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.

Case and Bunning! They’re hard-boiled cops! Or farm equipment.

As much as I would have loved to have written an edge-of-your-seat cop action drama, this will be about farm equipment. Still, you’ve got to appreciate the love and attention Michał Skorupka gives to these LEGO creations. The red tractor is the International Harvester Case 1455 XL while the blue thingamajigger is the Bunning Lowlander 105mk4. For those of us more versed in hard-boiled cop dramas than farm equipment, the Bunning Lowlander is…a manure spreader. I’m pretty sure I can still integrate that in with some hard-hitting, no-nonsense cop drama dialogue. “My partner Bunning here has a unique set of skills, see? You don’t want to know! So lemme ask ya one more time. You feeling lucky, punk?” In case you are feeling lucky and would like to stick around for a while, why not buckle in and check out our vehicle archives featuring farming vehicles, police vehicles and everything in between.

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Guten tag, Raketenwerfer!

The Brothers Brick regular Andreas Lenander has built a LEGO Ma.K SAFS Raketenwerfer, which I’m pretty sure is German for “launching rockets in a field of olive cheese wedges”. Don’t quote me on that. But that’s pretty much what is going on here. It’s just a small part of what is in store from Andreas in October. I’ll keep an eye out for what this builder is up to and I advise you do the same. This will get you started.

This isn’t a spaceship, it’s a LEGO brain-teaser

As you might imagine, being the managing editor for The Brothers Brick entails looking at a lot of LEGO creations. With space being one of the most popular LEGO genres, I’ve seen my share of spaceships. And while I see plenty of spaceships I love, it’s not often that I come across models that truly cause my jaw to drop, but spaceship guru Nick Trotta routinely does so with his mastery of brick geometry. One of the best spaceship builders around, Nick’s latest creation, dubbed the Heavenly Strike, is a perfect example of how you can fit LEGO pieces together in truly mind-blowing configurations. So I’m going to dive into this one a bit more than we do on our usual articles because I’m absolutely enthralled.

At first, you see a superbly slick spaceship with an impeccable color scheme (with a few gorgeously custom copper-chromed elements). It’s angular and appropriately futuristic without being over the top. And, while it’s easily overlooked, that display stand is quite a nice creation on its own. But look closer, and you’ll start to see that very few pieces align in the way that you’d think they should, and nearly every surface is fitted an odd angle.

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Citizen Brick’s custom LEGO minifigure elements for Halloween 2020 [Review]

In addition to excellent custom minifig parts and minifigs inspired by the likes of the Beastie Boys and Bob Ross, our friends at Citizen Brick have begun producing their own injection-molded items. For Halloween 2020 the CB team have released a bevy of creepy custom minifig parts for you to mix and match with your LEGO.

We’ve said before that what’s so awesome about Citizen Brick products is that they’re the sort of thing that LEGO themselves will likely never release, while remaining compatible with LEGO. This makes custom parts produces like Citizen Brick distinct from knockoffs and clone brands that compete with LEGO and are often of inferior quality. Because CB has earned our respect with printing quality that’s indistinguishable from LEGO’s own, it’s exciting to see them branch out to custom parts, allowing LEGO fans to go beyond the confines of the staid bricks from Billund. Let’s take a look at what the mad scientists of Chicago have cooked up.

Read our full hands-on review of this year’s Citizen Brick Halloween release

Building bricks from bricks makes for picture-perfect architecture

The Aarhus Royal Custom House in Denmark is said to be architect Hack Kampmann’s finest work. Now, this massive minifigure-scale tribute may be the finest work of LEGO builder Poul-Erik Borre. The design is exceptionally like the actual building, but it’s even more than that. The color and texture work is impressive. Additionally, there is some awesome parts usage going on to create the angles. As someone who has tried to build complicated roofs before, I know this is no easy feat. The use of the modified 1×2’s with flexible tips to get the right shape for the rounded peaks is my favorite aspect.

There is a Youtube tour of the model promised for the future. In the meantime, take a look at Boore’s medieval village, which is featured in the LEGO House.

This sailboat goes with the motion of the ocean

Barthezz Bricks has a repertoire of highly detailed LEGO dioramas combining land and sea. His latest build is no different, focusing on the historical accuracy of the 15th century Mediterranean tartan ship as a part of a larger ongoing project on 1486 Venice. Let’s dive into some of the techniques used in this build.

The composition captures the rhythmic movement of ocean waves with varying shades of blue underneath translucent cheese slopes and 1×1 tiles. A net technique is used to render the waves, a subtle addition that goes a long way. The hull of the ship features a clever use of two-stud 1×4 plates for just the right amount of texture. Other details include a ragged flag made of 1×1 clips, debris caught in the currents and above all, the magnificent sail of the fishing boat. I don’t know what kind of bar-clip magic is happening behind that sail, but it’s certainly holding together for this photo! Using triangle road signs, Barthezz Bricks has pieced together a wonderful tessellated surface for the sail. Overall, there’s splendid dynamism in this diorama– the movement of the ocean, the flag, the fishermen pulling up their crab traps. Now I can’t help but think that some movement in the sail would have been nice to see, but that might be a greater challenge for another day…

Microscale AT-TE just needs a miniature Ahsoka to be perfect [Instructions]

One of the coolest new vehicles introduced by the Star Wars prequel trilogy in my opinion is the 6-legged walker known as the All-Terrain Tactical Enforcer or AT-TE. Not only is it too low to the ground to trip up with tow cables, but it’s packed with guns, including a massive top-mounted heavy cannon. Jason Allemann has built a remarkably detailed model that not only looks great, but it can also walk on its own.

But the fun doesn’t stop here. You can build one of your own with these instructions provided by Jason, and if you are really ambitious, you might even put yours on a vertical cliff face to re-enact the scene from the Clone Wars animated movie.

And if you want your own Ahsoka Tano, this year’s 75283 Armored Assault Tank includes a gorgeous Ahsoka minifig along with an awesome “Ahsoka Trooper”.

LEGO Ideas’ newest set 123 Sesame Street (21324) takes you back to your childhood [News]

The latest set to come from LEGO’s crowdsourcing platform LEGO Ideas is one that’s sure to take you down memory lane. 123 Sesame Street (21324) captures a piece of the famous children’s show with a block of New York City populated with a variety of its most beloved characters. The 1,367-piece set includes Bert, Ernie, Grouch, Elmo, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster, and locations such as Hooper’s Store, Bert and Ernie’s apartment, Elmo’s room, and Big Bird’s nest. The set will retail for US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £109.99 and will be available from LEGO starting Nov. 1. Be sure to check out our full, hands-on review of the LEGO Ideas 123 Sesame Street (21324) published earlier today.

Click to see more images and read the full press release

Come and Play! LEGO Ideas 123 Sesame Street (21324) [Review]

If you were lucky, part of your pre-school experience was spending quality time learning from the humans and fuzzy monsters on Sesame Street. If you’re like me, you found a friend in Cookie Monster, sang along with Ernie and Bert, and wished you could take a nap in Big Bird’s nest. If you’re younger than me, then you might have spent time in Elmo’s world. No matter your age, they were good times, to be sure. The latest Ideas set from LEGO, 123 Sesame Street (21324), gives us a new chance to revisit old friends, and maybe make some new ones along the way. This 1,368-piece set will be available directly from LEGO.com and from LEGO stores starting November 1 for US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £109.99. The Brothers Brick was sent an early copy to review, and we’re eager to explore it with you. So come along, and let’s see who are the people in your neighborhood!

Click to read the full hands-on review

Mr. Mercedes makes many merry motorcars

LEGO car builder Jonathan Elliott tells us that boxy small-scale saloon cars like this classic Mercedes are fiendishly difficult to build, even more so then their curvier sportscar counterparts. I’m inclined to agree. This model is chock full of tricky SNOT (Studs not on top) techniques and complex offsetting. But I love its understated elegance. We’ve enjoyed Jonathan’s small-scale vehicles before. If vehicles of any scale are your thing, then I’d advise you buckle in and check out our archives. There’s some automotive gold in there for sure.

We’ve trained for this.

Recently, we’ve featured quite a few LEGO builds based on the 9V Train Track switch element. Those were some mighty fine builds. Some might even call them transformative. But Librarian-Bot has taken the idea of “Train Switches” in an unforeseen direction with Switchback. This sinister-looking Decepticon is ready to take you for the last ride you’ll ever go on. I particularly like the way the hands are constructed – they add a delicate, almost surgical feel to an otherwise bulky robot.

In train mode Switchback completely hides any robotic nature – and even works on standard LEGO track. It’s a sharp-looking engine build that makes good use of tile and curved slope elements to provide just the right level of real-world detail.

If you’re ready for even more Transformers goodness (and badness) be sure to check our archives!

An entirely different kind of X-Wing

When it comes to starfighters, there’s no limit to the shapes and colors used by LEGO builders, and inspiration comes from many sources. Take this x-shaped starfighter by Chris Perron, who built this spicy fighter as part of a unique challenge using another builder’s starfighter as a starting point.

I can’t decide what I like more about this fighter, the amazing angled cockpit formed by 4 converging panels, or the 4 wings detailed with magenta and blue. Here is the fighter alongside the ship from another builder.

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