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.

What the shell is this creature?

As a kid, I developed a mild obsession with prehistoric creatures, especially dinosaurs, and loved looking for fossils along limestone bluffs. I found a tiny trilobite or two, and a few segments of worms, but never anything cool like a chambered nautilus. That would have been awesome, since all the pictures of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs had nautiloids, too. And then one day I discovered that animals of that sort still exist, and look almost the exact same as they did 200 million years ago. Mind blown! And then I see that Jonas Kramm built one out of LEGO bricks, and, as is usual for Jonas, the build is amazing. But he also did it with only 101 pieces. Mind blown again.

It’s a study in concise use of LEGO elements since there is no wiggle room to get complex and piece heavy; every element has to be carefully considered, like a DUPLO plant and a pearl of great price in the oyster. The colors are spot-on, and the cephalopod eye staring at me is perfect. My only complaint is that the shell of Jonas’ model does not exhibit a precise logarithmic growth spiral. Come on, Jonas! Why can’t you do the impossible with just 101 LEGO bricks?

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LEGO Marvel 76187 Venom: when you have an ugly face but a great smile [Review]

LEGO has been expanding their line of collectible helmet models into super-heroic realms. We recently shared an early look at Marvel 76199 Carnage, and today we’ll delve into the eerily similar Marvel 76187 Venom. This 565 piece set will be available April 26th from the LEGO Shop Online for US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99. Like Venom himself, there are good things and bad things about this set. But will the final verdict be “hero” or “villain”? Read on and see!

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

Five feet of Heavy Metal badassery!

What is five feet tall and completely brimming with Heavy Metal badassery? No, not Ronnie James Dio or Glenn Danzig. Those two are taller than five feet but not by much. This stunning LEGO castle by Shawn Snyder stands five feet high (152.4cm) and is like every Iron Maiden and Motörhead album cover combined. If this seems reminiscent of images you’d find on the side of your weird uncle’s van in the ’70s or ’80s that is because it was inspired by the art of Frank Frazetta and also Shawn’s time playing the video games Darksiders, Skyrim, and Castlevania. You don’t need much color to convey the completely ominous feel this castle encompasses. In fact, Shawn’s stark color choices work in his favor here and instead employ repetition of form and the use of compelling textures. Note the tiny minifigs flanking the front steps and one on the upper balcony.

This closeup offers a detailed view of the skeletal sentries adorning the front of the castle as well as the centralized snarling horned skull.

Even the gargoyles are well-positioned and intricately detailed.

This Fortress of the Skeleton Mage has won a place in my dark and foreboding heart. I now have classic metal tunes stuck in my head but, in the whole scheme of things, that’s a pretty decent place for me to be. Rock on, Shawn! Rock on.

Al’Tamasuk Mansion

I do not know why, but somehow I get drawn to LEGO desert builds. I guess it has something to do with the architecture of the buildings. Where I live, there is nothing quite like it, so it almost feels like taking a small vacation to a faraway place. So I would like to thank Marcel V for my most recent trip to the desert of Jazira, where I got to meet the Al’Tamasuk.

This creation offers a lot of great little details which really make it special. I will highlight a few, but if you zoom in I’m sure you’ll find many more. The best thing has to be the black lamps near the entrance of the building. These are black wands used to create a decorative cast iron lamp. Those wands are held (if I am not mistaken) only by friction and sheer willpower, so constructing that had to be quite the nuisance! Then there are wheel covers used as round windows, and somehow a baseball bat works perfectly fine as an architectural detail (see if you can spot them). There are snakes used as plant vines and have you seen that cute little wooden shed?

This RC LEGO Volvo truck is packed with working features

It’s one thing to build an accurate, good-looking LEGO model of a big rig like this 1/20-scale Volvo FH. Getting the shaping down is impressive enough on its own, especially when working with a color like medium azure which has fewer available part types. But builder Sebeus I wasn’t content to stop at making it look pretty; instead he made it a fully-functional RC model with working steering, lights, and a hooklift system for loading and hauling containers. The best working function to me, though, is the rear axle, which can be lowered and raised as needed just like on the real truck.

Check out this video to see it in action:

No, it hasn’t lost a wheel. LEGO DC 76188 – Batman Classic TV Series Batmobile [Review]

Holy classic car, Batman! LEGO returns to the 60’s in style with an updated take on the the Adam West era Batmobile. Part of the next wave of super-hero related sets, the 345 piece DC 76188 Batman Classic TV Series Batmobile will be available April 26th from the LEGO Shop Online for US $29.99 | CAN $34.99 | UK £34.99. How does this new version stack up against the previous LEGO incarnations? Does the Cesar Romero Joker minifigure have his signature mustache? Does Batman have a realistic bat-paunch? Read on and see!

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

The Minions have arrived! LEGO Minions: The Rise of Gru 75546, 75547, and 75550 [Review]

Banana! In preparation for the much-delayed cinematic release of Minions: The Rise of Gru later this year, The Brothers Brick was given a sneak peek at three LEGO Minions sets, so today we’re taking a quick look at 75546 Minions in Gru’s Lab (87 pieces | US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99), 75547 Minion Pilot in Training (119 pieces | US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £29.99), and 75550 Minions Kung Fu Battle (310 pieces | US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99). These sets were revealed by LEGO more than a year ago and are now finally making their way to store shelves. All three sets will be available beginning April 26.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with early copies of these sets for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full, hands-on review

While you’re away, the Switch will play

Seemingly inanimate objects coming to life – we’ve seen it before in movies like Toy Story or Transformers; now we’re seeing this notion come alive in LEGO form with this Nintendo “Switch Imp” model by Zane Houston.

My favorite part of this build are the imp’s Switch controller arms in their iconic blue and red color scheme. These brick-built arms mainly utilize common elements such as bricks and slopes in various sizes constructed by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique. The buttons on the controller arms are rendered by black 1×1 round tiles while the joy sticks are cleverly composed of black round 1x1s with bar and pin holders, 2×2 round plates with an open stud, and 2×2 plates with round bottoms. The rest of this mythological mashup is comprised of a menagerie of black slopes, bricks, and tiles with a couple white cheese slope pieces serving as teeth thrown in. Better watch where you put your things, judging by this build you can never really know what your household items are up to when you’re away – they really could have a life of their own.

A dark lord to rule over Middle Earth

Marcin Otreba’s latest LEGO creation doesn’t appear to have anything inscribed on it, but I’m sure if you held it up to the flame, you’d find an inscription that loosely translates to:

Three batarangs on his chest up high,
Seven on his face mask, pearl dark grey blades shone
Fine the bricks he did apply
One model Dark Lord we’d like to own.

On the internet, where LEGO builders vie
One brick to rule them all, one sorter to find them,
One builder to bring them all, and with clutch power bind them,
In the land of LEGO where bricks mystify

Forgot your lunch? Here’s a BYGGLEK Bento Box.

In my youth I used to watch a lot of anime, and of course with most of it being created in Japan during that time, snippets of daily Japanese life found their way into the animations; school uniforms, cherry blossom trees, and of course Bento boxes – neatly home-packed meals. The fairly new BYGGLEK boxes produced as a collaboration between LEGO and Ikea are perfect for creating LEGO Bento, which builder nobu_tary has expertly done here.

Rice balls, veggies, and more! These foodstuffs are all expertly brick-built, some – like the rice balls are constructed by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique, utilizing some basic pieces such as slopes and bricks and others such as the two tomatoes are built regularly and are composed of only a couple pieces. These colorful food builds certainly capture the colorful palette of Japanese cuisine. The cover of the box is also colorfully decorated with a nice mosaic pattern built out of variously shaped tiles which can be found in the LEGO Dots line. Nobu_tary did not forget the utensils either – the chopsticks here being shaped by various cone and cylinder pieces topped with some 1×1 bricks and plates. Certainly this build is a palatable one indeed.

I want much more than this provincial life

It takes a careful eye for detail to craft a large LEGO immersive scene since every corner of the frame has to be considered. But it also takes a large number of LEGO bricks, far more than one would think before beginning the project (especially for the foreground, which always needs more, always). Talented LEGO builder Joe (jnj_bricks) has both the careful eye and the pile of bricks and uses them masterfully to craft this castle harbor scene, with a quay, lots of shops, a castle, and even a drunken pirate down on the dock. It certainly fits the bill as a large scene, too, measuring 144×80 studs.

Joe neglects no surface in the scene, from the textured roofs to the detailed walls. There are slight variations in color to show weathering, and no two houses have the same wat-and-daub pattern. The selling point is the minifigure posing, however, which can be one of the trickiest bits to nail down, but Joe got it just right, with dynamic and natural poses all around. It really sells that this is a normal day with people going about their ordinary lives. Pretty sure I see the baker with the same old bread and loaves to sell. And do you see the goat? He’s got a goat, the Holy Grail of castle builders!

A tavern to go along with your blacksmith

Versteinerts creation looks like there is an excellent blacksmith in town. You can tell by all the fittings on the door in the attic and the iron sign near the tavern’s entrance. For the fittings on the door Versteinert used the tooth plate which to me is just perfect. For the tavern sign, a couple of parts were used in a smart way. The fence is hung upside down using the round plate with handle in black (which apparently exists). The plant stem with thorns as an ornate element of the sign is a very nice touch.

The rest of the building looks amazing as well. The walls have a cobblestone look going on, which is achieved using a lot of different plates and tiles. The gold fence windows make the tavern look really fancy. Using the same roof technique as the Medieval Blacksmith makes it blend in really nice with the original set. The best thing about this creation is that it is designed as a modular building and is fully furnished on the inside. The upper floors and the two roof sections can be easily removed to gain access to the building’s interior.