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.

Return of the Mon Calamari Cruiser

Once again, we find ourselves writing about an excellent LEGO diorama by swbuilds. And once again, it’s a Mon Calamari Cruiser full of life! After finishing the bridge, this build apparently followed close behind. But I’m not going to talk about Star Wars here. Instead I’m going to reference another space-faring LEGO theme: Life on Mars. For that is where all that glorious sand purple comes from! This is one of those colours with an extremely limited colour palette: only 18 designs, and six of those are minifigure parts. Fortunately, many of those other 12 parts were larger ones, so you can make them go a long way, as swbuilds does here. I’m particularly fond of the overturned pump from 7317 Aero Tube Hangar in the background!

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Sakiya Watanabe’s quest for excellence as a LEGO creator [Interview]

The secret about overnight successes is that it takes years of hard work to get to that “overnight” success. Sakiya Watanabe, who builds under the handle n.a.b.e_mocs, does the work. In the six months since he started sharing his creations online, Sakiya’s MOCs have earned kudos on this site and from AFOLs and professional builders alike, even as the young builder studies Organic Chemisty at university. We sat down with Sakiya to learn about how he prepared for this “overnight success,” and what drives him as a builder.

TBB: Your work caught our attention from the very first MOC you shared, but you must have been building a lot before reaching that point. When did you first discover LEGO and what excited you about building?

Sakiya Watanabe: Thank you for giving me this opportunity. First of all, my parents gave me LEGO SpongeBob Krusty Krab set (3825) when I was around 6 years old. Also, at the time, I was obsessed with the Lord of the Rings, but LEGO didn’t sell Lord of the Rings sets yet, so instead, my parents often bought me sets of the LEGO Castle fantasy era. And I often reassembled them to create the world of Lord of the Rings. This may have been my first works.

TBB: It sounds like you were making your own creations from the start. When did you become aware of the creations of other builders?

SW: I got into LEGO Star Wars when I was about 9 years old, and started making my own creations(MOC) around that time. At the time, I was always watching speed builds of sets on YouTube, and I would create MOCs while referring to the techniques used in the sets. This is a picture when I was 10 years old.

Our interview with Sakiya Watanabe continues…

A demon amplifier? Now that’s metal

Remember in Spinal Tap when they turn up their amplifiers to 11? You might think it’s just a funny gag, but rumour has it if you do that too many times you’ll turn your amplifier into a mischievous demon. Bionicle builder Mischief has seen it, and rendered its likeness in LEGO bricks And what LEGO bricks: the gaping maw hiding the speaker is a goal net, and the design of the quarter-inch jacks using tyres is fantastic. What tricks will this amped-up poltergeist get up to? Creating an annoying feedback hum? De-tuning guitars? If Spinal Tap are to be believed, it has a propensity for blowing up drummers…

“Get away from her, you bricks!”

Like James Cameron, here at the Brothers Brick we never turn down an opportunity to show off a good power suit. Take this Minilander-scale Power Loader from Aliens built by Marco DeBon – equally adept at moving cargo and battling Xenomorphs. This model requires a Class-2 license to operate, but is a class all its own in terms of design, with pleasingly chunky arms and a great use of tiles for a clean look.

Ripley can step out of the loader and is fully poseable. She looks like she’s been training with Chun Li before joining the mission to LV-426. I almost feel sorry for the poor Alien queen that has to face her!

From the side, we can better appreciate Marco’s judicious use of greebles and the excellent application of printed and stickered tiles.

Netbrix and chill with these LEGO TV tributes [Minifig Monday]

Ah, LEGO – the building toy that lets you explore deep space, medieval castles, and… the set of Seinfeld. From Stranger Things to Queer Eye, LEGO has made comfort viewing a staple of its catalogue. Since LEGO’s current product offerings are a bit light on adult TV fare (unless you count Bluey) we’re dedicating this week’s Minifig Monday to stars of the small screen

Kimberly Faul takes us back to Staten Island where What We Do in the Shadows was faithfully recorded for 6 seasons. Sadly the camera crew is gone, but we can get some satisfaction knowing that Nandor and crew are still tending to hedges. Kim does a great job of capturing the cast in minifig form, staged in their lovingly decrepit home (plus a few bonus cats, courtesy the builder!).

For a post-apoc minifig challenge on Instagram, Expansion Bricks revisits three of the stars of The Walking Dead, the franchise that refuses to die, in this update of one of the builder’s earliest minifig tributes. Figs aside, I love those trees made from stacked stud-shooting blasters.

Don’t tune out now. Keep scrolling for more minifig TV tributes!

LEGO floating service station keeps the locals in the air

Flying cars and hoverbikes need even more TLC to keep them running smoothly, and drivers need a place to grab an energy drink and a day old hotdog while they’re far from solid ground. That’s where this whymsical floating service station by Brickleas comes in. With something for everyone, and the most skilled robot mechanic in the sector, the only downside is keeping track of where it is when you need it, as the owner likes to move where the wind takes them.

An aquatic bird breaks new ground by flying high

Have you ever dreamed of flying? Me, too. And Matt Goldberg wants to remind us that’s a dream we share with some birds. Matt has done an amazing job of imbuing this brick-built penguin with plenty of personality. You can practically hear it squealing with delight. And I appreciate the little details in this build, like the tiny brown straps going just under the wing to indicate how the rocket pack stays on. Make sure to check out more of Matt’s creative creature work in our archives.

One Piece pirate ship? How about 4,000 Piece?

As excited as we are for the newly revealed One Piece sets, we still hold out hope that LEGO will return to the Age of Sails with sets that aren’t infused with clowns and talking reindeer. For minifig-scale ships, there are few LEGO shipwrights as skilled as Saran (MocYourBricks) who for years has been upgrading designs from LEGO’s past with an AFOL’s eye for detail and custom sails and rigging. This photo comes from bee.brick, who recreated the Black Pearl and Queen Anne’s Revenge from Saran’s instructions. with extra flourishes, like brick-built canon blasts.

Built from 4,000 pieces, the Queen Anne’s Revenge is a thing of beauty, and even if the roughly $1000 cost of sourcing the parts and instructions is out of your price range, you can vicariously experience the joy of building it in this one-hour “speed build.”

Grab a coffee and hop in your upgraded exosuit

Well, if we can’t have flying cars and personal jetpacks like we were promised in turn of the century visions of the future, maybe we can get something like this stylish exosuit by Wynd to make our morning commute to the office a bit more fun. With hands big enough to hold on to our giant Stanley cups and legs sturdy enough to leap over cars and busses on the long drive to work.

Explore Endor in this epic Ewok Village

Back in the 80s, I remember the older kids always showed a certain disdain for Ewoks. But I was just young enough when The Return of the Jedi came out that a giant alien treehouse manned by warrior teddy bears seemed like the coolest thing ever. And Simulterious has made my inner child beam with delight at the sight of this amazing Ewok village build.

Click through to check out the full build!

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for June 7, 2025 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders worldwide, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the 1st week of June 2025.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS Anime fans have a lot to get excited about this week, with the long-anticipated reveal of the first wave of sets from the Netflix live-action adaptation: One Piece, one of the longest-running anime series in history. The launch of the theme features a full range of sets, from small to gigantic, and, of course, they’re full of custom minifigures. We also covered news and reviews from Marvel, Star Wars, and How to Train Your Dragon. For even more news and reviews, be sure to check out last week’s Brick Report.

[NEWS] LEGO Voyagers revealed at Summer Game Fest, co-op adventure from Builder’s Journey developers Light Brick Studio — A new game from the makers of a super-chill and stylish adventure in building and puzzle solving.
[REVIEW] LEGO Bricklink Designer Program Series 5 – Mushroom Village: Make some ‘shroom on the shelf! — Time to get small with this amazing large-scale miniature village. Maybe you’ll run into Arietty.
[REVIEW] LEGO Star Wars 75428 Battle Droid with STAP: studs not on STAP — The B-1 battle droid joins the growing line-up of buildable droids, swoopping in on his STAAP, Roger roger!
[NEWS] LEGO sets sail for the Grand Line with a treasure trove of ONE PIECE sets — One Piece sets are finally arriving this summer, with a whole fleet of sweet pirate builds.
[NEWS] LEGO Icons How to Train Your Dragon: Toothless flies in July 1, 2025
— Now you too can build your own Toothless, complete with those big green eyes, and a floppy fish.
[REVIEW] LEGO Marvel 76327 Iron Man MK4 Bust: Head and shoulders above a reasonable price — A great display set for Marvel fans, full of cool details and interesting building techniques.

TBB FEATURES & INTERVIEWS We spoke to a seasoned builder with an amazing collection of builds inspired by Bladerunner, featured a collection of stellar dinosaur builds, and showcased an amazing collection of custom minifigures celebrating legends the of Star Wars Extended universe.

[FEATURE] Heroes of the Star Wars Expanded Universe: Legends but not forgotten — Take a trip to a more legendary side of a galaxy far, far away.
[FEATURE] This Week in LEGO Bricks: Absolute Icons — Icons in LEGO form this week in bricks.
[INTERVIEW] Keiichi Kamei dreams of electronic bricks – 10 years of Blade Runner Builds — “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe”, and they are amazing LEGO models based on Phillip K Dick’s dark vision of the future.
[FEATURE] Bones-to-Brick collaboration celebrates prehistoric life in LEGO — An absolutely amazing collection of dinosaurs, flying reptiles, and aquatic creations from many prehistoric periods.
[FEATURE] Dark Lords and Durasteel – Sith happens — Celebrating the dark side (they have cookies, I hear) with a line-up of sith characters.

Read all the rest of the LEGO news from around the web

I always enjoy my crab chilled

LEGO themes might officially come and go, but they live forever in our MOCs. And Braylon Turner is helping keep Ice Planet 2002’s memory alive and well with this Seraphic Scarab Amphibious Vehicle; a unique craft perfect for exploring the frozen frontier with powerful mechanized legs that can handle the harshest terrain. This build makes terrific use of Technic and even Bionicle pieces, giving it a unique look among the Ice Planet 2002 fleet, but the color scheme of black, white, and blue capped off with those trans-neon orange bits is unmistakable.