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.

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!

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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.

Leaving LEGO Masters: An interview with the second team to leave [Feature]

LEGO Masters has aired its third episode last week, and sadly another team went home. The Brothers Brick had the opportunity to sit down with them and talk about their experience, how to maintain a positive outlook under stress, and what the reaction has been to appearing on the reality show.

In the interview conducted jointly with Brickset, BZPower and True North Bricks, the team talks about how all the contestants felt like a family, what challenge they would have been awesome at, and what advice they have for contestants on LEGO Masters Season 2. If you haven’t yet watched the episode, be warned that there will be spoilers!

Read our interview with these eliminated LEGO Masters contestants

Look who’s laughing now

Look who’s laughing now… It’s Shenzi, Banzai, and the cackling Ed — the trio of villainous hyenas from Disney’s 1994 animated classic The Lion King, created in LEGO bricks by Timofey Tkachev. The sculpting here is excellent — each beast well-posed, and their different faces captured perfectly through a variety of building techniques and parts. The key to success lies in the choice of scale — these shady characters are surprisingly large, giving Timofey space to nail all the details. And while simple, the surrounding landscaping enhances the presentation of the central figures, suggesting the bleak elephant’s graveyard, which surely stretches to the horizons around them.

The Lion King‘s characterization of these hyenas received a mixed reception back in 1994, with some critics accusing Disney of racist caricature in the voice acting and dialogue. Disney never acknowledged any of this criticism, but Scar’s hyena lieutenants were quietly rewritten, and mostly renamed, in the 2019 live-action remake. Whatever you might think of the original movie’s depiction of this trio, it doesn’t affect the quality of the LEGO building on display here.

I wonder who that boy is?

As a concept, Batman has some issues. In today’s world, a billionaire who gets his jollies from beating up the economically disadvantaged is…not a great look. Luckily there are some brighter aspects to his mythos to help balance things out. Robin became his kid sidekick back in 1940, and his bright costume and cheerful quips brought a little light to the Dark Knight. Oh, sure, you could point out that this was just adding “child endangerment” into the mix, but I’m trying very hard to be upbeat about things today. John Moffatt, at least, gives me a real reason to smile with this LEGO recreation of the Boy Wonder in Miniland scale.

Sure, some of these connections may not be 100% purist, but the Robin character has always been one to break the rules, at least a little bit. Headlight bricks are used for Robin’s shoulders, and also provide an interesting connection point for the not-quite-attached 1×2 tiles that create the angled shape for the gloves. I also like the cape, made out of click-hinge plates.

Is this just a start of a heroic run of Miniland figures like John’s Avatar collection back in 2015? Only time will tell. But I hope so.

LEGO T-47 Snowspeeder swooshes into action

One of the most recognizable ships from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the versatile, low altitude speeder manufactured by Incom Corporation proved effective in the battle of Hoth, despite being ill-suited for cold environments. It looks like Massimiliano Sibilia may have taken low-altitude a little too seriously in this microscale model, which features the iconic wedge-shaped speeder skimming over the surface of Hoth.

The model captures the clunky aesthetic very well, and the harpoon and grill on the rear are particularly great details on this small scale.

LEGO Gift With Purchase 40370 – Push-Along Steam Engine [Review]

For LEGO’s upcoming gift with purchase, 40370 Push-Along Steam Engine, they are diving deep into the archives to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of 7180 The Push-Along Steam Engine set. This set was introduced in 1980 at the dawning of the 12v train era, and it’s quite a rare find these days. If you can find one still in a sealed box, you can bet it will set you back a bit. Lucky for you, this updated version of the model will be free with purchases over $99 / €99 / £99 available March 1st – 15th in LEGO Stores and Shop At Home. We got our hands on a copy before it hits stores to see what it’s all about.

Read on to see more in-depth details

The Mandalorian can bring you in hot or bring you in cold

Even months after its release on Disney+, The Mandalorian continues to be an inspiration for amazing LEGO creations. My new favourite is this diorama by CTR Bartosz. This scene from Chapter 1 of the series is packed with details that help tell the story. First, there are the characters: the Mandalorian and his bounty, the Kubaz waiting to call them a speeder, and the remains of a Quarren, cut in half by the door. Then there are the little things, like the tracker, the Quarren, or the dark red pieces representing his guts.

Take a closer look at this LEGO scene inspired by the Mandalorian

This Dieselpunk Dragonfly takes to the skies

Imagine a world, an alternate reality wedged somewhere between the 1920s and 1950s. It’s a little gritter and not as optimistic as say Steampunk but everyone wears a cool uniform, the radio shows are campy and the password to get into all the best speakeasies is; Dieselpunk. That is the world this LEGO creation by Asgardian Studio lives in. The builder tells us it was fun to render the red color scheme with a black and white checkered pattern and a smattering of orange highlights. This massive model has a 75cm (29.52in) wingspan, rotating propellers, retractable landing gear, and a fully detailed interior. I love the twin-fuselage, tri-propeller design, but the bubble eyes and dragonfly wings make this one awesome Dieselpunk model! We will surely look to the skies for more great works by Asgardian Studio.

Our wrap-up of LEGO at Toy Fair New York 2020 [News]

After a whirlwind of reporting over the last two days, we’ve completed our coverage of LEGO at Toy Fair New York 2020, North America’s largest toy trade show. While LEGO’s public presence was smaller than its been in years past, we got to look at quite a few new sets, and go hands-on with others that we’d only seen in official photos previously. Because the show is a trade show, it’s not open to the public. But we know you’re all itching to learn what the experience was like this year, so here’s a quick recap of our experience covering LEGO news at Toy Fair New York 2020.

Toy Fair New York is held each year at the colossal Javits Center in the heart of Manhattan, where the show lays claim to all 1.8 million square feet the center has to offer. Continue reading →