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 Emperor arrives aboard LEGO Star Wars 75302 Imperial Shuttle [Review]

Making its first appearance in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the Imperial Lambda-class shuttle is one of the Empire’s most iconic small spacecraft, with its folding wings and tall white dorsal fin. Maybe that explains why LEGO keeps releasing new versions. 75302 Imperial Shuttle is the fifth incarnation at or around minifig scale. The set comes with 660 pieces and will be available on March 1st for US $69.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99.

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.

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LEGO wins four Toy of the Year (TOTY) 2021 Awards from Toy Association [News]

Every year, the “Oscars” of the toy industry, Toy of the Year (TOTY) awards recognises the best of the best in the scene. The Toy Association is a nonprofit foundation that brings toys and grant funding to children’s charities across North America and around the world. For the 2021 awards, LEGO picked up 4 awards in several categories.

Click to see the winning LEGO sets

Mechanical knight in shining armour

There is just something about mechs built from LEGO. It’s almost as if recent smooth pieces like tiles, slopes, and curves exist solely for mechs. Alvaro Gunawan uses a seamless combination of common LEGO elements to create XR-1 Vilthuril – an elegant mech with clean armour and very little exposed innards. There are very few studs on this clean, almost minimal build. I love how a transparent green eye and torso window breaks up the bright grey and white colour scheme. What’s more: the detachable back mounted rocket engine doubles as a shield.

A fun fact about this build: this was submitted to us on our brand new Discord server! Head on over there to join the discussion with your fellow readers!

The little roadster that could

Anyone even remotely familiar with hot rodding knows that the quintessential dream project is the ’32 Ford roadster. They’re always a favorite at car shows and Ian Ying pretty much reached hot rodding nirvana with this LEGO version. I can assure you, they didn’t look like this off the assembly line but with a bit of imagination and elbow grease, customizers back in the day would turn their Grandpa’s jalopies into these hot little roadsters. The classic black with red trim, whitewalls and flames is the pinnacle of perfection. Copious chrome and gold doesn’t hurt matters, either. Ian is proving to be an automotive LEGO-building legend with a penchant for shiny bling. Click in the blue link there to see what I mean.

I promise you, one day I’ll take you to Elysium.

Graffiti is commonly found in alleyways, on abandoned buildings and railway cars but you don’t think of it as being scrawled on spacecraft. That’s why it is so neat to see it on Peter Stella’s newest LEGO creation. This is a shuttle from the gritty…or partially gritty Elysium movie from 2013. For those who haven’t seen the film, the citizens of Earth live in squalor, filth, pestilence and turmoil. That’s the gritty part. The non-gritty parts of the movie takes place on Elysium, a beautiful, clean utopian space station orbiting the Earth where the rich and powerful live. The station is technologically advanced, with devices that can cure diseases, reverse aging, and even regenerate body parts. Earth, not so much. The film makes deliberate, heavy-handed socio-political commentary and, as you can imagine, tension ensues. Anyway, in a LEGO world of Star Wars and Harry Potter it’s nice to see someone of Peter’s caliber give Elysium a bit of love. And graffiti.

Catapult into action with the Star Wars 125-Z Treadspeeder

“They fly now? They fly now!” That was a memorable quote from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It references the ability of the 125-Z Treadspeeder Bike to sort of springboard First Order Jet Troopers into the air. The concept was fine enough but in comparison to say the Millennium Falcon or the Slave I, The 125-Z, in my opinion anyway, may be one of the more mediocre offerings in terms of Star Wars vehicles. However, in the very capable hands of Mirko Soppelsa, I may have to reconsider that assessment. At nearly 6000 LEGO pieces, this intricate model is truly a sight to behold.The minifigs that accompany the base clues us in on how absolutely massive this model really is.

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Minifigures from LEGO Ideas 21319 Central Perk set are now available as keychains [News]

Brand new LEGO keychains with minifigures from LEGO Ideas 21319 Central Perk set are available from LEGO.com right now. There are six keychains listed online meaning that each of the main characters got their own keychain, except for Gunther. The keychains look identical to the minifigures that can be found in the Ideas set, and retail for US $5.99 | CAN $6.99 | UK £3.99 each.

Click here to take a closer look

I’m just trying to appreciate the gravity of the anti-gravity situation

I’m something of a sucker for sleek, futuristic racers. Whether the physics of the blazing fast machines checks out is another matter, but I’m no scientist, so who cares? As long as it looks cool, I’m happy. Tino Poutiainen knows how to build something with LEGO that’s just up my alley, inspired by the videogame Wipeout, which is all about anti-gravity racers. How does it work? Umm, well, shoot, where’s one of those scientists now when I need them? Er, it works, you see, by utilizing the power of superb color blocking (the Blacktron fan in me is loving the black and yellow, especially the thin stripe in the back using hinge bricks) along with a perfect amount of greebling, together with a simple yet crisp base in a contrasting color. Does it look fast? Yes. Is it sleek? Yes. Is it just about perfect? Yes.

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured LEGO builds by Tino Poutiainen, nor is it the first time we’ve featured some LEGO Wipeout anti-gravity racers. You should do yourself a favor and check them out.

A classic canister vacuum brought to us by the brick

Personally, I haven’t seen a vacuum of this type since I was a child–it probably wasn’t my family’s first vacuum, but certainly the first one I remember. After seeing this LEGO vacuum built by Joffre Zheng, I had to do a google search to see for myself if such a model still exists; lo and behold they are still manufactured today even with all the Roombas and Dysons on the market.

Joffre’s build is pleasantly simple and conveys the original object quite well. The canister portion makes use of some bricks, tiles, and slopes in white and light blue colors while the wheels are cleverly fashioned out of dark grey 2×2 dishes. The vacuum tubing is rendered by a flexible hose with tabbed back ends. The rod and nozzle components consist of some cylinder tubes, technic parts, as well as more bricks and slopes. It’s always nice to see regular household objects portrayed by LEGO, especially machines or other gadgets.

LEGOLAND New York needs your help to name their Big Red Dino [News]

LEGOLAND New York, which will open its doors sometime later this year is looking for your help to name the Big Red Dino that will be a centrepiece on Brick Street at LEGOLAND New York Resort. It’s made out of 182,101 LEGO DUPLO Bricks and over 1800 hours to build weighing 6245 pounds (over 2832 kgs).

Click for the link to the voting page

A narrow miss with this LEGO Mandalorian vs Krayt Dragon

One of the main appeals of Star Wars is its homage to classic genres like serialised westerns, samurai movies, and Arthurian legends. The Mandalorian presents that very well, with the titular character being a rugged gunslinger with a heart of gold helping various people in each episode. Thomas Jenkins captures one instance during one of his visits to Tatooine where he helps defeat a massive Krayt Dragon. Presented in a simple way: the Dragon bursting out of the sand, and the Mandalorian escaping its jaws.

The Krayt Dragon is complex in its angles and techniques, but captures the organic shape of a reptilian head. The floating sand and rubble is a nice addition and conveys a sense of motion from the rising beast. But the way Thomas got the Mandalorian to float is just ingenious. Using skeleton and droid arms to create columns of smoke from the minifig that is firmly attached to the rest of the build. Just like that, these few elements capture a simple moment. In a way, it is quite minimalistic, with very little need for anything else.

See more amazing Star Wars themed builds by Thomas Jenkins here.

This model’s the bomb (squad)

When the bomb squad has to get up close and personal with an explosive device, the technicians will don an explosive ordnance disposal suit (AKA, a bomb suit), which is a highly reinforced set of body armor. LEGO builder Djokson has crafted a high-tech version using a variety of odd LEGO parts. The black bits are mostly rubber tires turned inside out, while the top of the helmet and the chest are opposing sides of an X-pod canister from 2004. One particularly clever bit is the knob on the chest, which is a LEGO magnet held on purely by magnetism, thanks to another magnet inside the suit.

I generally pride myself on being a parts guys and can generally recognize most LEGO elements quickly. But there’s one that’s throwing me for a loop here, so I’m going to crowdsource the answer from all of you. The green ring for the neck has me at a loss. It looks very familiar but I can’t quite put my finger on it enough to locate it on a resource like Brickset or Bricklink. So leave your guesses in the comments!