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.

No more milling around!

I hear it all the time from would-be builders that they just don’t have enough pieces in their collections. “I can’t make anything cool,” they bemoan, as if having a billion LEGO elements at their disposal would make building easier. Now, in some respects, that is true; having more parts does expand the horizons of what you can build. But more importantly, building cool things comes from an eye for how to use the parts one has, rather than the parts one wishes one had, and a small collection is as good as a large one in that respect. Take this windmill by Inthert, for example. It’s not huge. It didn’t take a lot of parts. Granted, there are some specialty parts like the green palettes and the green feathers, but most of what is in the build could come from the collection of anyone who has a few sets. It’s in the art of arrangement, the way the parts are used, that the coolness comes. And that comes not from having a ton of bricks, but from using them a ton and getting familiar with them.

For example, who, having the fence piece, thinks to put it into the bottom of a jumper plate? Not I. And the tiny round tower, the artfully placed foliage of all sorts, the grille tile fence…the list of clever constructions goes on. And the little Heroica figures are just the cherry on top. And it did not take a billion bricks! So what are you waiting for? Go get your collection out and start building something, if you aren’t already. With this quarantine, I know you have time.

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The X-47B UAV may have no pilot, but it still needs minifigures

During the war in Vietnam, the US Navy monitored the heart rates of some of their pilots. Flying though Hanoi’s air defenses understandably raised their pulse. However, their hearts went even faster at the end of the flight, when they had to land their jets on an aircraft carrier. These may be big for a ship, but they are very small for an airport. Unlike pilots, unmanned aircraft or ‘drones’ don’t have hearts and they are never tired. If a drone crashes or gets shot down, its pilot can’t get hurt or taken hostage. Instead, the operator is safely at his or her home base, in a comfortable chair in an air-conditioned container. So, it’s easy to see the attraction of unmanned aircraft. For the US Navy carrier landings remained a major hurdle, though. Enter the X-47B. Northrop Grumman built two of these weird-looking experimental jets, to demonstrate integrating unmanned combat aircraft into carrier operations. Between 2012 and 2014, the second of the two jets, nicknamed “Salty Dog 502”, performed several autonomous carrier landings and take-offs on three different aircraft carriers. At the time, the Navy expected to put unmanned combat aircraft into service in about five years’ time, but it has yet to happen.

Lately, I’ve been enjoying myself by building a series of LEGO models of experimental aircraft. Unusually, for me, these new models are mostly studless. I also built them to a scale for LEGO minifigures. Therefore there is a bit of irony in adding Salty Dog 502 to my collection. Not having to carve out space inside for a minifigure’s substantial rear end was a bit of a relief, though; I really struggled to fit a pilot in my YF-23. The X-47B is grey, much like operational US Navy aircraft. While its shape is certainly interesting, that is not enough for an attractive display. Fortunately, while the X-47 doesn’t need a pilot, it does require a ground crew to take care of it, like any other aircraft. So, I built a minifigure deck crew, as well as part of the deck and a small deck tractor to go with it. On US aircraft carriers the deck crew wears color-coded outfits that depict their different roles. These minifigures add a welcome splash of color.

The master of smooth moves

King of Pop, Michael Jackson, is known all over the world for his unique style. From his outfits to his dancing to his unmistakable voice and catchy tunes. He was and still is an icon of popular culture. Today you’ll continue to find him all over the place, even in LEGO models. Taiwanese builder Vakaisme has paid tribute to the musician with one of his most famous dance moves. That moonwalk mechanism is indeed smooth!

Click here to see more…

A city balancing light and dark

Malaysian Sit Tat Wai is a newcomer to the pages of The Brothers Brick, with a debut that’s equally inspiring by day or night.

Click here to continue reading…

Your guide to the 25 new LEGO sets for mid-April 2020, including Star Wars helmets and D-O [News]

Most of us are at home right now, but if you are in a position to fill your time with some LEGO building, there are 25 new sets and items to choose from for April–with six new sets as part of a mid-month wave. Notable sets launching today are the new Boba Fett, Stormtrooper and TIE Fighter Pilot helmets, the droid D-O from Rise of Skywalker, and Collectible Minifigure Series 20.

The new Star Wars sets and minifigures are in addition to several other new sets launched earlier this month on April 1st including the LEGO Ideas Pirates of Barracuda Bay and the Technic Fast & Furious Dodge Charger.

See the entire mid-April 2020 wave of new LEGO sets now available

Surrealism and LEGO are a match made in elephants

The mustachioed surrealist artist Salvador Dali inspired this stunningly spindly pachydermal presentation from Dutch builder Jaap Bijl. This was an entry for Innovalug’s ongoing Style It Up! LEGO building contest. This category restricted creations to maintaining 4 studs’ worth of contact with the display surface. Dali’s “Les Elephants” features just the sort of delicately balanced build many of us actively try to avoid. Thanks to the plethora of newer curved slope pieces over the last few years the Daliphant’s shape is well represented, and I’d almost wager it took longer to get the thing to safely stand in place than it did to build.

Need more LEGO Dali in your life? We’ve featured a few creations in the past, including Lin Kei’s own “Les Elephants” take which earned him a spot in the LEGO House’s Masterpiece Gallery.

Come quietly or there will be...trouble.

While you’re enjoying mechs, Star Wars, castles, Classic Space or whatever else amuses you here on Brothers Brick, here is a rather cute, rather chibi RoboCop. It was built by John Cheng and acts as a reminder that we should probably rewatch that 80’s gem now that we have a lot more time on our hands. Resistance is futile. I mean seriously, you should rewatch it.

But before you do, here is some other stuff of John’s that we liked.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 18, 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 third week of April 2020.

A new addition to the Star Wars Ultimate Collector’s Series arrives! Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS, FEATURES AND INSTRUCTIONS: This week we saw the announcement of two new sets, learned how to build a tiny bowling alley and met the winning team crowned the US’s first LEGO Masters.

LEGO 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R motorcycle revealed as newest Technic superbike – Take a spin on the newest LEGO Technic motorcycle, the Ducati Panigale V4 R superbike.
LEGO 75275 A-wing Starfighter revealed as next Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series set – The next LEGO Star Wars UCS set is this sleek 1,673-piece A-wing Starfighter available on May 1st.
See the new LEGO Star Wars UCS A-wing Starfighter in action from the designer Hans Schlömer himself – LEGO designer Hans Schlömer shows a sneak-peek of the newly announced Star Wars UCS A-wing Starfighter.
Chibi-scale Millennium Falcon and X-Wing befitting the official Star Wars Master Builder Series Cloud City [Instructions] – Build your own Millennium Falcon or X-Wing to fit the Master Builder Series Cloud City official set thanks to Hachiroku24
How to build a bitty bowling lane [Instructions] – Want to learn how to build a LEGO bowling lane? Following along with this video tutorial by Tiago Catarino.
How to organize and sort your LEGO collection, by the Mad Physicist [Feature] – If you are holed up at home, you may finally want to sort your huge pile of random LEGO. In the first of a series of features, The Brothers Brick will show you how our contributors organize their collections.

TBB LEGO MASTERS INTERVIEWS:

LEGO Masters: An interview with finalists Sam and Jessica [Feature] – LEGO Masters finalists Sam and Jessica talk about how they went from being in the bottom to becoming a finalist on LEGO Masters.
LEGO Masters: An interview with finalists Tyler and Amy [Feature] – We sat down with LEGO Masters finalists Tyler and Amy to chat about their entire experience on the show.
LEGO Masters: An interview with finalists Mark and Boone [Feature] – LEGO Masters finalists Mark and Boone share the secrets behind their building success.
Winning LEGO Masters: An interview with the first ever U.S. LEGO Masters [Feature] – Find out who won LEGO Masters in the U.S. and see close-up photos of each build from the finale in our interview with the winning team.

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 Donates $50 Million To Support Families During COVID-19, Forbes – Forbes interviews the Chief People Officer and Head of Corporate Affairs at LEGO to find out more about their purpose and how it manifests itself in the values and culture of the company.
‘A bit like early LEGO’ — rare photo shows Stonehenge’s uncanny similarity to the plastic bricks, CNN Travel – A photo of the ancient site in Wiltshire, England, shows the rocks from above and reveals details that show the famous stones looking remarkably similar to LEGO bricks.
LEGO, Costumers & FX Artists: How the genre world is helping during Corona Virus, SyFy Wire – Using six of the factory’s molding machines, more than 100 of LEGO’s gloved and masked workers have been cranking out 13,000 protective masks a day to help healthcare workers combat COVID-19.

Nowhere left to hide

Some of the best LEGO builds are the ones that move without moving, and like a picture, say a thousand words. This monochrome scene by Duncan Lindbo is one that says it all. A giant, insect-like robot, loaded with guns aimed at a sliver of concrete brick wall? I’d say we know how this one turns out, but maybe we’ll give that little guy a chance. He’s obviously doing something right if he survived this long…Then again, somehow that curious head tilt makes the mech look kinda cute. Maybe we’ve got it all wrong! Maybe it just wants to play! But either way, with the bullet holes on the ground, and the crater in that wall… Yeah, my money’s on the bug.

This creation wouldn’t be the same if it was in full color. There’s just something about monochrome. Click this link if you want to see a few more single-color builds.

So tell me, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?

Have you ever had the kind of day where you end up in a muzzle and straightjacket chained to a handcart? Hannibal Lecter certainly has. For those too young to know what this is about, he specializes in the kind of culinary delights that would warrant the aforementioned muzzle and straightjacket. My spot-on Hannibal Lecter impersonations are probably what ended a few relationships in college. Some people just don’t know a good thing when they have it, right? But skcheung730 is clearly a LEGO builder after my own heart…or liver. This clever creation is just brimming with quiet menace. In their Flickr photostream I’ve also spotted a BrickHeadz Ghostface from Scream and Chucky from Child’s Play. Skcheung seems like just the type of builder I’d love to have over for dinner and maybe pick their brains over their great techniques. Whaddaya say, SK? I’ll provide a fine chianti, you just bring your marvelous scrumptious self.

See the new LEGO Star Wars UCS A-wing Starfighter in action from the designer Hans Schlömer himself [News]

Take a sneak-peek at the newly announced LEGO Star Wars UCS 75275 A-wing Starfighter hosted by the designer who created it, Hans Schlömer. He gives us a tour of one of the fastest ships in the Star Wars galaxy and talks about the scale of the model, color choice, and minifigure design.

The 1,673 piece set is the first LEGO Star Wars UCS model of an A-wing and features pivoting laser cannons, a new cockpit element, and a new pilot minifigure. The set will retail for US $199.99 | CAN $259.99 | UK £179.99 starting May 1st, just in time for May the Fourth celebrations.

Watch me whip, watch me neigh neigh

Today we get to see one of our favorite LEGO artists might have fared as a more traditional user of ink and paper. We’re quite familiar with the work of 2016 TBB Builder of the Year Grantmasters as a LEGO artist: sometimes it’s an adorable kung fu panda, other times it’s a lifesize steampunk pistol, or even primeval anatomy. Grant is a master of scale and always brings excellent, inventive parts usage to the table.

As related by the builder, this “drawing” is meant to represent the start of the drawing process, the rough shapes and lines only just starting to come together as opposed to a completed, clean rendering. Swooping curves are achieved with whips, katanas, and even a high-pressure sprayer.