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.

A scraggily troll lives under a scraggily bridge

When I think of building with LEGO, the first thing that comes to mind is building with bricks. Jessica Farrell has taken that to the next level, and built a bridge out of bricks, that themselves are built with LEGO bricks.

And these brick-built-bricks ain’t your standard sized bricks either – they’re all kinds of odd shapes, cobbled together to build a bridge with character. Some have moss growing on them, there are even weeds poking out through the cracks. The vast array of different parts used give the bricks and bridge a quite amazing texture. Underneath the bridge you’ll find your standard bridge-hider-under, an ugly troll, ready to eat whatever goats go trip-trapping over his bridge. Luckily both sides of the river are quite lush. I really like the healthy-looking lime and green grass, as well as the custom-cut lengths of flextube for reeds and bulrushes.

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.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for March 20, 2021

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the third week of March 2021.

We dig in deep with the Technic Heavy-Duty Excavator! Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: This week we saw the kickoff of the new 2021 BrickLink AFOL Designer Program, built some cute DOTS tags for our luggage and reviewed the Technic Heavy Duty excavator!

2021 BrickLink AFOL Designer Program to give new legs to 31 LEGO Ideas 10k-club designs – Today BrickLink is kicking off the 2021 round of the AFOL Designer Program, featuring 31 LEGO Ideas sets that won 10,000 votes but didn’t pass the review stage.
LEGO DOTS 41930 Bag Tag Panda – The latest wave of DOTS branches out from bracelets to include “bag tags” – cute, cubic animals that can be clipped onto a backpack or other things to add a bit of LEGO flair.
LEGO Technic 42121 Heavy-Duty Excavator [Review] – Today we build and play with the new LEGO Technic 42121 Heavy-Duty Excavator to see if its great design can outweigh the flawed play features.

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

Get ready for the LEGO Star Wars Minifigure Madness tournament!, StarWars.com – Vote for your favorite heroes and villains of a galaxy far, far away
LEGO to launch three LEGO VIDIYO ad spots during ITV’s The Voice UK final, Toy News – The three 20 second spots – all of which will air during the first advertisement break of the final on Saturday, March 20th – will feature L.L.A.M.A, the first live action human version of a LEGO Minifigure
Lego Brand Group hires ex-Spotify exec Cecilia Qvist to run venture arm, VentureBeat – As head of Lego Ventures, Qvist will help broaden the impact of the mission of learning through play.

Gnepnug the Forager gathers mushrooms

Behold! Another fun little LEGO creation by John Snyder featuring a woodland gatherer. I’ll be honest, my first thought upon seeing this build was, “Oh, look! The Wicked Witch of the West!” But then I saw the title and realized it was an insanely cooler character, Gnepnug the Forager. I’ve never seen anyone use a Bionicle leg plate before as a face, but this works! The use of multiple minifigure capes for worn-in clothing was a clever idea. I also appreciate the lack of a baseplate, with John instead opting for what appears to be a green LEGO sail piece.

The hare of the bunny that bit me

A Gatling gun, grappling hook, chainsaw, and an unfolding semaphore tower is not the kind of things you’d usually associate with little pink bunnies. But LEGO builder Ted Andes has done just that with this Nousagi (野ウサギ) Reconnaissance Tank. This mech-tank looks like it means serious business. However, just a few pretty pink touches and bunny stickers clue us in that one can pilot a tank and still have a playful personality. The open hatch gives us a glimpse of a playful young driver who can still get down to brass tacks when serious reconnaissance stuff needs to happen.

Aye, there’s a castlehead for you

There’s trainheads and castleheads, but usually it’s meant to refer to fans of the various LEGO themes. However, here’s a build that takes it quite literally. Designed by Corvus Auriac, this 5,400-piece microscale model depicts a castle built on a rock that might be a little more alive than its builders suspected. It’s packed with lovely details from the dragon burninating the town to the tiny wizard tower sprouting out of the side of the castle’s tallest roof. Do yourself a favor and give this one a close look, as you’ll be rewarded with lots of clever parts usages. One of my favorites is also the one used most here: most of the trees are made from dark green minifigure epaulets stacked on each other.

Two great Star Wars ships for all your bounty hunting needs

Whether you need to chase down two-bit scoundrels who owe money or tool around the galaxy with your foster kid in the Star Wars equivalent of a ’96 Nissan Stanza, you’re going to need the right equipment. First, you need a cool outfit, preferably one you’ll wear your entire life, even if you put on a few post-Sarlaac pounds. Next, you’ll need a bucket on your head and a credo about not talking much and never showing your face except during some mushy parts. Lastly, you’re going to need a sweet spaceship and that’s where LEGO builder Tim Goddard comes in. Here we see Boba Fett and his Slave I as well as “Mando” from The Mandolorian with his Razor Crest. Tim makes excellent use of both old and new gray bits for that lived-in mottled effect.

We’ve featured Tim’s Razor Crest before but with the added stands and posed next to his new Slave I, we couldn’t resist bringing it out again for an encore performance.

Johnny Thunder gets colorized

Norlego takes us on an LEGO Adventure with everyone’s favorite non-licensed LEGO adventurer Johnny Thunder! In some creations, the minifigures are the last things that get added to bring the scene to life. My guess is that in this creation, the minifigures were created first and inspired the rest of the build. All the usual suspects are there. We have Johnny, Pippin Reed, Dr. Kilroy, and wherever Johnny goes his nemesis Sam Sinister follows. Also, there are Slyboots, Mike and Harry Cane. This time they are portrayed in a more realistic skin tone rather than yellow.

Norlego built an irregularly shaped base with lots of angles and exposed studs, perfectly mimicking the desert lands of Egypt. What would an oasis be without some lush palm trees? These are made beautifully. The use of the prickly bush for the dead leaves at the base of the palm tree is a really nice touch. The colour of the swordleaf indicates whether a leaf is dead, doing fine or a baby leaf. Or maybe I am just looking into it too much? Last but not least I think the table deserves some love. It is made out of triangle road signs. The seams between the road signs make the table look fold-able which would really be handy when going on an adventure.

Want see more Johnny Thunder creations? Check out these articles.

Monkey see, monkey do bigger

I’ve seen giant LEGO pieces, and even upscaled fish and chickens, but I’ve never before seen a giant LEGO monkey, and this one from mybrickbuild has me tickled pink. The classic LEGO monkey was one of my favorite pieces in the original Pirates theme, this giant one makes me want to see a whole LEGO Pirates set built at this scale. It’s a digital render but it looks like it’s mostly buildable with real bricks, except for the 2×2 round bricks with Technic holes, which aren’t currently available in brown. The arms and curling tail are courtesy of the new curved 2×2 round piece that forms the trunk on the Bonsai Tree.

If you like seeing things made bigger with bricks, check out our upscaled LEGO archives!

I wonder if his garden is in the shade.

Let’s go on an undersea adventure with this great octopus by Didier Burtin. You don’t normally associate great greebling with aquatic creatures, but if you look close there are lots of fun details here. Sure, the LEGO tires are easy to locate, but what about the hot dog? There’s also a generous helping of hinged articulation, making this one poseable critter. It looks like the octopus has claimed a treasure chest as a perch, and the brown of the chest (and the bright orange leaves festooning it) really make the red and black colors of the octopus stand out.

It’s great to see a creation that’s based so firmly on an accurate depiction of a real-life animal. That’s not to say there isn’t also benefit from a more mechanized approach. What sort of octopus do you want to build?

Weeping Angels and Cybermen and Daleks – oh my!

The well-known Paul Hetherington is a LEGO builder and artist we’ve covered a few times in the past. His distinct style of large brick-built characters and scenery, mixed with minifigure scale scenes is unmistakable whether it’s Batman, Fabuland, or a giant automaton ripping its robot heart out. His latest masterpiece is his take on Doctor Who.

Typical of all his creations, it’s hard to say what part of it your eyes will be drawn to first. When I usually see something new he builds, I notice one part of it, and think it’s amazing. Then I notice another, and another, and another. My eyes dart around looking at all the components of a complex and beautiful creation. From top to bottom, you start with the clever lettering of the title BBC Doctor Who, then you see the giant Weeping angel and Cyberman surrounding the TARDIS. Continue reading →

Round and round she goes

TBB alumn Nannan Zhang has always had a penchant for fishing out the oddball pieces that clutter the bottom of most of our parts bins, and making something clean and elegant with them. This time he’s really found a true oddball, though, because the centerpieces of this spaceship are giant teal Duplo balls, sitting as what I presume are reactor spheres. The third sphere on the triangular ship is one of the clear tourist spheres from the Jurassic World sets. It all comes together neatly to make a delightfully alien ship design.

The Eggblaster 01 is one sunny-side-up mech

Sometimes a LEGO element can inspire a build, and that appears to be the case with the LEGO Eggblaster 01 by Marco De Bon. That oval windscreen led to an egg-shaped cockpit, which in turn led to this cute-and-stompy mech. The dark blue and red colors work well, with just the right pop of yellow from the caution striping. And check out the clever use of horse barding in those gun covers!

Continue reading →