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.

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown

Confused about the true meaning of Christmas? Wondering if it’s all become too over-commercialized? Well these aren’t new thoughts, and you’re not alone. Fifty years ago this year, the Charlie Brown Christmas TV special first aired, featuring a seasonally depressed Charlie trying to make sense of it all – and picking a sad little tree that perfectly reflected his state of mind, recreated for us in LEGO here by Chris Maddison.

Charlie Brown eventually learns the true meaning of the holiday. And in his own way, he even helped make Christmas a little better for all of us… Aluminum trees had become popular in the US at that time, but were portrayed so negatively in the TV special that within two years they were no longer being produced.

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And a partridge in a pear tree

Celebrating that most famous of Christmas songs, deborah higden created this set of LEGO book ends (complete with brick-built books) that converts into a gorgeous diorama depicting the various gifts that my true love sent to me over the Twelve Days of Christmas – from French hens, to five gold rings (for five Elven lords?), plus other items in various states of disrepair (very relevant in this age of Internet-based shopping!). You can enjoy closeup photos of every one in the full album.

LEGO Nutcrackers for your holiday chestnuts

I’m sure many of you have your chestnuts roasting by the open fire. Those of us NOT in Florida or the northeast might even have jack frost nipping at our noses. The Cascade Mountains have certainly made up for last winter with nearly 12 feet of snow in the last 25 days.

Julius von Brunk gives us these festive, whimsical nutcrackers to join in all of our festivities. Like real nutcrackers, these open and close their jaws by means of a lever. You too can have these as part of your traditions, as he’s been kind enough to provide a tutorial on Instructables.

Tragic end for a snowman

It’s a tough world right now for a snowman. Is anyone forecast for snow tomorrow? Rocky Mountains, put your hand down. We’re talking about everyone else, who are going to experience the great joy of a warm, sunny Christmas morning. As a former Florida resident, I’m so, so sorry.

Also, please someone tell Dorothy that tornado season might not be over.

I could never quite get behind a Florida Christmas, and this snowman very clearly couldn’t either. Fortunately, Earl Ware was on hand to capture the snowman’s fate.

Someone might want to tell Olaf.

Ninjago 70605 Misfortune’s Keep [Review]

Ninjago’s new theme for 2016, called Skybound, takes us to the air in an epic duel between sky pirates and our intrepid heroes, the ninjas. We’ve already reviewed 70603 Zeppelin Raid, and now thanks to LEGO we are able to get our hands on the literal flagship for the theme, 70605 Misfortune’s Keep. The set includes 754 pieces, and we expect it to retail for around $80 when it debuts in the coming weeks. Included are the main airship, a smaller flier for both factions, and six minifigs and a monkey.

Read the full review after the jump!

An apeeling way to get your 5-a-day

We all know how important it is to get your dose of fruit and vegetables each day and Japanese builder and TBB regular nobu_tary has two creations full of Potassium, Vitamin C, Vitamin B and …well actually they’re just LEGO.

This is the best LEGO banana I have seen, the varied wedges are a perfect choice to form the peeled banana skin and the use of lime, reddish-brown and black at the end really adds to the realism. I also note that the builder has peeled the banana the ‘correct‘ way to avoid bruising the flesh.

A plate of broccoli is the second build served up by nobu_tary. The angle of the photographs help the plant limb elements (Part 2423 and Part 2417) appear more ‘broccoli-like’ along with the lighter stem in lime elements.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 24)

It’s Christmas Eve, which means it’s the final day of this year’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar series here on The Brothers Brick.

As I predicted, the lazy git C-3PO has forced the hardest-working droid in the galaxy, R2-D2, to pull him along in the sled revealed yesterday — as proved in this photo by #yslego.

Click to see the Day 24 mini-kits!

The Santa 3000

This build was inspired by a small child asking how Santa managed to get all over the world in one evening. I figured he’d need something a bit beefier than a team of flying ungulates…

I build a Christmas-themed LEGO creation every year as part of our decorations, but am generally too busy to get it photographed and posted during the run up, and it never feels appropriate after the day itself. However, I managed to grab some time today to get a photo and I thought I’d post it here to wish you all a happy holiday season.

Relax, eat too much, have a few drinks, and maybe build some stuff. That’s what I’ll be doing.

This T-72A is an eye candy among military machines

Every talanted builder has his or her own particular style of bulding and presentation. And the longer you follow your favorite authors, the more recognizable their styles become. But then there are collaborations. And what I love the most about them is the fact that you can never predict the result. And this time Sunder_59 brings us an amazingly executed digital render of SiMaI7’s (Kirill Simerzin) latest T-72A military tank. You should already know Sunder_59 as we mentioned a couple of his renders not so long ago. Personally I’m rather apathetic towards digital building, but the quality of this rendering is outstanding. And don’t hesitate to examine the model online.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 23)

The day after tomorrow is Christmas! That means we’re on Day 23 of TBB’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar series, with another pair of LEGO Friends and LEGO Star Wars minikits.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 23 mini-kits!

That’s one hell of a pilot!

Surprisingly, the Light side is much stronger with our favorite builders than the Dark. This is the only explanation I can find of why we already have the whole blue squadron of T-70 X-wing fighters (and not a single TIE fighter yet!). This time GHLego keeps David Hensel and Peter C. company in a cruel battle against the First Order.

I like how this fighter is not overloaded with sophisticated building techniques. GHLego managed to keep it simple and plain – in the finest sense of the word, of course. The dock representing a section of a hangar suits the fighter rather well. Both parts look quite robust and definitely make my want to spend an evening playing with this model recreating all the unbelievable twists and turns from the movie.

Stalk thy prey and let loose thy talons upon the Darkness

Following up his life size Mida Multi-Tool prop, Elliott Feldman presents to us his LEGO replica of the Exotic hand cannon Hawkmoon from Destiny: The Taken King. While his Hawkmoon appears larger than 1:1 scale, the details, angles, and elegance of the original weapon design are on point. I particularly like the construction of the cylinder and angles surrounding the barrel.

Elliott demonstrates the working trigger and moving hammer, provides more insight into his build process, and shows side-by-side comparisons with his Hawkmoon and the in-game Hawkmoon in a short video posted on his YouTube channel.