This LEGO build from Sebastian Arts (Aliencat!) was inspired by the artwork of Gabriele Pala, “but of course completely in Aliencat-style.” Right away we’re drawn to the enormity of the build, with the main focus being the blue, watery portal through which tiny flying ships pass. The blue contrasts beautifully with the otherwise muted color scheme. There’s a lot happening in this otherworldly city, with lots of traffic coming and going, reminding me of the Mos Eisley spaceport in Star Wars: A New Hope. (I’m sure there’s some scum and villainy afoot in this city as well.)
Category Archives: LEGO
TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for May 22, 2021
In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the third week of May 2021.
TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS We reviewed the new Everyone is Awesome, Friends: The Apartments, and the Daily Bugle products in a jam-packed week of in-depth set coverage.
- 40516 Everyone is Awesome Set Review — LEGO’s surprise display piece celebrating inclusion and diversity is a rainbow explosion of monochrome minifigures!
- TBB Reviews 10292 Friends: The Apartments — Could there BE any more easter eggs in the latest Creator Expert set from Anderson Grubb?
- LEGO Marvel Spider-Man 76178 Revealed and Reviewed! — LEGO revealed the massive Daily Bugle set and it took not one but two reviews to cover it.
- Bricklink Designer Program evolves — New structure and timeline announced for the AFOL Designer Program
Click through to read more LEGO news from around the world
D is for Dreamland...
Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to eat all the cookies you want. And sometimes there aren’t enough cookies around to fill your day. Well, Steve Guinness has baked up a delightful solution to both problems with this LEGO creation. Sesame Street’s very own Cookie Monster slumbers beneath a magical box of cookies that will never run out. With a helpful turn of the crank, Steve allows an endless supply of chocolate chip treats to rain down into Cookie’s mouth from a magical box suspended in the sky amongst the fluffy cloud tiles.
It looks like such a great way to live that you wonder why Cookie Monster would ever get out of bed again. And then you remember, there’s also oatmeal raisin. And snickerdoodles. And gingerbread. And peanut butter. And white chocolate macadamia nut. And…
This LEGO mini-golf course is a hole in one!
LEGO builder LEGOParadise recently published a YouTube video (below) of a playable mini-golf course. Count me in! This engaging and creative build includes three playable mini-golf holes with different layouts and features. The first hole is pretty standard; a warm-up to get you ready for the course. The second hole is where it gets more exciting with two areas to hit the ball from, including a wooden bridge to hit the ball across. In the third (and final) hole you have to hit the ball onto a moving staircase, which moves the ball to the most classic mini-golf element of all: The dreaded moving windmill. Add an overpriced snack shop and you’re good to go! I would love to see this with the ability to swap out modules to add more variety and challenging features.
Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips
Actually, their names are Ike and Mack (Ike’s the tall one). But when I saw these two LEGO Creations by builder Silvak The Mocist, I had an instant flashback to that old Schoolhouse Rock series about a skateboarding kid and his computer-headed pal. Despite a passing resemblance to that old cartoon, I get the impression these two are less likely to teach us about computers and more likely to grind along some railing, leaving a rotary telephone-headed old man shaking his fist at those darn kids. Silvak’s done a great job of communicating character here, from Ike’s expressive limbs to Mack’s radical pair of kicks. I’m particularly impressed by how those Technic panels hang like an open hoodie on Ike. And bonus points for using the old M-Tron logo so Mack can put his initial on his skateboard.
Click here to see more Ike and Mack on your iMac (or PC or phone or whatever)
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Batman!
What does famed LEGO builder Paul Hetherington do when he’s not impressing us with his amazing talent? Nothing, as it turns out. That’s because Paul is always impressing us with his talent. I’m pretty sure he can just sip a cup of coffee or mow his lawn and we’d all be impressed, by golly! Take this brightly-colored Batman diorama, for example. It seems The Joker has repurposed an abandoned ice cream factory into a…wait for it…I Scream Factory. Of course he has! That Joker doesn’t simply engage in normal bad guy stuff like robbing banks or not picking up after his dog. No, The Clown Prince of Crime goes above and beyond with his own unique sense of flair and style. Dousing Batman’s sweet ride in some kind of oozing radioactive soft-serve goo really takes the cake but the Joker has other tricks up his sleeve.
Click to discover what else The Joker has in store!
I hate sleeping in hotels!
I’ve met a few people who prefer staying at hotels to being in their own house and bed, but they seem to be a strange minority. I mean, who really wants to sleep in a bed where the night before some strangers did something not fit to be described in an upright publication, rather than their own comfortable and familiar bed back home? Eww! Anyways, my own stays at hotels have never been as bad as the terrified LEGO minifigure’s night in this build by Jarek Książczyk. If I saw an eerily-lit giant hand outside the window of my Marriott room, I’d be huddled on the bed, too.
Jarek has captured everything one would expect to see in a hotel room, down to the horrid vertically striped beige wall paper, but then you see that there’s a piano in the corner. What hotel has a piano in the rooms? None that I know of. So perhaps this isn’t a hotel after all, but the minifigure’s own comfortable and familiar bed…in which case I might go stay in a hotel. Even soiled bed linens would be better than that hand. Then again, maybe it was just a nightmare. Things do look much brighter in the morning light.
The (Bomb) of Damocles is hanging over my head
World-renowned LEGO builder Ivan Martynov has a new digital creation with a rather serious and timely message. Here we see a person clearly in a position of power. He has a device that launches nuclear weapons; “The Football” as it is sometimes affectionately called around here. Yielding this power can bring fear and respect but also devastation to himself and his people. Former President John F. Kennedy once said “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness.” That is certainly a heavy burden to think about. With great power comes great responsibility. That’s something my dad said. Or did I hear that from Spider-Man? I don’t know. Either way, I’d rather think back on my carefree old days of going to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and, if you’ve ever been, you’ll know where I pilfered the title of this article.
This massive LEGO castle is full of little details to keep you coming back
LEGO Builder Mark Erickson (Mark of Falworth) is no stranger to The Brothers Brick and shows no signs of stopping. His latest castle creation is titled “Storst Castle”, and there’s a lot to unpack. It’s one thing to craft a large-scale LEGO castle, but it’s an entirely different thing to incorporate it into a lush setting including an idyllic pasture, water, and an active underground hill. I love builds like this that have a grand scale, yet also have little stories playing out. It will pay to take your time to really dig into all the little details on this huge diorama.
LEGO reveals 40516 Everyone Is Awesome with 11 monochrome minifigures as a Pride flag [News]
LEGO is celebrating diversity by revealing a new product that features 11 monochrome minifigures arranged as a Pride flag. 40516 Everyone Is Awesome was designed by LEGO’s Vice President of Design Matthew Ashton and draws its name from the catchy tune in The LEGO Movie. Ashton says, “I wanted to create a model that symbolises inclusivity and celebrates everyone, no matter how they identify or who they love.” The company plans to for the set to be available in time for Pride Month in June. With 346 pieces and 11 minifigures, the set will be available June 1 for US $34.99 | CAN $44.99 | UK £30.
Celebrate Pride with LEGO 40516 Everyone Is Awesome [Review]
Over the past several years, the LEGO Group has significantly enhanced its messages of diversity and inclusion across its corporate policies, advertising, social media, and even in related media like The LEGO Movie franchise. The LEGO hobbyist community includes amazing, wonderful people from all over the world, of every sexual orientation and gender identity. Seeing someone like ourselves represented through our favorite building toy truly matters, but until the announcement of 40516 Everyone is Awesome today, LEGO hasn’t released a LEGO set that fully embraces and celebrates the company’s myriad LGBTQ+ fans and employees, including people of color. Featuring 11 colorful minifigures with a rainbow backdrop built from 346 pieces, the set will be available on the first day of Pride Month 2021, June 1, for US $34.99 | CAN $44.49 | UK £30.
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.
Read our hands-on review of LEGO 40516 Everyone Is Awesome
Bricklink Designer Program is being extended with new structure [News]
The Bricklink Designer Program, also known as the AFOL Designer Program (ADP), is being extended due to the global COVID-19 situation along with the feedback from the community. The crowdfunding was to begin in June 2021, with September 2021 being the date for realizing projects. In the new structure, there will be 3 rounds for crowdfunding, starting July 2021 and continuing in September and November 2021. 8 projects will be nominated for the first round in July, and 8-10 projects will be nominated for the other two rounds. The production-ready projects can be supported by pre-ordering on Bricklink starting from July 1st.