Out of all the Disney movies, I think Alice in Wonderland is the one that has inspired LEGO builders the most. The wonderful world created by Lewis Carroll lends itself perfectly to be reimagined with LEGO. Gayle Spiller created the scene where Alice follows the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. Even though the scene takes place in the real world we already get a sneak peek of some of the things Wonderland has to offer. There are a lot of little critters around the rabbit hole. The presence of mushrooms also is a bode for things yet to come. Using frogs for foliage is all the rage as of recently so why not try it in autumn colours. If LEGO can pass frogs for cherry blossom then why not use them for autumn leaves. I am really wishing Gayle turns this into a series of creations because she tackled the first chapter so magnificently that I want more!
Category Archives: LEGO
These Halloween houses are perfect for spooky season.
When you get right down to it, Halloween is all about the mystery of what lies inside other people’s houses. Sometimes it’s investigating what is causing the strange events connected to that spooky house on the hill. Sometimes it’s just a question of finding out which house on the block is handing out the best candy. Thomas Gion and his partner have built an ode to both situations with these seasonal microscale vignettes.
It’s up to us to go investigate, click here!
All right, you know the drill
TBB alumn Simon Liu definitely knows the drill, as this nifty LEGO bot shows. In a striking yellow and dark blue industrial color scheme, this bot looks like what I always hoped LEGO’s various mining themes would be (first Rock Raiders in 1999, then Power Miners a decade later). It does sport that huge chrome drill that only ever came in a pair of Rock Raiders sets, and subsequently doesn’t get used in fan creations nearly as much as I’d like.
Oh, and did I mention the bot is modular? And that Simon has built more than one?
Gotham’s dark night never looked so good
One of the best things about building with LEGO is sharing your creations with the worldwide community of fans. But in order to do so, you need to take pictures of your builds, and this is where the tricky part comes in. Not all creations photograph well—especially when you build something with black bricks. Getting a good shot is quite tricky, and you tend to lose the details of the build. However, thankfully that didn’t stop Brent Waller from building Gotham at Night with mostly black bricks, and losing some details of the build works to Brent’s advantage here, as it is meant to be a shot of a city skyline at night. I really like how Brent used a mix of yellow and orange to represent the lights burning in the skyscrapers. The different sizes for stars also are a really nice touch, drawing my eyes away from the Batwing covering the moon. This creation really reminds me of a 3D Pop-Up book I used to have as a kid.
Indiana Thunder, uhm I mean Johnny Jones
To me, the Adventurers theme has always been LEGO’s answer to Indiana Jones before licensed sets were a thing. It is nice to stumble across like-minded people. Jesse van den Oetelaar did a mix between the Adventurers theme and Indiana Jones and the end result is amazing. The build looks gigantic. It is about 20 bricks high.Roller skates , binoculars and flowers plates are used as architectural details. There are foldable chairs and even an old school camera. The camera intrigues me as I can not break it down in my mind completely. I do know that Jesse cleverly used a brown flower stem as camera tripod. There also is an old school backpack used for the body of the camera. For the rest of the construction, I am completely clueless and would love a breakdown at some point.
The Moonbird Mausoleum
Autumn and spring are my favourite seasons. Nature changes so immensely during those two seasons. It’s almost magical, and this creation by Aurore really hits the sweet spot when it comes to the autumn vibes. The use of olive green for the grassy plains is complemented wonderfully by the vibrant colours of the fallen leaves. The star with stud holder works perfectly as a fallen leaf.
The overview of the shrine doesn’t do justice to the autumnal vibes that Aurore has presented, though, so let’s take a closer look.
4,000-piece 21330 Home Alone House unveiled as biggest LEGO Ideas set ever [News]
Not a lot of movies from the early 1990s have stuck around as household names, but surely one of the oddest is that childhood classic from 1990, Home Alone. It has found its quirky, lovable place among our holiday favorites, and today, LEGO is revealing that the newest Ideas set is based on the film. 21330 Home Alone House features the quiet suburban McCallister house that Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) has rigged with all manner of booby traps for the would-be burglars. The LEGO set has a full interior thanks to its 3,957 pieces, making it the biggest product to date based on a fan design from the crowd-sourcing platform Ideas. The original Ideas project was created by fan Alex Storozhuk, whose Home Alone project reached the requisite 10k votes back in December of 2019, and was approved by LEGO to become a set in June of 2020. The new set will retail for US $249.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £229.99 and will be available starting Nov. 1.
Be sure to check out our full, hands-on review of the LEGO Ideas 21330 Home Alone House!
LEGO Ideas 21330 Home Alone House: The largest Ideas set ever is packed with movie references [Review]
Just in time for the holidays, LEGO has unveiled a set based on the classic Christmas-time film, Home Alone. 21330 Home Alone House is the 38th entry in the Ideas theme, and will be available November 1st for US $249.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £229.99. At a whopping 3957 pieces, it even beats out the massive 21323 Grand Piano in terms of part count, becoming the largest Ideas set to date. In addition to the titular home, the are also five exclusive minifigures and plenty of other extras. Come along as we find out just how many movie references you can cram into a single set. (Spoiler alert: It’s a lot.)
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 hands-on review
A place of inspiration for knowledge, culture, and innovation
Beyond the books, libraries provide a place for community building and collaboration. Builder Ben Vijle saught to commemorate ‘De Krook‘ city library in Ghent, Belgium with this 1:500 scale model. This architectural beauty uses brown grille plates to mimic the steel beam facade that stands out on the river bend. The stacked levels provide a home for the businesses and organizations which collaborated for the library initiative. Ben uses sideways building techniques to achieve the thin profile of each level without any unnecessary gaps. The builder certainly had an eye for detail when modeling this relatively recent addition to the city.
As you can see, this microscale build features the river, nearby roadway, and the various levels of greenspace integrated into the riverbanks by the library. The brown grilles continue beyond the building structure to the bike path and footbridge. A red blade, bone, and needle hidden in the walkway peak out as Ben’s version of the sculpture of a man and woman by De Krook’s entrance. The printed 1×1 crosswalk tiles from the LEGO Architecture Tokyo set and the clips as bike racks by the road are also simple but awesome little details.
Don’t miss Ben’s lovely microscale renditions of other Belgian landmarks: Ben Vilje LEGO on TBB
This frosty friend just wants to play, hopefully
Djokson has constructed this cheerful-looking wyrm in a chilly colour scheme, ready for winter. The head is mostly made up of ice-styled pieces, including Strakk’s mask from Bionicle which represents the nose of the creature. At first, the eye might appear to be a normal stud but it is actually a heart piece from the Clickits theme. A dots strap is placed across a balloon segment forming the creature’s stomach, portraying a round, organic look. The wings, in white and transparent blue, have only been featured in one set which was a large buildable Chima figure from 2014. By using a selection of unusual parts, Djokson has succeeded in creating a unique build with a cute and charming appearance.
Destroy the environment with more efficiency, eh
LEGO builder Titolian brings you the formidable LumberMech M-3000. In his own words, this mech is “the finest piece of logging equipment to ever come from the forestry mechsperts of Northern Canada, this behemoth comes equipped with every tool needed to level acres upon acres of natural beauty. Its innovative internal engine runs entirely on maple syrup, making it one of the first tools that actively destroys its own fuel source. We didn’t think that one through…” Thankfully this would be the first and only time anyone has thought up a short-sighted solution to a difficult problem in the history of the world so we should be in the clear, right? It’s easy to forgive clearcutting on such a colossal scale when it’s done in an awesome plaid shirt. I mean, look at it! I’m smitten! We’ve been charmed by this builder’s work before. Check out what I mean here.
“I will not give up my favorite decoration.”
There’s been a sharp increase in the amount of mosaic builds we’ve seen since LEGO debuted their Art series last year. But The Middle Brick has taken the art of LEGO mosaic to a new dimension with The Bounty Hunter, a closeup shot of famed Star Wars fiend Boba Fett.
This piece packs a significant amount of detail, and a subtle 3D effect, into its frame thanks to a unique layered approach. The first layer renders the background in standard tiles, while the second and third layers build up the main subject. The final result may not be as detailed as a man frozen in carbonite, but it’s close.
