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.

The pitfalls of realistic building

There’s a danger to building realistic LEGO creations in that there is a chance writers like us could pass it up. While seeking out inspiration for articles, my thought process went as follows, LEGO build; cool. Another LEGO build, our readers will like that one; cool. Someone selling their old Atari, maybe? Pffft, whatever, move on. LEGO creation; cool. Wait, go back. Was that? Holy shnikies, that’s LEGO! That reaction is courtesy of Joe Klang and every bit of this stellar Atari 2600 is genuine LEGO. The Atari logo is comprised of 1×2 curved slopes, the chrome jack is a harpoon piece and even the rubber bands are LEGO. Notoriously spotty quality control with brown works in Joe’s favor here as it replicates woodgrain nicely. Even the Pitfall box art with its 8-bit graphics are well played indeed!

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A mech that breaks the rules

When I see one of Marcoi Marozzi‘s mechs, I know I’m in for a bit of fun while I try and track down the unusual LEGO parts involved in the construction. In the Hyd.ra 5k Medium Mech I started looking for the piece used in the head, and found it to be Hero Factory shoulder armor. The rounder bits of plating are sourced from Star Wars big-fig parts. Even the feet are a deep cut, this time from the Throwbot line. But that arm gun threw me. There were parts in there I just didn’t recognize. Shockingly, Marcoi has moved from “just” using custom stickers to enhance their builds to using non-LEGO parts.

The LEGO purist in me rebels at this. But it’s hard to argue that the results look pretty darn sweet. I guess every once in a while you just need to break the rules.

LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed mobile game is out today bringing more than 50 iconic LEGO characters to your smartphone [News]

Today, the LEGO Group and Gameloft are celebrating the release of the long-awaited LEGO® Legacy: Heroes Unboxed mobile game. Unveiled in May 2019, the game is finally being released on three major platforms and available today in App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store.

Click here to learn more about the new LEGO mobile game…

All the shinies, my precious!

Here at The Brothers Brick we are like raccoons in the sense that we love shiny things and have short attention spans. Apparently there is also a lemur within our ranks but I have not seen the critter around the headquarters since my inception here. But that is a matter for another day; as for now, we will deal with the only thing that matters, which is this stunning LEGO Confederate R131 Fighter Motorcycle by Ian Ying. There was a time when LEGO was on board with our obsession for shiny things but that is in the past and what bit of precious chrome is left has become increasingly rare and costly. Custom chrome parts can be had but you’d have to spend a pretty penny (a shiny penny!) to build something as gloriously chrome-plated as Ian had.

There was apparently a time when other things mattered. But our reason for publishing, our reason for our very existence has all led up to this. As a raccoon with a short attention span who loves shiny things, I declare this to be the best LEGO creation in the history of the world ever and will be until the end of time! Or until a few hours from now when something else captures our attention, whichever comes first.

There must have been something strange in the tea

My first thought upon seeing this LEGO build by Revan New was that it looked inspired by something from Alice in Wonderland, with a teapot on someone’s head like they had just finished a cup with the March Hare and Mad Hatter. But then I read the description the builder gave, and it turns out to be inspired by a different story, Over the Garden Wall. Of course, I have never heard of that show, uncultured swine that I am, but I did just read the Wikipedia entry on it, and it does sound a bit like the Alice stories. It involves a trip through a magical forest that may or may not be part of a delusional state, so on face value my first thought was close enough.

The bluebird, named Beatrice, is lovingly depicted in bricks, with especial attention paid to the shaping of the feathers on the wings. Mixel eyes give great expressions to the characters, though in the tall one (Wirt) the pupils look too small and in the short, teapot-wearing one (Greg) they look too large. I suspect that has something to do with the characters rather than the builder, however. The forest is great, with excellent shaping on the trees, nicely dense undergrowth, and large fungi. All it is missing is a frog.

Cursed be the island rich with spoils

The Pirates LEGO theme is one of the most cherished of all time. It makes sense that even though it is long-retired, fans continue to build fantastic tributes to their epic crusades. Letranger Absurde is one such builder, and has delighted us with this pirate hideout. The shipwreck, complete with cannon, broken mast, and shredded sails, is excellent. I’m also fond of the helmet on a frogs back to make a turtle.

If you’re a fan of pirates, check out our Pirates archives! And if you like Letranger’s style, take a look at these exceptional builds!

A meme has fallen into art in LEGO City!

We have featured artistic builds by the enigmatic builder why.not? on the Brothers Brick before. Her builds tend to focus on horror and mystery with an emotional sub-theme. The latest one mostly falls into these categories, but… A man has fallen into the river in LEGO City! Now I know it might be a coincidence, but this meme is huge right now. If this is a commentary on how powerless and alone a single person feels in the city, it makes for a great art piece. But if this is a full-effort build dedicated to a LEGO meme, I respect it too. Because memes are the purest form of contemporary art.

The build is presented to be open to interpretation and is in its essence a full LEGO scene of a minifig falling off a bridge. The focus seems to be on the aforementioned bridge, as it is the only element that is not monochromatic. The forced perspective is achieved with different scales of buildings, a small bridge in the background and a tapering curved river bank. I like the cold colours used that evoke a depressing and suffocating city atmosphere, but I wonder if it would not look better with a vivid coloured minifig, directing the attention immediately to itself.

LEGO Masters Tyler and Amy see the world through the Imagiscope

This is becoming a thing for us. Tyler Clites and his wife Amy are contestants on LEGO Masters; they build a mini version of their real-life challenge entry and post it around the same time every week. We, in turn, use it to remind you to watch LEGO Masters on FOX Wednesdays at 9pm. They get kudos, we get job security and the world turns. You can discover much of that turning world with this entry. Last week’s challenge was a doozie, they cut real objects in half (like a clock or a guitar) and the contestants had to build imaginative creations using the half-cut item. Tyler and Amy chose the half-telescope and from it spawned the Imagiscope where pirates plunder and rockets soar.

Be sure to check out our extensive LEGO Masters coverage and tune in again tonight to see what hijinks Tyler, Amy, and the other contestants are up to.

Built like an Egyptian goddess

Meet Amunna, Eero Okkonen’s latest elegant LEGO figure. I’m continually flabbergasted with the apparent ease with which he brings these characters to life. This time we have an Egyptian-inspired woman loaded with expert parts usage. Bo Peep’s cane to decorate the legs? Check. A surfboard and treasure map printed tile on the staff? Yep! And what about a little coral flare, treasure chest pouch, and colorful wing skirt? You got it! Dying to know what’s on her bust? It’s a printed radiator element that was only found with this print in one set: 7411 Tygurah’s Roar. (The open area above the curves is carefully hidden by her hair.) Throughout, an appealing color palette abounds, and from head to foot, this is one cool chick.

If you’re craving more, take a look at all of Eero’s builds that we’ve covered by visiting our archive!

In Space no one can hear you mourn

Recently the world lost Jens Nygaard, a key LEGO innovator. While most news outlets were focused on Jens’ work as the creator of the LEGO minfigure, he was responsible for so much more. For example, did you know he was the creator of the classic Space theme? Builder Chris Yu did, and the Nygaard memorial fleet is their tribute to Jens’ genius. It’s said that grief is just love with nowhere to go. But sometimes we can take that love, listen to the inspiration it brings, and create something new.

This microscale collection of ships are decked out in the theme’s traditional blue and yellow colors. There’s a variety of cruisers, a fun robot, suitably chunky rocket, and even a micro-tribute to the theme’s astronaut minifgures.

Chris won our 2019 LEGO Creation of the Year Award with another Classic Space masterpiece. It’s safe to say this is a tribute to a theme close to his heart.

Building “Pursuit of Flight” is still attainable [Instructions]

Nearly a year ago, we featured this exceptional kinetic sculpture by Jason Allemann. The “Pursuit of Flight” later went on to become a finalist in the recent LEGO Ideas review round. A week ago, LEGO announced which projects made it into the next production run, and unfortunately, Jason’s “Pursuit of Flight” was not one of those projects. But do not despair! He has made the full instructions available to anyone who is dying to build this wonderful piece of art.

For those big Star Wars fan out there, you can try your hand at a trench run variation of the original model.

As you may know, this is not the first time that Jason (also known as JK Brickworks) has been a LEGO Ideas finalist. He has actually previously won the coveted opportunity to have his build become an official set… twice. He’s responsible for 21305 Maze and 21315 Pop-Up Book (the latter in collaboration with Grant Davis).

If you’re going into space, you may as well do it in style

A new LEGO spaceship from Nick Trotta is always worthy of note, and Firebreak, his latest, is an absolute belter. The shaping is a beautiful collection of angles and curves, making clever use of tiles and a bewildering array of sideways-building techniques to keep the lines smooth. But it’s the color scheme and the ingenious striping which grab the attention — look at the white highlight outline on the asymmetric engine intake, a fantastic piece of LEGO engineering. The angled snub nose is also great, adding a touch of malevolence by invoking attack helicopter styling. Finally, the use of black and chrome for the functional-looking greebles is inspired — a nice change of pace from the “standard” LEGO spaceship greebles in light or dark grey. This is one of the best LEGO spacecraft we’ve seen for a while. I’d recommend zooming in for a closer look at all the quality building involved in its creation.