Space Jam contestants, beware. Ted Andes is done with being a judge as of this year, and he’s getting involved in the LEGO building competition instead! It’s not just Ted you need to be wary of, though. His “Ravager” looks as deadly as it sounds. It has a touch of the “HR Giger”s about it – which is appropriate, given it’s entered in the Bio-Mechanical Fusion category (Giger was a pioneer of the biomechanical art style). But it’s even more apt that this look is achieved using a host of Bionicle parts. Bio-Mechanical, indeed!
Category Archives: LEGO
This LEGO Dark Knight is more than black and dark gray
While LEGO Batman will forever be Will Arnett, there’s certainly room for creations that take the caped crusader a bit more seriously. For instance, check out this glorious scene from Batman Begins by Joe (jnj_bricks). Within their temple high in the Tibetan Himalayas, the League of Shadows is about to adopt a new member. But Bruce Wayne manages an escape from Ra’s al Ghul and his minions. Here we see the explosion that kicks off the action-packed scene, frozen in plastic-y time. And it’s a good thing, too, because it allows us plenty of time to admire Joe’s impressive use of Harry Potter wands in the vignette. Employed both in the windows above and the railings below, the pair of wands still attached to their sprue provide an interesting and hard-to-achieve texture in the model.
Ridin’ low, baggin’ and crankin’ the hog
Sometimes LEGO legends fade away for a little while but come back onto the scene in style and still chock full of piss and vinegar. Dennis Glaasker reminds us that it has been three years since he last built something but comes screeching back on a glorious low and bagged Harley. LEGO released the 10269 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy way back in 2019 and Dennis used this as the basis for his new ride, but even a casual glance at our old review proves that Denni’s design diverged greatly from there. Most notably you have the lowered stance, the massive 30″ front wheel, the slanted bags, and enough custom chrome LEGO pieces to make anyone’s heart rate race a little. Throw in some custom LED lights and you have all the makings of a badass build, true to Dennis’ style.
The future of farming: the only way is up!
Vertical farming isn’t exactly a new thing, but even seeing examples of it in the present day, there’s something quite futuristic about it. Throw in some cool architecture, add in a few greebley bits, maybe some drone workers, and boom, you’re transported to a distant planet. Oh hey, that’s exactly what Bart de Dobbelaer has done! Although there are no immediate clues as far as scale goes, you get the sense this is some enormous monolith built just off the shore. Bart is quite the prolific off-world builder, you know.
LEGO Ideas announces the next set in the theme as 21347 Red London Telephone Box [News]
LEGO Ideas has been on a roll lately, springboarding off the release of 21344 Orient Express Train back in December into a wave of set announcements including 21345 Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera and 21346 Family Tree so far this year. And we can now tack one more onto the list as well. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the K2 Telephone Box, LEGO will release LEGO Ideas 21347 Red London Telephone Box next month. Based on the original submission by John Cramp, this model stands nearly a foot tall (30 cm), and has the iconic crimson booth stood along the fictional English street of Buildmore Road. The set also has a built-in stand to hold your cell phone for all the Anglophiles looking to add this to their collections. LEGO Ideas 21347 Red London Telephone Box, 1460 pieces large, will be available from LEGO.com on February 1st for LEGO Insiders (February 4th for everyone else) and will retail for US $114.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £99.99.
Answer the call on this new set below!
Setting the bar with a setting of LEGO bars
Sometimes, one can forget that LEGO is more than just studs, tubes, and minifigures. There are so many other connections available to the savvy constructor. And there are few as savvy as TBB alum Mansur Soeleman (lamborghiniwafflesauce), as we can see in his space-y creation titled The Mirrorheim. Featuring so many twisting tubes and clipped panels, his model is a paragon of micro space construction. And while I can’t speak to its fragility based solely on these pictures, the desire to “swoosh” this teeny starfighter all over the room is irrefutable.
A LEGO dragon inspired by an unlikely source
Check out this LEGO dragon Joss Woodyard has built. Cute, isn’t he? His name is Pit, and I love his flowery tail and scaly body made from pink rock pieces. But he’s more than just a loveable li’l guy! (Pit, that is – though I’m sure Joss is lovely too!). The reason he’s called Pit is he’s named after the pitaya fruit, which is also a source of design cues. Those black dots on his white underbelly? That’s the seeds you find in these fruits! The green dorsal fins? They’re the leaves! It’s a really clever way of taking inspiration from something completely unrelated. Unrelated? Well, not quite – the other name for a pitaya is a dragon fruit. What a great idea!
In this year of the dragon, Joss is building one of these each month – and if his previous creature creations are anything to go by, he’ll definitely be featuring on our pages again!
This small LEGO fishing boat is simply Fabu-lous!
Building the gentle curve of a boat hull in LEGO bricks can be a challenge. That is, unless you find an old Fabuland boat part in your collection like Norton74. He promptly put it to good use as the start of a fishing boat full of the kind of details we have come to expect from Andrea. The simple dock gives a good setting without taking attention away from the vessel. It includes a small cargo hold and a rig for hauling in the day’s catch. Round, white studs give the boat a proper wake in a bed of transparent blue as it approaches the dock at the end of a long day.
Sketching out the Diary of a Wimpy Kid in LEGO
While Jeff Kinney may be the original creator of Manny Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise, builder SDR. may be the first one to immortalize is visage in LEGO. Younger brother of series protagonist Greg, the smallest of the Heffley clan is also the most spoiled (or at least from the perspective of the Diary, he is). And this brick-built doodle looks like it’s been lifted – or rather torn – right off the page! There’s quite a bit of minifigure headgear used in this caricature, notably relying on the standard space helmet to form those great big buck teeth. And the paper background is no slouch either, with some brilliant linework forming that wide rule on the notebook paper. The blue lines are even show the varied shades of color thanks to cheap printing on thin paper. What a great detail!
In the category of Far East Elegance
With Chinese New Year coming up, it is no surprise that we are seeing a bevy of Asian-inspired LEGO creations from our friends around the globe. BrickheXe presents The Hidden Sakura, and it is for the Far East Elegance challenge over at Brickscalibur. We are greeted by two regal gate lions guarding the round entryway. Beyond that, a bonsai tree promises a tranquil garden visit. Outstanding textures abound in this exquisite scene.
TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for January 13th, 2024 [News]
In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the 2nd week of January, 2024.
TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS We are wrapping up our end-of-year features this week, including our Builder of the year and our Creation of the year. We also took another look back, on our most popular reviews, and we saw one more Creator 3in1 set review, of flowers in a watering can.
- [FEATURE] Top ten TBB LEGO reviews of 2023 — We recapped the most popular LEGO set reviews of 2023.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31149 Flowers in Watering Can — We went into the weeds with another creator set about flowewrs, insects, and something yellow.
- [NEWS] The Brothers Brick LEGO Builder of the Year 2023 — We welcomed another amazing LEGO builder into the ranks of Builder of the Year, Congratulations Dicken Liu!
- [NEWS] The Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2023 — We announced our favorite LEGO creation of 2023. Congratulations to the collaborators who built it!
Click through to read more LEGO news from around the world
Top ten TBB LEGO reviews of 2023 [Feature]
With 2023 behind us, we’ve been looking back on LEGO moments, and crowning our LEGO Builder of the Year and LEGO Creation of the Year, congratulations to both. But one of the things that our readers enjoy about our content is our in-depth set reviews. Many of our readers (myself included) count on our reviews to help them decide whether or not to buy that new modular, or that Star Wars set packed with unique minifigures. So, lets take a look back over our most popular reviews of 2023 based on total views.
Find out which of our LEGO reviews was the most popular in 2023