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.

“You can draw a horse from the front, right?”

Back in the 1300s, sharing hilarious memes was hard. The story was dictated to an artist by some lord or another, then they had to grind and mix their own pigments using beetles and ram’s bladder and stuff, then they transcribed it all as an illuminated manuscript that took years to finish only to be read by a small population of scholars. Take this silly “egg horse” for example. The left image portrays a LEGO creation by Toltomeja and its inspiration to the right is an artist’s depiction of the front view of a -um- horse from L’estoire de Merlin in 1316. The artist likely lacked any real references to horses so you can forgive the silly rendition. Incidentally, this is precisely what sunk my would-be van mural painting career; a total lack of half-naked warrior maidens hanging around my studio and an end result that looked a bit like this egg horse.

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“I am fire, I am death, I am made of LEGO!”

While it’s true that LEGO did offer a version of Tolkien’s iconic dragon, it fell utterly short of capturing the enormity of Smaug the stupendous. Stefan Johansson delves under the mountain and brings forth a fitting tribute to this chiefest and greatest of calamities. It’s a beautiful model with the great dragon too large to be contained by his gold-littered base. Smaug claims his armor is like tenfold shields, but Stefan instead makes excellent use of the pauldrons of a praetorian guard for that nigh-impenetrable belly. The best part of the impressive build is Smaug’s head with that great lower jaw, ready to chomp dwarves and chew scenery with Cumberbatchian gravitas.

The living history of a fictional LEGO city: building Medinat al Musawrah [Interview]

If you’ve ever been to a LEGO fan event like BrickCon or Bricking Bavaria (and if you haven’t, do look for an event in your area!) one of the highlights is seeing collaborative builds where the parts, creativity, and passion of a team comes together to make something epic. 2024 saw some incredible collaborations, like Rogue Ronin or the latest incarnation of New Hashima. One of our favorite collabs of 2024 was “Medinat al Musawrah,” a fictional city inspired by the architecture of the Middle East and North Africa that is both modern and ancient. When we learned that the display would be returning in 2025 at BrickFair NoVa with new additions from Blake Foster and others, we reached out to the organizers to discuss the project’s inspiration, creation, and future.

A big thanks to Michael Willhoit, George Hawes, and Tobias Whelan for sharing their story.

TBB: First, can you talk about how the project came together? You had all just teamed up for the Old City district of New Hashima. What inspired this new collaboration?

Michael: The project was born from a few different factors. First, I wanted to move away from cubes. Having just completed New Hashima, some collaborators and friends of mine expressed interest in breaking away from using just a cube standard because of the constraints it had. It’s a tried and true technique but I wanted to devise a new system. More odd angles, pockets and alleys, density, and generally capturing the feeling of a city that’s been standing for centuries. Originally I modeled this off the iconic Kowloon Walled City, but that brings me to the next factor. We wanted to move out of the Eat Asian aesthetic sphere. I personally find a lot of inspiration in the Middle East, and I was lucky enough that I found people to share that. Looking in that area you can see similar insane density in cities like Cairo. There were initially 11 of us to test this. Everyone brought something unique to the display that I think really pushed it forward. George and Tobias shared in coordination roles, and George particularly contributed a massive modern pyramid structure to the build.

Tobias: I’ve been collaborating with George, Mike, or both of them since 2019. They’re some of my closest buddies and we can all unify a vision despite stylistic differences in building. Even with the massive scale of 2023’s New Hashima, George, Mike, and I all built for the Old City portion.

Our in-depth interview with Michael, George and Tobias continues

This Week in LEGO Bricks: New Hashima goes global, Bricklink voting, and and a new Iron Builder is Forged [Video]

Cyberpunk is spreading as New Hahima collaborations appear in Australia and Germany, Bricklink Designer Program opens voting for the next fan-designed set, and a new microbuild contest challenges you to shrink your favorite 18+ set. These are just some of the stories covered by ABrickDreamer in This Week in Bricks!

A big congratulations to Dominique Boeynaems on a well-deserved Iron Forge victory! (You can revisit our spotlight here.)

A slithering throwback to a simpler time

This LEGO creation by Djokson is called Mamba Marauder Snake; three words I’d love to get on my resumé but alas my job experience is mostly Excel spreadsheet related. I’m seeing a lot of tasty parts from the DreamZzz Action Race Car set. I’m particularly loving the watchband and green canopy. The builder’s inspiration though comes from this little racer from back when Donnie Darko was seeing creepy bunnies. Darko, creepy, and bunnies are three more words I’d love to see on my resumé but my work mostly involves boring meetings.

Tiny living in a big galaxy

Most Star Wars LEGO builders focus on battles, starfighters, and Jedi adventures, but not Tim Goddard of late. These days the builder has been exploring civilian life in the Mid-Rim worlds, especially the day-to-day of apprentice sub-technician (junior grade) Jostoc, seen here with the tiny shuttle he converted for mobile living. After nearly two decades of building and sharing Star Wars vehicles, Tim has developed a personal style that is unmistakeably part of that universe while also distinctly “Rogue Bantha.” The shuttle looks so cozy in white with dark green accents, with a touch of weathering to show that it’s well lived-in. This compact, modular design reminds me of the Mini-Rigs that Kenner released after Return of the Jedi when they ran out of official vehicles and needed some more affordable toy options. (I had a few and loved them!)

Tim’s technician has picked up a pair of droid companions on the job, one of which you might recognize as a companion to the droids Jostoc wrangled at work in a build that we featured last year. The speeder design is brilliant, using just a dozen parts, including a pair of perfectly employed boomerangs. Inside we get a glimpse of Jostoc’s kitchenette and/or workbench. I’m sure the roving technician has a system for what goes where to so as not to confuse the two!

UPDATE: Tim previewed the shuttle as two independent modules, but now you can see Jostoc’s full cozy home.

See pics of the two modules together!

A good feast is worth fighting for

These cute woodland citizens gathering acorns in this LEGO scene by Ids de Jong may look harmless, but they are armed and ready to defend their bountiful banquet. While the tree and the landscape are masterfully constructed, my favorite plants are the two winding dandelion flowers, which could make a lovely tea to help wash down those delicious nuts. Many builders have used the custom mouse heads from Crazy Bricks, but this builder digs deep into the LEGO archives for some Fabuland animal heads to create these memorable defenders.

Miniature LEGO castle on the water

I’ve been a fan of microscale LEGO master Jeff Friesen for many years and have created more than a few microscale builds inspired by his work. I recently made a series of castle builds on a 10×10 base, each using a limited color palette. This is one of my favorites from that series, using bright yellow/orange elements for the roofs. The series of waterfalls gives the castle a bit of character and is also heavily influenced by Jeff’s many waterway-filled builds. One of my favorite modified bricks to use in castle builds is the 1×2 brick with a vertical gap, which makes great tower windows.

Ralf Langer returns with a tranquil gem of a build

Has it really been over a year since we’ve last experienced a new Ralf Langer build? Just when we need it most, Ralf returns to brighten our day with The “Geode,” a serene scene built atop a slice of polished stone. The builder’s hallmarks are here: soothing colors, twisting trees, intricate architecture, and composition that is second to none. The limited color palette is striking, sticking to white for the rocks, bark, and pavilion steps. For the geode surface, Ralf worked with lime green but confesses that he would have preferred to use medium green but lacked the necessary parts to pull it off. I especially admire the pavilion roof, which incorporates clever techniques like a twisted chain on the top and minifig hands to create intricate latticework.

Are you inspired by this zen-like build? Why not browse our Ralf Langer archives, or if you’re curious about making trees like these, check out this handy tutorial from the builder.

LEGO MetalGreymon is digidestined to impress

While Digimon might not have the enduring popularity of their pocket monster rivals, these cyborg creatures have a fierce intensity that some fans will never forget. Especially MetalGreymon, the Ultimate form of Agumon and basically the franchise’s Pikachu. Only if Pikachu was a cyborg T-Rex with a metal claw and purple wings. Builder nobu_tary brings the beast from the digital world into LEGO and the results are digidelightful. nobu_tary excels at building chonky little dudes, which makes for a perfect fit with the Digimon design.

You’re going to want to slow down to appreciate these LEGO speeders

No, these aren’t the latest Star Wars UCS models from LEGO. This trio of speeders comes courtesy of Mirko Soppelsa, designer of amazingly detailed replicas of characters and ships from a galaxy far, far away. Mirko created two versions of the 74-Z speeder bike – in brown, as seen in Return of the Jedi, as well as the white version seen in The Mandalorian. The builder also expands his offering of brick-build characters with two pilot options – the classic Scout Trooper or rewired assassin droid IG-11 and pint-sized ward Grogu.

Constructed from between 4280 to 4494 parts depending on the configuration, and stretching 73cm (or 2 feet 5 inches) these amazing speeders deserve a closer look.

Move closer and get alongside this amazing LEGO Speeder Bike MOCs

Decapo-dacious

Adding to an already impressive biomechanical menagerie, this cracking-good Coconut Crab creation by Mitsuru Nikaido bears all this talented LEGO builder’s hallmarks. Chiefly, their signature monochrome style, and absolutely nailing the character of the subject.

This latest offering takes full advantage of a variety of new-ish angled and wedge shaped LEGO tile elements, used to great effect by a talented builder with an unfailing eye for proportion and detail.
If carcinization (look it up) really is the ultimate destiny for life on earth, let’s all hope at least it comes with this much style.