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 reveals 21353 The Botanical Garden as the next LEGO Ideas set [News]

Veering away from large-scale flowers for a minute, LEGO has just unveiled the next set in the Ideas line: LEGO Ideas 21353 The Botanical Garden, based on the original Ideas submission by Valentina Bima. With 3,792 pieces, this massive set features a removable roof, 12 included LEGO minifigures, and sections covering flowers, trees, cacti, mushrooms, and other plants. The Botanical Garden goes on sale for LEGO insiders beginning on November 1st, with access to everyone opening up on the 4th, retailing for US $329.99 | CAN $429.99 | UK £289.99. And during the first week of availability, the set will come with the gift-with-purchase 5009005 LEGO Botanicals Entrance Gate GWP for all Insiders adding it to their cart (GWP images not available at time of writing).

Check out all the bodacious botanicals in this new garden below!

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LEGO Star Speeder 3000 is now ready for service to Endor

Star Wars fans in the LEGO community have created incredibly detailed and screen-accurate renditions of iconic ships like the X-Wing, B-Wing, and Y-Wing. But there’s one vehicle in the Star Wars universe that fans have a first-hand experience of riding in, and it’s one we don’t see as often in LEGO: the Starspeeder 3000, trusty transport used by infamous travel agency Star Tours! Japanese LEGO builder and Lucasfilm superfan Negipon fixes this with an incredible recreation of the Starspeeder, crewed and ready for a relaxing trip to Endor!

Not only does the build match the lines, colors, and greebling of the classic ride, but it is packed with play functions, including functional doors, retractable blasters and landing gear, custom lighting, and housing for an iPhone next to the pilot droid RX-24 (voiced by Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, in the original ride) so that minifig passengers can get the full 4D movie experience. A video shows off all the details. Speaking of minifigs, Negipon booked quite a crew for his model’s maiden voyage.

This isn’t Negipon’s first Disneyland build. He recently built a motorized tribute to the Indiana Jones Adventure that brings the thrills home, and his LEGO Indiana Jones dioramas definitely belong in a museum (I’m partial to Negipon’s action-packed Club Obiwan scene).

Blacktron blight leads to mutated mech meyhem

LEGO’s nefarious Blacktron faction may have traded their classic black look for white and trans neon green. But make no mistake, they were still up to no good, pillaging from M-Tron miners, evading Space Police, and apparently getting mixed up with dangerous mutagens. Whatever infected the Blacktron fig from Collectible Minifigures Series 26 seems capable of transforming Blacktron tech as well, at least as imagined by LEGO designer Theo Bonner. His Blacktron Exo-Mech celebrates the colors of the Blacktron II theme with a gloriously gooey mix of modern parts. Theo draws on big and small macaroni tubes and every shape of tail, tentacle, and horn in neon green to fill out the biomechanical menace. I especially like the curled grass piece for the trigger tentacle. I wonder, is the mech an extension of the pilot’s body, or a lifeform of its own?

You know what would help to take down a squishy mech like this? A really big chainsaw. Thankfully, Theo already has that covered with his last cool mech creation.

Tales from the LEGO crypt

We’re fast approaching All Hallows’ Eve at the end of the month, and the volume of ghoulish LEGO builds hitting the internet is reaching a feverish pace. Expert character builder Trevor Pearson-Jones is ready for the scary holiday with this excellent take on the Crypt Keeper from the Tales of the Crypt TV show. Apart from the haunting visage in lime green, I adore the light gray lettering on the ghoul’s tome.

“I’m not a toy, I’m a building system!”

Forky, the breakout character from Toy Story 4, may be a crude assemblage of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and a spork, but he opens up major existential questions about the nature of ~~life~~ toys. LEGO did once release this not-a-toy monstrosity as a single molded piece, think this brick-built ~~abomination~~ masterpiece by Bas van Houwelingen does a much better job at capturing Forky’s special charms. Stacked red flowers make excellent pipe cleaners, and a bent blue tube closed with a minifig hand is a genius solution for Forky’s mouth. Bas’s creation is made for friendship (or for soup, salad, maybe chili).

An impressive SHIP made of Soviet blocks

The heyday of cosmonauts at the bleeding edge of space exploration might be history, but science fiction imagines an alternate timeline where the space race never ended. LEGO builder Duncan Lindbo drew on this alt-reality for his SHIPtemeber creation: the Gazprom Samovar-class tanker ship. Designed to resupply Soviet outposts on Mars, the massive vessel is armed with turrets to protect its precious liquid cargo. The mix of curves, girders, and all of that lovely sand green perfectly extrapolates ’60s space race tech into the future. I love the cluster of engines, angled out like Vostok rockets. In a month of stellar SHIP’s Duncan’s Samovar is steeped in skillful techniques.

If Duncan’s alt-future take on Soviet tech has you curious about the historical precedents, comrade, reflect on this LEGO Soyuz capsule, also built in sand green.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for October 19, 2024 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the third week of October 2024.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS Last time on the Brick Report we dazzled you with reviews of BrickHeads, Botanicals, Barges and more. This time we’ve got a jubilant set announcement, some reviews, and a recap of retail sets for purchase this month.

[NEWS] LEGO Marvel 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion revealed —- To me, my X-Mansion! The uncanny reveal of the School for Gifted Youngsters!
[REVIEW] LEGO Marvel X-Men 76294 The X-Mansion, is it worth the wait? — Daniel discovers that this isn’t just a school for special students! Head into the Danger Room with us!
[REVIEW] LEGO Wednesday 76781 Wednesday & Enid’s Dorm Room — Daniel delves into the kooky spooky dorm of Addams daughter Wednesday
[REVIEW] LEGO Bricklink Designer Program Series 3 – Lost City: Ruining a good thing? [Review] — Kyle adventures into the ruins and decides whether it’s worth the expedition
[NEWS] New October 2024 LEGO sets now available: Star Wars, Fortnite, Wednesday and more — New releases abound this month! Time to get ready for the holidays!

A streetcar named...

Renfe got a lot of things right with the 446, but they got one incredibly important thing wrong and people gave it a nickname. So folks, allow me to present – made in LEGO by the expert Julián – the Renfe 446, nicknamed the dodotis, or “nappy”, for its lack of toilet facilities. Put that aside, though, and there’s plenty of great parts and techniques in this build. The ridge along the top of the train is covered in hinged train gates. With its magic wand windshield wipers, this motor car can survive any storm, but the conductor should still be careful; that meat cleaver mirror sure looks like a safety hazard!

Spooky scary skeletons spell doom for the Lion Knights

In the LEGO photography hobby, light and focus are as essential to the creative process as which bricks to use. Photomark6, a member of the BrickCentral photography community, specializes in shots where the camera is brought down into a diorama, giving the viewer a minifig’s view of the action. (And he manages to sneak a cat into every scene!) With spooky season upon us, Mark delves into the darkness and captures the likely final moments of the Lion Knights as they walk into a necromancer’s trap.

The black skeletons with double-long limbs are especially frightening, the minifig equivalent of those terrifying lawn skeletons that loom over trick-or-treaters. And nothing screams horror like chains hanging from the ceiling. Mark uses some scary good techniques in the castle backdrop; the hinge bricks work great as cornices. In the background, Szazz Tam from the D&D Collectible Minifigures watches the knights fall. Can the Lion Knights turn the tides? If only skeletons were allergic to cats…

Careful! Cool colours can conceal conniving crazies...

Do not adjust your set, reader: this LEGO build really is this colour! It’s not the result of a messed up RGB balance, but the work of LEGO Masters alum Jaap Bijl! At first glance, it’s a house full of whimsy: slightly cartoony proportions, those bright colours, and a fantastic technique for the roof. Who would’ve thought to use chicken drumsticks as tiles? Brilliant! But there’s a sinister side here too, as evidenced by the ominous red light emanating from inside. Surely such a colourful abode can’t hide anything nefarious inside, right? It’s probably fine to stay the night. All the same, I’ll let you go in first. No really, after you, please. I’ll be right behind you, promise…

Life on a LEGO sailboat looks like paradise

Tales of life at sea have long cast a siren spell over many a landlubber and LEGO builder. Real-life heroes like Thor Heyerdahl, Ernest Shackleton, and ~~Steve Zissou~~ Jacques Cousteau captured the imaginations of past generations; with many followers on YouTube, Lauren Landers and her feline first mate Mak are new stars sharing the ups and downs of life on the waves. Builder Kevin Wanner was inspired by Landers’ home, the Soul de La Mar, and recreated it in LEGO. The sailboat is a 1993 Oceania 510, decked out for long-term life at sea.

Kevin proves an able LEGO shipwright, creating impressive curves in dark blue. He first planned to build only the above-water section of the boat, but felt driven to complete the keel as well. The end results, with the full ship “floating” on a then patch of sea over a coral reef, is nothing short of stunning. The sea alone includes 1,900 1×1 tiles with clips to achieve the undulating effect. Kevin calls it a “don’t bump the table” build on account of the entire ship and sea resting on three fragile contact points. I hope he never learned that the hard way!

Kevin’s gallery features many more angles of this exquisite ship. The build is an amazing tribute to the Soul de La Mar that just might have you dreaming of trading in your house or apartment for sailboat of your own.

The magic of the Bio-cup lives on!

We often feature builds that are entered into the many contests the LEGO community holds, among them the Bio-Cup. But have you ever wondered what happens to these builds once the contest is over? Some are presumably dismantled, but Benjamin Anderson‘s wizard has found a new lease of life after contests’ end! The flowiness – for lack of a better word – is what give this magnificent mage so much character. The way his robes, hat and beard are billowing away from his staff suggests he’s cooking up a particularly spicy spell. As Benjamin put it in his caption: “I didn’t ask how big the room is, I said ‘I cast FIREBALL’!” I would stand back, everyone…