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.

The Medieval Speed Shop for all your horse and wagon needs

Any car enthusiast knows that the Speed Shop can be a vital place to give your car that extra bit of oomph. Sometimes just a little more horsepower or even flashier rims will do it. Even a new air freshener can turn your ride from a zero to a hero. (Thanks, Vanilla Ice!) But LEGO builder Stephan Gofers has your solution for when you had a need for speed back in the horse and carriage days. This Medieval Speed Shop has everything we look for in a great LEGO creation. It has neat colors, nice parts usage, awesome build techniques, and also goats. Did I mention before that goats equal the formula for success here at Brothers Brick? I’m pretty sure I did. This isn’t the first time Stephan tickled our fancy. Check him out in our archives.

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.

Ice Planet just got cooler with this life-size handheld computer

LEGO designer Chris Perron recently sat down to build a life-size replica of a LEGO element, and settled on one of his favorite themes, Ice Planet 2002 (a love I share with him). Instead of building a simple upscaled version of the theme’s iconic 1×2 tile, though, Chris reimagined it as a handheld tablet for exploring the frozen world. It’s bulky and rugged so that intrepid ice adventurers can handle it through gloves, and Chris converted all the knobs, lights, and screens to three-dimensional elements. And I couldn’t be more in love with the result. Forget about flower bouquets, this is the life-size stuff I want from LEGO.

And Chris didn’t take the easy route and just make the back a flat, featureless expanse of white. It’s got a rugged pattern that seems exactly like what you’d see on a device made to withstand being dropped onto the ice. The 2002 in the middle is just the icing on the nostalgia cake.

LEGO Masters Season 2 cast revealed with 12 teams [News]

LEGO Masters has finally the cast of the show’s second season. The popular show will again feature 12 teams of two competing in brick-building challenges for the title of LEGO Master and a $100,000 cash prize. Some of the names are well-known in the adult fan community, such as Dave Kaleta and brothers Mark and Steven Erickson, who have all been featured multiple times on TBB. Mark is also a former TBB contributor, and fellow contestant Richard Dryden is one of TBB’s current contributors. For many of the others, we’ll have to wait until the show airs to get a glimpse of their building skills. The show will air starting June 1 on Fox, and will feature Will Arnett reprising his role as host alongside LEGO employees Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard as the judges.

Meet all the contestants below.

Continue reading →

Stag in a birch forest

It might be just me but this LEGO creation by John Snyder is giving me serious ‘Shadow and Bone’ vibes. Okay, I confess I just binged the series yesterday and this might actually have nothing in common with the show except for the white stag. John limited himself to using only 101 parts for this build, which sounds like an enormous challenge. Even though the stag is white it blends in perfectly with the white birch trees. The trees use a similar building technique as we’ve seen in the Birch Books modular. This is quite a small creation but using a reflective surface as base gives it the illusion of being quite a lot bigger.

Black Monarch’s Ghost remodeled

As you might or might not know, I have a soft spot for updating old LEGO sets—especially if I have nostalgic feelings towards the specific set because I played with it as a child. Michał Kozłowski’s creation is inspired by the Black Monarch’s Ghost from 1990. What I love first about the build is the brick-built irregular base. The use of the olive green colour always looks good for grass and moss, and the pentagonal tile makes lovely roof shingles. The trunk of the tree looks nice and organic thanks to a selection of curved slopes, and the lovely fence work is made with stretcher holders. Plus, it is nice to see the new Black Falcon minifigures from the Medieval Blacksmith pop up in LEGO fan creations.

The stronghold of the separatists

I can only assume that the dark villains who live in this black castle nestled among spiked growths on a lake of lava call themselves the separatists. Why is that? Because the main piece of the castle by Simon Liu is one of the new double-wide brick separators from LEGO’s new mosaics, with a strip of chainlinks down the center to make stairs. But the separator isn’t the only piece that Simon copped from the mosaics, as the front wall of the castle is the Technic panel hangar, with the nail slot making a perfect front gate. Simon built this for our friends over at New Elementary as a way to explore the LEGO Art line.

Down, down, and away?

“Mayday!” – well that’s never good to hear. Douglas Hughes fashions a little red biplane in some big trouble in this LEGO micro-model.

The background featured in this postcard-like photo is brick-built using a number of different elements including various slopes, bricks, and plates in light blue and white for the red plane to crash through. The plane’s body mainly utilizes the plane minifigure costume featured in the series 21 collectible minifigure set, with some added parts to create a second pair of wings and a cockpit. Black 2×2 round tiles serve as a smokey cloud trailing behind the plane – the signifier of disaster. Overall for a minimal build, its concept is surely conveyed.

LEGO Vidiyo reveals 8 new sets for summer 2021, including Bandmates Series 2 [News]

LEGO has taken the wraps off the next wave of LEGO Vidiyo sets, revealing this summer’s lineup will contain eight new sets. The sets will include a new wave of Bandmates blind pack minifigures, several new beatboxes, and a variety of larger sets such as 43114 Punk Pirate Ship or the range-topping 43115 The Boombox stage which retails for $99.99 USD and includes nearly 1,000 pieces. LEGO Vidiyo sets first launched earlier this year, and the sets integrate with an app, letting users arrange random, collectible BeatBit tiles that provide a unique musical effect to create music videos. With the addition of the new sets, the total number of BeatBit tiles in the Vidiyo theme expands to 134. The new sets will be available starting June 1.

Click to see all of the new sets

Western Air Temples

If there is ever a license I hope LEGO revisits, it is LEGO Avatar. In 2006 there was a wave of Avatar sets counting no more than two sets. To be honest, the Fire Nation Ship might be the worst thing that ever happend to the Avatar franchise, and I am counting the live action remake of the show. The current super hero sets contain a lot of energie effects that would work perfectly for bending. And we simply need an Appa made of LEGO. Someone who might agree with me on this is Jonas Kramm. His latest creation is the Western Air Temple and it is just stunning. The big ugly rock pieces are hardly noticeable and the temples are constructed quite elegantly by attaching book covers to rounded windows. The star of this creation however has to be that brick build Appa using boomerangs for legs.

Beachfront property worth building

Aloha, maybe? Wherever this is, I want to go there right now and forget that there are travel restrictions in place. The Beach Resort from builder Luis Peña is everything I could want in a tropical getaway.

Not only is this clearly an oceanside resort, but it’s also a really fancy one at that. The light blue transparent bricks are a crisp, clean contrast to the white on the buildings, giving them a very expensive look. The choice to make each structure different was a good one, with the triangle building and the curvy building having a five-star hotel vibe. The beach huts are just fantastic. They’re made with few pieces but you still know exactly what they are!

I could see myself lying under the tiny palm trees, but there’s a pandemic going on so I’ll have to wait until next year.

Mushroom man makin’ his way

Of course, an enchanted forest is filled with strange mushrooms of varying sorts, maybe even some mushrooms that get up and take a hike. Steven Erickson builds up a magical little LEGO mushroom guy he lovingly named “Shroomkin,” and he is as he should be, hanging out in a mystical little forest that is partially brick-built.

Shroomkin’s brilliant blue cap is composed of many 1×1 blue plates with some white 1×1 round tiles rendering spots. This fun guy’s stalk is a whole-body sporting a neat red and yellow brick-built tunic made up of tiles, bricks, and cheese slopes. One arm with a 1×1 tile with clip piece can hold a staff, while the other arm sports a 1×1 round tile printed as a compass – useful for excursions in the woods. Shroomkin stands tall and looks out at his station – a brick-built patch of greenery comprised of many small green elements along with some different flower pieces in popping colors. What a wonderful build for the spring season.

A small guardian of the forest with a big heart

You don’t have to be big to have a big job, as this epic 101 part model of a forest guardian by Markus Rollbühler proves. The flower at the heart of the model is just one of many perfectly placed flower and leaf elements, but there are also some great “building” tricks, like the curved brown sloped parts used for the lower arms, which are gently wedged into the undersides of those wonderfully bulbous sleeves. And the hands and ankles, which use clip plates tucked into the underside of the arms and feet. A soft glow added to the staff give the finished figure a magical finish.