No matter what kind of creature you are, if you live in a desert environment, chances are you would enjoy a visit to this fantasy oasis by Peter Z for a chance to enjoy fresh fruit, and to sit by the fountain to let the cool breeze wash over you. Gold and teal accents provide a lovely contrast to the tan structure, and the walls are peppered with little irregularities caused by the cutting wind and sand.
Living in Seattle, or in any major port town, for that matter, this scene by ExeSandbox is a familiar sight. What is much more unexpected about this model is the massive scale. Notice the “small” rolling cranes in the foreground are this crane base, which is 16 studs high! Even though this model is a digital render, this in no way diminishes the amount of effort involved in putting this together.
The builder includes a nice surprise detail in the cargo ship’s name, Leg Godt, the Danish phrase “Play Well”, from which LEGO derives its name.
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 last week of July 2020.
Let the music play with the new LEGO Ideas Grand Piano. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.
TBB NEWS: This week we reviewed two new Star Wars sets, learned to make a tiny T-Rex, saw the cancellation of a controversial set, got a sneak peek at the upcoming Harry Potter advent calendar and more!
MORE TBB NEWS:
TBB REVIEWS AND INSTRUCTIONS:
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:
Yes, you read the title correctly. Rocco Buttliere has used around 84,000 LEGO bricks, to be more precise. In addition to 300+ hours of building to recreate the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, Rocco also spent 400+ hours designing it first. If that doesn’t blow your mind, it should. That is one giant build of one of the world’s most spectacular architectural sites. Like his earlier LEGO diorama of Ancient Rome, Rocco built this one for a commission for a museum, and boy, does it belong there. The overview picture hardly does it justice, as it all blends together into a blur of flame orange, dark red, and grey, but zoom in and there are as many marvels as in the real deal. Fancy a tour? It’s not forbidden to look at this one, even for a commoner like me.
Check out the details of this incredible build
M:Tron was a classic space line of LEGO sets back in the day, best recognized by the red color scheme on its vehicles. Though the line ended decades ago, builder Blake Foster resurrects this spacecraft in true M:Tron fashion.
This Heavy VTOL, which stands for Vertical Take Off and Landing, is a masterpiece in imagination. Blake Foster ingeniously combined bricks that you usually don’t see together, using large rounded red bricks with harsh green fluorescent wings jutting out. His explanation for this creative decision was that the M:Tron Corporation secretly implemented stolen alien technology into their vehicle.
I can’t get enough of the tiny details, like the power plant work around the gun or the vents on engines. See the magnetic drop pods on the bottom of the VTOL? What a great idea! The vehicle can easily transfer cargo at a moment’s notice. Perhaps it would make a great addition to his M:Tron magnet factory.
What’s the point of a limousine? It has none, except to make the person riding in it seem important, whether that be a bride and groom on the way to the reception or a diplomat going to a complex negotiation. It’s the same with motorcades and bodyguards; their real purpose is to lend clout to the image of the one with them. So, what if the limo has armor and hidden weapons? It’s the same, just with more bang. And if a Humvee can become a luxury vehicle, why not a HEMTT? That was my (Benjamin Stenlund) thought, at least, for my latest LEGO creation. Add in a sporty car and a motorcycle, as well as a triumphal arch and statue, and you have the scene set for inflating someone’s ego.
Tasked with building an armored limo, I was inspired by the heavy military truck with 8 wheels. I added some gull-wing doors, because nothing says luxury like gull wing doors. And some retractable steps to descend from the passenger compartment, too, ready to step right onto the red carpet. The angles at the front of the cab were the hardest part of the build to get right, and honestly, that’s why I went with gull wings, since it did not require hinges on the front and the doors had to open. There are lots of complicated angles on the sides, too, but they weren’t as difficult to figure out as the front. The only problem is that despite it being armored, it is too fragile for my kids to play with.
LEGO Publishing has announced a fan vote that will determine the direction of the next book they will publish. Fans can vote on LEGO Ideas to choose one of three following titles: “The LEGO Brick Museum,” “The Secret Life of Bricks,” and “LEGO History in 100 Bricks.”
The winning book will be written by Daniel Konstanski, editor of the Blocks magazine. Voting ends on Sunday, August 9th at 7 am PT. More information is included in the press release below.
Learn more about the next LEGO book.
If you missed out on the 2019 holiday gift with purchase last year, have no fear–Christmas in July is here! 40337 Mini Gingerbread House set is a 499-piece microscale version of the 10267 Winter Village Gingerbread House and is available with any order of $100 or more in the US or Canada through 8:59pm PT on July 26th or while supplies last.
As always, clicking through the links in the article above helps The Brothers Brick continue to provide the quality LEGO content you’ve come to expect from us. Thanks for the support!
I really like LEGO creations that tell a story, and Road to the Fruit Festival by Jonas Kramm has enough self-contained world-building to inspire the imagination. These tiny fruit merchants offer next day delivery, provided you live very, very close. Are these tiny people with human-sized mounts and wares? Or are we looking at some seriously up-scaled produce?
Each build has clever building techniques and part usage to discover. The road-marking statues have Rancor claws for legs. There are minifigure neck ruffles as parts of flowers, and large figure shoulder armor in the wheelbarrow.
But I’m also a sucker for well built LEGO snails, and this one is a beauty. It was the first build in this set, and was apparently so much fun to make that the rest of the scene came to life around it. Those minifigure hairpieces make for perfect berries, and the dark red dome brick make for a tempting pair of cherries. And that snail is darn spiffy, too. I like the cupcake eyes and muted color choices. The Clikitis leaf for the slime trail is a nice visual touch, too. And the Minifigure shark arms for petals in the flower…the closer you look, there more there is to enjoy here.
This isn’t the first amazing creation of Jonas’ we’ve featured, and it’s a good bet that it won’t be the last. I just hope the future includes even more snails.
What do you do when you’re under five feet tall and your voluminous tresses are getting wild and wooly? Why you would pay a visit to Per Wilkinsson’s Dwarven Barber Shop, of course. LEGO builder Aurore presents this amazing little shop complete with Celtic ornamentation, colorful awning, Viking-style roof and a sign adorned with scissors. Plenty of animals perch on or near the shop while a patron outside haggles for a beard trim. If it turns out Per was just a bit too feisty with the trimmers, you can cover your new botched hairdo with an assortment of bronze and silver helmets at the stand outside.
![[GoH] Dwarven Barber Shop](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50134665347_7bcb9f4f14_z.jpg)
The whole shebang was inspired by the Friends Heartlake City Hair Salon set. Brilliant!
LEGO has released a video showing off the new LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano. In the video, LEGO Designer Chee Woon Tze tickles the ivory, so to speak, to show off how the piano is constructed and how it plays music. The video has constant piano music in the background but unfortunately does not include what the piano music created by the app will sound like. However, seeing the completed set next to the designer shows how massive the model is in context.
LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano comes with 3,662 pieces to build the playable piano for US $349.99 | CA $449.99 | UK £319.99 with global availability beginning August 1st. Make sure to read our announcement and interview with the LEGO Ideas design team about the design effort that went into it.
Click to watch the LEGO Grand Piano designer video
It’s got to be one of the most popular memes on the internet. There’s Eddard Stark at the Council of Agent Smith in Rivendell, uttering the unforgettable “One does not simply MOC into Mordor.” Or at least that’s what a LEGO version of double-oh-six would say, right? (A MOC is, of course, an original LEGO build, “My Own Creation”; and wonderfully, it rhymes with walk.) Swap out the Mordor bit and you have a universally applicable meme for difficult things. Fancy your hand at meme-ing this build by Big Stannis? The builder has captured the exact moment of the utterance, so perhaps we need to make this version go viral in the LEGO world. All the little details are there, from the cuffs to collar, and don’t miss that hair with ears poking out. Rounded ears, of course, since he’s not blond Will Turner. And right after you finish publishing your meme, Rudy will run out of wherever he’s hiding, eager to be included on the team for at least one game of ring toss.
