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.

Invasion! at BrickCon 2014

BrickCon recently announced their theme for the 2014 convention and it is “Invasion!”. What exactly does that mean? Apparently a little background is required. Over the years it has become tradition for the various themed sections (Castle, Space, Town, etc) to invade the other layouts throughout the convention. This usually entails space marines invading the castle, dragons attacking the moonbase, pink space fungus infecting all the other layouts, Breann’s bionicles eating stuff, various renditions of the Tardis appearing out of nowhere or Space Odyssey monoliths sprouting up like mushrooms after a bad rain.

This year BrickCon is embracing that concept and taking it to a new level. The coordinators of BrickCon are encouraging you to Invade and the more the merrier! Do you have a squad of World War II marines who want to travel back in time? A cadre of Yeti who are anxious to wreak havoc on a modern city? What about a gaggle of Friends ready to rubble with some bug-eyed aliens in the Space layout? Anything goes and the funnier the better. Personally, I’m training up a squad of strawberry bears to conquer BrickCon. What are you going to bring?

Please let the following pictures, courtesy of Sean Edmison, inspire you to new heights! Mash-ups and smack-downs highly encouraged. Batteries not included.

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Snake Mecha

Jerac hit a home run with this one. This ninjago-inspired snake mecha is rock-solid. I know this because the young Ninjago fans in my house freaked out when they walked by and saw me blogging this.

Mountain-sized Surprise

Curious what’s at the top of the mountain? Feast your eyes on the sweet, cold surprise waiting for you, courtesy of Mel F. Torolug has been building the most adorable habitats for the Collectible Minifigs, and they’re taking it to new heights with some of their newest ones.

Do Mini-Figs Dream Of Plastic Sheep?

The current collaboration between the planet’s most profitable and awesome toy company and the America’s longest everything television show seems like a match made in heaven. I hope you all got to watch Sunday’s crossover episode Brick Like Me, and are now poring over it frame-by-frame to catch all 52 in-jokes and bad puns.

Judging by the activity on Flickr, it looks many of you are now having a ton of fun with your Simpsons LEGO collectible minifigures too. If you haven’t got yours yet …what’s wrong with you?!

I guess David Pickett (fallentomato) couldn’t wait for either spin-off, since he recently decided to build the First Family of Animation out of raw bricks…

Make sure to check out the full set on Flickr, including brick-built Homer holding his minifig counterpart. But that’s not all …DOH! David also put together this handy instructional video showing you how to build them yourself. So put those figs aside for a second and give it a go!

Blocko Brand Retail Store

The Simpsons LEGO roundup continues from this meta LEGO Simpsons build by Matt De Lanoy.

It’s LEGO Simpson’s favorite Block retail store:

And check out the detailed inside:

You can see this, and more of Matt’s LEGO-Springfield at Brickworld: Chicago in just over a month!

The Homer – the car designed for the average man.

Tonight we’re going to witness automotive history … Powerful like a Gorilla … yet soft and yielding like a NERF-ball.

Introducing The Homer:

Featuring:

Two bubble domes – a second sound proof dome for kids (comes with optional restraints and muzzles).

Three horns – to play the song “La Cucaracha.” – as you can never find a horn when you’re mad.

Extremely large beverage holders.

Tail fins

Shag Carpeting!

All this can be yours for the $140,000 USD (inflation adjusted).

I hope everyone enjoyed the last night’s LEGO Simpson’s episode last night. And I’m glad that Brian Williams built this amazing version of the classic car Homer designed way back in season 2!

Lego Parisian Restaurant 10243 [Review]

Lego Parisian Restaurant is latest modular building released this January. It contains 2,448 pieces and retails for $159.99. Below is a video review of why you should buy this set and possibly hold on to an extra copy of it in the years to come.

Pros:

High number and variety of parts for the price
Several useful building techniques
Excellent for display
Has the most reliable investment value for collecting

Cons:

No discounts will be available for this set because it is a Lego Exclusive with a set number containing 10xxx.

The modular building series is one of the best lines for adult fans. It appeals to the builder, the collector, and those looking for a gorgeous filler on a shelf. There are already many review of this popular set within a click on Google that shows the technical and aesthetic aspects of the build. Instead I’ll take a moment to point out that the modular buildings are the best sets to invest as a collector or someone who would like some extra cash down the road to buy more Lego with.

Right now, if you want to buy a brand new copy of the first set of the modular building series, Cafe Corner, you won’t find it anywhere for less than $1,000. The second in the series, Green Grocer, is currently selling for prices close to $800. While most Lego exclusives containing 10xxx in their set number are good sets to invest due to their appeal to adult fans, the modular buildings are the most reliable because they are part of an ongoing series. As long as Lego continues to produce modular buildings, there will be increasing demand for earlier releases to expand the city. Even if more people catch on and hold on to these sets for resale later, it’s still a good idea as long as LEGO remains a growing hobby among adults.

The next set to retire among the modulars is Grand Emporium. While there is no fixed discontinuation date on sets, judging by the time that Fire Brigade went out of stock during the holidays last year, it’s a good estimate to say the same may happen for Grand Emporium this year. Within 6 months of Fire Brigade’s retirement, it’s price on Bricklink has already gone up by $100 over MSRP. I will be waiting until the fall of this year to buy Grand Emporium during promotions such as double VIP points.

I hope you found this tip on collecting to be useful or interesting, and once you get the ball rolling, you’ll have a hobby that completely funds itself.

Star DOH’s

As Star Wars day draws to a close, and fans everywhere safely deactivate and stow away their light sabers until ComicCon, don’t forget that tonight at 8pm FOX will be airing Brick Like Me, the highly anticipated all-LEGO episode of The Simpsons. It’ll give you something to watch while you start poring over the 7000 pages of instructions that came with your new LEGO Sandcrawler.

You can watch the trailer for the Simpsons episode here. Oh, and if you’re East of me then you’ve probably already seen the episode by now. In which case *JEDI MIND TRICK* this isn’t the post you’re looking for …move along!

Image by Karl Westworth.

In a galaxy far, far away ...or just really, really small?

Another Star Wars day retrospective for Lucas-fans… Over the years we’ve seen many great Star Wars themed fan LEGO creations of all shapes, sizes and styles. They run the gamut from vast minifigure based dioramas, to brick-built characters, and of course many fine ships and vehicles. But my personal favorites are probably these microscale dioramas by Rob Gillies (2 Much Caffeine).

I’m not an elephant!

On this May 4th, let’s not forget some of the often overlooked but nevertheless very important characters from the Star Wars universe. I speak of course of Jabba’s keyboard player and occasional restauranteur Max Rebo. So I present to you my Star Wars Day Definitive Guide to every known LEGO version of everyone’s favorite azure non-elephant:

IMAGE CREDITS (in order): Millie McKenzie (Leda Kat); Larry Lars; our very own Tim Gould (Gambort); Flickr member SIMAFOL; Flickr member kae_ae; and Eric Druon (baronsat).

Hit and run

This deliciously dieselpunk wasteland skimmer by Clemens Kern (C-Core) is a lethal-looking package of twisted metal and firepower. Make sure your tetanus booster is up to date before tangling with this machine.

Let for force-tivities begin!

Apparently May the 4th is Star Wars day! And if you don’t get why by now, then you must have been living on Hoth for the past five years. Anyway, Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) gets us into the spirit with this version of the iconic logo – which he serendipitously built using the seed part from the Iron Builder contest currently in progress.