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.

The Belafonte, home to Team Zissou, gets the retro LEGO treatment

Every so often, I’ll stumble upon a LEGO model that has accidental Wes Anderson vibes, but this cross-section of the Belafonte from The Life Aquatic is definitely Wes Anderson on purpose. Builder Eddie Marshall deliberately sticks to the look of classic LEGO sets from the 80s and 90s, fitting for a film that was itself a nostalgic tribute to the late 70s adventures of Jaques Cousteau. Eddie captures most of the Belafonte‘s rooms in a miniature tableau, with most of the crew represented in simple minifig form. Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from dozens of colors, NPU, and amazing SNOT techniques and unwind with a build that could have drifted in from another era.

If you need a refresher on the Belafonte and its crew, Martin Balazs offers an animated tour of his incredibly detailed LEGO version.

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This Week in LEGO Bricks: The Catbus/Dark Knight Returns

Nothing that happens in the LEGO building scene gets past our friend ABrickDreamer! Once again he’s here with a round-up of the week’s essential LEGO stories. A few highlights: Star Wars fans will appreciate this TIE Fighter technique breakdown from Tips&Bricks, seeing Middle Earth’s Edoras come together will tide you over after building the Shire, and of course lots of Studio Ghibli builds!

What can brown do for you?

In a LEGO world of castles and Millenium Falcons, it takes something like this for me to really take notice. I mean, come on, look how fun this is! In Jack McKeen’s own words; “Meet Rhonda Yun in her ‘82 Chevy Gamma Series Campervan. Rhonda is a staff columnist and travel blogger for the Arcturus Tribune. Avid Browntron Enthusiast, she is a do it yourselfer who enjoys long walks along the Arrakis dunes, drinking Klingons under the table, and teaching gundarks yoga.” Maybe it’s just the Schlitz talking but I’m smitten with Rhonda and her Browntron ship. It’s pretty much the Gen-X color scheme and looks like a puffy jacket I had in elementary school.

Giving credit where credit is due, Jack tells us the Browntron inspiration comes from the inimitable Angus MacLane. Here’s another builder Matthew Sklar delivering the goods with some more Browntron fun.

How to wring iron elegance from unlikely elements [Building Techniques]

In celebration of spring’s arrival, Flatland Brick shares a charming LEGO build of a gardener tending to the season’s first blooms. The real star of this scene is the wrought iron bench. The builder draws on some clever parts for the ornate metalwork, such as umbrellas for the armrests, minifig hands for the rear legs, and a samurai headpiece for the back. The cleverest techniques are hidden until you flip the build around.

Link treads are used to hold the wooden slats in place at a subtle angle. They also offer connection points for the antennae that hold up the horns! LEGO kicked off the trend of finding unusual black elements to use as wrought iron in the earliest modulars, turning screwdrivers, harpoons, and skeleton feet into railings. Flatland Brick shows how much room there is to innovate, especially with parts like the tank treads that offer unconventional anchor points.

Keeping the space classic, then and now

LEGO builder Monty Matte gave himself a challenge with some simple rules. On the left, he tickles our nostalgia bone with a layout straight out of a Classic Space set from the 1970’s. To the right, the same theme but using an array of modern parts and techniques. Each sits on a 16×16 plate while between them resides some sort of time portal linking the two worlds. Together, you have an interesting composition that highlights progression in LEGO history and offers what looks like some fun playability. The minifigure on the right appears to be an adult building an environment that reflects his childhood. This holds a sweet spot in the hearts of any grown-ass adult with a LEGO room- so basically, everyone in my contact list.

Epic wrap battles of history

Marvel’s nocturnal crime fighter Moon Knight draws on Egyptian history and lore in much the same way that Marvel’s Thor does from Norse mythology. Meaning, very loosely and with little reverence or concern for accuracy. This remarkable LEGO build by PriXard is highly faithful to the source material though, beautifully capturing the outcast god Khonshu as depicted in the 2022 mini-series. PriXard achieves a wonderful eye-catching texture for Khonshu’s wraps throughout the model, using pretty much every white LEGO element I can think of that represents fabric except seemingly for the Moon Knight’s own signature hood element found in the Marvel Studios Series 2 Collectible Minifigures.

A browse through PriXard’s other creations reveals a builder who doesn’t shy away from adding custom cloth elements for wings, capes and the like as needed. They share that this creation is “not completely finished”, adding they “wanted to add more cloth, (though) don’t want to cover the details on the arms.” Understandably, as I think this detail deserves to be seen. Maybe we can convince PriXard to let this dusty deity rest peacefully as is…

LEGO announces new Marvel Mini Bust line with Iron Man and Iron Spider sets [News]

In the wake of clearance-priced LEGO Marvel 76215 Black Panther appearing on the LEGO website for over a year, it appeared that interest in a large bust of a superhero didn’t exist for LEGO shoppers. But, beginning in June, LEGO will be returning to the milieu in a smaller scale with LEGO Marvel 76327 Iron Man MK4 Bust and LEGO Marvel 76326 Iron Spider-Man Bust. Consisting of 436 and 379 pieces, respectively, these portrait statuettes clock in at a height of only 6.5 inches (17 cm). Each is adorned with an appropriate minifigure, with the Iron Man bust coming out June 1st and Iron Spider hitting shelves later on August 1st. Both Marvel sets are available for pre-order now, and retail for US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99.

Check out the two new Marvel Mini Busts below!

Earthly Phoenix is a heavenly LEGO creation

In Chinese mythology, the peacock is seen as the earthly manifestation of the legendary phoenix, fènghuáng. Builder Jim Jo combines imagery of heaven and earth for this incredible LEGO tribute to the majestic bird. The peacock model is striking on its own, especially the cascading tail made from an alternating series of 2×1 plates and 1×1 rounds. The use of color is incredible as blues fade into greens. (We’ve noted before, Jim is a master of color!)

“De fènghuáng” is perched across a blossoming branch. In order to support the weight of the bricks, Jim constructed the branch around a custom metal armature. The pixel moon is built on a transparent baseplate so that it can be backlit. Sculpture, mosaic, and still life come together for a creation as heavenly as the phoenix.

Ferrix speeder for Andor butts

Finding an on-screen vehicle from Star Wars that hasn’t been built hundreds of times over in LEGO is tougher than making the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs, but builder Gregory Coquelz found inspiration in a speeder with a few seconds of screen time in Andor Season 1, Episode 3. The Ferrix Riot Speeder has the chunky aesthetics and weathered body you’d expect from a dusty salvage planet. Built at Miniland scale let Gregory pack the speeder with greebles. I appreciate the inclusion of old, yellowed grey bricks from a more civilized era, before bley and blasters.

To help the curious view the speeder from every angle, Gregory shared a video that you can see below. Only two more weeks until Andor Season 2 kicks off. No doubt we’ll get more amazing blink-and-you’ll-miss-it vehicles to inspire future builds!

Gayle Spiller’s enchanting LEGO box dioramas [Interview]

Gayle Spiller turns whimsical ideas into inspiring LEGO models packed with detail. Her builds, like the Butterfly Collector, are so dense with imaginative use of parts, you can get lost in them. In 2023, Gayle joined the exclusive group of builders to be featured at the LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery. In recent months, Gayle has been playing with a new, cozier build format – one that, like minifig habitats, could inspire builders looking to make their own MOCs from their favorite pieces who might be intimidated by larger constructions. We checked in with Gayle to talk about her latest series and life with LEGO since her invitation to Billund.

TBB: First of all, congratulations on being chosen as one of the latest builders invited to display your creations at the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO House. What was it like to learn that your works would be displayed in Billund? What was it like meeting the other amazing builders and the LEGO team? Has anything changed in your relationship with LEGO building since your works were spotlighted?

Gayle: Thank you. Being asked to exhibit at the Lego Masterpiece Gallery 2023/24 was a complete surprise and I definitely had imposter syndrome. It was a fantastic experience and I loved meeting the other builders who I had admired online for so long. It was interesting to learn about their building methods, how for instance Zach produces some of his spectacular pieces in only 3 hours. That was a revelation and definitely inspired me to scale down and create something that would take a weekend to finish rather than some of my larger projects which have taken months.

Click to see more of Gayle’s immersive box dioramas

Microscale Miyazaki (Or how to be inspired by Studio Ghibli without letting generative AI do all the work)

Lately, every social feed has been clogged with AI slop pillaging the surface-level aesthetics of Studio Ghibli films. Here’s a palate cleanser from Joe Lam – a microscale LEGO Catbus and Totoro. Celebrating Totoro, it’s instantly recognizable from just 9 or 10 elements, and the Catbus is packed with personality. The eyes are especially inspired, using Batman logos for the wild pupils.

Joe designed the Catbus back in 2023, but what better time to celebrate the joy that comes from human creativity? And maybe have a look at other Totoro builds that have inspired us over the years.

“Star Tours, this is serious LEGO site. What are you doing here?”

Disney’s cinematic renaissance might have kicked off in 1989 with The Little Mermaid, but the Disney parks were entering a new era two years earlier with the debut of Star Tours. The immersive ride combined motion simulation with state-of-the-art special effect filmmaking to transport riders into the Star Wars universe, joining a trench run to take out the Death Star. Okay Yaramanoglu recreates the StarSpeeder 3000 in LEGO with a model with the greebles and pinstripes that will take you right back to 1987.

Use the fast pass and jump right to more pics of Okay’s e-ticket build of the Star Tours speeder