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.

LEGO Creator Expert 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery launches with Hubble Telescope [Review]

LEGO Space Shuttles are a mainstay of the brand’s space themes, with the company having produced well more than a dozen models across a variety of scales, themes, and degrees of accuracy. But there’s something about the iconic design of NASA’s black-and-white reusable space plane that captures our imaginations and keeps drawing us back. The latest set from LEGO is the largest and most detailed yet. 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery has 2,354 pieces and includes both the Discovery orbiter and the Hubble Space Telescope that Discovery launched on the STS-31 mission in April 1990 (the same year as LEGO’s first Space Shuttle set, 1682 Space Shuttle Launch). LEGO is also celebrating 2021 being the 40th anniversary of the first shuttle flight. The new shuttle set is part of the Creator Expert lineup and will be available starting April 1, retailing for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £169.99. Today we’re going to dive in with a full, hands-on review of this massive spaceplane.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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Domes for days in Agrabah

Architecture is great subject matter for micro-scale LEGO models, Jannis Mavrostomos demonstrates this with his brick-built eastern styled mini city reminiscent of Agrabah from the Aladdin films.

Mavrostomos’s tiny city utilizes many commonly found elements, including tiles, 1×2 grilles, 1×1 studs, 1×1 cones, and other small pieces mostly in a tan and reddish-brown color scheme with some green and pearl gold elements. Mavrostomos also cleverly uses some more specialized elements such as the cauldron pieces as well as the ice cream cone with swirl element to render domes and part of a minaret tower. There is even a tan pair of short minfigure legs which serve as a building. Overall, this build is certainly a nice assemblage of small pieces forming a much bigger picture.

LEGO Star Wars adds 75304 Darth Vader, 75305 Scout Trooper, and 750306 Imperial Probe Droid for spring 2021 [News]

Thanks to retail giant Walmart, we’re getting a first look at three new Star Wars construction sets for adults. LEGO will continue their line of Star Wars Helmets with Darth Vader and the Scout Trooper. The Helmets Collection started last year with Boba Fett, the Stormtrooper, and the TIE Fighter Pilot.

Next to the two helmets, the Imperial Probe Droid will get the LEGO treatment once more. The droid has been made in minifigure scale quite a few times before, but this time it consists of a lot more than 25 pieces and will be in a much larger scale, making it a UCS-style droid similar to 75187 BB-8.

There’s no word yet on precisely when the sets will be released or the prices. These sets vary a bit in size from the previous wave, so we’re not sure if LEGO will price them at the same $59.99 USD.

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A light for the dark waters

The weather is warming up here in the Northern Hemisphere and so are the waters. Beach and boating season is truly upon us as well as maritime scenes which wouldn’t be complete without a lighthouse. Andreas Lenander’s LEGO model surely embodies this summertime energy.

Lenander builds his lighthouse on top of a rocky island composed of dark grey and olive green slopes, bricks, tiles, and plates of varying types and sizes. There are two smaller islands similarly composed, all three islands rest on top of a vast sea of light blue trans-clear 1×2 tiles. There are a couple of trees on the main island fashioned out of orange 1×1 flower pieces and yellow leaves which pop against the darker colors comprising this work. While the build as a whole seems ominous, the brick-built light house offers a comforting light to those wandering the seas.

Sketching famous paintings in LEGO

Have you ever gone to an art museum with a notebook, ready to try how artists started creating their masterpieces? Have you also drawn a rough sketch with a pencil to get the fastest idea of the artist’s process? Tobias Munzert has done exactly that, but by using LEGO pieces. In this triptych, he recreated the motifs of three paintings by German Expressionist painter Franz Marc – Red Deers, Blue Horse, and Red Horses in black and white to emulate pencil drawings. Talk about blending LEGO and art!

Each drawing is laid out on a field of white bricks acting as a blank canvas. The minimalist black “sketches” are made up of various thin parts in black held by clips. Tobias really utilised his NPU skills, and has given us a good idea on which parts to make curves with. See if you can spot each unique minifig utensil and animals appendages used to create the intricate shapes of Franz Marc’s animals.

Check out more LEGO creations depicting horses!

Go on a space mission aboard of 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery together with the LEGO design team [Video]

It takes a lot to design a great LEGO spaceship and even more to build a swooshable one. Now, once the new 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery is revealed, let’s look into the eyes of brave LEGO designers behind the latest exclusive set. Meet Milan Madge, Mani Zamani, and Nico Vas, three courageous designers telling us more about how the LEGO version of the Discovery space shuttle was created.

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LEGO 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery with Hubble is revealed as 2,300-piece Creator Expert set [News]

2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the first NASA Space Shuttle flight in 1981, and LEGO is marking the occasion by launching its biggest shuttle set yet. 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery rings in at 2,354 pieces and features the iconic orbiter on its most famous mission, STS-31. This 1990 mission launched the renowned Hubble Telescope, which is still in operation. The new 18+ Creator Expert set will be available starting April 1, and will retail for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £169.99.

LEGO sat down with Dr. Kathy Sullivan, a former astronaut who served as a mission specialist on STS-31, to reveal the set and discuss the mission to launch Hubble, as well as talk about engaging children in STEM and space exploration. The full interview can be viewed on LEGO.com/gobeyond.

Watch for our full review of this set coming very soon, and check out the rest of the details below.

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Brick’s Gambit

Nowadays, custom chess sets built from LEGO are not at all unusual. It is after all the most popular board game and can be played over and over again without getting boring. It has also recently experienced a surge in popularity following the Netflix series Queen’s Gambit. Being easy to build from LEGO, it is something many builders do at least once in their life. Here, Daniel Barwegen adds his own flair to the arsenal of stylised LEGO chess sets.

I was immediately drawn to the uniquely spindly pieces with the wide bases. Some pieces like the king and queen continue the design to their crowns, which are sharp and angular, and even the horse-heads of the knights include teeth and gears. I love that the pieces appear easy to grip, like straws and pencils, rather than not having enough space between neighbouring pieces. The textures on the rooks are also well done without being overbearing.

And yes, we’ve noticed that some pieces are not in their correct squares. And so has the builder. That’s the beauty of LEGO and chess – you can easily move the pieces back to their correct place without ruining the game.

Check out more life-sized builds of things other than chess sets!

The famous cat stretch

Cats are majestic yet silly creatures, and generally, there are a few habits shared between big cats and their domestic counterparts. Among those habits is what I call the cat stretch, a pose that requires both front legs extended while the cat’s backend is elevated. LEGO builder nobu_tary expertly recreates this feline posture with some small LEGO elements in his kitty mini-build.

Very commonplace elements are utilized in this build; for instance, the front legs are minimally but accurately fashioned out of 1×1 cylinders with white cheese slopes serving as the paws, the cat’s head cleverly makes use of a few white 2×2 corner plates along with some tan 1×1 plates, cheese slopes, and semi-circle pieces. The rest of our furry friend’s body comprises of other slope pieces and tiles in tan as well as a tan cat tail piece. Surely this is a build that could be inspiring to both animal fans, and LEGO builders, pictured below is another brick-built feline build by nobu_tary.

Super fast speeder zips on by

Do you feel a need for speed? Are your competitors feeling hungry? Fix that speed craving and make your rivals eat your dust as you speed along in Oscar Cederwall‘s LEGO skitter vig.

Look at this speeder zip through the desert! It’s always great to see what sort of science fiction vehicles can be created, and this is no different. Using large blue pieces from buildable action figures was a clever idea, as was the decision to do an open cockpit. We’re able to see the figure, giving us a sense of scale with the dust clouds. Which, by the way, is probably my favorite part of this whole creation. I’m seeing how fast the driver is going and what kind of environment he’s in. This definitely shows Oscar’s talent!

Who will brave the deep chasm?

Anyone who is a fan of The Stormlight Archives novels will be thrilled to see Tim Schwalfenberg‘s LEGO take on The Chasm, a world in which the only source of light comes from cracks in the sky.

This creation is jaw-dropping. I love the color transitions as the light darkens deeper in the canyon. It really adds to the sense of depth in this build. How far does it go down? Sure, you can count the brick height along the chasm walls, but all the detail poured into this build gives the illusion of being near-bottomless.

The other detail I want to point out is the excellent plant work. From swampy saplings curing their limbs creepily to the vined flowers reaching upward for a glimpse of daylight. Like the color transitions, the way the vines wrap themselves along the rocky crevasse adds to the sense of how deep you are down in the ground.

I could gaze at this brilliant creation all day, though that might not be a wise idea. Watch out for chasmfiends!

Just trying to get a head

Some LEGO elements are easy to upsize, and some are a nightmare of odd angles and complex shapes that defy common techniques. This was a challenge ToM Dracone (@yannickbuildsthings) was up for, though, as this super-sized Bionicle Toa head is a spot-on likeness. I’m particularly fond of the eye ridge/side of the head angling. This statue also has a great base, with sandy colors and greenery that harken back to the Island of Mata Nui. The gold Hau mask helps provide a sense of scale, making this head feel like a massive totem on the shoreline.

If you’d like to see more photos and details, check out yannickbuildsthings’ LEGO Ideas submission. And when you’re done there, why not delve into our archives for more great featured Bionicle creations?