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.

LEGO Masters: An interview with finalists Sam and Jessica [Feature]

LEGO Masters aired its ninth episode last week where contestants competed in the Star Wars challenge. We won’t reveal the outcome, but The Brothers Brick had the opportunity to sit down with all three teams to talk about their experiences on the whole show.

In our interview, we talk to “The Eccentrics” Sam and Jessica talk about how they went from the bottom to the top, what inspires them, and how having backgrounds as artists helped them in the competition.

Read our interview with LEGO Masters finalists Sam and Jessica

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The delicate, dappled wings of spring

In the northern hemisphere, spring is underway. It might not feel that way for some, as snow is still falling in parts, but it is indeed springtime. And what says springtime better than a butterfly? Maybe flowers, but flowers need pollinators like butterflies, and so the two go hand in hand. Or proboscis in nectar pit, as the case may be. So when the Style it Up contest gave the prompt to build something with LEGO that is perfectly symmetrical across a line, I (Benjamin Stenlund) eventually settled on a Monarch butterfly, one of the most recognizable insects in North America. Ok, I admit, my wife told me to make a butterfly.

The challenge, of course, is trying to replicate the complicated patterns on the wings, with their many angles and colors, all while using a mostly rectangular system of interlocking bricks. I found that the old fingered hinges were better than the newer clip hinges, as they are flat, so I was thankful to have my childhood LEGO laying about. An even greater challenge than the building was photographing it without glare, as the flat surfaces reflected everything. But the end result, in my not-so-humble opinion, is delicately beautiful.

Another day at the market of tomorrow

Even though we don’t have hovercars yet, we can still imagine a world where scenes like this one, by lokiloki29, of a farmer taking his wares to market in a floating carriage, pulled by a robot horse, are as common as rain. Tha bot-horse has some great details, like the subtle angle of the head, and the multi-jointed legs look almost insect-like. The carriage is the perfect blend of sci-fi and historic, with that brown railing and reigns for the bot.

Like a wheel within a wheel

This LEGO concept car by Vince Toulouse has super-strong TRON:Legacy vibes. I mean…c’mon. Hubless Car could have been lifted right off the game grid. Okay, it’s not all black and neon like the rest of that world. But if Master Control ever lightened up on the color choices, red and sand blue would be awesome additions. Certainly, no one will complain about the general shape; it’s futuristic, sleek, and streamlined. And it’s just “real world possible” enough to feel like something you could drop a ton of money to own in the real world.

On the LEGO front, there are some fun part choices to call out. The canopy is a 5x9x5 half-sphere from the Jurassic World sets. The fins on the side are Bionicle skates, with the printed 2×2 logo tile sourced from a 2004’s Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze sets.

In this alternate angle, you can really see the intricate shaping that makes this model pop. I love the curves coming off of the rear wheels, and bracketing the spoiler. And those front forks… If you’re not a fan of TRON, maybe you’d be comfortable dropping this vehicle into the Blade Runner universe as a variation on the Spinner.

Out, into the dark, with a precious cargo of plants

If we can find an Earth-like planet within a reasonable distance, or perhaps terraform one of our closer neighbours, then we’re going to need to transport a bunch of plants to its surface. In this LEGO space scene, Sam Malmberg imagines how the interior of a seedling transport ship might look. There’s an impressive variety of plant-life on display, within an equally smart selection of vivarium equipment. The viewport and the wall panelling brings the styling of the Nostromo to mind, but thankfully there are no terrifying aliens threatening the crew. I love the inclusion of a microscale companion vessel, visible through the window, creating the sense of a convoy of intrepid colonists heading out together for a new world.

LEGO Masters: An interview with finalists Mark and Boone [Feature]

In our interview, we talk to “The Bearded Builders” Mark and Boone about how they build so fast, where good ideas come from, and how it feels to be put on the spot and sing!

Read our interview with LEGO Masters finalists Mark and Boone

How to organise and sort your LEGO collection, by the Mad Physicist [Feature]

With a lot of people holed up in their homes, as a result of stay-at-home orders to reduce the spread of COVID-19, The Brothers Brick has been getting questions on how to best organise one’s LEGO collection. There are obviously many different ways to do this. These range from not organising it at all, via sorting elements by colour or type, to giving every type of element in every different colour a separate container. The latter is seen by some people as the “ultimate” or “most advanced” sorting solution. A behind-the-scenes discussion among our contributors revealed that we all have somewhat different sorting systems. So, for those of you staring at a large pile of random unsorted LEGO, we’ll be sharing our ideas in a few feature articles. We’ll also go into the process of cleaning and sorting your LEGO.

In this installment, we kick off with our very own Builder in Residence, Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad physicist.

Deserted in the desert

“Eventually it shall be reclaimed by the sands. But until then, it stands there still — empty and abandoned. A warning to us all.” I love when a LEGO model begs the observer to create a story, when narration springs into the mind as you look over the builder’s work. This excellent microscale castle by Eli Willsea somehow demands the creation of a backstory — its formidable walls and soaring towers seem to require an epic history to explain its emptiness and sense of decay. The model is well put-together, with a nice depth of texture despite a relatively limited selection of bricks and a monochrome colour palette. And its that colour selection which is key to the scene’s appeal, immediately placing the model in a desert environment and conjuring up an atmosphere of decay and mystery and romance.

Your father’s Backdraft

“Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub.” If that means nothing to you, then you missed out as a child. The stop-motion animation show Trumpton — and its sister shows Chigley and Camberwick Green — were staples of British kids’ TV during the 70s, and repeated regularly into the 80s and 90s. Gentle tales of town and country life, narrated in the dulcet tones of UK-kids-TV-superstar Brian Cant, these series were charming and beautifully made — just like Jason Briscoe‘s latest LEGO creation: Trumpton Fire Station and its famous engine. For most kids, the undoubted stars of this particular fictional “universe” were these guys — rushing to the rescue of cats in trees, and even extinguishing the occasional fire.

Retro, and chunky, and deliciously smooth, Jason’s re-creation of the Fire Engine and its crew is spot-on. I suspect this model may leave younger readers a little cold, but for anyone over the age of 40, this is likely to bring a warm rush of nostalgia. However, regardless of your knowledge of, or fondness for, the source material, these models are wonderfully made at an interesting scale, allowing Jason to faithfully capture the shapes and styles of the inspiration.

Even steampunks go to church

I have never been enthralled with steampunk. Maybe it’s because I’m not the biggest fan of the Victorian Era in general, let alone a fantastic version of it filled with steam-driven automatons. Despite that, I can recognize a cool LEGO build when I see it, no matter what era it is from. And that is what this steam-church by Dwalin Forkbeard is. Inspired by a church in Ukraine, this particular one lacks a second tower (due to lack of parts) and the square in front (also due to a shortage of parts), but it looks great just as it is. I love how the smaller chunks of city life are connected to the central build by pipes, linking them together without needing to make a giant plaza. And I do like pipes. I also like seeing the planet half-spheres used for domes. Add in some handcuff ornaments and one amazing gas lamppost, and you have something special. Isn’t that right, old chap?

This epic Eurofighter Typhoon will blow you away

As a kid, I built a lot of model airplanes. I loved gluing them together and painting them, but never liked applying the decals. I read books about military airplanes, too, and played with tiny toy planes. I loved airplanes, at least ones that carried missiles and guns. I’m going out on a limb here, but I would hazard a guess that James Cherry loved airplanes, too, and still does. Why would I guess that? Because he has built an amazing Eurofighter Typhoon airplane out of LEGO bricks. Measuring up at over a meter in length and 73cm across at the wingtips (it’s a European plane, so we have to use metric), this is one beast of a creation, too. The whole thing is tiled an oh-so-smooth, with a custom canopy and nose cone, since The LEGO Group does not manufacture anything close to these specs.

Click here to see details of this fabulous fighter jet