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.

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.

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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

I object, you object, we all object. But not to Object-8

The line between art and craftsmanship is a tricky one to walk. I know I’ve gotten into a few deep (and sometimes tense) conversions with my friends about the distinction. Things get even trickier when you apply that sort of judgment call to LEGO creations. I think, though, that most would agree that Mitsuru Nikiado‘s works fall on the side of “art.” Not only is Object-8 titled like something you’d see in a gallery show, it looks like it’s right at home in a sculpture garden. In contrasting red and grey, Mitsuru has created a dynamic image of destruction.

That said, there’s still a lot of craftsmanship to appreciate. As you can see from this alternate angle, every bit of the exploding wall is connected. Building on the techniques in Object-5, modified 1×1 round plates and open-stud connectors combine to allow for some pretty crazy angles.

I recommend checking out Mitsuru’s photostream to see the other Objects in this series. (Object-4 is a personal favorite.)

The treasure is knowledge

Of the two similar structures in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra in southern Jordan, Al Khazneh and El Deir, the iconic “Treasury” featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is much more famous than the larger (and arguably more spectacular) “Monastery” deeper in the Nabatean archaeological site. So it’s no surprise that we’ve seen Al Khazneh depicted in LEGO many times over the years, with nary a Monastery in sight (or brick). Nevertheless, I appreciate each new LEGO Petra, like this one by Inthert built only from tan pieces.

What’s especially notable about this build is less its monochrome color scheme than the variety of interesting “illegal” techniques Inthert uses to achieve shapes and angles at this scale. LEGO’s internal design team follows a strict set of guidelines to ensure that official LEGO sets are study in the hands of grubby little hands, while adult builders and other LEGO fans have no such restrictions (so it’s rather amusing when commenters decry the use of such techniques in fan-built models — stop it). Specifically, many plates and tiles are half-attached to studs or wedged in with friction, while a number of the Technic pins used as columns are connected using the gaps that allow the pins to flex for clipping into place. But my favorite detail is the Technic gear atop the “roof” of the central section.

Be sure to click through to the full-size photo and expand it to take in all the interesting details and techniques.

A little bird to watch

With all the time I have been spending at home lately, I find myself paying more attention to the birds that live in my neighborhood, from feeding a family of crows in my backyard to listening to the calls and songs of feathered friends of all shapes and sizes. This tiny LEGO sparrow by Luis Peña is quite a lovely model, and very expressive. Luis shapes the wings with quarter tiles and that flat tail captures the look of the real-life inspiration, the Rufous-collared sparrow.

If you enjoyed this bird, be sure to check out more recent birds from Luis on his flicker page

LEGO Masters: An interview with finalists Tyler and Amy [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. We’ll publish our interviews with the other finalists in the coming days ahead of the finale next Wednesday.

In our interview, we talk to “The Newlyweds” Tyler and Amy about how they came to be a team and prepared for the show, what their favorite moments were, and if they have continued building together since.

Read our interview with LEGO Masters finalists Tyler and Amy

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 11, 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 April 2020.

We take a closer look at the new Super Mario Adventures starter course. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS AND FEATURES: This week we saw several reveals including a golden Wonderwoman 1984 set, two new Minecraft sets and a close up look at two of the new Super Mario sets.Plus we talk with Brickmasters Jamie & Amy with another behind he scenes look at LEGO Masters.

Wonder Woman 1984 LEGO set revealed as 76157 Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah – Check out this golden LEGO set based on the upcoming blockbuster Wonder Woman 1984.
Behind-the-scenes of LEGO Masters with Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard [Feature] – We asked LEGO Masters judges Amy and Jamie your questions about how difficult it is to create and judge challenges, if they agree all the time, how they became LEGO designers, and how they are adjusting to working from home.
LEGO 21161 Minecraft Crafting Box 3.0 and 21163 The Redstone Battle sets revealed – We take a first look at the LEGO 21163 Minecraft The Redstone Battle and the LEGO 21161 Minecraft The Crafting Box 3.0.
LEGO and Nintendo unveil Super Mario Adventures starter course and Bowser’s Castle expansion set – Get a close-up look at the LEGO Super Mario starter course and Bowser’s Castle expansion set.

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:

Monopoly houses, toy soldiers and Lego: the museum of plastic lost at sea, The Guardian – The waste washing up on British beaches is a shocking but fascinating catalogue of our times.
The LEGO Group does it’s part in the battle against Covid-19, Facebook – LEGO is using its facilities to produce masks for Danish hospitals.

Lego Backs Lego Dots Line With Snapchat AR Lens, ADWEEK – Users can decorate frames around their faces with different styles

And I thought meetings at work were bad

I saw this LEGO scene by Midwest_Builders and just had to chuckle. A month ago the humor might have been missed but as many of us are now working remotely, we have more virtual meetings. During video conferences, I’ve seen some very relaxed dress and grooming standards on behalf of my co-workers. Hair got frizzier, dye-jobs are fading, bags under eyes got baggier. Week after week I’m watching my co-workers age and, in some cases put on weight, right before my eyes. And that’s not to mention how I must look during video conferences. Miles O’Connor here is trying to hold a Zoom meeting with his associates Jimmy Plate, and Morgan Greebles but weeks of quarantine have made everyone a little crazy. Jimmy is shirtless and chugging a beer while Morgan is having a bit of a tinkle. And while Miles seems the most put-together, his baby has interrupted the meeting riding on the doggy.

Child and dog interruptions are bound to happen with home conferences but let’s hope we can at least keep our shirts on. And for the sake of our sanity, stay the heck out of the bathroom during conference calls. Please.

Moody musician turns up the bass

When I first saw this LEGO model of a musician with headphones by aido k, I laughed out loud. I thought it was so expressive, with his floppy hair, and sleepy eyes. And those headphones are so amazing. Then I found out it was a tribute to a Youtuber, and I loved it even more. Aside from the face, I think one of my favorite and easily missed details is the white stripes of his sweatshirt, along the shoulder and arms.

They sure don’t make them like they used to

Joe Klang is back in the workshop making more amazingly deceptive 1:1 scale models. If you thought his LEGO Etch-a-Sketch and Atari were neat, prepare to do a double-take with his cordless power drill.

Although the drill is what caught my eye I think my favorite tool is the orange adjustable box cutter making great use of the newer rounded plates to provide both smooth AND textured edges.

1:1 LEGO models are among my favorite fan creations, particularly because I appreciate the immense effort of manipulating the vast system of pieces (most of which have studs that would immediately give the game away!) into something familiar and handheld that seems like it couldn’t possibly be built out of LEGO.