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.

The roof, the roof, the roof is afire...

Following on from Jennifer’s recent post on waterfalls, here are some more creations with brick-built “special effects”. This ramshackle Laketown house by David Hensel features a convincing fireball rolling up from the roof…

It’s difficult to depict fire with bricks without it looking like a pixellated explosion from the 8-bit era of gaming. I think David has pulled it off here, with the outer layer of transparent bricks and the darker colors at the edges simulating an expanding ball of flame.

I recently spotted another brick-built explosion which used very different techniques but created a similar sense of energy and motion. This fantastic tower explosion was part of Marc Gelaberto‘s pirate display at a show in Barcelona…

It’s like a still from an action movie – the fireball blossoming, shattering the tower’s masonry as soldiers are flung into the air. Check out the priceless expression on this unfortunate soldier’s face!

I’ve always shied away from building scenes like these, worried they wouldn’t live up to the image in my head. Seeing these great examples of fiery disaster, I feel some explosive action coming on in my building!

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“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...”

In the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris, there have been a lot knee-jerk reactions from politicians and leaders regarding the refugee policies of their respective states. Satirical Swedish building duo SuckMyBrick decided to add a little LEGO-colored commentary on the debate, that should serve to remind us here in the US that Europe’s refugee situation is considerably more dire and complicated than our own.

In the builders’ own words: “Europe is struggling to accept more refugees every day and is partially doing a good job at it. But from the refugees standpoint, it’s hard to understand a closed door when what they are running from is so much worse than the problems that arise for us by helping them.”

The E-11 blaster: a life-size Star Wars prop made of LEGO (because nothing beats a good blaster at your side)

2015 is an exciting year for Star Wars fans, with The Force Awakens coming to theaters and a long-awaited new entry in the Star Wars Battlefront series of games. I’ve been having a blast playing the new Battlefront on Xbox, so I was inspired to expand my arsenal of gaming weapons with the classic E-11 Blaster Rifle.

Battlefront was lovingly crafted by EA Dice to be true to the Star Wars original trilogy (they took 3D scans of the original props to create their digital counterparts), so I trusted that their in-game model of the E-11 was accurate enough to build from. For scale reference, I used the dimensions of a Sterling SMG, the gun from which the original E-11 film props were built. Working features on the LEGO replica include a moving trigger and a folding stock.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a first person perspective view. It should appear familiar to those who have played Battlefront.

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes to the sky in LEGO form

Cast your mind back to 2005-08 and you may remember an American animated television series called Avatar: The Last Airbender, on Nickelodeon. Firstly we have John Moffat bringing the main characters from the series to life in LEGO form.

The Avatar animation series was set in a fantasy world in which some people are able to manipulate the basic elements of air, water, fire and earth by use of psychokinetic variants of Chinese martial arts, known as “bending”. Aang, the twelve-year-old, fun-loving, airbending protagonist of the series can be seen in more detail below… The body positioning with martial art poses is fantastic for these small characters.

In addition, Jme Wheeler brings one of the faithful companions, Appa the loyal sky bison of Aang, to life once more in LEGO form.

Jme Wheeler captures the character of Appa with a very accurate colour palette with studs to show “shaggy ” fur, and great use of part 49668 (1×1 plate with tooth). The positioning is a classic bison head down. Look at that nose and those strong legs ready to charge — the only slight difference being…this bison can fly!

Pool sharks and super secret agents

Well it seems we’re enthralled with James Bond all over again with the release of the latest film. Blocks Magazine cleverly realized this and decided to create a feature in their publication celebrating both the 50th anniversary of the legendary secret agent and the aforementioned Spectre movie. I’m a big fan of 007 movies and action adventure in general, so I was very excited about being a part of the collaboration of creations. It was also a bit of a daunting challenge since I rarely build LEGO things even remotely modern in theme.

Thankfully, I knew exactly what scene I would create. Sean Connery was my favorite James Bond, and Thunderball was the first 007 movie I ever saw, so for nostalgic reasons alone I had to go with that. At first I wanted to build the shark pool scene, those minutes of the movie really had me at the edge of my seat and it would be neat to try to recreate it in LEGO. Here some shots of that endeavor:

Unfortunately, in order to keep the creation to the standards of the magazine, (family-friendly and without stabbing and blood like the film) I had to scrap that idea. Instead I opted to build the outside of the pool, where James Bond infiltrates the bad guy’s luxurious, well-guarded mansion.

I had some issues with the new plan though, because I had spent so much time planning and buying white tile pieces for the inside of the pool I only had three days to make the bigger outside. Happily for me, my brother is a very talented builder in his own right, and he kindly offered to help me finish my derailed project just in time for the publishers.

I had fun experimenting with the palm trees. I always like trying different combinations and styles.
But I honestly think the scene really comes alive at night. The LEGO compatible lifelights installed in the pool and buildings really help set the tense mood of the original movie.

After this, I hope to get pushed out of my comfort zone more often.

Mechanized monstrosities

Been having peaceful nights? Pleasant dreams? Lack of waking nightmares? Luckily we have the remedy for that in these “Mecha Beasts” by dennis qiu. Usually pulling off curves is impressive, but it just freaks me out here. Looking closely you’ll see ample use of the smaller ball joints – made popular by LEGO Mixels – being used to give the monsters their hunched stance.

Make sure to check out the creator’s photo stream to see close-ups.

Don’t go chasing waterfalls

I’ve always found water to be particularly difficult to portray with LEGO. And waterfalls? Forget about it! But three builders over at Lands of Roawia have recently created stunning LEGO waterfalls. Each one has a sense of serenity and of course, falling, frothing water.

First up, aardwolf_83 created a lush waterfall using translucent pieces. The “wet” rock under the falls are an excellent touch that adds to the overall realism of this build. And the bridge has a fantastic amount of detail. Be sure to zoom in and check out those columns.

Next up on our waterfall tour is Joshua‘s heavenly lagoon. The falls are constructed with your standard translucent pieces, but look close at that lagoon and you’ll see that Joshua utilized the jewel piece to create a sparkling body of water. And, if you view this build from the back, you can see that his cave contains stalagmites and sleeping bats.

Last, but not least, Xymion created his waterfall with the “SNOT” (“studs not on top”) technique. Even with a completely smooth surface on the water, Xymion captured movement in his build by cleverly utilizing color gradation and strategically placing a few cheese slopes at the crest of the falls and on the shore lines. My favorite non-waterfall detail is (sorry fishies) that yellow daffodil plant.

Smashing work, Q

It’s James Bond time once again, both in theaters with the new film Spectre, and in LEGO with a recreation of the famous Lotus Esprit S1 (first seen in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me) that could turn into a submarine. ER0L brings us the submerisble in this faithful build. I have to say that the Lotus is my favorite of all the Bond cars, partly because I love Lotus in general, and partly because it’s a flippin’ submarine.

LEGO Ideas 21304 Doctor Who set is bigger on the inside [Review]

Given that another company had the license for Doctor Who building sets at the time, I was both shocked and overjoyed when the LEGO Ideas team announced that 21304 Doctor Who would be released in January 2016. LEGO sent The Brothers Brick an early copy, and I’m pleased to bring you this full photo review.

Unlike many of you out there who grew up watching Doctor Who on the BBC or PBS, I never had the opportunity in Japan. It was with fresh eyes that I first started watching Doctor Who in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston’s 9th Doctor. Since then, I’ve caught many classic storylines, particularly during the 50th Anniversary celebrations two years ago. I’ve become enough of a Whovian that I even picked up some of those non-LEGO Doctor Who figures when I visited New Zealand, and snapped them up when they started showing up as stocking stuffers here in the States. Now with an official LEGO set, the subject matter alone is exciting, but how’s the actual set?

Read the full review after the jump!

A Xenoblade inspired mecha

Feeling motivated by the upcoming Wii U title Xenoblade Chronicles X, Jason Corlett built his interpretation of a Heavy Skell. Those overhead cannons look like they’ll ruin someone’s day.

One of the standout features of Skells that I like are the blade-like thrust packs. The use of well integrated Bionicle blades on the thrusters complete the Xenoblade look.

One terrifying Chinese lion

Indonesian builder Dennis Qiu brings us another stellar example of the amount of character that can be captured in LEGO. This Chinese lion would fit perfectly into mythology or, because I love robots, an episode of Zoids. LEGO has been going gold-crazy lately, but the use of it here is superb.

The color of magic: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld characters in LEGO

It’s time to travel to Discworld and enjoy this fantastic series of characters from the works of Sir Terry Pratchett, brought to us by Eero Okkonen (Pate-keetongu). Eero started these shortly after the death of Pratchett in March this year. His first build was a large-scale creation of his favourite Discworld character, Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully (back-row, far left in the photo below).

The Ones Who Meddle With The Fabric Of Reality

The Archchancellor, Professor of Unusual and Cruel Geography, Dean, Librarian and The Luggage.

If you’re not familiar with Terry Pratchett, he was the author of a series of 41 comic fantasy books that take place in the Discworld, a flat circular world that rests on the backs of four elephants who are standing on the back of a turtle.

I simply must point out a few of my favourite parts, although it is hard to narrow this down to only my top three. In no particular order: the Archchancellor’s ‘winged’ beard; bananas used to represent the peeled banana skin held by the Librarian; and the dark red windscreen used as the Luggage’s tongue! Well one more… look below, Commander Vimes toes are minifigure legs!

Commander Vimes

Susan Sto Helit, Granddaughter of Death

Now that Finnish builder Eero “Pate-keetongu” Okkonen has completed his LEGO Discworld characters (well, completed them for the moment, he happily admits), TBB asked him a few questions about the experience:

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