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.

Two great Star Wars ships for all your bounty hunting needs

Whether you need to chase down two-bit scoundrels who owe money or tool around the galaxy with your foster kid in the Star Wars equivalent of a ’96 Nissan Stanza, you’re going to need the right equipment. First, you need a cool outfit, preferably one you’ll wear your entire life, even if you put on a few post-Sarlaac pounds. Next, you’ll need a bucket on your head and a credo about not talking much and never showing your face except during some mushy parts. Lastly, you’re going to need a sweet spaceship and that’s where LEGO builder Tim Goddard comes in. Here we see Boba Fett and his Slave I as well as “Mando” from The Mandolorian with his Razor Crest. Tim makes excellent use of both old and new gray bits for that lived-in mottled effect.

We’ve featured Tim’s Razor Crest before but with the added stands and posed next to his new Slave I, we couldn’t resist bringing it out again for an encore performance.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Johnny Thunder gets colorized

Norlego takes us on an LEGO Adventure with everyone’s favorite non-licensed LEGO adventurer Johnny Thunder! In some creations, the minifigures are the last things that get added to bring the scene to life. My guess is that in this creation, the minifigures were created first and inspired the rest of the build. All the usual suspects are there. We have Johnny, Pippin Reed, Dr. Kilroy, and wherever Johnny goes his nemesis Sam Sinister follows. Also, there are Slyboots, Mike and Harry Cane. This time they are portrayed in a more realistic skin tone rather than yellow.

Norlego built an irregularly shaped base with lots of angles and exposed studs, perfectly mimicking the desert lands of Egypt. What would an oasis be without some lush palm trees? These are made beautifully. The use of the prickly bush for the dead leaves at the base of the palm tree is a really nice touch. The colour of the swordleaf indicates whether a leaf is dead, doing fine or a baby leaf. Or maybe I am just looking into it too much? Last but not least I think the table deserves some love. It is made out of triangle road signs. The seams between the road signs make the table look fold-able which would really be handy when going on an adventure.

Want see more Johnny Thunder creations? Check out these articles.

Monkey see, monkey do bigger

I’ve seen giant LEGO pieces, and even upscaled fish and chickens, but I’ve never before seen a giant LEGO monkey, and this one from mybrickbuild has me tickled pink. The classic LEGO monkey was one of my favorite pieces in the original Pirates theme, this giant one makes me want to see a whole LEGO Pirates set built at this scale. It’s a digital render but it looks like it’s mostly buildable with real bricks, except for the 2×2 round bricks with Technic holes, which aren’t currently available in brown. The arms and curling tail are courtesy of the new curved 2×2 round piece that forms the trunk on the Bonsai Tree.

If you like seeing things made bigger with bricks, check out our upscaled LEGO archives!

I wonder if his garden is in the shade.

Let’s go on an undersea adventure with this great octopus by Didier Burtin. You don’t normally associate great greebling with aquatic creatures, but if you look close there are lots of fun details here. Sure, the LEGO tires are easy to locate, but what about the hot dog? There’s also a generous helping of hinged articulation, making this one poseable critter. It looks like the octopus has claimed a treasure chest as a perch, and the brown of the chest (and the bright orange leaves festooning it) really make the red and black colors of the octopus stand out.

It’s great to see a creation that’s based so firmly on an accurate depiction of a real-life animal. That’s not to say there isn’t also benefit from a more mechanized approach. What sort of octopus do you want to build?

Weeping Angels and Cybermen and Daleks – oh my!

The well-known Paul Hetherington is a LEGO builder and artist we’ve covered a few times in the past. His distinct style of large brick-built characters and scenery, mixed with minifigure scale scenes is unmistakable whether it’s Batman, Fabuland, or a giant automaton ripping its robot heart out. His latest masterpiece is his take on Doctor Who.

Typical of all his creations, it’s hard to say what part of it your eyes will be drawn to first. When I usually see something new he builds, I notice one part of it, and think it’s amazing. Then I notice another, and another, and another. My eyes dart around looking at all the components of a complex and beautiful creation. From top to bottom, you start with the clever lettering of the title BBC Doctor Who, then you see the giant Weeping angel and Cyberman surrounding the TARDIS. Continue reading →

Round and round she goes

TBB alumn Nannan Zhang has always had a penchant for fishing out the oddball pieces that clutter the bottom of most of our parts bins, and making something clean and elegant with them. This time he’s really found a true oddball, though, because the centerpieces of this spaceship are giant teal Duplo balls, sitting as what I presume are reactor spheres. The third sphere on the triangular ship is one of the clear tourist spheres from the Jurassic World sets. It all comes together neatly to make a delightfully alien ship design.

The Eggblaster 01 is one sunny-side-up mech

Sometimes a LEGO element can inspire a build, and that appears to be the case with the LEGO Eggblaster 01 by Marco De Bon. That oval windscreen led to an egg-shaped cockpit, which in turn led to this cute-and-stompy mech. The dark blue and red colors work well, with just the right pop of yellow from the caution striping. And check out the clever use of horse barding in those gun covers!

Continue reading →

2021 BrickLink AFOL Designer Program to give new legs to 31 LEGO Ideas 10k-club designs [News]

Today BrickLink is revealing the second round of its AFOL Designer Program (ADP), which crowdfunds the creation of LEGO fan designs. 31 LEGO Ideas projects which reached 10,000 votes on that platform but were not selected to become Ideas sets have been ported over to the ADP where fans can choose to support them again. The projects range from a tiny aquarium to a fishing boat and a castle. Fans will be able to pre-order them in a Kickstarter-like process between June 1 and August 10. If they pass the crowdfunding goals on BrickLink, up to 13 of the sets may be produced. Unlike LEGO Ideas, the ADP will not substantially alter submitted models, so the final sets will be extremely close to the voted-on designs.

The first round of the AFOL Designer Program occurred in 2018 and solicited designs from the fan community to be turned into semi-official LEGO sets via a partnership between LEGO and BrickLink. (Check out our review of Löwenstein Castle from the ADP.) The LEGO Company subsequently purchased BrickLink in late 2019, and the newest round of the AFOL Designer Program is leveraging that connection to draw on LEGO’s own crowdsourcing platform LEGO Ideas for the new ADP designs. LEGO Ideas projects have a chance to become official LEGO sets, but must first receive 10,000 votes and then pass an internal review for product viability. As LEGO Ideas announced in December, for round two of the ADP, the company reached out to specific creators whose projects had passed the 10k mark but not the internal review, and invited them to participate in the ADP. LEGO says future rounds of the ADP may be open to submissions from all fans.

Read the full press release from LEGO below.

Continue reading →

LEGO DOTS 41930 Bag Tag Panda [Review]

The latest wave of DOTS branches out from bracelets to include “bag tags” – cute, cubic animals that can be clipped onto a backpack (or other things) to add a bit of LEGO flair. DOTS 41930 Bag Tag Panda is available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $6.99 | CAN $8.99 | UK £5.99, so we picked one up to take a closer look…and found some interesting new parts for our troubles! Come along as we take a 84 piece trip into the realms of adorableness.

Click to read the full hands-on review

Germany’s famous Aachen Cathedral in LEGO microscale

When construction began on the Aachen Cathedral around 796, its builders could hardly have imagined that someday it would be translated into a miniature LEGO version. But Jochen Haas done a beautiful job translating the final resting place of Charlemagne into bricks. When I first saw the large dome in the middle, I thought Jochen’s technique of using a series of curved slopes at intervals was an interesting effect, but left it with an unfortunate ribbed look. But apparently I’d forgotten what the real cathedral looks like, because a little quick research shows that the real dome is actually ribbed as well. In fact, the whole model feels as though it could be an official LEGO Architecture set–and if you want to build this one yourself, for once you’re in luck, because Jochen has actually created free instructions, though you’ll need to provide the parts yourself.

And if you look to your left, you can see some very nice part usage

Every LEGO creation tells a story. Sometimes it’s a fairytale with dragons and princesses, and sometimes it’s a more harsh story involving weapons and armed forces. As for the latest brick-built scene by Peter Stella, I guess the story is as clear as it can be. Obviously, the tactical team breaks through the window to take a better look at the laboratory’s fantastic interior design. They must be rushing towards the back-lit sections on the walls, which create a perfectly ominous atmosphere. And I won’t blame them if they decide to steal the design for their own headquarters. But my favorite elements are UFO helmets, but I wonder what happened to the aliens..?

It’s a bird! It’s a drone! It’s 100% real LEGO!

You heard that right. Everything in this SU-N8 “Iridosornis” Reconnaissance Drone by Marius Hermann is made of real, unaltered LEGO. Even the pants (from Scala.) Even those large wings with engines (from Galidor.) And yes, all of those are real, genuine LEGO products that existed. Marius has made a name for himself by mixing these unconventional elements into his sci-fi builds, and he does it so well. Whereas prefabricated elements like the Galidor wings might not fit into a build such as this, it works well here and wouldn’t look as good without it. They provide a good contrast and balance between the smooth blues and the greebly greys.

Despite the angry voices of distant fanatics that gatekeep LEGO to only the brick-built system and minifigures, I find that real creativity is thinking outside the box and using unconventional elements. I have a soft spot for builders who use these weird parts and mix them with “normal” LEGO. Because at the end of the day, if it wasn’t real LEGO, then I wouldn’t be writing about it!

Check out more creations using parts from Galidor and Scala!