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.

What do you require?

LEGO builder Pedro Sequeira takes us back to one of the most memorable moments in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Harry’s last return to Hogwarts starts off in one of the most unusual locations on Hogwarts grounds, the Room of Requirement.

It’s the place Lord Voldemort used to hide one of his Horcruxes while applying for the job of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. The place where Draco Malfoy spent the majority of his sixth year, fixing the Vanishing Cabinet, in order to smuggle death eaters into the castle to help him assassinate Dumbledore. The place Professor Trelawney attempted to hide her sherry bottles. And last but not least, the place where Dumbledore’s Army could safely meet. At least that’s what they thought.

So of course, a LEGO build of it should capture as much of this history as it can. And indeed, this build is filled with fantastic details. Everything you need is there, from the portrait swinging open to reveal our heroes, to the makeshift beds and hammocks everywhere, to Nigel’s potterwatch radio setup and even the columns with the glass and wood display cases.

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Star Wars: Return of The Child, Season two, featuring The Child

If there’s just one thing carefully-crafted scientific data has proven, it’s that if you post something to do with The Child (aka Baby Yoda) from The Mandalorian, you’ll get all the clickity-clicks and likety-likes in the world. Take this cute little LEGO chap built by Thomas Lundström. While he is small and not overly complex, you will still go ga-ga for the little scoundrel. See, you can’t resist clicking “like”! I can just see our views skyrocketing already.

If you care to flood your cuteness overload with more of this lovable little space-toddler then check out our archives.

That’s no moon. That’s a spaceship!

Spaceships come in all shapes, sizes, and configurations. But throughout the last month (dubbed ‘SHIPtember’ by LEGO builders thanks to a community initiative to build big SHIPs), we tend to see a lot of weirdness come out, and I mean that in the best possible sense. One of the weirder ships to float across our screens this time is this massive crescent from Markus Rollbühler.

Seeming to have taken some styling cues from Ninjago City, the vessel has stacked housing units and what I have to assume is an invisible space bubble to keep everyone from exploding or drifting away. Technicalities of physics aside, the craftsmanship is remarkable. The crescent shape is thanks to two semicircles of railroad track bowing out slightly to form a canoe, into the middle of which the city is nestled.

Star Wars SDCC exclusive 77904 Nebulon-B Frigate revealed along with instructions [News]

Reported by the LEGO Star Wars fan group on Facebook today, the building instructions for Star Wars SDCC exclusive 77904 Nebulon-B Frigate set are available right now from LEGO.com. The 459-pieces model was originally designed as the exclusive set for San Diego Comic-Con 2020. With the cancellation of nearly all in-person events in North America due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this set expected to be available online later this year sharing the same fate as Star Wars Celebration exclusive 75294 Bespin Duel. Although the price and the availability are yet to be announced, we expect the price to be around $50 USD, if not higher.

Just like 75294 Bespin Duel, the new mini-version of the iconic ship features an exclusive plaque commemorating the 40th anniversary of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back release. Other than the plaque, which is a sticker, the set seems to include no unique or limited pieces, so anyone can try and build their copy.

TBB Cover Photo for October 2020: Bang Bang Goes the Spaceship

This month’s social media cover photo, from LEGO builder Isaac Snyder, is straight from SHIPtember. Isaac’s SHIP was built over the course of 2 weeks and is 105 studs long. After taking a look at this vessel, it doesn’t take long to notice the resemblance. I don’t know about you, but after I realized what the shape was, I went looking for details to confirm my suspicions, and yes indeed, this spacecraft is shaped like a giant, brightly colored sci-fi space rifle.

The aft of the ship houses a semblance of a power generator, which is fun to visualize with its ring shape. The rest of the components are just as fun to admire. The “bullets” in the “magazine” and the “scope” all stand out and make you wonder how these work in space. Thanks for getting us thinking about the real questions, Isaac.

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When nature calls, build bricks

Plants are nature’s greatest display. The cathartic feeling of seeing a tiny jungle is alive in Dave Kaleta’s LEGO plant box. Using the new IKEA BYGGLEK, Dave fills the inside of the base with some loose brown bricks, representing the soil. The small garden is made of green studs, slope-shaped bricks, and leaf elements. The real life plants, accompanied in the photo, contrast the plastic counterpart.

Dave’s 26x18x12cm BYGGLEK is a picturesque centerpiece mirroring the realism of indoor plants. The installation of a grow light gives some hope that these babies will sprout into trees. We’re just kidding. Notice the three button elements on the front of the BYGGLEK planter. They symbolize various power functions (left to right): bright light, water, and night mode (possibly a dimmer). This smart build puts the theme of sustainability at the forefront as we’ve seen in recent years from The LEGO Group, as they’ve rolled out plant-based elements (40320) in an effort to lower their carbon footprint. We’re digging this!

Not all is well in this city well

Brick Depository welcomes us all to this medieval LEGO city featuring a lovely city gate, a tudor style gate house and a city square with a well at it’s center. There’s only one problem. It appears the well is almost dried out and it appears something evil is lurking in the dark cavern.

There are so many nice things to highlight about this creation. Lets start from the top and work our way down the well to the cavern beneath it. I am a big fan of this tudor gate house using the technic chain links to represent the bare visible wood. Using a flexible brick in stead of a tiles gives the wall a more organic feel and makes it less bricky. The best thing about this creation has to be the fence in the city gate. It looks so intricate and detailed from afar and it took me a little while to figure out how it was made. It’s actually quite simple and quite clever. It’s made from plates with clips attached to evey second stud. This plate with clips then faces anotner plate with clips attached in the different direction. The clips on both plates interlock and voila! Last but not least, I am really fond of the smooth transition from paving to ground to cavern walls. Want to see what is hiding in the dark? Check out his flickr page for more pictures.

LEGO Ideas First 2020 Review Results: only one project (out of 26) approved so far [News]

Today, the LEGO Ideas design team finally announced the First 2020 Review Results. This review round included 26 projects that reached 10,000 supporters between January and May 2020. Surprisingly enough, only one project was approved to become an official LEGO Ideas set so far — Earth Globe by Guillaume Roussel (aka Disneybrick55). Designers praise the idea for its possible educational application and display value. Release date, price range, and availability are yet to be announced.

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Pink Floyd space noises intensify

A long journey to colonise distant star systems require long, space-y psychedelic songs made by musicians such as Pink Floyd, Gong, and Brian Bennet. I was listening to Life on Mars by Dexter Wansel, when I saw pictures of The Ark by Ben Smith. One year in the making, it is a massive rotating vessel which resembles something from the television series The Expanse. Inside, tiny nature habitats built by collaborators Tim Goddard and Inthert provide residence for the people voyaging across the stars.

Almost a meter in height, this SHIP hides a custom steel frame to bear the weight of electrical motors, LED lights, batteries, and thousands of LEGO parts. This behemoth of a build is as detailed as it is large, with plenty of greebling to feast the eyes. When taking a closer look, one can marvel at the geometric achievements of circular and conical sections of varying diameters. As for those not as keen for grey space machinery, there is some microscale landscaping by Tim Goddard and Inthert. For there must be life within this cold ship, as the inhabitants yearn to settle down on a distant planet.

See Ben Smith’s flick album documenting the long and arduous build process of The Ark. And put on some Pink Floyd while you’re at it…

“It’s’a him – Mario!”

The new parts in the Super Mario sets are opening a whole new world of possibilities for LEGO fans’ creations. One new world that I’m particularly pleased to see, is Super Mario World, as built by Alex Saar.

While I suspect the new sets were the obvious inspiration for this creation, there’s only one piece from the new sets included. That one piece though, the printed Bullet Bill face, really ties the other brick built parts of the scene together with the theme. Maybe it’s just hitting me in the nostalgias really hard, but in my opinion, everything about this creation is pretty perfect. Whether it’s the perfect angles and dimensions on the large background objects, or the texture of the underground, or the way Mario is crouching just enough to look like the giant bullet will graze his head (but those who have played the game will know it’ll just miss him. And Mario himself, the boat tile is the perfect compressed hat, and the black rubber band works brilliantly for the little plumber’s hair and moustache!

A Viking? That’s a switch

Making human-featured builds out of LEGO is a challenging task, but Jonas Kramm knows just how to go about it. The trick, as is often the case, is NPU or “Nice Part Usage.” For example, the nose is made from a baby dinosaur. And the fingers from minifigure arms. And the pupils from tiny hammers. And let’s not forget that glorious yellow tresses and beard, resplendent with 2 bananas and over a dozen 9V Train track switch elements. Even the display stand is finely decorated with a twisting branch pattern made from animal horns and claws. Every part of this creation is alive with great details and clever tricks.

The train switch is the seed part in the latest round of Iron Builder and is leading to some great builds. But don’t think Jonas needs any specific goad to create great builds. I mean, just check out the other great builds we’ve featured.

This map took a lot of control to build

Let’s see. I should start this off with something topical, right? Hrm. Well, for a change how about I try something topographical instead? Something like this amazing map from Eli Willsea, perhaps. Sure, it’s not particularly practical if you want to fold it up and take it with you; some of the pieces are just sitting on the surface of the build. But who cares about that. Look at those mountains, trees, and tents made from 1×1 triangle tile! The little bridge made from a curved slope! The “North” indicator made from rods and tile. Oh yeah, and let’s not overlook that compass and map calipers. They make use of a really unusual part: The 9V Track Switch.

As that control switch is the seed part in the latest round of Iron Builder, I think it’s a safe bet we’ll see a lot more from this part in the future. Personally, I’m looking forward to whatever Eli builds next.

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