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.

This massive castle display is incredibly detailed

Created by Ben Pitchford, this LEGO model is a beautiful diorama of a medieval castle by the ocean, overlooking a quaint village and a forest hideout. The castle rests upon a cliff which is made up of a variety of sloped bricks with plants pieces wedged between the gaps in the rocks. Several waterfalls flow over the cliff faces into the colourful ocean below. There are even some hidden features underneath the castle such as mysterious caves, a dungeon and a blacksmith.

The castle has a dominating presence created by its sheer height and elaborate layers. The textured surfaces of the castle are produced through a mixture of bricks being stacked up normally and bricks placed sideways. A few of the entrance ways lead to detailed throne rooms, perfectly suited for the royalty of the castle.

A stony path to the castle leads down to a gate with a village surrounding it. The roofing details of the buildings provides a great sense of slabs stacked together. Villagers are shown to be selling an assortment of vegetables and meats, while a cart, full of supplies, heads towards the castle gate.

But the residents of the village should beware as the hamlet is overshadowed by a forest people base. Platforms are built into trees with precarious wooden bridges connecting the platforms. On the forest floor there is a training ground with targets and a blazing central fire. The intentions of the forest people seems unclear, although there are a few of them hiding and sneaking around, close to the castle.

There is also a video of the display where Ben shows some of the intricate details and hidden features of the build. The castle is hooked up with a lighting system, used to simulate flickering firelight in the dungeon and throne rooms. A water wheel is also shown to have a battery powered mechanism allowing it to spin.

Check out more articles relating to fantastic castle builds, here.

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A robot built with robot parts, how fitting

When you are looking for the perfect part for your next LEGO robot, look no further than these parts from the LEGO Mindstorms NXT theme. Motors and sensors make the perfect robotic details in this somewhat creepy bot by alex_ mocs that would give the Terminator a run for its money. The spines on its back also remind me of something from the game Horizon Zero Dawn. But if I had to choose my favorite part use, it would be the long bendy neck made from radar dishes

When the world is going to pieces, build your own doomsday bunker

Do you sometimes feel like the world is going to pieces? Like we’re building to the apocalypse that will be the downfall of civilization as we know it? If so, maybe you should try building your own desert bunker, just like the guy in this LEGO creation by hachiroku92. This cross-sectional vignette lets us get a good look at how this prepper will ride out the collapse beneath the desert sands. And as far as doomsday bunkers go, it’s pretty nice. There’s a sturdy reinforced access point, plenty of provisions, and even a nice sitting area. I’m less clear on what the voids above the bunker are, though, but maybe I’m not up on my doomsday prep.

And I wasn’t actually kidding about building your own doomsday bunker. While it’s not quite a parts list and instructions, Hachiroku92 has made a build video if you want to follow along at home.

LEGO Transformers get a “toon-up” with Omega Supreme

Way back in the mid-2000s, Hasbro launched a show and corresponding toy line known as “Transformers: Animated.” The title was no doubt a reference to the fact that Michael Bay was working to bring the Transformers franchise to live-action movies for the first time, and the corresponding Animated show was setting itself up to be everything the Bay franchise wasn’t: hand-drawn, on TV, well written, and over too soon. Hasbro managed to produce the majority of the main Animated cast in toy form so that fans of the series could continue to revisit this era of the franchise long after the show was canceled. But there was one major character that escaped our grasp and was never given a proper figure. Thankfully, Alan Yap has come to our rescue by delivering this LEGO rendition of Animated’s Omega Supreme.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Transformer without transforming, and Alan has us covered. Continue reading →

A lovely scene at the seashore

When you are feeling stressed out, where do you go to unwind and re-connect with nature? Maybe someplace like this tropical beach by Brickleas, built for an Iron Builder contest using the white radar dish piece, used quite skillfully as steps, a sign, and shades to block the sun on the roof. And in case you missed it, the seagulls as well. One of my favorite features, aside from the shack, is the sand and surf, using slopes and bricks in shades of tan, including dark tan for the sand at the water’s edge.

Morning at the Museum

True story; I had a chance to work after hours at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. I was contracted to paint display backdrops for a Mars exhibit. It was late at night, long after the patrons and staff had gone home and a security guard and I were the only two people there. I can say with confidence that a museum at night is a strange and eerie place. Some lights are on, others are off and incidentally, they leave the animatronic dinosaurs turned on so they were moving and roaring throughout the night. This LEGO creation called Morning at the Museum by Alex Eylar reminds me of that experience. To be clear, the skeleton T-Rex is from this set but the environment Alex has built for it and the lighting makes this a stellar creation indeed. Alex is quite good at setting a mood in LEGO. Check out what I mean in our archives.

An adorably unconventional couple

The holidays are approaching and gifts are on everyone’s minds. Though this time of year always brings its challenges, any gift-giving occasion can be a builder’s excuse to create something personal with LEGO. For instance, figure builder Mike Nieves recently gifted his newlywed friends this elegant fox posing in the snow with a fluffy penguin. Presumably their favorite animals, I’m sure the couple was delighted to receive this gift. I do wonder if they used them as cake toppers though.

Taking a look at the models individually, we can see that the builder had a good idea of the necessary forms and connections. The penguin’s thick, grey body consists of two mirrored sections of stacked plates and slopes. Modified plates are used as happy little feet peeking out from under the body. The wings’ connections are hidden but hinged, allowing it to flap about adorably. The rotating head even has a tiny opening mouth, which is pretty cute.

The fox is rather impressive. The slender, brick-built face closely matches the natural angles of the animal and this trend continues down the body. Clever connection points allow Mike to build out from a central core to achieve the fox’s figure. The chest is fluffy and the paws really stand out but that tail is the true star. I mean, the way the color blocking takes advantage of the structure is just smart.

It’s worth taking a look at the back of the fox to get a better idea of how it’s put together. Plus, I just wanted to look at that tail again. Achieving curves like that with LEGO is difficult and Mike really did well with both of these. What a great wedding gift for LEGO fans.

I want Dragon Lands sets for Christmas

The last LEGO castle theme was LEGO Nexo Knights. Whether you think that was an actual castle theme is debatable. LEGO has released some castle-themed sets since, but not a full-blown castle theme. Sure, Harry Potter sets are mostly castles, but it’s just not the same. So, what do you do when LEGO doesn’t sell what you would like to buy? You create it yourself! Aaron Newman created not a castle set, but an entire castle theme titled Dragon Lands. Filled with elves, orcs, wizards, knights, and of course dragons. Each model looks like it could be produced by TLC. Each set comes with action features and the minifigures have a background story. Even the photography is comparable to LEGO catalogue quality.

Aaron’s amazing work doesn’t limit itself to an amazing cathedral that hinges open to reveal its lavish interior. The theme also includes a ship with festive flags, ruins covered in snow and ice, a sea serpent, a massive crossbow, a rock-dropping dragon, and last but not least a very inclusive cast of minifigures to accommodate these lovely creations.

Put the pedal to the metal (or punk or rockabilly)

Whether you have a real electric guitar or the new LEGO one it’s only a matter of time before you start tinkering with other sound effects. It would seem that LEGO builder Rubblemaker is also astute at making music. The set came with a tiny, measly foot switch so he remedied that situation with a petal board suitable enough to turn any aspiring guitar player into a rock god. From guitar to amp we have a Cry Baby Wah Wah Pedal, a Rat distortion pedal, BOSS Chromatic Tuner, BOSS Chorus, BOSS Phaser, and lastly (my favorite) the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi providing a nice throaty fuzz.Put it all together and you’re ready to get the band back together. We’ve grooved to Rubblemaker’s tune before, Click the link to see.

A silent raven’s call

This brick-built model of the common raven is a bit deceptive. Builder Felix Jaensch has a portfolio of impressive animal-inspired models but this raven seems to break the mold. Cleverly concealed in the sloping bricks along its back is a hidden button that allows the raven’s head and jaw to move. Pressing it gives the impression the model is calling out, albeit without the gurgling croak this bird often makes. This silent figure can’t audibly torment you, but it’s still a perfectly creepy build for this season.

Just looking at the model, it’s almost impossible to tell that it can move. The whole thing is a sturdy, brick-built structure that renders the bird in the traditional LEGO cuboid, pixelated form. Compare the below image with the above and you’ll only see tiny bits of movement in the neck. A change in angle of the structure holding the beak as the head moves down makes the smallest movements have big effects. Continue reading →

This unwelcome visitor makes your opinionated uncle seem delightful

We’ve all had to put up with that one unwelcome visitor, right? Usually it’s an opinionated uncle with some harebrained QAnon conspiracies or a boozy aunt with a penchant for family drama. Both will wreck the toilet and both will ask to borrow $12,000 by the end of the night but they keep getting invited back because they’re family. Well, imagine a visitor so unwelcome that not only is it adept in its toilet wrecking abilities but it’ll also scramble your brain and make you do its unspeakable bidding. That is precisely the kind of unwelcome visitor Ivan Martynov has rendered in LEGO. Meet Ur-Lugal, a being so strange it is clearly not from around here. It isn’t even from Belgium. Its planet of origin is unpronounceable and its tactics are insidious. Still, you have to admit that there are some rather charming built techniques at play here. It’s almost…welcoming.

Or is that the brain scrambling at work? I’m not even sure what’s right anymore. But what I am sure about is I like the stuff Ivan builds. Also where we go one, we go all.

This giant LEGO Death Star docking bay is large enough to hold the UCS Millennium Falcon.

Docking Bay 327. You might not remember the numerical designation, but you’re almost certainly familiar with the location. It’s the bay aboard the Death Star that the Millennium Falcon is tractor beamed into when our heroes are attempting their heroic rescue of Princess Leia, and it’s the location Luke is in when he sees Obi-Wan cut down by Darth Vader. As parking spots go, it’s one of the most important ones in science fiction history. And now it’s been digitally created by Lysander Chau in a scale suitable to house LEGO’s UCS Millennium Falcon (10179) from 2007. The first thing you’ll register is the sheer size of the model, but this thing is as detailed as it is massive.

So slip on your Stormtrooper disguise and click here so we can take a look around.