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.

Pixel-perfect Sonic tribute brings Green Hill Zone to life with 30,000 LEGO bricks

Over the last three years, builder and video creator Jason (JustBeardy) has been working on a massive motorized LEGO tribute to Sonic the Hedgehog’s Green Hill Zone. Built from roughly 30,000 bricks, the diorama draws on specific gameplay elements of the iconic level, all lovingly rendered in the 16-bit style of the classic SEGA Genesis game.

While the front view of the level is slick and studless with every pixel in its place, a look behind the Technic scaffolding reveals how much mechanical wizardry went into making the scene come alive. Jason would have been done sooner, but needed a new drive train to power so many motorized elements.

Of course, a project like this is meant to be seen in motion, so it’s best to watch the reveal video to appreciate Jason’s most ambitious work to date. And if you’re interested in how the builder solved all the elaborate mechanical functions, there’s a series of 34 behind-the-scenes videos showing the build process from the beginning. Feeling nostalgic for classic Sonic? Jason shares free instructions for Dr. Robotnik’s Egg Wrecker as seen in the diorama.

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A magical microscale castle among the gray clifs

Inspired by the stump of a felled tree in the forest, cimddwc created a mysterious Elven castle nestled among the trees and surrounded by tall jagged cliffs. This seemingly inaccessible locale reminds me of the colorful Rivendell hidden in the foothills of the Misty Mountains. The limited palette of the white castle with sand green domes lets the castle stand out among the many trees and plants, while the arid landscape around the base is a stark contrast. The castle features some very clever parts usage, such as the wands left in their sprue forming the main gate.

An overhead view reveals more details, like the sheltered lake behind the castle fed by the river flowing from the waterfall to the right. Also, a spooky red glow can be seen below the water.

LEGO summons Flame of Udûn – You shall not pass up this Balrog Book Nook!

After a long slumber, Lord of the Rings LEGO sets are back with a fiery vengeance, stirred from the shadows like a sleeping demon awoken by a Took’s tomfoolery. Just two months after The Shire had us celebrating, LEGO Icons 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook takes us back to Middle Earth. The set marks the debut of the fan-favorite Balrog in LEGO form and joins the growing list of brick-built book nooks, alongside Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter. While you can fold it closed to slip between ancient tomes on your shelves, the set seems designed to display opened up to better appreciate the Balrog with its wings spread, flanked by Morgoth’s flames. LEGO Icons 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook contains 1,201 pieces and will be available on June 1 for
US $129.99 | CAN $TBD | UK £109.99. Will you be adding the Balrog to your shelves?

Fly you fools for the full reveal of the Balrog Book Nook

Beware of brick Clickers in Boston in LEGO Last of Us tribute

HBO’s The Last of Us just wrapped season 2, but if you’re not ready to let go of a run-down world filled with murderous mushroom zombies, Greg the Gungan has your back. In this towering diorama, Greg returns to the first game/season with Joel and Ellie traversing a crumbling Boston. Greg finds the perfect balance between urban decay and nature taking root, creating a world that is so beautiful that you might risk a cordyceps bite to take it all in. True to the source, the decrepit office building hides many dangers that Greg also built in bricks.

No beating around the bush, this LEGO microscale hedge garden is stunning

When it comes to colorful and highly detailed microscale builds, Jeff Friesen stands out as a true master. He wrote the book (several, actually) on creating clean builds that capture cities, castles, and fantastic worlds in miniature. Jeff’s latest build started as a study of hedge gardens, like the one seen in the foreground. However, once he started adding a building to the background, his imagination took over, and it grew to become an amazing sprawling castle structure that reminds me of campuses like Harvard and Cambridge.

One of my favorite tree builds is the upside-down eggshell used for what looks like a willow tree, and, of course, a green minifigure hairpiece makes the perfect shrub. A few tall pine trees provide a nice contrast to all of the much shorter trees and plants.

Crafty AFOLs leave their minifigs (and us) in stitches [Minfig Monday]

Since we started spotlighting minifig creations again on Minifig Mondays, we’ve been introduced to so many talented AFOLs. After covering desert sands and dieselpunk in our last installments, maybe it’s time to welcome some cozier fig creations into the mix? Grab your knitting needles and garden shears, as we’re going to explore DIY minifig fashions! The fist time the brothers brick featured minifigs wearing crocheted clothes was back in 2006! Sadly, that was the only time. Let’s fix this with a Minifig Monday dedicated to minfigs dressed in knitted and floral clothing! Because hobbies are better when you let them mingle.

Kim Schol is a LEGO photographer from the Netherlands who sets her minifig subjects in dioramas that blend LEGO with nature and crafts. Kim dresses her minifig in a fantastically elegant skirt made of real flower petals. This fairy tale scene is one of my favorites in the way that LEGO foliage mixes with seed tufts and moss to create a magical space. Here’s a glimpse of how the mix of materials came together to make a scene.

Flowers and crochet and minifigs, oh my! The tour continues after the fold

The finest Rabbit-Cat-Creature-Spirit-Thingy ever created in LEGO

We see a lot of LEGO rabbits and LEGO cats, and more LEGO creatures than you can shake a stick at, but one thing we don’t often come across are rabbit-cat-creature-spirit-thingies. Thankfully, builder Steve Edwards corrects this oversight with a delightful and oh-so colorful take on this beloved beast. Steve pulls in so many playful elements, from CMF Harpy wings on the tufts of the ears to the car wash scrubbers in the tail to a knit cap nose. The thingy poses atop an upscaled boom box. With ears that evoke speakers, the whole model has a very EDM vibe. This fella’s definitely going on my playlist!

Geng Lei’s LEGO pavilion is a majestic masterpiece

We don’t often get a large-scale LEGO creation from Geng Lei, but when a new model drops, it’s always an event. Geng’s Yu Xin Pavilion is approximately 2 feet deep, 3 feet wide, and 4.5 feet tall built from a bright yet harmonious mix of colors. The fantastical take on classical Chinese architecture includes flying eaves, paifang gates, and whimsical dragon detailing. A build this epic deserves a closer look!

Take a closer look at Geng’s colossal creation

Don’t be hasty, master squirrel

Alternate Builds have been having a moment. Between Dicken Liu’s facehugger and the Sigularity of everything either remixing into our out of a Millenniun Falcon courtesy of this guy, what used to be a small niche of the AFOL world is spawning new viral stories every day. Not long ago, Heagh B. Vane shared a MOC of Treebeard made entirely from the ports of 10281 Bonsai Tree. Thousands of builders grabbed the instructions, including LEGO photographer Chris Cosmos. That’s when the magic happened. All this spring Chris has been staging photographs with curious wildlife, for example, patiently waiting for a cardinal to pluck a seed from Darth Vader’s minifig grip. Using Vane’s instructions, Chris assembled Treebeard and set the Ent out to engage with the local wildlife. And look who showed up to sample some of Pippin’s Lembas bread!

Vane’s Treebeard instructions are available on rebrickable should you be curious about trying this alternate build yourself. Merry, Pippen, and squirrel not included.

Go gorillas for this feel-good LEGO build

When you see LEGO creations featured on the Brothers Brick, they’re normally no more than a few days old. But we can’t see them all – and some excellent creations do slip through our net. Happily, though, we’ve recently discovered Jean-Philippe Leroux‘s superb floating windmill, built a little over three months ago! But this isn’t any windmill: this is a vessel known to Gorillaz fans as the Slowboat. Even if you’re not a Gorillaz guru, you’ll probably still recognise it from the Feel Good, Inc. and El Manana music videos. The album from whence those songs came – Demon Days – is celebrating its 20th birthday today, so that makes our discovery of J-P’s build very timely indeed!

We’re going to give our Demon Days record another spin, but while that plays out, why not see what other musical builds have featured on the Brothers Brick down the years?

MOCs of the LEGO Masters: Where does he get those wonderful toys?

Where did Batman get his wonderful toys? He made them himself. The same can be said of Luke Horwath, who not only assembles expressive animals in bricks (that dog is eerily lifelike!) but also brings a makers’ ingenuity to the hobby, combining LEGO with mechanical engineering to construct a working LEGO Batman pinball machine and a lifesize LEGO claw machine. But just as Batman counts on his Bat-family, Luke is teaming with his mother, Anne, for the new season of LEGO Masters. (Sadly, there’s no Air Bud loophole on the show and dogs are not allowed to compete.)

Luke’s Pinball machine is a remarkable build, and one that I wish I could have tested in person. I wonder if he’ll get to show off that mechanical know-how on the show?

This is part of our series on MOCs of the Masters where we preview the work of the newest batch of LEGO Master contestants. Have a look at creations from other builders in the lineup.

LEGO Technic 42209 Volvo L120 Electric Wheel Loader – Small but dense [Review]

Volvo has been on the forefront of creating hybrid and electric vehicles lately, and their construction equipment is no exception. In 2024, the company brought its new electric wheel loader to market, boasting a massive 20-metric-ton weight and a 6-metric-ton lift capacity, with two motors for propulsion and one for the hydraulics. As a company known for its own innovation, it’s only natural that LEGO would be interested in recreating the vehicle. And with that, LEGO Technic 42209 Volvo L120 Electric Wheel Loader was born, albeit a tiny fraction of the size. This 973-piece model will be available starting June 1st, retailing for US $119.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99. Join us as we build and test out the play features!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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