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.

Digital Delay

It’s time to check in for an extended stay with our friends in digital space, constant reader to find out what’s new (and in some cases not so new) in their world. The genres are as diverse as the builders surveyed so grab your favorite beverage and get ready for some real refreshment.

I want to grab the attention of readers who are not usually fans of digital builds and this image by Nachapon Sintateeyakorn is sure to lure in the unwary with visions of rare gold minifigs. You covet the gold, don’t you?

Next we’ll take to the skies of old with Brian Fitzimmons and his B-17 Flying Fortress.

For those of you who like your aircraft modern, or perhaps just a little bit futuristic, enjoy the Mi-54 “Oleni” VTOL gunship by Matthew SylvanO. It also fits nicely into TBB’s well known Olive Conspiracy.

More Digital-pure action after the jump!

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“Do you like to watch movies about gladiators?”

Ever seen a 6-wide train naked? No? Well now’s your chance thanks to TBB rookie Alexander (narrow_gauge) who brings some fresh blood to the genre. Alexander quietly goes about his business with calm precision so common to his tribe of builders:

“Power comes from two PF large motors each mounted in a carriage. In between them another carriage carries a battery and IR receiver. With the motors geared down, top speed is a little slow, but reasonable for narrow gauge. There are two designs: one has the motor on its side which reduces the amount of room each side but leaves room to put a 12V train weight above the motor. Tow ball couplings are used between the motor cars – with a simple pivot coupling they tended to derail.

Alexander isn’t averse to showing off his work to the great unwashed masses either, as evidenced by this gorgeous photo from the recent Caulfield Train Show 2013 in Australia. There is some decent video from the event here, although only a small portion of it is LEGO related.

*Edit: Although I’m a fan of the genre, you could fill a teacup with my actual knowledge of Train related action. The stock is actually 6-wide, so my initial posting didn’t make much sense.

Homeland Defense Force Bot from Elysium

As someone who only saw the trailer for Elysium, I recognize this HDF bot by Ethan (MrMαcy). It’s pretty accurate compared to the reference, and now we just need a decal expert to take it to the next level.

LEGO Masters of the Universe!

Alex Jones (Orion Pax) called on the Power of Grayskull and finished his custom series of Masters of the Universe creations. His updated Castle Grayskull is rock solid and packed with tons of details. The rock foundations and crumbling brickwork are excellent. He also built HE-MAN’s Power Sword and Axe in all of their full-scale glory. Alex says that the series is now complete and will be displayed at GRAYSKULL CON 2013. This has been quite an impressive series. Whether or not you are a MOTU fan, the builds have been superior and the customized figs are done nearly to perfection. Check out Alex’s website for more photographs and information!

Plastic glory

Patrick Bosman has long been one of my favourite town LEGO builders. His dedication to period accuracy, and detailed street life put him well into my top five. This shot of his ever evolving Amsterdam diorama summarises everything I like about Patrick’s work. Between the action, the details and the technical skill he presents a snapshot of real life in plastic glory.

Can’t see the forest for the trains

Mike Pianta (scruffulous) posted this timber wagon while I was away for work, so that’s my excuse for posting it three weeks late. As with any flatbed wagon it’s essentially a long, flat surface with wheels and details. The lack of interesting shapes actually makes it harder to render well in LEGO as the devil truly is in the details. Mike shows why he’s one of the leading train builders by packing it full of details. See eg. the backside of the bracket and the robot arms on the bogies.

“How true, how true said the Sour Kangaroo”

We don’t feature nearly enough Kangaroo action here on TBB and Jeffrey Heuer (Norweasel) is here to rectify that situation.

Fun fact: If you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground, it can’t hop…but it might turn around and give you the beating of a lifetime.

“This is your brain on drugs”

New-age musical duo Siercon and Coral would like to interrupt your Sunday serenity with this kinetic number they like to call “Fruit Sniper“. In case you’re curious, oh skeptical purist, the non-traditional components are from an official LEGO brand Alpha Team pen. There, you can breathe easy.

D.I.Y. Sunday

If your creative well has run dry, TBB is here to help with a couple of projects to fill the hours before the factory whistle blows on Monday…or Tuesday if you live here in the States.

First up is the deceptively challenging How to build a K.E.W.B. by Jacob Unterreiner (4estFeller). The video is easy to follow, doesn’t require a Zhangian collection to build and it even has cool music that will make you feel like you’re in a hip clothing store. The only drawback is that Jacob doesn’t show you how to make his elegant stand to display your K.E.W.B., but we’ll let it slide.

For the advanced builder with LDD experience and a penchant for Sci-Fi, Chief Executive Overlord, Tanuki Corp. and wezra have you covered with a free instructional download of Red Spacecat’s USS Saratoga. I can assure you, constant reader, that the instructions are far easier to follow than my description.

To those of you who take the plunge, good luck! I have no doubt that the builders featured here would be happy to answer questions from you via Flickr if you get stuck. If you have your own D.I.Y. project to share with the readers, leave them in the comments.

Clad in gold

Yo-Sub Joo created a replica of the world’s tallest gold-cladded structure, the 63 Building in Seoul. Staying true to the appearance of the landmark, the builder used chrome gold colored tiles to coat what must have been an expensive creation.

MiniMi – A new LEGO minifig app

I was invited to try out the new minifig app, MiniMi, while it was still in beta. It is a fun, novelty app and I actually spent quite a bit of time trying different comibinations of figures, making myself, my family members and what-not. My kids absolutely loved it. Overall, it is well made and pretty intuitive to use. It’s an entertaining app, in and of itself. Also it is free to download, which is nice. There are also expansion packs, such as Space and Castle (yay!), which cost 99 cents each.

However, I think this app has the potential to really shine as a customizing tool. How so? Because it has the only minifig face generator of which I am aware (feel free to correct me in the comments if I am wrong). Switching hair, hats, torsos and colors in the app is pretty straightforward but the face generator is something unique. You can choose from a selection of eyes, eyebrows, mouths, facial hair, glasses and so forth to create unique faces that don’t actually exist on official minifigs. Because the app has built in share functions, you can export your fig image…isolate the face…resize and print it on decal or sticker paper.

Currently the number of elements in the app is limited but the expansion “packs” remedy this somewhat and the team is planning more. If they expand the library of facial elements, I think this app could be something really special. I would also like to see a feature added to where the user could resize and/or change the colors of the various facial features but this may come with time.

Download it here.

From the depth of the sea...

…comes this ferocious creature by LukeClarenceVan. Unlike many of the sea monsters made in Lego, this one doesn’t have tentacles and its head has features resembling a dragon. I like the scales and the touch of olive green.