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 Disney 43222 The Disney Castle: new and improved? [Review]

When it comes to Disney’s theme parks, there’s nothing more iconic than the fairytale castle that sits at the center of each magical land. In 2016 LEGO released its biggest Disney set ever, 71040 Disney Castle, which portrayed Cinderella’s white and dark blue castle that sits at the heart of Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. But in 2020 Disney repainted the castle to celebrate the park’s 50th anniversary (or 70th anniversary of the release of Cinderella, depending on which Disney source you reference), updating the fairytale fixture with peach-colored walls, darker stonework, and more gold accents. LEGO retired the 2016 castle last year, but won’t leave Disney fans without a flagship set for long, as they’re now releasing a new version with an updated design and colors that match the real-world landmark. 43222 The Disney Castle has 4,837 pieces (about 750 more than the original) and eight minifigures. It will retail for US $399.99 | CAN $519.99 | UK £344.99 and will release globally on July 4th, 2023.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Let’s dive in and see how this updated castle fares compared to the original.

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The curious case of the Blacktron baggage

Chris Yu has a bit of a thing for LEGO space luggage. We’ve got a bit of a thing for his luggage, too – way back in 2019 his Classic Space suitcase was awarded the TBB Creation of the Year title. At long last, Chris has returned to this awesome concept – but with a more sinister twist! Naturally, the Classic Space case needs some opposing Blacktron baggage. It’s best summed up by one Ben Smith in the comments on Flickr: “I’ll be very surprised if this is not the most awesome thing you see all day”!

Click here to see what makes this build so awesome

War makes gingerbread boys into gingerbread men

“Man the gumdrop cannons! We’re on General Kringle’s naughty list this year!” Builder Mike Sinclair gives us a LEGO scene that has the Christmas season fighting against itself. Maybe you’re rooting for St. Nick and his elven troops, armed with a present catapult and cannon. But if you’re like me, you’re on the side of the Gingerbread Kingdom. With their cookie castle surrounded by a chocolate moat, these confectionary combatants aren’t about to crumble under pressure. The fortress is a beautiful mish-mash of classic castle shapes laced with bits of icing and other sweet treats. It’s an extremely well-executed fusion of themes. And, much like the smell of gingerbread, it’s got me hungry for more!

Where the explorers are tiny and the perils huge!

Gnomes are tiny mythical creatures of European folklore. With that said, it is possible that the monster spider in the center of this LEGO creation by Mihał Ch is normal-sized. Still, a spider of any size gives me the heebie-jeebies so I wouldn’t want to be that wee little gnome explorer. It looks like he’s about to become a snack! I may stick around just long enough to admire the neat build techniques used in this underground terrain; the rocks and web design are amazing. The entire diorama is only six studs deep but the amount of detail rendered makes the cave seem to go on forever. But still, let’s hope the other things we feature soon will be less spider-centric!

Scandinavian power, with a Dutch twist

Lego is not Denmark’s only market-leading company; Vestas, the world’s largest builder of wind turbines, is also Danish. After I built my mega-windmill trailer with a Vestas wind turbine nacelle, I seriously considered building a truck carrying one of the wind turbine’s blades. However, these blades are so big that, even at minifig scale, the model would have to be more than a meter long. This did not strike me as a particularly fun build, but I found a suitable alternative. It is a truck that carries the wind turbine’s hub. The tractor unit is a Volvo FM; another powerhouse from Scandinavia.

There’s a Dutch twist too. It is in the largely orange livery of Dutch heavy haulage specialists Van Der Vlist. And the trailer represents a semi-low loader built by Nooteboom, which is also Dutch. Its load is a lot more manageable than a turbine blade, but it is still a fairly substantial piece of equipment. It is wider than the trailer and so tall that its nose cap is transported separately on the trailer. It tapers and it has a complicated geometry because of the holes for the three blades in the sides. I built three identical sections, with angled panels between them. These all attach to a six-section bottom ring. There is a smaller ring and a separate truncated cone on top. Building all of this did turn out to be a fun challenge.

The LEGO 43222 Disney Castle celebrates 100 years of Disney [News]

After its predecessor 71040 Cinderella Castle was retired only six months ago, LEGO has announced the new 43222 Disney Castle as a part of their line of Disney100 sets released this year. Debuting later this summer, the castle features four Disney princess minifigures and their corresponding love interests: Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Snow White and Prince Florian, and Cinderella and Prince Charming. The back of the model is chock full of references to Disney’s 100-year history, spread throughout its many rooms and towers. This is the largest classic Disney set yet, clocking in at 4,837 pieces, beating the last castle by almost 800 pieces. The set will be available for VIPs starting on July 1st, with open access at LEGO stores and at LEGO.com on July 4th. To sweeten the pot for early shoppers, there is a gift-with-purchase titled Disney 100 Years Celebration (not pictured) available with select LEGO Disney purchases from July 1st through 9th. 43222 Disney Castle will take you well over that limit, retailing for US $399.99 | CAN $519.99 | UK £344.99

Explore more of the Disney Castle below

A Mûmakil kill still only counts as one

My wife and I are re-reading The Lord of the Rings together after having done so 22 years ago before the first Peter Jackson movie was released. By sheer coincidence, on the same day we read the chapter about the Battle of Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King, Kiwi builder Pieter Dennison shared the conclusion of a months-long project to recreate a Mûmak or Oliphaunt of the Haradrim in LEGO, based on how they appear in the movies.

Pieter’s build features all the iconic details of the enormous beast, from its four tusks (built from a series of 2×2 round bricks presumably strung on something like flex-tube), each with spikes on the end, to the war tower on the monstrous beast’s back. A closer look at the war tower shows just how huge this LEGO build really is, with about a score of minifigs riding into battle against the Rohirrim and men of Gondor.

If you want to see this in person, you can see it at the Christchurch Brick Show this July. And don’t miss all the other LEGO Oliphaunts we’ve featured over the years (also proving that this quote is the only one I ever use to write about this creature).

LEGO Icons 10320 Eldorado Fortress: Searching for Pirate gold [Review]

The Pirates line was a seminal theme for LEGO, introducing hoards of new elements and many things we take for granted now, such as unique faces beyond the classic smiley head. One of the largest and most sought-after sets from the original theme was 6276 Eldorado Fortress, a colonial-style base of operations for the blue-coated Imperial Guards. 10320 Eldorado Fortress is a remake of that iconic set taking advantage of 34 years of advancement in parts and techniques since the original. LEGO has avoided straight re-releases in recent years (with some notable exceptions), opting instead to tribute classics for the company’s 90th anniversary in 2022, with 10497 Galaxy Explorer as a modern upgrade to the original set, while 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle pays homage to a whole generation of Castle. Although the anniversary has passed, I am excited that LEGO has continued that nostalgia trend, turning its eye now to my personal favorite theme, Pirates. With 2,509 pieces, the new Eldorado Fortress nearly quintuples the original set’s 506 parts, though thankfully the price increases by a lesser margin, as the original was $66 in 1989 (about $161 in today’s dollars). The new set will retail for US $214.99 | CAN $279.99 | UK £189.99 when it’s available starting July 4 for VIP members (general availability will follow on July 7).

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full review

The majesty of the Biocup

We get through all sorts of superlatives to describe LEGO builds here at The Brothers Brick, but there’s surely only one way to describe MySnailEatsPizza‘s Children of the Mountain: majestic. Isn’t it just? It’s reminiscent of the way monarchs were painted in the middle ages. The framing coupled with the forced perspective mountains make this look truly epic. We don’t know who this character is, or what their purpose is, or where they’re going; but that’s not necessary. All we know is that they’re doing it in style.

How Anomalocaris, Opabinia, and the Cambrian Explosion changed my life

The broad range of wonderful LEGO creations built for events like the annual BioCup often spark odd memories of my own life experiences. This beautiful Anomalocaris by Care Creations reminded me of Stephen Jay Gould’s 1989 book Wonderful Life, which first introduced me to the panoply of fantastic lifeforms that emerged during the Cambrian Explosion over half a billion years ago. The book changed my view of how life emerged and evolved on our planet, as well as how scientific understanding itself evolves — both mind-blowing to a young missionary kid. One of the strengths of Bionicle is the system’s ability to reproduce organic shapes, enabling talented builders to create much more than Toa.

I love the minifigure hands on the ends of Anomalocaris’ tentacles, as well as all the smaller creatures the builder has included to give the impression of the early arthropod in its natural habitat.

If you enjoyed this ancient sea creature as much as I did, you’ll love these other Cambrian creatures, as well as this beautiful LEGO ammonite (though of course ammonites emerged about a hundred million years later).

A trip in the brick to Bordeaux

I’ve said it before, but I love being able to travel vicariously through LEGO models. The Architecture series has a lot of the famous landmarks covered, but for the more day-to-day infrastructure, we need to turn to people like Justus M. Having visited the town of Bordeaux in south-western France, he took it upon himself to recreate some of the old architecture. Having been to France (albeit not to Bordeaux itself) quite a lot as a kid, I think I can say he’s nailed it! You can quite easily picture someone sitting outside with a coffee and a croissant. It’s enough to make me want to go back there. Magnifique, Justus!

A little LEGO “big thaw” from the Ice Age movies

Please enjoy this LEGO-ized miniature Manny and super-small Sid from the Ice Age franchise, brought to you by Oliver Becker. His microscale scene depicts our two protagonists as they venture out at the end of the titular era. We even see Scrat in the foreground trying to hide his 1×1 round plate in the ice. The miniature scenery is quite nice, but the character builds are the real stars of the show. The tread links for Scrat’s arms and legs are brilliant, showing such ingenuity at this tiny scale. And the brickwork to emulate Sid’s triangular face is astounding! But of course, Manny has to put the “woolly” in woolly mammoth with the use of a minifig hair piece as his head. Much like with the movies, here’s hoping we get a sequel!