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.

LEGO fan recreates Erik Varszegi’s Venator star destroyer

In 2005, LEGO Master Builder Erik Varszegi built a massive Venator-class Star Destroyer for Star Wars Celebration III. At 8 feet long, it was the largest LEGO model most of us had seen at the time, and set the bar very high for the likes of Mark Kelso. However, in order to build the Venator strong enough to ship from Enfield, Connecticut to Indianapolis, Indiana, Erik and his fellow model builders had to glue the model and incorporate a steel frame (FBTB has a great interview with Erik). Now, six years later, Sylvain Ballivet has built his own version of Erik’s Venator, except that it’s built from 100% LEGO elements with no glue.

Sylvain’s Venator by the numbers:

82 kg (181 lbs)
2.44 m (8 ft) long, 1.2 m (4 ft) wide, and 64 cm (25 in) tall
43,280 LEGO elements (!)

Check out lots more photos on Flickr, and this awesome video that really gives you a sense of the scale of this beast:

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Evacuate!

Bart De Dobbelaer amazes me with the intricacies of his scenes and the action that he packs into them. The scary aliens/bugs in this scene are pretty wild and the backdrop highlights the action perfectly.

Bolling

I’m fairly sure I’ve never been ten-pin bowling. I’m even more sure that Dave Shaddix has. From the mosaic on the wall, to the hotdogs on the grill, this diorama has everything I imagine a bowling alley should have. And more.

Futurey Heli

I’m so used to seeing excellent teensy spaceships from Rodney Bistline (Buster) that I had to check twice that I had the name right. I did. This delightful helicopter combines Rodney’s gorgeous use of shape and colour with a more contemporary design. I want to see more near-future stuff from you, Rodney. Got that!

Recycling has a long, noble history...

…or something like that. Perhaps not necessarily noble, but the idea of re-purposing something certainly isn’t new.

Matthew Hurt‘s done an excellent job of illustrating just how enterprising some folks can be. His crumbling tower has become a hideout for two unsavory characters.

Mister Burrito’s Spicy Doritos

Barney Main (SlyOwl) contributes to an IronBuilder challenge by incorporating more than a dozen yellow road signs (the “seed part”) into his latest model.

The cartoonish face is complemented by a TV screen frame, while a background cactus adds depth to the scene.

The spice must flow

As much as I prefer Frank Herbert’s original novels, David Lynch created a unique vision of the Dune universe that was all his own. Stefan Käsmayer (-2×4-) has recently recreated bits of Lynch’s version in LEGO, beginning with the Harkonnen ornithopter (via The Living Brick):

He followed this with a little scene depicting Paul Atreides practicing his combat skills (via VignetteBricks):

Castle Greebles

Apparently even a castle can be greebly. This fortress, by ErykCoa, packs quite the visual punch. So many different pieces, techniques, angles and colors all vie for attention, but somehow it melts together for a very interesting effect.

Fly by night

Ralph Savelsberg (Mad physicist) recently completed his P-61 night-fighter and decided to show it off with its German counterpart. Although if looks won wars I’d have my money on the Axis.

Orion Pax builds his own Back to the Future Nike MAGs from LEGO

Even though Alex (Orion Pax) couldn’t afford to join the likes of Brian Wilson and Kanye West in owning a pair of the new Nike MAGs from Back to the Future, that didn’t stop him building his own from LEGO.

Auctions of the real shoes benefited Michael J. Fox’s research foundation for Parkinson’s disease, and raised several million dollars.

This is how mono-tracks roll.

I have a soft spot for mono-tracks and this one is unique. The top-heavy look that Nick Catling chose really works here.

An unexpected LEGO adventure: Bricks & Minifigs [Review]

Here, at The Brothers Brick, we don’t review stores but I had a very unexpected little LEGO adventure yesterday and I wanted to share it. I realize that this post will only be of interest to people in the Greater Portland and Vancouver area of Washington and Oregon States. I apologize to our readers in the rest of the world. If you don’t live there, feel free to skip this post and bad-mouth me for the rest of the day. I’m okay with that.

I had to take a sudden trip to southern Washington State over the last couple of days and I decided to stop in Battle Ground, WA to see my grandmother. No LEGO was supposed to be involved. Little did I know. I had been told that there was an independent toy store in the area that dealt in used LEGO. I looked it up and the store turned out to be about a quarter of a mile from “Grammy’s House”.

I was much more impressed with the store than I was expecting. For the most part, prices seemed to be about mid-range of Bricklink’s prices. They had a large stock of older sets, some MISB, some opened in the box and some built but loose.

They had large bins of minifig parts, which they were selling for 60 cents a piece or three dollars for a fig. I grabbed up a handful of vintage castle torsos and an assortment of helmets that I was short on. My kids had a blast building figs for themselves as well.

They also had a bins of “building brick” which was sold by large and small cups ($10 and $5) or by gallon-sized plastic bags ($25). My wife was kind enough to fill up a bag with assorted bricks, plates and slopes in green and tan.

There was only one staff person on duty, named Micah, but he was very friendly, enthusiastic and well-informed.

They do not sell online, but have three store locations. They are in Beaverton OR, Canby OR and Battle Ground, WA. If you are in the area, check them out. I had a good time.

Along these lines, there have to be more independent purveyors of used and collectible LEGO out there. If you know of a brick-and-mortar store in your area, feel free to post the location in the comments. Just don’t tell us about your online store. We know about those.

In the interest of transparency, I would like to state that Bricks & Minifigs did not ask for this review nor did they give me anything in exchange. The only freebie that I received was the business card I swiped off the counter.