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.

We’re gonna need a bigger boat!

We all know how this ends. I believe Jaws was the first movie I saw in the theater. Since I was a small child at the time, that speaks of how relaxed they were about letting kids into the theater and…could also explain a lot about how I turned out. The 45th anniversary of this pivotal movie just passed and Arco Noide celebrates with this LEGO version of Quint’s boat. Although Quint is a tough as nails old salt with one of the most memorable intros in movie history, (spoiler alert!) things eventually don’t go well for Quint and his little boat. Still, this is a stunning tribute to the craft. I like how two sets of cattle horns create shark jaws just forward of the ship’s wheel. Judging by the four yellow barrels still present, we have about an hour before things go really sour for Quint. We’re gonna need a bigger boat indeed.

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This is what you get when you stop sorting and start mixing

Couple weeks ago, we got the first look at this summer’s LEGO Technic sets including 42112 Concrete Mixer Truck set. One of the reasons we don’t see concrete mixers among official LEGO sets that often is that the vehicle like this one requires a special drum element — a very bulky single-purpose piece. But Kirill Mazurov proves that you don’t need big solid elements for awesome LEGO builds. Using a bunch of common and affordable panels, he managed to recreate the shape of the drum very precisely. With almost no holes, the structure looks as smooth as the one in the official set, and I love the mix of white and red colors. In case you’ve been following Kirill’s works, I believe you have already guessed that this mixer has a lot of functions. Make sure to check out the video under the cut.

Click here to see the video…

Ninjago 71719 Zane’s Mino Creature [Review]

Here at The Brothers Brick, we’ve explored all the summer 2020 Ninjago sets…all but one, that is. There…lurking in the corner…it’s 71710 Ninjago: Zane’s Mino Creature. And, spoiler alert, this one is a little different from the rest of the wave. Part of the “Game Experience Inside” group, this set has odd build choices that make it feel like either an early version or a late addition to that sub-theme. Available now for US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99, is this 616 piece set worth your time and money? Read on and see!

Click to read the full hands-on review

Tread VERY carefully

Okay, so lately Cecilie Fritzvold has been building cool LEGO stuff using the dynamite bundle element as a key part. We’ve already seen arcade games and undersea adventures, and today we head into the cold wastelands of an ice planet. The explosives take on a few new uses in the Spark BLOR-20, serving as part of the flexible drilling arm and as the center of a sensor array. Oh, and a whole bunch of them combine to form heavy-duty tank treads. It’s an innovative use, but it gets extra points from me because of the tracks left in the snow behind the vehicle. Rows of modified plates create the look; clever part usage indeed.

Eat your fruits and vegetables!

A major problem with the diets of many folks these days is that they do not eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables, instead deriving too many of their calories from highly processed wheat, corn, and soy. There’s nothing wrong with wheat, corn, or soy, per se, but they don’t provide many of the vitamins and minerals necessary for human health. So consider this LEGO build by Barbara Hoel to be a public service announcement: eat your fruits and veggies! Your gut will thank you. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This still life is awash with bright colors, with red apples, green, dark red, and purple grapes, orange oranges, yellow pears, and perhaps a dark red plum. Yummy! Organic curves are hard to do in LEGO, but Barbara has done a great job sculpting them. And then there is the tablecloth beneath them all, with every shade of blue imaginable featured. Someone must have invested in some LEGO DOTS sets! If only the background were black velvet, this would look great surrounded by a gilded frame and hanging on the wall of my dining room, reminding me to eat my fruits and vegetables.

New LEGO Jurassic World sets for summer 2020 now available in the Americas [News]

Calling all LEGO dinosaur lovers! The newest summer wave of LEGO Jurassic World sets is now available in the US and Canada. Several retailers have had these on the shelves already, but they are now directly available from LEGO and include dinos like an Ankylosaurus, Gallimimus, Pteranodon, Velociraptor and Indominus Rex as well as an adorable baby Triceratops and Ankylosaurus.

The sets have been available in the UK for a month, but are now available in the US and Canada. Of note, the huge buildable dino of 75936 Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage and 21320 Dinosaur Fossils are also now back in stock. Take a look at each new Jurassic World set now available after the jump.

Which dinosaur do you most want to add to your collection? Click to see them all.

So many details, so little time

I love a LEGO build with details that make my eyes wander, trying to look for every amazing element and how it’s placed just where it needs to be to give that maximum effect and wow factor. Let’s pick a few of my favourites here from Anthony Wilson’s eye feast of a kitchen creation. First things first, that angled tessellation of the flooring gives it a more natural, less of an “anyone can do that with LEGO” feeling, which sets apart a regular builder from an experienced one.

While that fridge and the air-conditioning unit don’t necessarily look like the units I have at home, I immediately knew it was meant to represent Mitsubishi-branded appliances. Not everything needs to replicate real life, but clever ways of bringing out details delight the visual senses. Last but not least, creative uses of elements are not about difficult builds but also about placement instead. The light switch and key hanging beside the door are fine examples of these visual details that require little effort but make a world of a difference.

If you can’t beat ’em, maybe just eat ’em?

Builder Bart De Dobbelaer gives me the vibe of an artist similar to H.R. Giger, with imaginative creations that are out of this world — alien forms that raise the hair on the back of your neck. This scene seems to be the breeding ground of a mother alien, spawning her offspring and preparing to infest and attack in search of their next meal.

I’m not sure who’s actually going to be the next meal though, the hunter or the hunted? It seems so awkward, because the tables have been turned and now the egg-filled mother alien is a delicacy on her own.

LEGO mask of Tutankhamun is a life-size wonder built from 16,000 bricks

Despite a lifelong fascination with archaeology and ancient history — and even a trip through Sinai, Cairo, and Karnak at age 19 — I must admit that Egyptology has never been particularly interesting to me, obsessed as its public portrayal is with glittering treasures and kingship. Nevertheless, I’m reading the excellent The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson right now, in which I find the chaotic Intermediate periods especially fascinating. Koen Zwanenburg is also fascinated with ancient history, and has built this amazing life-sized version of the boy king Tutankhamun’s mask from 16,000 LEGO bricks.

See more of this life-size ancient Egyptian wonder!

Now this is pod...er, GARC?...racing!

I love racing. Not that I do it myself, but there is something enthralling about watching vehicles (or even just persons or animals) moving at high speeds in a winner-take-all contest. From track meets to Formula 1, NASCAR to podracing, I love watching races (n.b. I don’t actually watch car races, typically, but scenes in movies, like Cars, get me excited). And what goes faster than a car? A spaceship, of course! This small LEGO craft by Tim Goddard looks highly maneuverable, barely fitting a minifigure so that it can squeeze into the small gates that mark the course. The transparent 4×4 dish perfectly complements the windscreen to form a lovely canopy, and the color blocking is superb. Perhaps even better than the raceship is the triangular teal gate, with just the right amount of greebling to balance the smooth curves. And the stickers enhance it all the more. Gentlemen, start your thrusters!

Build your own plucky little forklift [Instructions]

The next time you are building a warehouse scene, home improvement store, or automobile repair shop, and you want a neat looking forklift, consider taking inspiration from de-marco, who has shared video instructions for this three-wheeled lifter of heavy things. The black protective cage and a transparent orange cone provide great details.

LEGO Ninjago 71717 Journey to the Skull Dungeons [Review]

The summer 2020 Ninjago line contains a lot of big sets, but what if you’re on a budget? Coming in at 401 pieces, 71717 Journey to the Skull Dungeons is currently available, and pretty affordable at US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £24.99. Can it keep up with the excitement present in the rest this wave? Read on and see!

Click to read the full hands-on review