Coming from the laboratory of builder Kevin H. this LEGO parakeet kaiju will have you running for the hills! The first thing I notice about this figure is the awesome neon green pieces. Makes me wonder if it’s radioactive… I particularly like the band on it’s belly, a panel popular in the Blacktron LEGO toy line back in the early 90’s. And since we’re looking at the details, pieces from the Bionicle toy line, like those claw hooks for talons, abound! They give the mechanical monstrosity a machine-like texturing that would make Mechagodzilla jealous. This build is as beautiful as it is scary, but I prefer it as LEGO than a real mech terrorizing cities. Though I’d watch that movie!
Category Archives: LEGO
Look of a Warhol, texture of a Van Gogh
When LEGO launched their Art theme it included a tile-based mosaic take on the iconic Marilyn Monroe panel-art by Andy Warhol. And that was pretty cool…back then. But now artist Michelle Krüger has placed her own unique spin on this classic image, adding texture that introduces an entirely new depth to things.
LEGO Botanical Collection 10311 Orchid – beauty comes in many shapes [Review]
Someone at LEGO headquarters must have been having an awesome day when they dreamed up the idea to start a line of sets that features fan-favorite plants. Absolutely brilliant in so many ways! Since its creation, the Botanical Collection has been an epic hit, and the latest wave are sure to be crowd-pleasers! Join us as we take a look at the first of two new additions: LEGO Botanical Collection 10311 Orchid. This lovely build stands at 15 inches tall and contains 608 pieces. It is currently available for online preorder at US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £49.99 and will be more widely available starting May 1st, just in time for Mother’s Day.
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!
Nice Winnebago but will it keep you safe from The Walking Dead?
Who could forget season one of The Walking Dead? Come to think of it, I forgot most of it. 2010 was a long time ago! Was that before or after Carl got to wear his dad’s hat? Anyway, one detail that still knocks around the ol’ reptile brain is Dale’s Winnebago and Jonas Kramm has done a great job recreating it in LEGO. Here we see Dale keeping an eye out for Walkers in (relative) safety from the roof. I’m loving the cooler, radio, beach chair, umbrella, and aerial antenna. It has all the makings to keep the whole gang safe through one season of the apocalypse only to have something horrific happen to it and all occupants not named Rick a short time later. Good times! While we’re wracking our delicious braaaaaains trying to remember what happened to Dale, take a slow shambling walk down memory lane and check out some other Walking Dead LEGO scenes that also didn’t go well for anyone.
A real American LEGO
The G.I. Joe Wolverine was one of my favorite toys as a kid, and Big Easy Bricks is giving it the love it deserves with this near 1:1 brick recreation. Every slope and vent and piece of greebling from the original toy is accounted for and, thanks to a set of reproduction stickers, you’d almost be forgiven for thinking this was a picture of the vintage vehicle. There are even some upgrades on this version, like a pull-out storage rack for extra missiles. The Wolverine feels oft forgotten about in discussions of 80s nostalgia. Maybe it’s the unfortunate mutant-shared name. Maybe it’s the fact that it came with a female driver in the early 80s boy-toy market. But I’m happy Big Easy Bricks has let us know the Wolverine still has some fans out there. Because, after all, knowing is half the battle…
Hobbits on the run and hideaway
Three is company, but four with a Ringwraith is a crowd. Coming from builder Thorsten Bonsch, this LEGO scene is the fifth build in a series taking on the legendary world of The Lord of the Rings. Depicting moments iconic to both the films and the books, these builds favor the books in the details. That’s why we see three instead of four hobbits–Merry didn’t join the group until the next chapter! Thorsten returns to this story moment after ten years away, though this time at a much smaller scale. What makes or breaks a build at this scale are the details, and the details here are amazing! Take a look at those tree roots, how they frame the hiding hobbits and flow towards the leaning tree. The tree takes you to the Ringwraith sniffing out the Ring, but Sam stops Frodo from revealing their location. These aren’t the hobbits you’re looking for, Ringwraith!
Ten years ago, Thorsten realized too late that Merry wasn’t part of the group of hobbits hiding from the Ringwraith pursuing Frodo and the Ring. This time around, the mistake is corrected with Frodo, Sam, and Pippin in the hideaway. The ten year-old build is quite beautiful, and I recommend checking it out. It’s at a larger scale than this one, and on a steep slope rather than the hollow Tolkien described in the book. Also look forward to the next build in this Middle-earth vignette series! It will expand to other builders once Thorsten’s contributions are finished. I do enjoy a good adventure through Middle-earth!
LEGO Horizon 76989 Tallneck – “Looks just like Rost described it.” [Review]
Originally a Playstation exclusive but now also available for PC, Horizon Zero Dawn was a groundbreaking game with a visionary plot. This 2017 role-playing game was a foray into the unfamiliar for the developer, Guerilla Games. A title like this was a massive change from their usual fare and some within the company saw its development as a huge risk. Though the plot and gameplay went through plenty of changes before it was released, the Tallneck was an early mainstay amongst the creature designs. Before the game even hit the shelves, fans were excited about the concept art featuring this peaceful, iconic giant. The giraffe-like mechanical beast soon became a recognizable symbol of the game that now extends into its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, currently available exclusively for the Playstation 4 and 5, and fan-built LEGO models of it have been quite popular. The release of this new installment was a perfect reason to make official the relationship between Guerilla Games, LEGO, and their mutual fans. Enter the Horizon 76989 Tallneck. This 1,222-piece set will be available worldwide on May 1st from the LEGO Shop Online for US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99. It comes with one Aloy minifigure, a small Watcher, and the towering Tallneck on a display base featuring scenery elements of the game. If that interests you, turn on your Focus and let’s get ready to Override this big guy correctly.
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.
LEGO reveals next two Botanical Collection sets: 10309 Succulents and 10311 Orchid [News]
LEGO’s series of life-size recreations of plants and flowers has proven tremendously popular since their launch at the start of 2021 with the Flower Bouquet and Bonsai Tree, and now the company is expanding it even more with two new sets. The 608-piece 10311 Orchid (US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99) brings a new flower to the series; much like last year’s 10289 Bird of Paradise it features the full plant in a pot, rather than just flower cuttings. Meanwhile, the 771-piece 10309 Succulents (US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99) takes the series in a new direction with a variety of small colorful plants in pots that can be rearranged. LEGO is pitching the sets as Mother’s Day gifts, so both sets are available to pre-order starting today, and are slated to launch May 1.
Check out more info and pictures of the sets below, and don’t miss these other upcoming LEGO sets for Spring and Summer 2022:
- LEGO 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine
- LEGO 76989 Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck
- LEGO Disney Pixar’s Lightyear sets
- LEGO Harry Potter Summer 2022 sets
- LEGO Ideas upcoming sets
- LEGO Jurassic World & Jurassic Park
- LEGO Jurassic World full lineup
- LEGO Marvel Thor: Love & Thunder Goat Boat
- LEGO Star Wars Diorama Collection
- LEGO Star Wars 75325 The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter
Time for some DI-What?
I’m busy renovating my home at the moment and this LEGO build from Thomas Gion made me do a double-take as I originally thought it was a targeted advert! It’s a stunning example of an everyday object recreated in LEGO.
The caulking gun features Brick separators for the trigger and handle alongside making good use of technic tube pieces for the plunger. I’m particularly fond of the Caulk tube too and how Thomas has shown that he’s almost empty by introducing the black elements for the end of the sealant, now, time to build that next tube…
What adventures await on this mysterious alien world?
In a galaxy far away, an astronaut takes a break from space travel to investigate an unusual planet. Bart De Dobbelaer has created this colourful LEGO scene which shows mechanical pillars topped with layers of vibrant plants. The display uses a wide range of pieces from the Clikits theme, including pink suction cups as the flowering sections of several plants. The spaceship has a compact design and features a flexible tube that is interwoven around a cockpit chair from the Hero Factory sets. Let’s hope there’s nothing too sinister going on with this strange alien world.
Han Solo himself would be proud of this gorgeous landspeeder
While Solo: A Star Wars Story may not have been a roaring success as far as Star Wars movies go, it did give us some interesting new ship designs and, by extension, some pretty decent LEGO sets. Han Solo’s M-68 Landspeeder was one of them, and Sebastian Arts (Aliencat!) has seen fit to upscale it and give the smuggler’s ride the Ultimate Collector Series treatment, with exquisite levels of detail!
Making the impossible possible
A couple of years ago, I (Brothers Brick contributor Chris Doyle ) gifted the important people in my life with Impossible Bottles – sealed decks of playing cards somehow placed inside unaltered glass bottles. Recently, prompted by a WisLUG building challenge, I decided to create my own version. It’s not quite the same scale of impressive – LEGO bricks are a lot easier to cram down the neck of a bottle, after all. But it was still a fun exercise into just what is possible if you put your mind to it.
And, of course, there’s a tiny little mosaic on the front of my deck of cards. Because sometimes you have to stay on-brand.