Some LEGO creations are downright magical, featuring the very best of scientific advancements to put on a marvelous show! And the same can be said of the inspiration for this miniland-scale build by Daniel Church. Based on the 2006 film The Prestige, Daniel employs LEGO-compatible lights to recreate this ultimate magic trick from the movie, transporting Hugh Jackman’s Robert Angier in front of the audience’s eyes using fictional tech provided by Nikola Tesla. And given the technique displayed in this brilliant recreation, I’m equally moved!
Category Archives: LEGO
Award winning builders are back with a champion LEGO diorama!
A team of elite historical LEGO builders have come together to create a sprawling diorama! Natelego_, Carson, Hunter E., Noah, Max, Matt, Hunter C., and Gary have taken on the Battle of Isted fought in 1850 between the Danish forces and rebels from the local provinces at the village of Isted. This build was displayed at BrickFair VA 2024 where it won Best Battle Scene! Take a look at the partially demolished church on the right side. While there’s one window still standing, the wall has collapsed leaving only the windowsill and part of the frame of the second window. And be sure to gander at the wider landscape too! Building hills and dips in the terrain one plate at a time must take a lot of patience. All of the lush vegetation really brings this scene to life, too.
Take a look at more closeups here!
Half-timbered LEGO cottage goes full goth
Half-timbered Tudor architecture is a favorite subject for LEGO castle builders. Peter Botcher has become adept at the style while making his mark by adding a pitch black sense of humor and goth gloom to his works (he even made his own tombstone out of LEGO). For his latest cottage, Peter impresses with use of color, especially the mossy brickwork and the splash of magenta vines against the black roof. He finds creative variations for the timber on the facade, including tail pieces and corner tiles. The model is titled “Nobody’s Home,” but the smoke coming from that spooky chimney, adorned with unholy accoutrements, suggests otherwise. Enter at your own risk!
A deluxe hotel for the deluxe LEGO traveler
With tons of LEGO bricks in pastel colors and plenty of curved lines, Hotel Deluxe by Andrew Tate really packs a punch of brick built nostalgia. The business is alive with the hustle and bustle of so many minifigure travelers, carrying in their luggage, dining at the patio tables, snapping shots of the impressive façade, or even sunbathing on the roof. The round windows in light aqua have got to be my favorite touch here, forming what would be a quartet of rectangular windows into a circular portal through the use of some 6-wide arch pieces.
And if you’re looking for things to do while staying at the Hotel Deluxe, be sure to check out all the other amazing LEGO buildings by Andrew in our TBB archives.
Woomy World’s torch of triumph
The Bio-Cup is an annual LEGO fan competition for creators who incorporate Bionicle and constraction parts, often focusing on organic shapes and evocative characters, with an emphasis on artistic interpretation of a theme. After a three month marathon of MOCs, the 2024 Bio-Cup winner has been crowned: Nathan Don (aka Woomy World)! The theme for the final round was, fittingly, “Final Boss.” Woomy’s answer is an epic jrpg-flavored manifestation of creative burnout, a villain many creatives are all too familiar with. The bottom half of the model, representing the “Soul of Emptiness,” features a wonderfully sculpted face in grey reminiscent of a stony Moai. Above, “Sheer Frustration” bursts from the head as an avatar of agony in all black. A behind-the-scenes peek, reveals more of how the dynamic statue was formed (including a vintage boat weight being used for balance).
We previously featured Woomy World’s enchanting owl from round 3 of this year’s competition, and the other builds that contributed to the win are equally impressive.
Take a victory lap through Woomy’s winning world!
Medieval bathhouse is a clean build indeed
LEGO models from Eli Willsea feature clean lines and smooth surfaces where studs have been all but scrubbed away, which makes a medieval hammam (public bathhouse) the ideal subject for his immaculate building style. I love the variety of arches stacked and nested the give the build an airiness, complemented by the bits of greenery around the scene. Of course this wouldn’t be a ForlornEmpire build without some mind-blowing parts usage. DUPLO brooms are a truly unexpected part that fit so naturally into the scene. Droid arms and binoculars link so neatly into the arches, it’s hard to believe LEGO didn’t design them for just that purpose. The greatest trick in the scene has to be the water effect, made from upside down transparent baseplates, creating the perfect bubbly surface.
Such wonderful things surround you right here on the ocean floor
The wonders of the seafloor are on full display in this entrancing build by BardJaskier, where the variety of ocean flora and fauna represented is matched only by the variety of elements used to build them. In addition to using standard LEGO molds like crabs, octopi, rays, and fish, BardJaskier gets creative to fill out the rest of the marine life. The flame-and-umbrella pairing to create jellyfish is inspired, as are the simple but effective combinations used for the coral polyps. I can also pick out carrots, broomstick ends, purple minifig hair, and tan samurai swords. Go ahead—take a closer look and see what else you can spot. Just make sure to hold your breath.
TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for August 10, 2024 [News]
In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders worldwide, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the 2nd week of August, 2024.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS This week we returned to Dungeons & Dragons to look at the new CMF series of 12 iconic minifigures. For even more LEGO news, be sure to check out our last Brick Report for even more news and reviews from themes like Fortnite, Botanical COllection, and Technic.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Dungeons & Dragons Collectible Minifigures 71047 — Chris delves deep to unpack the newest Collectible Minifigures series from Dungeons & Dragons
- [NEWS] New LEGO sets for August 2024 now available for purchase — We covered a whole bunch of new sets now available, just in time to avoid the summer heat and get your build on.
OTHER NEWS The new trailer for LEGO Star Wars Rebuild the Galaxy dropped at D23, and the Bronze medalist rugby player Sammy Sullivan is a LEGO super-fan!
- AFOL Community Integration Manager Jan Beyer Leaves The LEGO Group – [The Brick Fan.com] — Jan Beyer leaves the LEGO group to start a new journey.
- New Official Trailer for LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy Revealed – [Youtube.com] — The trailer for the new LEGO Star Wars limeted series show coming in September to Disney+
- Paris 2024 Olympics US Rugby Bronze Medallist LEGO Mega Fan Sammy Sullivan – [The Brick Fan.com] — The Olympics revealed that even world-famous athletes enjoy building LEGO.
- The LEGO Group and local LEGO® Masters alum Build the Change with Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond – [Lego.com] — LEGO® Master Ben Edlavitch teams up with LEGO to empower Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond Club members to envision a sustainable future through play-based learning.
- Help wanted: Master builder for the NY Legoland resort – [Gothamist.com] — If you’ve always thought your Lego skills went above and beyond those of the average builder, now you can survey the brick-stacking competition.
A LEGO swamp full of stange mushrooms may hide a secret or two
When wandering through a LEGO landscape strewn with ruins, you would be advised to watch your step. Just ask Gus. who, as the cereator of this scene, probably has a good idea where it is safe to step to avoid the deep swamp water among the mushrooms. The whole scene is elevated, allowing fern fronds to barely emerge from the surface. With so many kinds of mushrooms you probably should also check your pocket guide to make sure you pick the right ones for your stew.
Fairy and toad are friends
Prolific builder Eero Okkonen is the Geppetto of the LEGO community, crafting detailed characters with such personality that they seem ready to come alive. His latest model of a blue fairy isn’t inspired by Pinocchio, however, but by a fairy tale from Eero’s native Finland, Pessi and Illusia. Eero employs his usual panache for NPU (nice parts usage), with the highlight perhaps the Queen’s Dragon heads used as Illusia’s skirt. As lovely as the fairy is, it’s Pessi the adorable toad who steals the show here, with those perfect saucer eyes and sporting a wonderful wicker basket of interwoven flex tubes. The scene is rounded out by delectable cloudberries on stems that incorporate foam leaves, appropriately enough, from the Belville Flower Fairy Party.
Diorama base unable to contain the speed and excitement of a pod race!
This year, 2024, marks the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, and builder “2mpaired” has created this Mos Espa pod race scene from the 1999 film The Phantom Menace to commemorate the occasion. The scene, with sand and rock formations spilling over the edges of the diorama base, brings the motion and excitement of the pod race to life. The pod racer builds for Anakin and Sebulba, the scene’s main characters, are among the best minifigure-scale models I have seen. If you’re not impressed, take a look at LEGO’s microscale model “75380: Mos Espa Podrace Diorama” to fully appreciate the detail in both landscape, minimal yet telling, and the racers themselves.
This jade dragon won’t leave you feeling jaded
If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for in LEGO creations of mystical worlds, it’s floating rocks. And had Mihał Ch (AKA BardJaskier) just shown us this serene scene of floating rocks and waterfalls, that would have scratched that particular itch. But he’s gone one further and thrown in another favourite of mine in the shape of a majestic jade dragon! I must confess that I first thought it was a Pokemon called Rayquaza – and in my defense, I think it does bear a passing resemblance. But its presence does lead to some questions; primarily, what is that mysterious figure at the top doing? Although he has a sword in hand, it all seems quite peaceful here, at least for now. Has he come to seek the dragon’s guidance, or challenge it? Or has he just stumbled across it by (mis)fortune?










