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.

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!

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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.

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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:

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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!

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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.

Some bugs are just annoying jerks

What is better than a big, brick-build LEGO bug? A big, brick-build LEGO bug with a monocle, of course! This little critter by Martin Gebert looks cute as a bug. He looks quite dapper, sporting a top hat, poofy socks, a monocle and a really big coat — which also might be the bug’s wing covers. I can totally picture this guy going to a fancy party hosted by the Mad Hatter in Wonderland. But apparently this little guy is quite the nuisance. He’s so literate and sophisticated in his entire doing that it makes him quite unlikable.

Carry on adventuring, Johnny Thunder!

There’s a great love across the LEGO community of the old Adventurers theme, and Jellyeater‘s latest build shows there’ll be no sign of that stopping. In this build, Johnny Thunder finds himself exploring caverns that were once home to the lost Toltec Empire. As he traverses down through the foliage above, his faithful companions Dr. Charles Lightning and Pippin Reed are already busy, documenting the site — from creepy crawlies to signs of past tomb raiders.

At the centre of the build, the underside of roller skate pieces is used to great effect adding detail to the altar. Towering over this, are giant statues that look suitably imposing with individual detail and all with different Hockey masks, sourced from an old Sports range suggestive of the long forgotten gods.

I’m excited to see where Jellyeater takes the Adventurers next!

Call of Duty zombie mode ray gun perfectly recreated in LEGO

If there’s a quartermaster of the LEGO building community, then it’s got to be TBB alum Nick Jensen. Time after time, Nick’s incredible LEGO models turn out more like carbon copies of the weapons he’s imitating. And this ray gun from the Call of Duty franchise is no exception! All of the details are spot-on.

See all the accurate details Nick has built into this Call of Duty ray gun

NPU – Nice Paper Use

Sometimes it pays to read the builder’s comments. When I first saw this build by Tom Loftus, I zeroed in on those amazing blinds and spent probably fifteen minutes trying to figure out how they were made. Some new panel I hadn’t come across, yet? Maybe a vent from some Star Wars UCS set? Nope. Turns out the Iron Builder April Fool’s challenge was to create a build using paper cut outs of the letters in “Iron Builder,” and I’d been staring at a bunch of the letter “I” in that window. The letters have been put to great use all around the room. “B” for the chair backs, “O” for the table, “D” for the desk against the wall, and almost a whole game of Wordle in that art piece on the wall. When the result looks this good, I don’t mind being played for a fool.

Sam chose the wrong time to trim the verge

Readers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy can usually point out the differences between the movies and books. Four builds into the first of six installments, builder Thorsten Bonsch represents the book over the movie for this set design. Most notably is the inclusion of the curtains that Gandalf draws before picking up the ring. Minifigure hook hands were used as curtain rings which took a little bit of care since those elements can’t be “clipped” on but have to be slid on from the side. There is a wealth of other techniques displayed from the bucket handles used as a fire-dog to the textured stone fireplace. Loose tiles in the angular wooden floor or lining the round window illustrate staple methods builders employ for added realism. The base frames the scene while also hiding the thickness of the angled tile technique Bonsch uses. The added framing behind the tan wall also provides space for Samwise’s floating head framed amongst the foliage with a furrowed brow.

After telling the story of The Hobbit through 43 different displays with tons of unique techniques and iconic scenes, Thorsten decided to take on the massive project of its sequel series with the help of some yet-to-be-announced builders. We’ll have to wait to see who all is involved since Bonsch won’t be announcing his successor in the series until the end of his contribution.