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.

An alternative to coarse sand and cold space

Most Star Wars sets and fan creations tend to take the form of ships or other types of vehicles, of course LEGO has welcomed more buildings recently but such builds are still a minority in the theme. Eloi Parizeau takes us to Naboo not in a starship but with his LEGO micro-build of the Theed Royal Palace.

The nicest thing about working in micro-scale is that a builder is able to use small parts that are actually pretty common or easy to obtain, Parizeau’s structural build of the palace consists of some pretty standard parts in varying shapes and sizes such as dishes, cones, tiles, and slopes. The colors he utilizes for this creation as a whole are a little uncommon including pieces in forest green, tan, and sand green. The one part that seems rather unique to me is the rock panel in dark grey.

Using these small pieces Parizeau not only recreates the structure of the Theed Palace, but also the beautiful and lush environment of Naboo, his use of the forest green slopes and bricks along with the trans-clear blue elements brings back scenes from the Star Wars prequel films which portrayed Naboo as a blue planet filled with green vegetation. All things considered, Parizeau’s LEGO rendition of this Star Wars universe building is quite unique. It will definitely be great to see more fictional architecture brought to us by the brick in the future.

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LEGO Adidas ZX 8000 sneakers will retail for US $130 [News]

According to SneakerBarDetroit.com, the new Adidas ZX 8000 designed in collaboration with LEGO, will go on sale next Friday, September 25. The retail price is expected to be USD 130. The new sneakers will be available at select retailers, but it seems that the easiest way to grab a pair will be via adidas.com. The full set of official product pictures was published today, too, so feel free to jump under spoiler to take a closer look.

Click here to see more pictures

Maybe the Amazon will save itself

Brick built plants can help make bring a LEGO scene to life. And when the plants are the focus of a diorama, that scene is full of life, such as this collaboration between Emil Lidé and Bartu. This diorama shows four different sections of the amazon jungle that work together as one scene or as the same scene through time.

Through the series, these builders display a dried riverbed, which is overtaken by a fully grown jungle, then destroyed so someone can mine for gold before the jungle finally begins to retake the land. The vegetation throughout the build is fantastic, so much so that it is difficult to call out any one part! The colour choices are also on point, from the vibrant mixture of greens in the thriving jungle to the more drab dark tan and olive in the mining scene. Not to be overlooked is the subtle landscaping, from the smooth sides of the bricks making up the wet river bed to the slope made up of wedge plates showing how the miners have dug into the earth.

LEGO Star Wars 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina – largest Master Builder Series set ever at 3,000 pieces & 20 minifigs [Review]

If you watched Star Wars beginning with Episode IV: A New Hope as many of us born in the decades before the Prequel Trilogy did, the first planet in a “Galaxy Far, Far Away” you ever saw on screen was Tatooine. But the enormous universe that Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi lived in truly came alive only when they first stepped into the cantina in the Mos Eisley Spaceport — “This place can be a little rough,” Old Ben warned Luke. LEGO’s latest set in its Master Builder Series takes us deep into that “wretched hive of scum and villainy” with 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina. It’s rare that I acknowledge up front in a review how excited I was personally about a forthcoming LEGO set. But I am, because my favorite planet in the Star Wars universe is still Tatooine, and my favorite place on the planet is Chalmun’s Cantina. Does it live up to my nearly life-long expectations? How does it compare to previous incarnations of this iconic watering hole?

75290 Mos Eisley Cantina is built from 3,187 LEGO pieces, and the product description states that it includes 21 minifigures “plus” R2-D2 the droid (a point we’ll return to later in this review). The set retails from the LEGO Shop for US $349.99 | CAN $449.99 | UK £319.99 and is available to LEGO VIP Program members beginning on September 16, with general availability on October 1st.

Let’s strap a blaster to our hip, leave the droids to park the landspeeder, and step inside…

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Star Wars 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina

LEGO 75978 Harry Potter Diagon Alley [Review]

Today, there is no LEGO theme as special as Star Wars. Not only is it one of the fundamental LEGO universes, but it is also presented in almost every category of LEGO products: regular sets, junior sets, action figures, keychains, stationery, video games, and many more including, of course, more expensive exclusive sets. Apart from the Star Wars and Creator Expert / 18+ advanced building sets, there are not that many themes that have earned an exclusive product release. Thankfully, the LEGO Harry Potter joined the club in 2018 with the release of 71043 Hogwarts Castle. And just two years later comes another massive exclusive set, 75978 Diagon Alley. Despite being 500 pieces smaller than the gigantic Hogwarts castle, with its 5,544 pieces, it’s big enough to be the fourth in the list of the biggest LEGO sets released so far. Remarkably, both sets have the same price tag of US $399.99 | CAN $499.99 | UK £369.99, so let’s build the new one and find out whether it has more value for the same money.

Click here to continue reading…

Something to do before you croak

In these dark times, I’m all about seeking out wisdom to brighten the world. Jake Hansen has presented us with an interesting option: The Frog Council. Perched atop graceful columns, these three wise amphibians invite the viewer to ask questions. Questions like “How did Jake come up with the idea of using baseball caps for egg cups?” Or maybe “Are those minifigure hands adding details to LEGO vines?” Oh sure, you could ask them something important like “How can we improve the world?” Or even “Why did LEGO get rid of the classic grey color?” But, c’mon. They’re frogs. There’s probably an upper limit to what they’re willing to share.

Where did these frogs gain their secret wisdom? Maybe it was from perusing our frog archives. But probably not.

Teal Mog pickin’ logs

The Unimog — the multi-purpose utility truck produced by Mercedes Benz — has always been a favourite of mine. Something about the shaping of the cab and the big tractor wheels still fascinates me to this day. Since it is big and aggressive with a high ground clearance, it is something you would see in off-road races, churning up mud and climbing rocks. Yet in most cases, they are roadside repair and agricultural vehicles, sporting orange and green. Vehicle builder Jonathan Elliott reconfigured the Unimog into a logging truck — which is not so uncommon. Sporting a realistic yet simple crane hoisting some nice textured logs built up of column bricks and printed log tiles. The best part is — it’s teal!

LEGO to invest $400 million in sustainability, begin phasing out plastic packaging next year [News]

Today The LEGO Group announced an increased commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, pledging to spend $400 million USD over the next three years to fast-track a variety of green initiatives and social programs. The most visible difference to fans will be the introduction of paper bags in LEGO packaging, which are set to replace the clear plastic bags that hold each step’s pieces in LEGO sets. The company plans to trial run the new paper bags next year, with the goal of making all its packaging sustainable by 2025. Tim Brooks, Vice President of Environmental Responsibility at The LEGO Group, said, “We have received many letters from children about the environment asking us to remove single-use plastic packaging. We have been exploring alternatives for some time and the passion and ideas from children inspired us to begin to make the change.”

A fleet favorite in microscale

Star Wars starships can come in all scales and sizes especially when built out of LEGO. Ron McPhatty demonstrates this concept of size variation in his digital microscale LEGO build of the Ghost, the premier starship of the rebel fleet piloted by the fierce Hera Syndulla.

The most interesting thing about this particular model is that the interior space is fleshed out. Most microscale models do not have interiors, while the Microfighters that LEGO offers just include a seat to place an out-of-scale minifigure in. Continue reading →

LEGO BrickHeadz Frankenstein and Star Wars Obi Wan minifigure now available for sale [News]

The Frankenstein BrickHeadz will be available on the LEGO Online stores (Sept 15). As usual, the exact time of release may vary across regions. A new addition to the store is the Obi Wan Star Wars LEGO 20th Anniversary figure that was previously only available as a gift-with-purchase and if you feel lucky, you can order individual packs of the latest Harry Potter Series 2 collectible minifigures.

Click to see the listings

Mayor McCheese is through taking your crap.

Okay, let me start off by saying I saw something in this LEGO mech that builder nobu_tary probably never intended. For all intents and purposes, this is “just” an elegant mech with unusually bright colors. There’s interesting part usage like the kayak as for a shield, and great articulation through ball joints and click hinges. But then I saw the head area, which features a printed 8×8 dish from the Overwatch theme. The suggestion of eyes there reminded me of the squashed head on the new 76164 Iron Man Hulkbuster set. The yellow round plate under that then became a slice of cheese. Suddenly I was looking at Robocop version of Mayor McCheese. I guess the Hamburglar finally went too far.

Up for a challenge? I invite you to take some time and try and find fast-food parallels with other mechs in our archives.

Swallows and Amazons

Fledgings look to expert builder Inthert and crane their necks to see what he builds next. Specialising in spaceships, he finds the right pieces to build intricate shapes that bring beauty to otherwise now-generic vehicles. He presents us with a pink-haired lady piloting a small and unique starfighter with an unusual shape. When taking a gander from different angles, we can see that this ship has the shape of a plump bird, with the elements of a fighter jet.

Bird puns aside, this well put together craft checks all the boxes that satisfy a parts- and technique-oriented coot such as myself. A bulky body with downwards sloping wings that resemble a small bird gliding on a current is perfect. Aside from unique parts like a white Slizers visor in the front and two sizes of barrels, the use of inverted slopes for small intakes is ingenious. There is minimal greebling, but it works just as well, as less is more. Last but not least: the wing and landing gear function: the landing gear swings out as the wings fold in.
That’s it.

Only Inthert can make it so simple and work so well. But my favourite part still remains the girl with the lavender coloured Elves hairpiece. Something about a pink-haired girl being the pilot makes an already perfect spaceship even cooler.

See more perfect builds by the talented Inthert here.

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