Descend to the depths of imagination with “The Echoing Mines of the Mountain’s Heart” by syrdarian. This fantastic cross-section of some fabled dwarven caverns is a gold mine mithril mine of detail, conveying a sense of scale from the faint light at the top of the staircase all the way down to the rivulets of lava far below. A big part of any great model is presentation, and these mines are no exception, with superb lighting in the right places. Thanks to that light, along with the combination of natural-looking rock formations and easily recognizable dwarven architecture, it’s easy to see the dwarves’ masterworks deep within the earth. Let’s just hope these particular dwarves resist the temptation to delve too greedily and too deep.
Category Archives: LEGO
TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for December 22, 2024 [News]
In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders worldwide, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the 3rd week of December 2024.
TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS With the new year right around the corner, we’ve covered many themes over the last few weeks and several gift-with-purchase sets. Star Wars, Marvel, modular, Jurassic Park, and Creator, to name just a few. So take a break from our advent calendar coverage and catch up with news and reviews you might have missed.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31165 Wild Animals Panda Family — Orcas, Penguins, and Pandas, oh my.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Icons 10355 Blacktron Renegade: Bringing back the baddies — Classic space theme Blacktron gets a refreshing new tribute set, bringing a much-loved sub-theme to the 21st century.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Icons 10355 Blacktron Renegade revealed as the next retro set reimagining — New space set reboot announced.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Star Wars 75405 Home One Starcruiser: Home One home run? — The iconic Mon Calamari cruiser joins the line-up of microscale spaceships from a galaxy far, far away.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Collectible Minifigures 71048 Series 27 – More for the fans — This batch of collectible minifigure is full of fun characters.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Star Wars 75404 Acclamator-Class Assault Ship: a classy ship of great acclaim — The predecesor to the Venerator class gets the microscale treatment.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Star Wars 75402 ARC-170 Starfighter: the comeback story arc — One of the coolest ships from the final prequel trilogy gets a fresh new set.
- [FEATURE] What’s your favorite LEGO moment of 2024? — A look back on some of our favorite LEGO memories from 2024.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Technic 42202 Ducati Panigale V4 S Motorcycle – More of the same? — Rev your engines for this new Technic motorcycle.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Marvel 76314 Captain America: Civil War Action Battle – Which side wins? — Revisit the famous airport battle with this new set.
- [REVIEW] LEGO Marvel 76313 MARVEL Logo & Minifigures – A LEGO logo of a different kind — More than just a branding plug…
- [REVIEW] LEGO Icons 10350 Tudor Corner modular building – a return to the Classic Castle Guarded Inn — Our review includes exclusive insights from the set designers.
Click through to read more LEGO news from around the world
2024 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 22 [Feature]
Only three days left of our annual calendar spree. I’m going to miss these posts and sharing the opening experience with the team and with you, our readers. Before we begin, perhaps a little more trivia? In 2008 LEGO released the first Castle advent calendar and there was much rejoicing… in some parts of the world. The US and Canada weren’t officially supported for this set, which created quite an uproar with our readers! A Kingdoms calendar appeared two years later, marking the last time LEGO Castle appeared in advent form. While we don’t have Castle doors to open this year, we do have Friends, Disney, City, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Spider-Man!
As ever, our intrepid TBB team is on hand with witty comments, insightful observations, and bad jokes for each day’s builds. And of course, you can add your own thoughts in the comments section each day! So without further ado, let’s crack open the build for day 22…
Click here to see today’s builds!
2024 TBB custom LEGO advent calendar – Day 21 [Feature]
All year-round, we here at The Brothers Brick spend our time featuring amazing builds made by the LEGO fan community. But we figured, for the holiday season, it would be great to build something together. For each day from December 1st through the 24th, we’ll be posting instructions to a custom TBB advent calendar build, one part each day. Want to participate? You can find all the parts you’ll need for the TBB Advent Event from our announcement in November. Read on to see what we’re building today!
Only four more days remaining!
LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31165 Wild Animals Panda Family [Review]
Recently, LEGO set designers have taken the Creator 3-in-1 line of animal sets to the next level. Sets like LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31129 Majestic Tiger, LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31154 Forest Animals: Red Fox, and LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals have given wildlife fans a lot to be excited about. With 4 new sets coming in January, this trend is showing no signs of stopping. The most impressive of the latest wave features a panda bear and cub snacking on bamboo, with a penguin and chick and a pair of orcas as the alternate models. LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31165 Wild Animals Panda Family contains 626 pieces and will be available on January 1st for US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99. You may also be able to find the set after release from 3rd party sites like Amazon and eBay.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
2024 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 21 [Feature]
What’s your favorite holiday sweet? Candy canes? Cookies? Fudge? …Fruit cake? In Denmark, where our Advent Calendars are designed, this is the season for Æbleskiver, which are pancake balls served with jam. Fresh from the griddle at a winter market, there’s nothing better! But the powdered sugar and jam would make for sticky Friends, Disney, City, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Spider-Man!
As ever, our intrepid TBB team is on hand with witty comments, insightful observations, and bad jokes for each day’s builds. And of course, you can add your own thoughts in the comments section each day! So without further ado, let’s crack open the build for day 21…
Click here to see today’s builds!
2024 TBB custom LEGO advent calendar – Day 20 [Feature]
All year-round, we here at The Brothers Brick spend our time featuring amazing builds made by the LEGO fan community. But we figured, for the holiday season, it would be great to build something together. For each day from December 1st through the 24th, we’ll be posting instructions to a custom TBB advent calendar build, one part each day. Want to participate? You can find all the parts you’ll need for the TBB Advent Event from our announcement in November. Read on to see what we’re building today!
Only five more days remaining!
Michael Jasper’s li’l choppers
The gearhead kid in Michael Jasper‘s latest vignette might not be ready for their first tattoo, but in every other way, they’re a chip off the old motor block. Dad’s ride is a masterpiece of minifig scale engineering, combining tools, droid arms, and precious chrome details to form a motorcycle of uncanny detail. Junior’s RC chopper, with its beanie propeller handlebars, is a six-element wonder. Of course, Michael’s minifig designs and expressions bring the scene to life.
While Michael Jasper hasn’t been as prolific of late, he was one of the most featured builders during the early years of this site and his skill at recreating furniture and objects at minifig scale continues to inspire builders to this day. He impressed us long ago with his mini motorcycles, like this sidecar duo from 2007 and this blinged-out chopper from 2009. A new Michael Jasper motorcycle build is a wonderful holiday gift indeed!
An audacious rebuild of a LEGO Porsche 911 into an Audi TT
When LEGO released the excellent Creator Expert 10295 Porsche 911 it came with two variants right out of the box. For auto enthusiast Nathanael Kuipers, other car models are always waiting to be found within the parts of official sets, like this alternate build Audi TT. As Nathanael explains in his blog, the biggest challenge is working with the limited selection of curves and wheel arches from one set to find the unique shape of another model. The results here speak for themselves as you’d be forgiven for thinking this alternate build was an official set!
The model features opening doors, bonnet, and boot, as well as a working steering wheel. Nathanael’s solution for the iconic Audi logo in the grille is especially genius.
Nathanael regularly shares alt builds of official LEGO automotive sets. We also loved his pickup truck alt of 10265 Ford Mustang. I wonder what set Nathanael will remix next?
2024 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 20 [Feature]
December 20th is here already? We’ve emerged from the awkward teenage years of calendar doors and entered the roaring 20s. Before we start, how about a little more LEGO advent calendar trivia? The first Star Wars calendar was released in 2011 and the theme has appeared each year since. It shares 4 ships with this year’s calendar. Of course this year Star Wars is joined by Friends, Disney, City, Harry Potter, and Spider-Man!
As ever, our intrepid TBB team is on hand with witty comments, insightful observations, and bad jokes for each day’s builds. And of course, you can add your own thoughts in the comments section each day! So without further ado, let’s crack open the build for day 20…
Click here to see today’s builds!
2024 TBB custom LEGO advent calendar – Day 19 [Feature]
All year-round, we here at The Brothers Brick spend our time featuring amazing builds made by the LEGO fan community. But we figured, for the holiday season, it would be great to build something together. For each day from December 1st through the 24th, we’ll be posting instructions to a custom TBB advent calendar build, one part each day. Want to participate? You can find all the parts you’ll need for the TBB Advent Event from our announcement in November. Read on to see what we’re building today!
T-minus 6 more days of advent calendar building
All aboard the Autobot Express!
Alex “Orion Pax” Jones is a legend in the LEGO community thanks to his spot-on replicas of ’80s toys in LEGO form, especially the Transformers. A year after debuting his high-flying Aerialbots, the undisputed champ of transforming toy tributes is back to ring out the Transformers’ 40th anniversary year with his latest masterpiece: the Trainbots! It’s hard to imagine transforming locomotives picking up much steam with kids today, but if there’s anyone in the middle of the Venn diagram overlap of LEGO, Transformers, and trains, it’s our TBB readers!
Each of the six Trainbots is fully transformable and can couple together to run on LEGO tracks, with the red diesel engine equipped with a power unit to pull the others. The combined form, Raiden, towers at 65cm tall and stands atop a track base with cherry blossoms and a torii gate. Ever the master of presentation, Alex unveils the transforming trains on rails with all the pomp of a proper ’80s toy commercial.
There’s more to these bots than meets the eye. Click to read on!