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.

May your days be merry and bright

Ah, Christmas morning. Is there anything more magical as a kid? I argue that there is not. And architeclego captures the feel perfectly, as a child ventures into the living room to see the presents left by Santa Claus. The lighting is beautiful here, mingling the warm, gentle glow of the tree lights, the strand over the window, the lantern, and the fireplace with the cool moonlight streaming through the window. Perhaps the kid got up right after midnight, because Saint Nick is still on the premises, peeping through the panes to see the presents being received. The immersive scene is delightful, with a tiled ceiling with exposed rafters, bare brick walls, and well-varnished hardwood floors. Here’s to all Christmas mornings looking this good!

Now, I’m ordinarily a purist when it comes to everything LEGO. But the inclusion of some evergreen sprigs and an LED string here improve the presentation so much that I can hardly object. The Dobby socks over the fireplace look great, and that is probably the best use of a bow I have seen; I mean, it’s a bow on a present, but still, it looks much better than it does as a hair accessory. The best part, though, is that the kid is getting a vintage LEGO police car for Christmas. He must have been a very good boy this year.

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Have yourself a very classic Christmas

If Hallmark decides to get into the LEGO holiday card market, Aukbricks has created a warm and inviting scene that would be welcome in any mailbox. The hardwood floors, white molding, and candles on the wall offer us a nostalgic vision of an old world home. Meanwhile, the holiday decorations are color-coordinated in classy white and gold – right down to the gift boxes under the tree. According to the builder, this digital render utilizes existing LEGO elements and consists of nearly 4,500 pieces. Try packing all of that in a holiday card!

Shortlist announced for Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2019 [News]

For nearly fifteen years The Brothers Brick has been highlighting the best LEGO creations, and 2019 has seen builders across the world put together some incredible models. To celebrate a year of great building, The Brothers Brick team has looked back over everything we’ve featured, and pulled together a selection of the finest LEGO creations of 2019.

Take a look at the fantastic models we’ve shortlisted, and stay tuned for the announcement of our LEGO Creation of the Year 2019 on New Year’s Eve!

Be sure to check out the LEGO Creation of the Year 2018, LEGO Creation of the Year 2017 and LEGO Creation of the Year 2016 to see what honourable company this year’s nominations are keeping.

Click to see all of 2019’s nominees

Those belong in a museum!

When LEGO created their in-house Indiana Jones character, they gave him the same characteristics as the original: rugged good looks, iconic hat, and a predilection for grave robbing. Indy always insisted that relics belonged in his university’s museum, as opposed to remaining with the peoples from whom he stole them, or at very least in the territories of origin (the Sankara stones being an exception, since his mission was to restore the stones); not that he succeeded often, since the Ark and the Grail eluded him. But nothing eluded Johnny Thunder. He got all of his relics, and not just his own, as WerferOfFlammen shows us. While the build is not very technical, the display is jaw-dropping, and hugely satisfying. Every LEGO collectible is there, from the Infinity Stones to the Elves keys, from the Atlantis rings to the Ninjago Time Blades. That’s not all, of course, as everything is there. Everything. And Johnny Thunder doesn’t put anything in a museum, just his personal study.

LEGO Architecture 21051 Tokyo skyline takes us to Tokyo Tower, Shibuya, Mt. Fuji, and more [Review]

It’s not often that a LEGO set transports me back home. But regular readers of The Brothers Brick know that I was born in Tokyo and lived in Japan until I was a teenager, so I was incredibly excited when LEGO announced 21050 Tokyo. I’ve enjoyed each of the previous LEGO Architecture skyline sets I’ve built, but how does this one stack up for someone who calls Tokyo their hometown?

Tokyo was revealed as part of the LEGO Architecture skyline series for 2020, alongside 21052 Dubai. Tokyo is built from 547 pieces and will retail for $59.99 USD | $79.99 CAD | £59.99 GBP. Both sets will be available starting January 1st.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Architecture 21051 Tokyo skyline

2019 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 24

Welcome to Day 24, the last day of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ve revealed the four mini-builds from the LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Friends, and LEGO City 2019 advent calendars along with commentary from The Brothers Brick team.

If you’re opening one (or more) of these advent calendars along with us, we’ve made sure the pictures and commentary on each day’s models will be behind a jump so we don’t accidentally ruin the surprise. What will we score for the final Day 24?

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

Happy little trees

You know about Bob Ross, right? If not, the short version is that he was an amazing painter, best known for his peaceful and calm teaching method. Quite often, he would fill his canvasses with “happy little trees,” conjuring entire forests with just a few elegant brush-strokes. Builder Emil Lidé (Full Plate) has a similar talent, creating trees with a flair and minimalist style that evokes nature with just a tiny selection of LEGO elements.

Not satisfied with just one tree, Emil has created seven distinct varieties for us to enjoy.

All seven are great, but there are a couple of standouts that I wanted to take a closer look at. (All seven are detailed in the builder’s Tree Techniques album on Flickr.)

Continue reading →

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren’s new headgear

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit theatres just a few days ago and LEGO fans have already started to produce some amazing creations. One that stands out is Petros Nicolaou’s rendition of Kylo Ren’s helmet. While I was a fan of how it was destroyed in The Last Jedi, I love how it was reforged in a Kintsugi kind of way in The Rise of Skywalker.

The repaired helm adds an extra level of beauty and badassery. And as cool as it looks on film, it looks just as cool represented in LEGO. The shaping of Kylo Ren’s unbroken helmet would itself require some skillful parts selection to achieve all the right angles and shaping. Add in the veins of red keeping it all together, and any builder would have an extra difficult challenge of them. It seems Petros was up to the challenge though. Take a closer and see that all the pieces seem to fit together.

An elegant weapon for a more civilized age

Yeah, with a title like that I bet you thought you were going to see a review of even more Mandalorian-related LEGO creations. Fooled you! This time the “weapon” refers to a selection of Batman’s gadgets, and the “civilized age” is the golden age of radio. And what a radio it is. Builder Andreas Lenander took those accessories and reimagined them as the knobs and feet of a classic set. You have to also enjoy the use of the 1×2 grill tiles to recreate the look of the speaker. The dark tan and orange accent colors are what really tie the build together, though.

Andreas built this as part of a New Elementary parts fest – check out their Flickr album for more great part usage!

LEGO Star Wars 75273 Poe Dameron’s X-wing Fighter from The Rise of Skywalker [Review]

Poe Dameron seems to go through X-wing starfighters more quickly than Carrie Bradshaw goes through Manolo Blahniks. His latest is a cute little number (75273) in orange and white with azure accents, which you can pick up for yourself for a mere $89.99 USD | $119.99 CAD | £89.99 GBP. Poe Dameron’s X-wing Fighter includes 761 pieces with three minifigs (plus Artoo) and will be available January 1st, 2020.

We’ll do our best to avoid any major SPOILERS, and we ask our commenters to do the same for another week or two, until more people reading this will have had the opportunity to see Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.

Notes on terminology: For simplicity throughout this article, we’ll often reference the Resistance X-wing’s model number and compare and contrast it with the original X-wing from the Classic Trilogy. The model number for the original X-wings flown by the Rebel Alliance was T-65. The updated New Republic / Resistance X-wing’s model number is T-70. Similarly, the wings that give the X-wing its name are technically called S-foils (as in “Lock S-foils in attack position!”). To avoid repetition, we’ll occasionally call them wings.

Read our full review of LEGO Star Wars 75273 Poe Dameron’s X-wing Fighter from The Rise of Skywalker

2019 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 23

Welcome to Day 23 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the four mini-builds from the LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Friends, and LEGO City 2019 advent calendars along with commentary from The Brothers Brick team.

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

Santa’s ’40 Ford Coupe is the alternative to traditional science.

It’s been proven by…um…science or something that Santa travels the world via a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer named Dasher, Dancer and…um…Vomit and Nixon, maybe? I don’t know, it’s been awhile since my last science class so I’m a little rusty on the names and how it all works. But that doesn’t stop builders like Isaac W. from defying traditional science and going with alternate forms of transportation such as this chopped ’40 Ford Coupe. As a diehard car dude, I am all about this sleek, top-fueled alternate ride!

Now I’m aware that the ’40 Ford Coupe has fairly ample trunk space but I have a thirst for toys as big as the Colorado Rockies. How does Santa accommodate the likes of me? As stated earlier, it has been awhile since science class but I know enough about science to realize it’s going to take a lot more than a coupe trunk to get toys to all the good children of the world. Thankfully, Isaac already has that solution figured out with this matching trailer. Isn’t science grand?