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.

A LEGO Master’s medieval masterpiece

Former Swedish LEGO Master Peter Ilmrud is known for detailed, colorful, and occasionally intricate works of art. Often times his builds feature subject matter of fantasy and bygone days. It’s hard to choose, but I think I enjoy his microscale castles best. This will be featured in a LEGO brand retail shop in Sweden, and it’s easy to see why.

The build catches the eye and takes you on an adventure from sea to castle spires. The real triumph is the parts usage in the castle itself. For the most part, the techniques aren’t new, but when they all come together the result is beautiful. I particularly like the techniques used on all the towers, especially stacking modified round plates and tiles back to back to achieve windows and the “stone” look. I also admire how the central helmet piece connected to the lantern element creates a particularly striking feature.

You can see more builds by Peter in our archives. While you’re at it, check out all the incredible previously featured builds in both the microscale and medieval categories.

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Hang a left at the giant anemone

LEGO fan themes come and go, waxing and waning with the tides. But sometimes they burst back up from the ground like the nightmarish worm they are. The Black Anemone by Sebastian Arts (Aliencat!) harkens back to the simpler times when the old gods roamed the Earth. This build features organic curves, a splash of red in the extended tongue(?), inverted LEGO tires…everything you could ask for in a subterranean monster. But there are two small details that make this build fun for me. First is the LEGO minifigure skull cradled in the rings of the beast like a tiny teddy bear of death. The second is the road sign advising a hard left hand turn. That’s one detour that I think most people would be happy to take.

It’s been a few years since our last spotlighted Black Fantasy creation. Could this be the beginning of a revival? If so, is that a good thing? I’m honestly not sure.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for November 14, 2020

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the second week of November 2020.

LEGO has revealed set 10276 Colosseum. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS: This week we saw the introduction of set 10276 Colosseum, now officially LEGO’s largest set.

LEGO reveals 10276 Colosseum; ancient Roman stadium will be biggest LEGO set ever – The new 10276 Colosseum is a huge copy of the ancient Roman stadium consisting of whopping 9,036 pieces.

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

LEGO Ideas 21324 Sesame Street – Designer Video, LEGO Ideas – Go behind the scenes as LEGO Model Designer Ollie Gregory and Graphic Designer Crystal Fontan talk about the process of bringing Ivan Guerrero’s Sesame Street product idea to life
‘Lego Masters’ Lands Season 2 Order From Fox; Will Arnett Back as Host and Producer, Variety – Fox has locked “Lego Masters” for a second season.
LEGOLand Shanghai Resort slated to open in 2024, Merlin Entertainments – Construction set to begin in 2021

LEGO 77904 Star Wars Nebulon-B Frigate now available on Amazon (US only) [News]

The long-awaited sales of the Nebulon-B Frigate which was revealed in October is now available on Amazon (US) only. It comes with 459 pieces and retails at USD 39.99. Grab it soon as this cancelled SDCC exclusive will likely fly off the shelves fast.

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Burnouts in the parking lot

Living near a school that hasn’t housed actual kids in several months, I am sometimes subject to seeing or hearing vehicles doing burnouts in the school parking lot. It’s a bummer because usually, the vehicle in question is a big honkin’ pickup truck with flags supporting a certain recently ousted public figure. I’d be slightly more thrilled if the neighborhood nuisance had a vehicle that looked a bit more like this LEGO chopped drag rod by Faber Mandragore. I love the use of Modulex bricks in the building in the background. The plate-built smoke plume is so convincing, I can just about hear the squeal of burning rubber on asphalt. No, wait, that’s actual burning rubber outside. It seems our neighborhood nuisance is back! While I deal with that, go ahead and take a gander at this builder’s archives.

Wonder what the tide will wash up today

One benefit of setting up your post-apocalyptic outpost on the beach, aside from the abundant food source of the ocean’s bounty, is the wondrous things that wash up in the surf. In this scene by Tom Loftus a lone soldier stands watch as the low tide washes in. The outpost is built from shipping containers, which are plentiful if you live near a major shipping hub. The model is part of an iron builder challenge using a dark red Minifig shield part, which you can see in the timbers of the bunker half-buried in the sand.

Dystopian novels are so 1984.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Conventional wisdom says “no,” but John Snyder may have a different opinion. The elegant book binding here is complemented by some slice-of-life details that are every bit as charming. This creation is part of the Iron Builder contest, and this round focused on the challenge of incorporating modified 2×3 plates into the build. We can see them in action in the book bindings on the cover, and in the dark red flowers. The golden carriage wheel on the cover matches the yellow centers to the flowers as well as the gold coins, but did you know that the black cloth bag there is (probably) also a LEGO element? It looks to me to be a Wolfpack Pouch. Now there’s a part you don’t see every day.

If you’re in a literary mood, why not check out our book archives? You just might learn something new!

LEGO reveals 10276 Colosseum; ancient Roman stadium will be biggest LEGO set ever [News]

Today, the LEGO Group redefines the idea of a truly massive building set once again. The new 10276 Colosseum is a huge copy of the ancient Roman stadium consisting of whopping 9,036 pieces. The previous record of 7,541 pieces set by Star Wars 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon was not that long ago thought to be an unbreakable achievement, but now it is about to go down. Despite being almost 1,500 pieces bigger than the Kessel runner, the Colosseum will retail for US $549.99 | CAN $649.99 | UK £449.99; in the US, this is $250 less than the original 75192 Millennium Falcon price tag. The set will be available starting November 27.

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In space no one can hear you hiss

Do you know what’s scary? Velociraptors. While the Tyrannosaurus is all teeth and ignorant brawn, the Velociraptor is a smaller, nimble and cunning creature capable of working together to hunt down kids in a laboratory. At least that’s what Jurassic Park has led us to believe anyway. Bob DeQuatre takes the already scary raptor and puts it in a spacesuit; one with opposable claw finger technology. You may as well just kiss your tookus goodbye by this point. Not only are the kids toast but the director and camera crew won’t be around to make the slew of blockbuster sequels. It’s a bummer, really. But all kidding aside this is a really cool idea. I particularly like the expression of the raptor’s face under the protective space dome.

He may be Gandalf the White, but he’s looking rather grey today

Tragically underused in LEGO builds is the immersive, cinematic shot. Sure, it’s vastly easier and faster to build a vignette, or a stand-alone building, but I deeply admire builders who can move their creation beyond plastic bricks and into an entire world filling the frame. Nathan Smith is one of those builders, playing with light and camera angles to put the viewer in the scene in a believable way. Are there many mind-blowing building techniques on display here? No, not really, though that door does look quite nice. But nothing is out of place, with meticulously arranged leaves and crates, and the smooth walls of the citadel allow the lighting effects to shine. And shine they do, illuminating a ruminating Gandalf perfectly.

Love LEGO builds inspired by The Lord of the Rings? Then check out the TBB LEGO Lord of the Rings archives. They’re epic!

Save money on flowers to buy more LEGO

I think most of us will agree that a nice LEGO set or custom creation can spruce up your interior decor quite a lot. I personally am also a fan of adding flowers to my home. After all, they look good and they smell good. However, after about 10 days they have to be replaced and they cost quite a lot of money. Money I could also spend on LEGO. James Zhan offers a solution to this problem with his lovely creation called ‘Flower and zen’. And to me, the title says it all! Now all I have to figure out is how to get my LEGO to smell like flowers.

Do what must be done

Any time I see LEGO creations relating to Order 66 from Revenge of the Sith, I feel the emotional tension rising. As painful as it is to see clones turn on their former Jedi comrades, you have to admit that builder First Order Lego does a painstakingly good job at depicting the ultimate betrayal.

From the clones’ march into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to the younglings hiding in the background, this build perfectly captures the epic darkness of the moment. The only word I have for the level of detail, especially in the Holocron bookcases and the statue work, is beautiful.

Oh, and did I mention that this build is literally lit?