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.

2021 BrickLink AFOL Designer Program to give new legs to 31 LEGO Ideas 10k-club designs [News]

Today BrickLink is revealing the second round of its AFOL Designer Program (ADP), which crowdfunds the creation of LEGO fan designs. 31 LEGO Ideas projects which reached 10,000 votes on that platform but were not selected to become Ideas sets have been ported over to the ADP where fans can choose to support them again. The projects range from a tiny aquarium to a fishing boat and a castle. Fans will be able to pre-order them in a Kickstarter-like process between June 1 and August 10. If they pass the crowdfunding goals on BrickLink, up to 13 of the sets may be produced. Unlike LEGO Ideas, the ADP will not substantially alter submitted models, so the final sets will be extremely close to the voted-on designs.

The first round of the AFOL Designer Program occurred in 2018 and solicited designs from the fan community to be turned into semi-official LEGO sets via a partnership between LEGO and BrickLink. (Check out our review of Löwenstein Castle from the ADP.) The LEGO Company subsequently purchased BrickLink in late 2019, and the newest round of the AFOL Designer Program is leveraging that connection to draw on LEGO’s own crowdsourcing platform LEGO Ideas for the new ADP designs. LEGO Ideas projects have a chance to become official LEGO sets, but must first receive 10,000 votes and then pass an internal review for product viability. As LEGO Ideas announced in December, for round two of the ADP, the company reached out to specific creators whose projects had passed the 10k mark but not the internal review, and invited them to participate in the ADP. LEGO says future rounds of the ADP may be open to submissions from all fans.

Read the full press release from LEGO below.

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LEGO DOTS 41930 Bag Tag Panda [Review]

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. DOTS 41930 Bag Tag Panda is available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $6.99 | CAN $8.99 | UK £5.99, so we picked one up to take a closer look…and found some interesting new parts for our troubles! Come along as we take a 84 piece trip into the realms of adorableness.

Click to read the full hands-on review

Germany’s famous Aachen Cathedral in LEGO microscale

When construction began on the Aachen Cathedral around 796, its builders could hardly have imagined that someday it would be translated into a miniature LEGO version. But Jochen Haas done a beautiful job translating the final resting place of Charlemagne into bricks. When I first saw the large dome in the middle, I thought Jochen’s technique of using a series of curved slopes at intervals was an interesting effect, but left it with an unfortunate ribbed look. But apparently I’d forgotten what the real cathedral looks like, because a little quick research shows that the real dome is actually ribbed as well. In fact, the whole model feels as though it could be an official LEGO Architecture set–and if you want to build this one yourself, for once you’re in luck, because Jochen has actually created free instructions, though you’ll need to provide the parts yourself.

And if you look to your left, you can see some very nice part usage

Every LEGO creation tells a story. Sometimes it’s a fairytale with dragons and princesses, and sometimes it’s a more harsh story involving weapons and armed forces. As for the latest brick-built scene by Peter Stella, I guess the story is as clear as it can be. Obviously, the tactical team breaks through the window to take a better look at the laboratory’s fantastic interior design. They must be rushing towards the back-lit sections on the walls, which create a perfectly ominous atmosphere. And I won’t blame them if they decide to steal the design for their own headquarters. But my favorite elements are UFO helmets, but I wonder what happened to the aliens..?

It’s a bird! It’s a drone! It’s 100% real LEGO!

You heard that right. Everything in this SU-N8 “Iridosornis” Reconnaissance Drone by Marius Hermann is made of real, unaltered LEGO. Even the pants (from Scala.) Even those large wings with engines (from Galidor.) And yes, all of those are real, genuine LEGO products that existed. Marius has made a name for himself by mixing these unconventional elements into his sci-fi builds, and he does it so well. Whereas prefabricated elements like the Galidor wings might not fit into a build such as this, it works well here and wouldn’t look as good without it. They provide a good contrast and balance between the smooth blues and the greebly greys.

Despite the angry voices of distant fanatics that gatekeep LEGO to only the brick-built system and minifigures, I find that real creativity is thinking outside the box and using unconventional elements. I have a soft spot for builders who use these weird parts and mix them with “normal” LEGO. Because at the end of the day, if it wasn’t real LEGO, then I wouldn’t be writing about it!

Check out more creations using parts from Galidor and Scala!

This car was meant to be built

There are not that many iconic cars that look great in LEGO bright light yellow color. Obviously, Fiat 500 is one of them, but can you think of another? Firas Abu-Jaber knows one, and it’s the legendary Shelby Cobra. And guess what? This one in the picture below is built with just pieces available in the Creator Expert Fiat 500 set!

This is definitely one of the sweetest alternative builds I’ve ever seen. Not only does the shape looks great and recognizable, but it also looks like Firas didn’t have to compromise when working on the exterior. Sure, a couple of points would look better with a different choice of pieces, but the proportions are spot-on.

Peach Blossom Lake

When it comes to building with LEGO our creations tend to 3D most of the time. Toltomeja chose to go for a 2D approach with their latest creation. My knowledge about Chinese culture and art is not that strong, so if I use the wrong wording, please excuse me. Toltomeja made a scroll with a decorative landscape painting in Chinese calligraphy style. The artwork is filled with little details and parts used in a very smart way. For instance, there are sausages, horns, a sextant and a t-bar used in Chinese characters.

The horns also get used as a part of the clouds and to represent the flying birds. Which is really simple, yet really clever. There are bananas disguised as a small waterfall. There are also bananas incorporated in the clouds. I do not know why but apparently, frogs are the latest fashion when it comes to foliage. Towards the bottom of the scroll, this creation slowly goes from 2D to 3D. The clouds make this ‘painting’ look very calm jet a bit mystical. And the cracks in the rock give the mountains an amazing amount of depth.

A stroll along ancient streets

Many a great LEGO model has been inspired by a real life place and builder Qian Yj‘s latest build is definitely among them. This beautiful scene is based on the real life Yuehe Street, a popular tourist destination in Jiaxing, China. The small greebling work on the walls in a limited color palette is lovely and really captures the crumbling look of many of the street’s buildings. I love the decorative touches and window treatments utilizing grills and 2×2 turntable bases on the building’s faces and the small cafe on the side. I’m also particularly enamored with the sweeping white supports between buildings. A perfect street to while away the afternoon, sipping tea at the waterside as the boats float by.

I’ll take mine on the rocks, please

There are some LEGO builders that I would just love to hate, since they seem to be living the perfect LEGO life, and Markus Rollbühler would be at the top of my list; he’s one of the most talented builders out there with about a billion social followers, he has an enormous and perfectly organized collection, and he even works as a set designer for LEGO, the (pipe) dream job of every aspiring LEGO talent. But Markus is impossible to hate, because he is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, super humble, always offering advice and help when asked, and available to even the most rookie builder. How could I hate a guy like that? I can’t. Instead, I admit that he’s one of my personal favorite builders, regardless of what genre he tries his hand at. In this case, it is a delightful little lighthouse.

Markus shows of his skills by building a compactly small round tower out of tiles, pairing that with a ramshackle hut with a teal roof (got to love teal, right?). Markus is famous for his cheese slope roofs, and really his ability to make a roof out of virtually any piece (see Ninjago City Gardens, a set he designed, if you doubt the truth of the statement). He is also well known for his foliage, and this tree made from yellow feathers does not disappoint. The color scheme is just about perfect, as is the composition, and the building techniques are on point…in short, it’s enough to make one green (or even teal) with envy, except that the builder is just too darn nice.

LEGO Technic 42121 Heavy-Duty Excavator [Review]

There’s no such thing as a boring outside activity; there are only boring machines that make things dull and tedious. And for proper digging, you need a proper excavator, preferably a heavy-duty one. It’s been a while since we got a great LEGO Technic excavator set, but here comes the new 42121 Heavy-Duty Excavator. This 569-piece set brings back mini-scaled construction machines and uses a bunch of newly-introduced pieces for its neat design. The set is available for US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99.

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

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The puddle jumper

I have a fondness for tiny LEGO spaceships that have every piece neatly in place, and this micro “space-catamaran” by Christopher Hoffmann fits the bill perfectly. Christopher says he built it several years ago but is just now getting around to photographing it (a delay I empathize with on a deep level) but I’m glad he’s decided to show it off now. While he says the design focused around the then-new X-wing canopy, the part that sticks out to me the most are the large white Technic panels that form the wings, which are a cool-shaped piece that’s surprisingly difficult to integrate into minifigure-scale ships, though it blends in smoothly here.

Stop, hammerhead shark time?

Certainly, if anyone saw a real hammerhead shark, they would stop whatever they were doing out of fear, but imagine seeing this guy? Dylan Mievis’s hammerhead shark figural LEGO build is surely fear and nightmare-inducing.

Mievis mainly utilizes LEGO Technic elements from the Bionicle, Hero Factory, and Star Wars buildable figure lines to shape this muscular anthropomorphic hammerhead shark. Ball and joint elements allow for articulation, while various armor pieces including the shoulder plate serving as the shark’s midriff create a heavily shielded aesthetic. Some small elements more commonly found, such as claw pieces and the printed voodoo ball elements used for the eyes, are also featured in this build. Shark week isn’t for a while, but this model gives us enough of a scare to hold us over.