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.

Talmudic Academy in LEGO celebrates stained glass and tradition

With the exception of Notre Dame, LEGO has shied away from depicting places of worship in official sets, leaving AFOLs to provide religious buildings for minifig believers. Church mocs are quite common, as evidenced by our extensive archive, and lately we’ve been seeing a lot more mosques as well, but synagogues are rarely seen in brick. Builder Matthew Sklar provides a rare look inside a LEGO synagogue from the medieval era, based on the Talmudic Academies of circa 10th Century Babylonia. The Torah ark, framed in blue tiles, is beautifully constructed, but it’s the stained glass windows that shine brightest – fitting as Matthew created this model for the Colossal Castle competition’s stained glass category, as well as Brickscalibur’s Arabian Knights theme.

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LEGO unveils Smart Play system – LEGO bricks and minifigs that play back [News]

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) isn’t the usual venue for LEGO to break big news – techies love displaying LEGO, but the bricks themselves aren’t your typical cutting-edge gadgets. That’s about to change with the announcement of the Smart Play system. Smart Bricks communicate with Smart Minifigures and Smart Tags that integrate sensors and spatial awareness into your builds, thanks to microchips smaller than a single stud. You can read about LEGO’s design process for the Smart Brick here.

As rumored, the new system debuts with the Star Wars theme with three all-in-one sets coming this March. Each of these will include a Smart Brick, charger, and at least one Smart Minifigure and Yag. The all-in-one sets include: 75421 Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter (69,99 EUR / 69,99 USD / 59,99 GBP), 75423 Luke’s Red Five X-wing (89,99 EUR / 99,99 USD / 79,99 GBP), and 75427 Throne Room Duel & A-wing (159,99 EUR / 159,99 USD / 139,99 GBP). Presumably other sets will expand the Minifigure and Tag range but wouldn’t include a charging station.

LEGO has, of course, experimented with ways for bricks and circuits to talk to each other before. Mindstorms empowered curious builders to experiment with robotics and programming as early as 1998. The Dimensions toys-to-life video game platform let gamers scan physical toys to activate the models in-game. Vidyo and Hidden World sets played with augmented reality apps. Most recently, the Super Mario line uses a smart figure and sensors to let players assemble courses, collect coins, and playback sounds and expressions.

As the sensors in Smart Play are smaller and more powerful, they seem primed to make it easier for kids to integrate sound effects, music, lights, and game behaviors into physical sets that are much closer to your typical LEGO models. Just how robust those behaviors are, we’ll have to see. Right now it looks like the primary focus here is on imaginative, physical play rather than the more STEM focused initiatives like Mindstorms and Spike. I’m very curious to see how adult LEGO fans integrate these new functions into creations.

LEGO’s press release follows

The hottest Dino in the Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 recently arrived on the Nintendo Switch, and Sakiya Watanabe (N.A.B.E_mocs) has already marked the occasion with a new build featuring one of our favorite enemies from these games. The Dino Piranha is a piranha plant variation that resembles Petey Piranha (first introduced in Super Mario Sunshine), but the difference is that these guys hatch from eggs and have dinosaur features – because of course they do. The Super Mario Galaxy games were revolutionary for the franchise and took every enemy, world, and gameplay element to the next level, and Sakiya has done the same with this build.

The 2×2 round brick tube (part 65473) has proven to be the most essential piece for Super Mario builds, and is predominantly featured on sets like The Mighty Bowser, the Spiny Shell, and the Piranha Plant. Sakiya used the same part here in different colors to capture the mouth and tail of the Dino Piranha, which looks right at home next to the official sets. We especially appreciate the use of some newer leaf molds on the Fiery Dino Piranha to round out their scorching hot ‘mane’.

Sakiya also shared an alternate color of this build to represent the base Dino Piranha that is first encountered in the Good Egg Galaxy. The Mario galaxy crystal resembling a LEGO rock 1×1 crystal in both builds is such an excellent touch.

The Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2025 [News]

Woah, wait a minute! We’re already nearly a week into 2026? How did that happen? While we figure that out where those days went, it’s about time we announced the winner of our annual Creation of the Year prize. This year’s shortlist was one of the toughest to judge in the ten years we’ve been doing so. A baker’s dozen of incredible builds, from creators new and known to us alike, across a wide range of media and subject matter. And indeed, it’s a new builder who’s taking the crown this year! Despite only starting to share their builds in 2025, they quickly established themselves as something of a castle specialist. Which makes sense – they are known as cathedralofbricks, after all!

And the cream of the crop for us was this superbly furnished Moroccan palace. So congratulations to Luke (cathedralofbricks) and his Delights of Marrakech build, which we are declaring the Brothers Brick’s LEGO Creation of the Year 2025!

Click here for a reminder of what made this Moroccan marvel so magnificent!

The Ice Planet droids are bringing the heat

The holidays are behind us. Which means no more songs about the beauty of snow or the joy of cold weather. Now it’s just dealing with the harsh reality of winter as we try and survive the frost until spring arrives. With that in mind, we suggest you get yourself some Ice Planet droids, like this crew from Devid VII. They can shovel the walk with ease. At least, I assume they can. I mean, they’re built for keeping space explorers safe on a frigid planet, so your sidewalk should be a piece of cake.

Ring in the new year with these modern kitchen upgrades

It’s easy to earn oohs and aahs when you’re building a massive SHIPtember project or constructing a beloved IP. But I’ve really come to appreciate the effort that goes into smaller builds and builds of everyday items. That’s why I think Oshi Builds is really cooking with this kitchen setting. These are the kinds of things we’re all so familiar with, there’s no room for error. And, in minifigure scale, the number of pieces you can use gets very limited indeed. But there are some amazing details here; the knife block with the perfect angle, the dials and handles on the stove/oven. Heck, the refrigerator even has a cord running around the back so you can plug it in!

Shinto tradition, Swedish horses, and Danish bricks to celebrate the New Year

Japanese builder umemaruko uses LEGO to charming effect as part of seasonal decor and holiday traditions (we previously covered her beautiful fall collection). To usher in the Year of the Horse, the builder presents a trio of models. Hanging on the wall is a Nehiki Matsu, a pine sprig charm that is a precursor to the kadomatsu traditional display, where the items symbolize wishes for the new year. Umemaruko’s wishes for the year: to stay grounded and to keep growing! Also in the display, a pair of horses inspired by Swedish Dala horse wood carvings and a kagami mochi – mochi with stacked with dried persimmon. Traditionally, the branch would be burned and the mochi eaten, but I hope umemaruko still has good fortune even if these bricks don’t meet that fate.

Tranquility in teal

Noah (H2brick) has created so many incredible vignettes over the years, from sunny villas to snowy planets. After a prolific 2024 with series dedicated to Darth Vader and Adventure Time, Noah was strangely quiet during 2025, without a single build until the last day of the year. Thankfully, Noah hasn’t lost the spark for crafting beautiful scenes like this freeform vignette set in the magical Teal Valley, where the diminutive acorn folk dwell. I’m a big fan of innovative tree techniques, and Noah doesn’t disappoint. Large teal trees with stocky trunks and bushy white foliage of flowers on their sprues are undeniably majestic, but the smaller tree with angular dark blue branches is also a winner. Welcome back, Noah – we’re excited to see where your miniature worlds will take us next!

The majesty of a magpie magnified

Lee Nuo is a self-proclaimed bird enthusiast, and we’ve covered some of their avian builds before. But this tribute to the Formosan Blue Magpie takes things to a new heights, putting the bird at the certain of a vignette about the natural sciences and those who study them. We love the stylized magnifying glass and it’s POV into the smaller world, along with the scaffolding and the research team. It all serves as a reminder that sometimes the most beautiful things about nature are the things you can’t see with the naked eye.

Eero Okkonen shows how its done with this golden Huntr/x tribute to K-Pop Demon Hunters

Over the past sixteen years, Eero Okkonen has created hundreds of incredible brick-built characters that utilize the full range of LEGO elements in bold and surprising ways. (If you’re not following Eero’s review+moc features on New Elementary, you’re missing out!) The Finnish superstar’s latest is a tribute to 2025’s breakout music and movie sensation, K-Pop Demon Hunters, as Rumi, Mira, and Zoey all get the Eero treatment. The ladies of Huntr/x have never looked better!

The trio of figures are built from a combined ~1,600 pieces. The characters also mark the first time that Eero is bringing his signature style of poseable character to the LEGO Ideas platform (you can vote for it here). As a constraint to improve the chances of a successful Ideas review, Eero limits the build almost entirely to elements currently in production.

As usual with the builder’s characters, the models look great from every angle and are highly poseable. Remarkably, Eero sticks to all “legal” connection techniques, with the possible exception of the eyes, which use minifig hands – a trick found in many of his character designs.

Click to see each character in close-up with building insights

Who says LEGO gold is hard to build from?

We often talk on this website about how hard it is to make LEGO creations out of gold. Not literal gold, obviously, although presumably that is also quite difficult. Goldsmiths, get in touch and let us know. No, gold-coloured LEGO bricks have traditionally been limited to just a few select parts, making it quite hard to build anything substantial out of them. Not that you’d know that from looking at Joe Lam‘s hall of armours! These 12 sacred Cloths form a key part of the manga and anime Saint Seiya, and are all based on the zodiac signs. Joe’s build represents each one superbly! Can you spot them all?

The second bird catches the fish – after it’s been rebuilt

Just because Sakiya Watanabe has been nominated for our LEGO Creation of the Year, doesn’t mean he’s going to rest on his laurels! And just to reinforce that dedication to improving his craft, here he presents an updated version of the bald eagle we featured 10 months back. We were full of praise at the time, but Sakiya wasn’t satisfied. The curse of the perfectionist! In case you can’t spot the differences, they include an updated tail, water splash and head. The photo angle also appears to have been carefully selected to better hide some of the underlying structure. There is one thing that hasn’t changed, however. We’re just as awe-struck this time around!