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.

70603 Zeppelin Raid from Ninjago 2016 [Review]

The Steampunk-inspired January 2016 wave of Ninjago will soon be available, bringing airships and balloons and epic Pirate-versus-Ninja fights. The first set in our review tally is 70603 Zeppelin Raid, brought to us courtesy of LEGO. It features a small airship held aloft by a balloon and piloted by a pair of sky pirates; one a snake and the other skeleton. It also includes one of the eponymous Ninja heroes flying a small craft. We can’t confirm the price yet, but the set has 293 pieces, so expect it around the $30 USD mark.

Read the full review after the jump!

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Virtually probing and roving

I typically shy away from LEGO rendering. Having unlimited access to every piece ever made, in every color, can be overwhelming and often leads to rather ostentatious builds. But Sunder_59 demonstrates with just a handful of virtual pieces (and an impressive level of self-restraint) that renders can be quite dramatic. Sunder_59’s sparse use of fictitious pieces and muted color palette makes for two very pleasing space-themed vignettes.

As a side note, that wonderful light aqua base under the rover is meant to represent Minmus, the smallest moon of Kerbin, from the Kerbal Space Program game.

Poultry-inspired space theme is clucking eggs-cellent

Between designing new Ideas sets, turning your favourite dudes into cubes, and helping make movies, Angus MacLane has been working on his very own classic space theme. So what sensible topic did he use as inspiration for his ‘tron? Well chickens, of course! The theme is called “BokBokTron” and Angus has created quite a few awesome models already:

BokBokTron Box

BokBokTron Thigh Fighter (…ten points for the pun, Angus)

BokBokTron Meggatron (…does not transform into giant chicken gun, unfortunately)

And Angus isn’t the only one building to the BokBokTron theme. Chris Maddison was recently inspired to have a go too…

BokBokTron CHX Nugget

We’re hoping to see more chicken creations from other builders soon. After all, isn’t it just a cracking good idea?

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 14)

We’re two weeks into our virtual LEGO Advent Calendar series. Here we go with the LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends mini-kits from Day 14.

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 14 mini-kits!

Droid Wars: The GONK Awakens

You probably don’t need to be a particularly die-hard Star Wars fan to recognize this LEGO creation by Ethan Marak as being GONK, a cute shambling droid that appeared in the original 1977 Star Wars movie A New Hope. And while the planet is going crazy over the shiny new spherical droid BB-8 from The Force Awakens, some of you no doubt still hold a place in your heart for GONK. Which is why you’ll be happy to know that GONK appears in the new movie! (oh crap, erm… spoiler alert?)

Don’t believe me? Well now you have a choice: Take a peek at the not-very-spoilery photographic evidence, or spend the entire movie trying to spot it yourself!

LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack 40% off & Level Packs 33% off at Amazon [News]

If you’ve been procrastinating on picking up LEGO Dimensions hoping for a deal on the admittedly rather ridiculous price tag for a game, the base LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack is 40% off at Amazon.com today for all consoles. To sweeten the deal, several of the Level Packs that unlock new character abilities as well as new areas are about a third off as well.

My favorite Level Pack is from Portal 2, featuring Chell, a Weighted Companion Cube, and a Turret. The Portal level and corresponding home world include new, original dialog by both Ellen McLain voicing GlaDOS and Stephen Merchant voicing Wheatley. While the puzzles are certainly not the braintwisters of the “real” Portal games, I’d go as far as to call it “Portal 2.5” — quite enjoyable.

The Back to the Future Level Pack includes Marty, a hover board, and a DeLorean. The main level itself (excluding the separate Hill Valley home world area) took me all of about 20 minutes to complete, but it does include newly recorded dialog voiced by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.

Finally, the mildly amusing but mostly forgettable Simpsons Level Pack includes Homer, his car, and the Simpsons family TV. Dan Castellaneta does seem to have voiced a handful of original lines, but he seems to be the only actor with any new/added dialog in the Simpsons level, resulting in a terrifyingly silent Springfield…

When made out of LEGO you are, look as good, you will not

Serbian builder Djordje really is one of the best in the game when it comes to capturing characters in LEGO, as this model of Yoda demonstrates. From the ears made of green Kraata, to the upper lip recreated with a single flipper, to (my favourite) the entirety of his robes made with two technic lift arms. It’s. Just. So. Clever.

A full size, functional Fat Man from Fallout 4, recreated in LEGO

Fallout is a franchise of iconography. The power armour, the Pip-Boy, Vault Boy…. everything is just so recognizable. But, in terms of weapons, one sits on the top of the pile for being the most memorable, and destructive. I’m of course talking about the Fat Man, the tactical nuclear catapult that has been every wasteland-wanderer’s ultimate weapon for years now.

ZaziNombies has brought us a Fallout 4 variant of the Fat Man, in true 1:1 scale with an actual firing mechanism.

This Fat Man is more than 2 500 pieces, over 4 feet / 1.2 metres, and weighs in at more than 10 pounds / 4.5 kilograms. Even the Mini Nuke ammo is a real LEGO piece in the form of the giant zeppelin piece from 5956-1: Expedition Balloon.

All that’s left to do now is find some Super Mutants to turn into paste.

TBB’s Pimp Rey’s Speeder contest winners [News]

With only DAYS to go until the new Star Wars movie opens in theaters (got your ticket yet? I have mine!), Rey is ready for opening night and can arrive in style with her fancy pimped out speeder thanks to all you builders.

With over 210 entries, I think Pimp Rey’s Speeder might be the most successful contest in my memory at The Brothers Brick. And while we could only choose three, there were some really amazing entries. I encourage everyone to grab a snack and look through all the wonderful entries. There were many many clever, funny, and just well-executed entries, but only one speeder can be crowned the winner of TBB’s Pimp Rey’s Speeder contest, as chosen by TBB contributors.

In first place is Jonas (Legopard) and his Rey’s Transformer:

Which of course, actually transforms:

Jonas wins:

Fan Expo – Mini Tatooine Set

Millennium Falcon 75105

Rey’s Speeder 75099

Click to see all of the contest winners!

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 13)

We’re on the thirteenth day of TBB’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar, with more mini-kits from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends.

Click to see the Day 13 mini-kits!

Big game on a small scale

Grantmasters was fortunate enough to capture this unique shot of some mighty and majestic symbols of African wildlife. By the waterside is a glorious lion. It’s an adult male, of course – you can tell by his luxuriant mane. And behind him is an African bush elephant. Just look at that powerful trunk! As you might know, they use their trunks to pluck at grass and leaves while feeding. And you may wonder what animal is under the flat-crown tree in the background? No doubt it’s a famous white rhinoceros. But don’t exepct them to be white – they are gray. And unlike black rhinos, they have only one horn.

I can’t wait for Grantmasters’ next photo safari! Who knows what other animals will get in the picture – will it be some South African giraffes or plain zebras?

I love the voodoo that you do

Iron Builder contestant Jimmy Fortel continues to make clever use of the contest’s minifig sword seed part, this time in a desparate attempt to cripple his Kiwi opponent through supernatural means! Although I doubt his chances, as folks in New Zealand have a certain tolerance for needles.