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.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Landing in LEGO

Space is dangerous. Getting there maybe even more so, what with riding a controlled explosion to overcome gravity and all. In the United States, the majority of the space flight innovations came from NASA with a significant amount of help early on from the Air Force and German aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun.

Max Schellenberg gives us an intro to modern space travel with this brilliant microscale version of a Falcon 9 landing in the Atlantic Ocean. This is adorable and I love it.

Now, there are a number of private companies developing new technology: Boeing and Lockheed Martin regularly launch the Delta IV rockets under United Launch Alliance; Boeing is developing their CST-100 crew capsule. Sierra Nevada has their Dreamchaser. Jeff Bezos has Blue Origin, for tourist space flight, launching out of Texas.

And Elon Musk has SpaceX.

Off all of these, I get the most giddy about SpaceX. Because the first foray into reusable equipment with the Shuttle program still required going and fishing the boosters out of the Atlantic, along with the orbiter returning safely to earth. SpaceX has developed their Falcon 9, capable of launching a payload into space, and having the booster return to a fixed point. Namely, their “autonomous spaceport drone ships,” the Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You. They’ve recently leased one of the former launch complexes on Cape Canaveral Air Force Base and converted into a landing facility as well.

That is amazing.

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Interstellar Sales Professional

Evidently, selling earth-like vacuum cleaners is a dangerous, adventurous business. Sebastiaan (Alien Cat) returns to us from real-life adventures to present the little Alien Cat’s terribly hazardous profession selling vacuum cleaners across the known universe.

Business is clearly doing well, if this sporty read number is any indication:

Clearly his driving skills haven’t improved. That, or he failed to account for changes in gravity and atmosphere from one planet to another.

I’m particularly fond of this lovely little star ship called Tia Maria.

“Strength for Freedom” – the battleship USS Missouri

Dan Siskind has been designing a microscale USS Missouri, and he and his Brickmania crew have recently completed a full minifig-scale version that they’re hauling around the country to various events. I’m really looking forward to the micro-scale kit myself, but Eínon couldn’t wait, and built himself his own WW2-era “Mighty Mo.” It’s unusual to see ship models without a big block of bold red under the ship’s waterline. But the subtler dark blue with a range of gray hues suits the venerable and historic battleship — now a museum ship on display in Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i — rather nicely.

Into the deeps of Gdańsk Bay

In 1968, Polish inventor Antoni Dębski and his colleagues built an underwater habitat and sunk it to 26 meters (85 feet) deep in the Baltic Sea, where they then spent 7 days testing the habitat. Polish builder Karwik has recreated the historic Meduza II from LEGO and presented it in this evocative scene, complete with atmospheric lighting and a shipwreck to explore.

If you’re in Warsaw, you can now see the restored habitat at the Polish Army Museum.

“Hammerhead” Exploration and Surveillance Suit

There’s a lot to love about this hardsuit by Christopher Hoffmann, from the spot of yellow on the long arm (a camera?) to the random “50” road sign and excellent color blocking between the white torso and dark gray arms and legs. Christopher says that the AC Research, Inc. suit is “For all of your topographical and biological surveillance needs, from Titan to Ganymede.” Sounds about right.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the models I built for Ma.Ktober a couple years ago was building the discrete bases to showcase each model. Christopher gives the base itself substantial attention and detail, with organic landscaping to contrast with the hard mechanical detail of the suit.

Aloft in the clouds with César Soares

César Soares is one of those builders whose every creation we could feature here on The Brothers Brick as “blogworthy.” His colorful, intricate models use interesting techniques and he varies themes across Castle, Town/City, and pop culture, with a range of subjects from large-scale dioramas to smaller vehicles and vignettes. His latest model is a gorgeous floating rock with beautiful landscaping, the requisite balloon for transportation, and an eccentric building with César’s distinctive curved roof design.

Incidentally, one of the large-scale collaborative displays planned for BrickCon 2015 is floating rocks. Any chance you can come to Seattle this October, César?

Announcing winners of the TBB Server Downtime Contest [News]

Back in March, we had a bit of a frustrating time here at The Brothers Brick, with several days of intermittent server downtime due to a software configuration issue. To have a little fun, I kicked off a brief contest. We got a number of great entries from TBB fans, which you can see in the photo pool on Flickr. Unfortunately, I became gravely ill just as the contest was ending, and I’ve been struggling to catch up ever since — focusing first on my day job (no, TBB is not actually my day job), and only then on LEGO and TBB.

With thanks to all our incredibly patient readers and contest participants (and yes, I do have a few words for the impatient and self-entitled after the jump), I’m pleased to finally share the winners of the contest categories.

TBB is Down Again!

As a techie, it was hard not to love these colorful, accurate server racks by Leopold Mao. The plumes of smoke, mice gnawing the cables, and distraught sysadmin, combined with the trans-clear bricks inside the servers, are all excellent touches. This is my pick for the top category. Congratulations, Leopold!

404 Page Not Found

We hope our readers don’t encounter this iconic webpage error too often. Blake Foster wins this category with this simple but brilliant idea — a double-sided 1×2 plate! If only…

A Lemur Did It!

Our Lemur has gone AWOL recently, but he was a frenzy of activity back in March, and some of us suspect he may have had a little something to do with the downtime. Our winning entry in this category was drawn by Sayre Blake, who illustrated an amusing scene of A. Lemur eating mangoes & PBJ while swooshing a LEGO spaceship.

We actually had a number of excellent entries in this category, so in addition to the three main prizes, I’d like to extend Honorable Mentions (with a small LEGO set as a prize) to “Server Error 223 – Hungry Lemur” by IamKritch and “A. Lemur is having some trouble pulling up TBB…” by Ashton6460.

If you’re a winner, contact me on Flickr and I’ll get your contact information to send out your prize!

Yup, I have a rant. But I’ll spare most of you and save it for after the jump…

How the West was really won

Paddy Bricksplitter asserts, “Many historians state that the continued expansion of the western frontier was driven by two main factors . The Acquisition of land and the widespread domestication and utilization of Dinosaurs.” Who am I to question history? These gentlemen have tamed themselves a pair of velociraptors, hitched one to their buckboard, and are headed across the vast deserts for greener lands.

The minifigs look to be amusing fellows, the buckboard itself is quite well-built, but it’s the placement of the whole scene on a brick-built base that sets apart this pseudo-historical vignette.

Debumoto is here to eat your babies (and drink some sake)

Huh, here’s another cool Japanese-themed something or other today. This nasty devil-guy is brought to you by Djordje, whose entertaining something-or-others we’ve featured here before.

What makes Djordje’s Bionicle creations so engaging is their personality. In addition to using Bionicle and Hero Factory parts — just look at the Hero Factory logos he’s used as teeth! — to build more than Toas, Moas, and other such characters indistinguishable from official sets (every one with their own unique backstory, I’m sure), each of his characters has, well, character. Check ’em out.

Nissan Fairlady Z meets your 1960’s Japanese nostalgia needs

Many of you probably grew up wishing you could own a Porsche 911 or Ferrari Countache. I grew up in Japan in the 70’s and 80’s, so one of the cars my friends and I lusted after was the Nissan Fairlady Z (sold in the States as the Datsun 240Z). Cagerrin has manufactured a highly detailed Fairlady with opening doors and a detailed interior. The gold rims and red seats add pops of color to the gray/silver car, and I love the use of buckets for the rearview mirrors.

Check out Cagerrin’s photoset on Flickr for more views, as well as digital designs.

Fully motorized M4 Sherman Crab tank

As fun as building something from your own imagination always is, recreating something from history can be particularly challenging. On top of creating a great-looking LEGO M4A2 Sherman tank from World War II at 1/18th scale, Tommy Styrvoky has added a mine flail, and then motorized the whole thing. Watch the video here to see it in action.

Tommy’s Sherman includes the following features, powered by LEGO Power Functions:

Turret with full 360-degree traverse
Elevating gun in turret
Two-gear transmission with electronic braking
Torsion bar suspension
Elevating flail arms
Spinning flail chains on drum

Shiny gold New Horizons probe by Stefan Schindler

The NASA New Horizons mission to Pluto feels like the most exciting space story since the Mars Curiosity rover landed on Mars nearly three years ago. It’s no surprise, then, that we’re seeing plenty of great LEGO models inspired by this historic achievement.

Like many spacecraft, New Horizons is covered in gold foil for insulation. A couple weeks ago, Iain built his New Horizons probe using yellow bricks, since finding the parts to build an all-gold probe is quite challenging. Stefan Schindler solved this with the help of a dash of gold paint, producing this beautiful gold New Horizons probe.

While some of our readers may balk at Stefan’s solution, picky builders looking for some “NPU” should focus instead on Stefan’s solution for the GPHS-RTG (the plutonium generator) built from tank treads.