharity.org.

LEGO Brickstory 2016 contest now open [News]

Croatian LEGO fansite Kockice.hr has announced their annual Brickstory contest, and they’re throwing it open to everyone. The four themes this year are Greatest Inventions, Ancient Civilizations, The History of Art, and One Moment in Time. Those are pretty broad categories, and they’re looking for a lot of different interpretations. There are also some nice prizes on the line, with 9 total winners.

Show me again the power of the darkness...

Sometimes it’s just fun to play with minifigs. Despite all the LEGO Star Wars sets I’ve built to review over the last month since the movie’s release, there are still some key characters from The Force Awakens missing from my collection. One of the most intriguing new factions is the Knights of Ren, of whom we only really get to know Kylo Ren, their commander. There was, however, a brief flashback that showed a squad of Knights lit up by lightning on a rain-drenched battlefield, so I thought I’d take a crack at building minifig versions of the Knights of Ren.

While the minifigs themselves are just your usual “figbarf,” I’m pretty pleased with the presentation. I’m not skilled with Photoshop or GIMP, so I primarily just use the Photos app on my Mac. First, I took my photo of the minifigs on a black cardboard background. With a screenshot from the movie trailer as a reference, I began post-processing by darkening the photo significantly, and reduced the warmness to get the bluer tones for the background as seen in the movie (which fortunately still kept the minifigs black). Next, I found a free online tool that lets you add effects like rain and a vignette to photos, so I processed a copy of my photo with that tool (first the rain, then the darker, blurred vignette border).

All in all, it was fun to build the minifigs, taking me back to my early days online, but I particularly enjoyed finding easy ways to post-process the photo to mimic the movie still.

Incredible LEGO model of the Titanic breaking in half

Ryan McNaught is a professional LEGO model builder, and there’s absolutely no question about his building skills when he produces models like this or a life-sized Tardis. The breathtaking scene of the final moments of the Titantic show its stern lifted high in the air, the vessel splitting under its own weight before sinking over two miles to the sea floor. Supporting the significant weight of the ship’s stern through the thin connection in the ship’s keel is an incredible feat of LEGO engineering.

Click to see more photos of the sinking LEGO Titanic

What the LEGO T-rex was made for

While browsing through Flickr today, I stumbled on this hilarious scene created by Brick Police. I’ve seen several photos of his highly detailed and customized police figures in various situations before, but this really takes the cake! I must admit it cheers me up to see the good ol’ T-rex having a brawl with the LAPD. I hope we get to see more fun uses of the LEGO Jurassic World dinosaurs outside their cages!

Oh! What fun it is to ride in an Arctic Truck Mk II!

Well, the winter holidays are long gone, but Kirill doesn’t want the outdoor fun disappear. So, here is his Arctic Truck Mk II – an ultimate snow-rover in the scale of a regular Technic minifigure. One may find the exterior quite plain, but Technic vehicles are all about functionality.

Check out this video to see this impressive crawler in action.

And I can’t help mentioning a couple of the builder’s other models.

Click to see more great Technic vehicles by this builder

Registration open for Japan Brickfest 2016, June 4-5 in Kobe [News]

KLUG, the LEGO Users Group (LUG) based in Osaka, Japan, is putting on the largest LEGO event in Japan this June called Japan Brickfest.

The event will be held June 4-5, 2016 at the Canadian Academy international school on Rokko Island in Kobe. (I went to second grade in Kobe, and it’s a lovely city.) Registration for builders is now open, but closes at the end of February.

KLUG itself includes a number of names that should be familiar to both LEGO builders on sites like Flickr and MOCPages as well as readers of TBB. KLUG seems to be a bilingual LUG with both Japanese and English-speaking members, so if you’re a gaijin AFOL in the Kansai area who misses your LUG back home, KLUG and Japan Brickfest sound like a great way to get involved with LEGO in Japan.

Attendee pricing is based on requested table space. For more details, see the builder page (in both Japanese and English) on the event website.

Reporting the news as the crow flies

Mike Dung has brought Aya Shameimaru from the Touhou Project to life in LEGO. Aya Shameimaru is a character who appears as a reporter in many of the games within the Touhou Project series. Aya covers the news in the fictional realm of Gensokyo and also belongs to the Crow Tengu species, giving her a height advantage when taking photographs. Mike manages to convey character details and also the fantastical nature of the game within his build.

I have to admit that I really like all the crows, Aya’s wings, the crow seen flying just below Aya, and the clever use of the black hotdog part to show a crow flying in the background. Forced perspective is utilised particularly well in the microscale Shinto shrine that appears to lie far below Aya as she enjoys her birds-eye view of the world. The overall feeling is one of movement, distance and height, something that is not easy to achieve within a small build.

As long as there are sovereign felines possessing great power, war is inevitable

And by the looks of it, these two heavily-armed hounds are ready to take down an entire battalion of fluffy foes. All kidding aside, if these dog warriors by LEGO 7 were sold as a Mixels-like series in stores, I’d scoop them into my shopping cart by the armfuls. Just look at them! I can’t get over the perfect floppiness of the terrier’s ears or the squat, powerful stance of the pug.

Check out more photos of these valiant pups on Flickr.