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.

Can you best this chest in your tabletop battles?

It’s a good time to be a fan of LEGO, Dungeons, and Dragons (not necessarily in that order). Partly, that’s down to the release of the epic LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons and Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale, as recently reviewed by our resident Dungeon Master Kyle. But equally, its release inspires talented builders like Dicken Liu to build their own creatures of fantasy! The humble mimic is a staple of D&D campaigns, and this one seems a little more dangerous than most. Normally you just need to watch your hands when diving in for treasure – but with its hatchet and shield, you’ll have a hard enough time just getting near this particular chest!

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Belle and Beast star in beautiful LEGO minifigure habitats

Disney 100 might be over, but for LEGO builders like legonano(tama), the animation celebration never stops. Her latest tribute is a collection of minifig habitats based on Beauty and the Beast. Each scene is packed with fun details, my favorite definitely the being the “Be Our Guest” dining room scene with dancing plates and Cogsworth encased in gelatin. The builder plays with two scales here: traditional 8x8s on top of larger 12×12 habitats that allow for more complex scenes.

Minifig habitats are 8×8 vignettes that can and stacked and rearranged in pleasing geometric configurations. During COVID lockdown, it was a pretty big trend! So much so that even LEGO released some “official minifig habitats.” Its’s such a fun format for building that doesn’t demand a huge collection of parts to make something delightful. We’re warmed to see builders like legonano keeping the habitat trend going strong.

A hidden outpost with hidden treasure

In the forest, beside the waterfall, the forest folk maintain an outpost to keep an eye out for the local villages – as depicted in this LEGO model by Sandro Damiano. There’s plenty to love in this model: the birds are out in force, along with a squirrel, a bunny, and even a hidden spider! There’s a huge variety of parts that went into making the characteristic black trees of the local forest, while the waterfall mostly consist of windscreens in two sizes.

From the back of the model, you can see the details of the hidden outpost. Beyond the bunk beds, dining hall, and armory, there’s a hidden path behind a moveable dresser that leads to a tunnel below the waterfall to where the secret treasure is hidden! Are these forest folk friend or foe to the local villagers? Do they even realize they are there?

LEGO Batman 76271 Gotham City [REVIEW]

What would you get if you combined the LEGO Architecture theme with LEGO DC and threw in a splash of LEGO Art? A massive Gotham City skyline from the 90’s hit television series, Batman: The Animated Series that can either hang on your wall (if you have a stud finder) or display on your shelf. The animated show from Warner Brothers Studio aired from 1992-1995. The visual style was dark and gritty, taking much inspiration from the Art Deco movement with sharp angles for both the architecture and the characters, and a muted and dark color palette. Combined with a stellar original musical score and great storytelling, the show was instantly popular with audiences young and old, and introduced some of the franchise’ most-loved villains like The Joker, voiced by Mark Hamill, and his Psychiatrist/lover/henchwoman Harley Quinn. LEGO Batman 76271 Gotham City comes with 4,210 pieces including 4 minifigures and will be available on April 1st for LEGO Insiders members and on April 4th for everyone else for US $299.99 | CAN $389.99 | UK £259.99

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.

Read on!

You’ll be Spirited Away

You don’t have to be an anime fan to appreciate this pair of incredible and contrasting LEGO builds, each one an astonishingly well rendered recreation of a memorable moment from Spirited Away. (Though if you haven’t already, do yourself the favour and watch this anime instant classic ASAP!) First up, this marvelously detailed microscale Bathhouse made by Marius Herrmann looks amazingly close to the source material when shot from this low angle

And next up, Joss Woodyard (Jayfa) treats us with this deliciously detailed and kinetic scene from the film’s emotional climax.

There’s even more to love about both creations. Read on below!

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Powerful princess of the Saphire Sword

Fantasy-flavored minifigs might be all the buzz right now thanks to LEGO’s new D&D partnership, but prolific Finnish builder (and TBB regular) Eero Okkonen is here to take the crown with his latest swords and sorcery inspired brick-built character. Eero makes clever use of the latest plant elements, like the lavender breastplates sourced from a new mold in LEGO Friends 42620 Olly and Paisley’s Family Houses. One of my favorite elements of the creation is how perfectly the opalescent sword pieces work as both hair and skirt. There are so many details to admire, like the Prince of Persia dagger of time as a brooch, Gungan shields on the belt, and alien cocoon thighs. Like most of his characters, this one is highly-poseable, so be sure to dive into Eero’s Flickr page for a full gallery and build insights.

Looking for more of his great character creations? We’ve got plenty of Eero Okkonen’s LEGO builds in our archives.

Terribly Terrorizing Tiny Dragon

The word “dragon” should naturally conjure an image of a fire-breathing, terrorizing great lizard, its eyes filled with the promise of impending doom. Now, envision that same image but on a much smaller scale. The dragon crafted by creator Bart Marable, though diminutive, manages to capture the essence of this mythical beast. It depicts a dark creature exhaling flames upon what appears to be a tranquil island village, where residents live out their days in peace. In this compact creation, the creator has paid meticulous attention to detail, from the water supporting the island to the tip of the cathedral’s cross, leaving nothing to be desired.

Shai-Hulud? More like Shai-hello there!

Few sci-fi creatures have presented a perennial challenge to LEGO builders like Dune‘s sandworm. We’ve already covered a few LEGO sandworms over the years, but given the number of techniques that can be used to represent these otherworldly lifeforms, we’ll probably be covering them well into the year 10,191. In hachiroku24‘s version, the worm’s body is mostly overlapping 1×2 rectangular and round tiles, a simple yet effective solution. It’s a scene that probably just got cut from the recent movie — lovers Paul Atreides and Chani enjoy the ultimate date night: Preparing to ride the mighty Shai-Hulud together. We’re sure nothing could ever drive them apart, right?

Tasty little LEGO Star Wars fighters leave you wanting more

LEGO Star Wars advent calendars have some pretty neat microscale ships, but it’s hard to get many good details at such a small size. Tim Goddard has no such trouble with these four microscale fighters, packing these pint-sized ships with a ton of great details and ace part usage, like screwdrivers for cannons. The iconic Y-wing and A-wing are fantastic, but the angled noses of the X-Wing and E-Wing are simple but especially effective.

Tiny LEGO trailer is some prime real estate

LEGO has given us many great profile bricks perfect for building architecture, but sometimes the best results come from using basic parts like tiles to create the look of construction materials like wood and metal. This charming trailer house by Daniel Barwegen is a perfect example. The trailer arms in front are very realistic, and the simple tile exterior combined with a bunch of black rail plates gives the appearance of panels made from corrugated metal. The narrow row of windows along the top would let in some welcome natural light. I imagine the inside would be quite cozy.

A Star Wars force to recon with

At a glance, one might mistake this exceptionally tidy creation by Thomas Jenkins for an official LEGO set, and you could be forgiven for that, as the Jedi craft’s distinctive lines are recreated spot-on. But there’s a lot more going on here than you will find in any set (including easily triple the parts count!) – a result of Thomas’ “totally SNOT approach” to the subject. To my knowledge, the “Eta-2 Actis-class Light Interceptor” or simply the “Jedi Interceptor” has been offered three times as an official set at this scale, all of them using some variation of the same Bubble Canopy element seen here. No doubt starting with that element, Thomas’ build easily blows them all away, having tried “so many combinations to get the angles to match just right” before striking “just the right balance of aesthetics and compactness”. I couldn’t agree more! Time well spent, sir.

To borrow from another franchise for a moment, this is not the Jedi Interceptor we got, but it’s the one we deserve.

Animal Crossing glow up takes you to new horizons

Someone’s been busy upgrading her Animal Crossing island! Rylie Howerter gives Nook’s Cranny an impressive glow up, and terraforms a pixel-perfect island landscape to go with it. Even the little gift balloon gets an HD upgrade. The grass, made from a mosaic of cheese slopes, is an especially nice touch that perfectly mimics the game franchise. Now that Animal Crossing minifigs are in the wild, I hope we’ll see many more original island creations. Excellent work, Rylie! I hope you make good use of all those Nook Miles. Now, can we interest you in a loan to expand your diorama?