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 10295 Porsche 911 Turbo & 911 Targa: German engineering meets Danish [Review]

As with LEGO’s Modular Buildings Collection, it’s become a yearly tradition for LEGO to add a new large-scale vehicle to the Creator Expert theme. The vehicles have ranged across a variety of car market segments, but one thing they all have in common is that they’re extremely iconic. And so it’s no surprise that this year’s entry is one of the most iconic sports cars of all time, instantly recognizable no matter your level of car knowledge. 10295 Porsche 911 Turbo & 911 Targa was revealed just two weeks ago and brings us not one but two versions of the classic sports car. With 1,458 pieces, it contains the parts to build either the performance Turbo version or the suave Targa with removable top. It will retail for US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £119.99 and will be first available to LEGO VIP members starting Feb. 16, with regular retail availability starting March 1.

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.

Click to read the full review

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The legendary big three – the ’96 Chicago Bulls

If you were growing up as a kid in the 90’s, without a doubt you had to be a fan of the Chicago Bulls, at least I felt that way during the time. Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, and Scottie Pippen weren’t just great basketball players, they were icons of the sport and the era. Takamichi Irie brings back some of the vibes of those days through his figural LEGO builds of the dream team.

Irie shapes the bodies of the big three completely out of bricks, with musculature utilizing sloped pieces. Smooth pieces such as tiling, slopes, and 2×2 round bottom plates also help in rendering the legs and arms of the figures while articulation is provided by 1×1 modified plates with clips. The Nike swoosh on a couple of the players’ shoes are portrayed by claw pieces. The heads of the players are given some definition with 1×1 tiles and cheese slope pieces. While the bodies are blocky, human figures are extraordinarily difficult to render using bricks, especially at this scale. I believe Irie’s combination and configuration of elements really produced the closest one can get to recreating these figures in LEGO at such a size. Looking at the build as a whole, I remember the glory days of the Bulls’ past, but I am also reminded that I need to check out the Netflix docuseries on the Chi-town bulls – The Last Dance, which may have inspired these awesome models

Levitating Bonsai Balance

Ever since the release of the LEGO 10281 Bonsai tree, there have been a lot of LEGO Bonsai trees appearing on my socials. I do not recall an official set ever-inspiring so many fans to create their own versions of (except for maybe the BrickHeadz). This one by Hoang Dang is the cherry on top of the cake. Not only does it come with a custom base and pot it also appears to be levitating, hence the title.

Let’s get straight to the tree which to me is te main highlight of this creation. There are so many cleverly used parts hidden in this creation. Hoang was also kind enough to post a break down of his creation, making my life as a writer a whole lot easier. For the trunk the following pieces were used: mammoth trunks, mammoth heads and a Scala horse saddle. I kid you not. There also is a lot of attention to detail when it comes to the flowers in the Bonsai tree. The flowers appear to have 3 stages. Starting as a small bud, which slowly opens until it is in full bloom.

Moroccan Riad Courtyard

Some people do not mind having studs showing in their creations. Some people strongly dislike having studs showing in their creations. Some people, like Andrew Tate, decide to have the studs showing with a purpose. In this latest model by Andrew, the studs are meant to represent the tiles on the wall. The effect sure is stunning. I am also a big fan of mixing the different shades of blue. LEGO has been pushing out a lot of softer colors ever since the release of LEGO Friends. And it sure is nice to see these colors getting incorporated into non-Friends builds. When it came to the flooring Andrew decided to go full studs-not-on-top which means that most of the floor is held on by gravity and willpower. It must have been quite the challenge to lay this intricate floor pattern. There are a lot of details to discover and this most definitely is a creation that deserves to be zoomed in on.

That’s a lot of bull

2021 is the Year of the Ox, and to help us celebrate, LEGO builders are constructing a breadth of bricky bovines. Pistash challenged himself to use only pearl gold elements, and the result is this mechanical bull that’s actually not very brickish at all. With a mess of bars and ornamentation pieces surrounding a core frame of fence gates, this golden calf is one of the odder creations I’ve seen recently, and I am loving every bit of it.

Check out other LEGO Year of the Ox creations in our archives.

It takes a village to raise up good builders

Back when I was first exploring the world of online LEGO fandom, years ago now, one of the first places I landed was the Guilds of Historica, a medieval fantasy-based role building forum on Eurobricks. It was an eye-opening experience for me, then just a novice builder fairly fresh out of my dark ages, seeing all the incredible castles and villages that talented builders the world over had contributed. I quickly joined up and contributed my own creations, getting invaluable building and photography feedback along the way, and Mathijs Dubbeldam was one of those helpful folks giving me feedback and support. His latest build feels like a medieval piece of Ninjago City, with the blue water and grey walkway along with the tower and colorful buildings. The varied roofline and angled walkways give it a wonderfully organic feel, like a real city. Fancy a visit?

Don’t forget to browse other LEGO fantasy builds while you are here! Perhaps you’ll be inspired to build your own, especially with the new LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith shop out now.

Mooove over, Year of the Rat

As the Year of the Ox is approaching next week, Ian Hou (AKA DOGOD Brick Design) blesses us with a new LEGO creation. He wishes us a happy, healthy new year and tells us to be as strong as an ox. And thinking about the positives of having gotten through this past year, let’s look into Ian’s brick cow. All throughout you’ll find excellent part usages and slope shaping. The legs are formed by angled wedge plates and the hooves with 2×2 corner wedges. Ian also uses a 6×6 train roof for the cow’s thigh and a half arch for the subtle shaping of the cow’s neck.

Read on to see the close up details

“Houston, this is Platform 7”

From a galaxy likely not too far away comes a creation from LEGO sci-fi building genius Tim Goddard.

This is incredible. The amount of detail here is off the charts! Just look at those stairwells (yes, the external stairs and the internal yellow stairs), the airlocks, the lines on the landing pad! But that antenna on top, that takes the cake. Clearly, it can send messages all the way from Pluto to Earth.

Also, is that the Death Star as a fuel tank?

You’ve done it again, Mr. Goddard. Keep up the great work!

Breaking ground and building models

Of course on Instagram and Flickr or wherever else LEGO collections and cities are shown off, one can find plenty of completed modulars and cars, maybe even some small construction vehicles, but Fuku Saku presents us with a highly detailed model of a construction site complete with a skeleton frame of a building and some great vehicles.

Saku’s vehicles are pretty detailed and are comprised of both large and small parts; an interesting part used in his dump truck would be the battle droid arm utilized on the truck’s backend. Overall both trucks make use of bricks and wheels in addition to a lot of slopes and tiles to achieve a smooth and completed look. The building frame behind the vehicles is notably comprised of many different types of plates but also includes bricks and tiling. In any case Saku’s model is a break from the usual completed buildings.

Bugs bunny welcomes you to the space jam

Space Jam was a staple film of any 90s childhood; which kid back in the day wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie? It had everything kids wanted – Michael Jordan, basketball, great music, and of course, the Looney Toons. Ian Hou brings his best 90s game to the world of LEGO bricks in this awesome brick-built Space Jam model.

“Look at our facilities! We’ve got weights! We’ve got hoops! We’ve got balls!” well, Hou’s build doesn’t have any weights, but certainly, there’s a brick-built orange basketball in Bugs Bunny’s hand, and this basketball court fashioned by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique features a basketball hoop element from the LEGO sports sets dating from the 2000s. Bugs bunny is also brick-built himself; his build utilizes slopes, tiles, bricks, and some technic elements along with hinge pieces granting his figure some articulation. As a 90s kid, this build brings absolute joy to my heart; seeing a happy and expertly fashioned brick-built bugs bunny shooting hoops in his basketball garb is a very welcome sight.

This travel poster will get a rise out of you

Frequent visitors to The Brothers Brick will recognize the name Eero Okkonen. We’ve featured a great number of his amazing sculptural works over the years, most featuring large figure builds. His departures from that theme are just as impressive, though. For Those About To Rise Up, an entry into the Travel Poster challenge for Space Jam 2020, is a marvel of gradient color and design. And, yeah, with a pretty impressive face in the foreground, too. I really like the green hair and coral eyeshadow, but my favorite detail has to be the tiny spaceship that is rocketing to the stars.

Thanks to Corona, it feels like I’ve been stuck at home for a thousand years. This poster makes me hopeful there will still be vacation opportunities in the distant future, too.