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 Super Mario 71411 The Mighty Bowser – A boss of a build [Review]

Pretty much everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock is acquainted with Nintendo and the Super Mario franchise. Indeed, the little guy and his troupe of friends and enemies are a pop culture icon, and a marriage between LEGO and Nintendo was always inevitable. Whether you’re playing or displaying, there are sets for everyone, even if you’re not a diehard nostalgic fan. The latest addition, Mario’s arch enemy, is certainly no exception. LEGO Super Mario 71411 The Mighty Bowser (which will be available October 1st and retail for US $269.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £229.99) might just put a smile on the faces of even decidedly uninterested builders. Come with us as we take a closer look at this 2807-piece supervillain.

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 see if he wins the day!

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LEGO Harry Potter 76406 Hungarian Horntail Dragon [Review]

The summer 2022 Harry Potter wave includes one more display-oriented set, 76406 Hungarian Horntail Dragon. This is the third in what seems to be a series of large(er)-scale winged, flapping creature builds from the Harry Potter theme, following Hedwig the owl and Fawkes the phoenix. Of course, those models were of much smaller creatures, closer to 1:2 or 1:4 in scale. This build roughly matches the first two in size, so the scale is much smaller. Here’s our review of the set, which contains 671 pieces and 1 minifigure, and is available now for US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99.

This set is based on a license The LEGO Group has with the Warner Brothers films, not J.K. Rowling directly. The transphobic views expressed by Rowling do not reflect the values of The Brothers Brick or, indeed, those of The LEGO Group. The magical world Rowling created, in which many who felt a bit different could see themselves, meant a great deal to so many people, including those that Rowling now demeans. TBB affirms each individual LEGO fan’s choice to claim a piece of the world for themselves, or to reject it entirely.

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.

Read the full review

A pattern in the bricks

The overwhelming majority of the LEGO creations we feature here on The Brothers Brick are spaceships, cars, castles, and other objects and scenes. What we see far less frequently are abstract designs like this fascinating one by Crimso Giger. Sometimes it’s good to return to the basic rectangular geometry of the brick and see what emerges. Although presented as a two-dimensional artwork, this build lives in three dimensions taking up three sides of a cube.
It’s part of an ongoing exploration by Crimso into creating fascinating photos of LEGO and the interplay of light and geometry. Here’s one of my favorites. At first glance it looks digitally altered, but it’s pure LEGO. See if you can figure out how it’s done.

Fat Gus for the win

If there is one thing in this world that I love it has to be animal-controlled LEGO mechs, like this one by Midwest Builders. We are presented with a mech featuring a lot of Technic/Bionicle pieces that, for me, are always a tough job to identify. The beefy mech is controlled by the relatively new LEGO squirrels. I do not know why, but apparently they have a feud with the frogs. It appears they are capturing them and keeping them imprisoned in transparent cages that closely resemble acorns. Big Gus is surrounded by a lot of little squirrels on smaller mechs and vehicles which appear to be assisting him with his tasks. All I know is that these squirrels are fully equipped to pillage your birdfeeder.

LEGO Ideas 21336 The Office – Home of the World’s best boss [REVIEW]

The LEGO Ideas theme has led to many popular shows finding new life in plastic bricks, from The Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld, Friends, and more. The sets let fans recreate their favorite moments and scenes, and actors of major blockbuster movies like Star Wars, Jurrasic Park, and the Marvel franchise are not the only celebrities who get to collect minifig versions of themselves. Well, fans of the hit American show based on the hit British show The Office can finally join in the fun with LEGO Ideas 21336: The Office, which includes 1,164 pieces and will be available on Oct 1, 2022 for US $119.99 | CAN $144.99 | UK £104.99

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.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Ideas 21336 The Office

The future of the Forestmen

I think LEGO should consider bringing the Forestmen theme back (and castle in general, for that matter). Look at this creation by Sylon_tw. It features the classic light grey, black, and blue colour scheme but it is brought up to date. The blue is combined with dark blue to make it look less primary colorish and lend a mottled look. The grey walls feature texture to achieve an overall worn-down look. And the black is just a little bit less dominant than it was in the original theme. There is lush foliage everywhere and cute little forest critters hiding in it. Best thing about this whole castle creation? It is not conflict driven. At least if you presume the archer is just practising for athletic reasons.

The lug wrench marks the spot

Jan Woznica has engaged in a little bit of meta-LEGO building with this mosaic style recreation of a classic treasure map tile. All the major details are perfectly captured, from the compass to the latitude and longitude lines. I think mosaics of classic prints could spark a new MOC trend thanks to the near-endless possibilities…computer screens, instrument panels, license plates, wanted posters. What printed tile mosaic would you want hanging on your wall?

Midwife /ˈmidˌwīf/ (noun) a person (typically a woman) trained to assist women in childbirth

Do you know why we’ve seen an influx of LEGO crab creations lately? No seriously, do you? Because we’re pretty confused on the matter. We featured this one a few days back, then this one followed by this other one and now Ivan Martynov presents his crab simply called Midwife. I’m not sure if this qualifies as TMI or not but we’re pretty sure there are also other crabs infesting our various cracks and crevices. Despite the burning and itching, I rather like the odd color scheme and bio-mechanical feel of this design. The multiple eyes are quite unsettling and it appears as if she’s manifesting smaller pink crabs from her own head. It really takes me back to high school prom night! Anyway, check out all the other reasons why Ivan Martynov kinda gets under our skin.

Serving up a pint of awesomeness with an exclusive interview with model car designer Tom Daniel [Feature]

Sure we all love to build with LEGO but, chances are, you may have dipped your toes into other toys and hobbies as well. Before rediscovering LEGO, I was an avid model car builder and collector of Hot Wheels cars (and still am!). Hot-rodding legend Tom Daniel holds a special place in my heart as his outlandish show rod models and Hot Wheels casts such as the Beer Wagon, and Red Baron is still popular and sought-after toys today. You may recall that LEGO legend Andrea Lattanzio built Tom Daniel’s Paddy Wagon a couple years back. To be clear, Andrea’s Beer Wagon (pictured below) dates back a few years as well but it was never featured here at the time. Recently he sat down with Tom Daniel for an interview and if you ask me, that’s pretty thrilling!

Some highlights of note from the interview; the Beer wagon was Tom’s first design for Monogram models, then came the Red Baron and his career pretty much skyrocketed from there. Overnight Daniel dreamed up the Munster Koach for George Barris, although the credit for the design by Daniel often gets misstated. He also designed the Bat Cycle for the 1960s Batman television series. Tom Daniel also flew for the U.S. Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis and worked as a Design Engineer for the APOLLO MOON Project. Of course you may read the entire interview here.

We’re rather proud of Andrea’s achievements. He was voted The Brothers Brick Builder of the Year in 2019. He’s still quite the prolific builder nowadays. We raise our glasses high in salute to him. Check out why we think Andrea Lattanzio is a pint of premium brew.

Putting the art into arthropod

You may have recently noticed a dramatic increase in the number of crab creations in the LEGO community. Rising with this increase has been the use of the pun ‘feeling crabby’ – which, to be fair, is a good one. Heck, we’ve even used it twice (yes, twice) on this very website, and those weren’t even written by resident pun-meister Lino. DanielBrickSon has rather forced our pincered hand into using it a third time. In our defense, how else would you describe this piece of artwork? It’s named the Hana Crabba, and I can’t tell if that face is camouflaged to ward off predators or if this is some sort of ancient crustacean deity. Either way, it doesn’t look best pleased to have been turned into a beautiful piece of brick artwork. How ungrateful!

This arrowhead-shaped spaceship gets to the point quickly

Modeled after the Trilobate arrowhead, builder Rubblemaker provides a speedy LEGO starfighter made for quick trips across the cosmos. It’s not everyday that you see Bionicle parts interspersed on a space creation, but the builder navigates it well, using the Rahkshi legs to great effect around the cockpit. And the shaping of the rear engine with toothed wheels and gears feels right at home here. But overall, while I understand the ancient inspiration for this build, my mind is instead taken back to 1998 and the Aquazone faction Stingrays. With a high concentration of dark gray, highlights in red, and wing curves reminiscent of a squid’s body, I feel like this fighter would be at home in the stars or the sea.

Your ‘wich is my command!

I’m pretty sure that Jaroslaw Walter knew that I was starting a diet today, and that the last thing I needed to see was a delicious, melty LEGO Italian sandwich on ciabatta bread. I know it’s made of plastic. I know those juicy sun-dried tomatoes are actually minifig fireman helmets. And I know that the ooey-gooey cheese is accumulating on the parchment paper in pools made of 3×3 and 4×4 radar dishes. And, yes, I know the paper-thin slices of Parma ham are ingeniously made of plastic dragon wings