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 Brothers Brick 2019 Report Card: LEGO Ideas [Feature]

The first release of a LEGO Ideas set (or its previous incarnation named Cuusoo) began back in 2008, rebranded in 2014, and 2019 marks its 11th year of a successful run for crowdsourcing from LEGO fans all around the world.

LEGO Ideas targets a wider audience beyond the typical LEGO buyer profile. 2019 was unique because it saw many new things for the Ideas initiative. This year we had five retail sets that were launched under the theme, the largest Ideas set ever, and a 6th fan-created as a gift-with-purchase set with the new variation of contests on the Ideas platform introduced back in 2018.

Click to see our LEGO IDEAS Review and Analysis for 2019

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A midnight snack and a dip in the pool sounds good right about now.

The premise of Gremlins was to never expose these adorable Mogwai to bright light, never get them wet and never, ever feed them after midnight. But how do they know what time zone they’re in? Plus it’s always midnight somewhere so did they take that into consideration? They broke the rules anyway and drama ensued but in the 80’s you didn’t really need cohesive plots to make a movie watchable. All you needed was Phoebe Cates. Grantmasters proves you don’t need a ton of LEGO to recreate a pretty convincing facsimile of Gizmo, the adorable star of Gremlins who wasn’t Phoebe Cates.

LEGO Speed Champions 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO for 2020 [Review]

The LEGO Speed Champions theme has been rather quiet for most of 2019, following the release of fantastic sets like 75894 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy in January, building on more vintage history in 2018 with sets like 75884 1968 Ford Mustang and 75889 Ferrari Ultimate Garage. In the intervening year, it’s now apparent that the LEGO Speed Champions design team has been hard at work redesigning the Speed Champions line from the ground up, shifting from models that are generally six studs wide to an eight-stud axle track, with cars from Jaguar, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Audi. The new 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO is the very first Japanese car featured in the Speed Champions theme, and was revealed to much fanfare at an event in November.

The set includes 298 pieces with a driver minifig and will be released on January 1st, 2020 for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Speed Champions 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO

The Brothers Brick’s top 10 most popular LEGO Features of 2019 [Feature]

In 2019, we covered a few feature-depth articles that explore a different side of the typical topics to uncover and share original and interesting stories within the LEGO community. If there’s any feature that you missed, here’s your chance for a revisit. We take a quick look back at the ten most popular feature articles of the year.

Click to see who made the top 10 features for 2019

This huge LEGO microscale city continues to grow

When we last checked in with Christophe Pujaletplaa almost a year ago, he’d just finished adding roads to the microscale LEGO city he calls Microville. It’s now grown to more than 11 meters squared, or close to 100 large 48×48-stud baseplates and gained a waterfront.

Christophe has been continuously working on the city since 2010, slowly adding more streets with detailed buildings, along with the occasional larger upgrade. The waterfront section adds new beach real estate and an industrial port next to the airport. Continue reading →

Check out the toothy grin on this LEGO bot

Sometimes you see a LEGO part and you think “now what will I ever do with that?” I’ve always loved the greebly, mechanical look of the ripcord housing element, but for the life of me I’ve never found a use for it. That’s not a problem for Cezium, though, who whipped together this brilliant digital model with two whole rows of them for the teeth–er, excuse me, railgun housings on this sentry bot. This just goes to prove that old LEGO building axiom: all pieces are useful if you have a sufficient quantity of them.

Go down memory lane with these amazing LEGO versions of classic Transformers

Alex “Orion Pax” Jones is a very focussed builder. All his LEGO building time lately has been spent on creating as-accurate-as-they-can-be digital Transformers Generation 1 characters. There’s so much to love about these as they instantly transport us back to a time when morning cartoons were not streamed and you had to wake up early to tune in to what now are amazing pop culture classics.

Click to see more Generation 1 Transformers

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for December 28, 2019

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the last week of December 2019.

We review the LEGO Employee Exclusive set: The Christmas X-Wing. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS AND FEATURES: This week we looked back at some of the best builds of the year, started packing our bags for BricksLA, and reviewed five new sets including: The LEGO Technic Top Gear Rally Car, LEGO Ninjago Avatar Arcade Pods and the LEGO Architecture Tokyo skyline.

Shortlist announced for Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2019 – Check out the contenders for TBB’s LEGO Creation of the Year 2019!
LEGO Masters reality show announces teams, including some familiar faces – LEGO Masters has announced it’s cast of contestants for the upcoming brick building reality TV show.
Only 2 weeks to Bricks LA 2020, Southern California’s premier LEGO convention, Jan 11-12 – If you’re in southern California, be sure to check out Bricks LA to get your new year’s dose of amazing LEGO creations!
The story behind LEGO’s 1981 Classic Space Christmas card [Feature] – The LEGO Group creates a special Christmas card for its employees each year. Enjoy a blast from the past with the story behind their Classic Space-themed card of 1981!

TBB REVIEWS:

LEGO Ninjago Avatar Arcade Pods: 71714 Kai, 71715 Jay, and 71716 Lloyd [Review] – The 2020 Ninjago lineup is a cyberpunk aesthetic set in a digital world via a videogame.
Completing a lap around the test track in LEGO Technic 42109 App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car [Review] – We build and play with the latest LEGO Technic remote-controlled car, which is licensed by the BBC’s Top Gear. It leaves us with a lot of mixed emotions….
LEGO Architecture 21051 Tokyo skyline takes us to Tokyo Tower, Shibuya, Mt. Fuji, and more – A native Tokyoite takes a close look at the new LEGO Architecture 21051 Tokyo skyline set.
LEGO Star Wars 75273 Poe Dameron’s X-wing Fighter from The Rise of Skywalker [Review] – Poe Dameron goes through X-wings faster than Carrie goes through Manolo Blahniks. But how does his third X-wing (75273 Poe Dameron’s X-wing Fighter from The Rise of Skywalker) compare with previous versions?
Christmas X-Wing: the Lego 2019 employee exclusive set [Review] – This year’s LEGO exclusive employee holiday gift is a Christmas-themed X-Wing. Celebrate Life Day with an in-depth review of this festive set from a galaxy far, far away!

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

Why Did Scientists Cool LEGOs to Nearly Absolute Zero?, Gizmodo – Scientists cooled LEGOs to nearly absolute zero—and hope to one day incorporate a LEGO-style material into a quantum computer.
How LEGO changed a blind superfan’s life: ‘I never thought it would happen’, Yahoo – Matthew Shifrin is a self-confessed LEGO addict. But the difference between Shifrin and other LEGO enthusiasts is that he’s blind.
Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley Shares What She’s Learned From The Trilogy While Building Lego, Elle – Daisy Ridley discusses the recent Star Wars Trilogy while building a Speeder Chaser.

From a certain point of view, Jedi are bullies of the galaxy

Let’s look at it this way: Stormtroopers always miss their shots and Jedi constantly use their Force push capabilities to render those poor troopers in weak plastic white armour lifeless. Letranger Absurde shows off this exact scenario taking place in (almost) real-time with an unarmed Stormtrooper. That red light saber, says a lot, doesn’t it? Hint: EVIL! The character build is stunningly simple yet gives off a maximum punch with the pose giving off a dynamic in-motion feel.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

This holiday season, Star Wars fans are flocking to movie theaters to see the final installment in the Skywalker saga. Since Star Wars came out in 1977, we’ve grown older, some of us have had kids of our own, some have bought homes, held more than a few jobs, some of us may even be looking as old and grizzled as Luke Skywalker himself. No matter how we turned out in life, Star Wars fans who were children or young adults in 1977 recall the year that changed their lives immesuably. An entity named NS Brick Designs has sparked a sense of wonder and nostalgia for older Star Wars fans with a LEGO rendition of the original Tom Jung pulp poster that started it all.

Luke’s robe billows open revealing his massively muscled chest while a subservient, sultry Leia slinks at his feet holding a blaster. This wasn’t the reality of the movie; Luke wasn’t all that ripped and it turns out Princess Leia could hold her own and wasn’t going to play second fiddle to a farm boy from Tatooine. But pulp images, especially this one inspired by the fantasy art of Frank Frazetta, have a way of capturing the imagination and bending perceptions a bit. Now in modern times, we are calling the newest movie the last of the Skywalker saga, but we have new heroes to look up to such as Finn, Rey and Poe. Thanks to a dedicated fan base and thanks, in part, to images like this one, the magic and lore of Star Wars has persisted with us most of our lives and will likely remain with us for generations to come.

LEGO Ninjago Avatar Arcade Pods: 71714 Kai, 71715 Jay, and 71716 Lloyd [Review]

Each year LEGO’s homebrewed Ninjago theme finds a new setting for its cast of pseudo-ninja heroes, ranging from sky pirates to medieval fantasy. The theme has always reveled in a no-holds-barred approach to mixing and matching ancient bladed weapons, advanced technology, and outrageous antagonists. The 2020 lineup’s twist is a cyberpunk aesthetic set in a digital world via a videogame. All of the Ninjago heroes find themselves dueling in the cyber realms via their avatars, bringing a Ready Player One-like plotline to LEGO’s most successful in-house theme. Today we’re looking at a trio of small sets that serve as the entry points to theme both for the consumers and the characters in the world. These arcade cabinet boxes are the transformation portals wherein Kai, Jay, and Lloyd are transformed into their digital avatars. 71714 Kai Avatar – Arcade Pod (US $9.99 | CAN $13.99 | UK £8.99), 71715 Jay Avatar – Arcade Pod (US $9.99 | CAN $13.99 | UK £8.99), and 71716 Lloyd Avatar – Arcade Pod (US $9.99 | CAN $13.99 | UK £8.99) will be available starting January 1. They contain about 50 pieces each.

Click to read the full review

The story behind LEGO’s 1981 Classic Space Christmas card [Feature]

Last year, we shared an article on vintage LEGO holiday greeting cards. The LEGO Group has established a tradition of giving their employees exclusive Christmas themed sets like the X-Mas X-Wing for the holiday season. Even longer than that, since at least the 1970s, the LEGO Group has produced special Christmas cards for employees (and, occasionally, the UK LEGO Club). Each year brings a new card, with artwork ranging from carefully staged minifigures to elaborate brick-built designs. You can find blank examples that were used to send personalized messages, as well as cards with printed holiday greetings from LEGO’s leadership, such as owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

Continue reading for the story behind LEGO’s spacey 1981 Christmas card.