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.

My art supplies never looked so neat

When I saw this image I thought, “Now, why am I seeing ads for neat art supply boxes when the ad algorithms should already know I like to keep my art supplies scattered haphazardly in a six-drawer rolling cabinet?” Then it occurred to me, this wasn’t an ad but rather a LEGO render by a builder called Vant. There’s a certain danger to building this realistically and that is that a finely crafted creation like this one could be passed up by writers like us thinking it may be an ad or some other non-LEGO related thing. Upon closer inspection, what looked like silver corner tiles clued me in that what I was looking at was LEGO.

Art set - Wood box (2 stage)

The whole shebang folds neatly into this handsome “wooden” case. The clasps, handle, even the round silver “feet” are particularly inspired. While this is a render, Vant tells us he is currently building this in actual brick and is part of a larger project that will be…unfolding (See what I did there?) in his Flickr photostream soon. When I see these in the store, I marvel at how neat and tidy other artists, who are not me, might be.

Art set - Wood box

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Cruisin’ with the classics

For the past 50 years, the Porsche 911 is the car most associated with the German sports car brand. But it was the venerable 356 that gave the company its cred in the automobile world. Debuting in 1948, the car was the company’s first production vehicle and continued all the way to 1965. With its curvy, tub-like shaping it’s a difficult design to translate to LEGO (nearly as challenging as the Ferrari 250). Jonathan Elliott has done an admirable job with this jet black Speed Champions-sized model.

Porsche 356

I only wish it had the early split-window variation, which has always been my favorite. But that’s definitely pushing the bounds of what’s possible at this scale.

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The minions of hell just got an upgrade

Japanese mecha builder Moko has been charming the world with his LEGO creations for more than a decade, but this latest character takes a darker turn. Moko’s “Hell Warrior” is an evil cyborg that uses mostly black Bionicle and Hero Factory (or “Constraction”) pieces, accentuated by an undead, half-hidden face built from several Krana masks. The overall effect is truly diabolical.

Hell Warrior

日本語を読める方はどうぞモコさんのブログを読んでください。

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Zinnia Superfuzz cranks the awesomeness up to 11.

It should come as a surprise to no one that I am an expert bassist. And by expert I mean I can play that one riff from “7 Nation Army”. Over and over again. For like nine hours at a time if you request it, and I sincerely hope that you do someday. An array of cool petals would only make the experience that much sweeter because variety is the spice of life, after all. As enriching as that would be for all of us, despite my best intentions, I don’t think I could look as cool as Zinnia Superfuzz while doing it. She’s a new creation by Eero Okkonen and everything from her stance to her rocking flower power clothing and awesome yellow bass says she’s going to take expert to a whole new level that would put me to shame, I’m sure.

Zinnia Superfuzz

Still, if you care to be dazzled, I am also fairly proficient at that one intro riff from “Smoke on the Water.” Just putting that out there.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

There’s no choice but to like Hobson

One great thing about Paddy Bricksplitter’s LEGO creations is that they always have a lot of character. Take Hobson, here, for example. Described as a faithful robotic butler to the idle rich, you still get the feeling that maybe this servant is a little disdainful of the beverage choices being made. Or maybe it’s just Hobson’s choice. Regardless of any pompous attitude, Hobson is all class, though. Check out the gold chain, pneumatic T cufflinks, and bucket handles as both eyebrows and shoe accents. Hobson’s outfit is also stylishly constructed, creatively using parts like the 4x4x16 tapered curve, Hero Factory armor, and vehicle tires.

Hobson

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Tom Servo and me – a journey, part 3 [Feature]

Previously on Tom Servo and Me: Part 1 | Part 2

Chris Doyle has been clawing his way out of a grey age, reconnecting with LEGO building by creating a new replica of Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Tom is looking pretty good – his central body is done and he has working puppetry elements. There’s just his hoverskirt and the display base left to go. Should be a quick win!

End of the day: Progress
Or, rather, it should have been a quick win…. Come along with Chris as he journals the final days of this build. Will the end result be worth the effort?

Read more about Chris’ journey in building Tom Servo.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Ride now! Ride to Gondor!

The city of Minas Tirith in the realm of Gondor is one of the most iconic locations from Tolkien’s beloved The Lord of the Rings books, and was brought to life perfectly in the film adaptations. Builder Nicola Bozzolan has crafted the capital stronghold in LEGO, and it looks amazing. Using over 7,000 pieces, Nicola spent more than 60 hours making the White Tower nestle just perfectly among the mountains, with its seven-tiered system of defensive walls.

Spreading out on the Pelennor Fields, the curved city is rendered excellently in microscale. High at the top of the central spire of rock is the palace of the kings of Gondor. The emblematic white tree of Gondor is in the central courtyard, with its ancient sweeping branches represented by a LEGO feather.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

An urban adventurer’s playground

Abandoned factories seem to divide people into two camps: those who for some reason find them beautiful, and those who think such structures should be demolished as quickly as possible. Such locations attract all sorts of people, from graffiti artists to homeless people and edgy teenagers looking for adventure. Dutch LEGO builder and photographer Niek Geurts probably isn’t homeless, and I doubt he is an edgy teenager. Judging by his photography website, he seems to be inspired by abandoned industrial architecture, and his recent LEGO recreation of an abandoned factory is filled with all the functional details one would expect in a factory.

Abandoned old factory, lego MOC

The scene has just about everything you could ask for. There is a little guard house, a railroad access, all sorts of hoses and air vents on the roof and other must-haves for any factory, abandoned or not. There are a few characteristics of abandoned buildings as well; broken windows, graffiti (wonderfully brick-built examples here!), cracked pavement and uncontrollable vegetation sprouting everywhere, including a bit of moss on the roof. The two bikes on the left side of the diorama are either stolen and discarded or the property of whoever is filming clickbait YouTube videos inside…

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

A Ferrari fleet to feed your fancy

Builder Angka has shared a quartet of LEGO Ferrari models with all the style of their real-world counterparts. Just take in the lovely lines achieved in these 8-stud-wide builds. The combination of cheese slopes and curved slopes convey a real sense of aerodynamic shaping. Though structurally similar, each build has unique design elements that are worth looking for. It’s left as an exercise for the reader to spot them all…but I’d be remiss if I didn’t explicitly call out that amazing rubber band usage as window trim.

Ferrari 328 GTS Nero
Ferrari 328 GTS Nero
Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet
Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet
Ferrari 348 TS
Ferrari 348 TS
Ferrari 328 GTS
Ferrari 328 GTS

If you’d like to try building these models for yourself, Angka has provided an exploded view of the GTS to get you started. The design really takes advantage of modular sectioning; hopefully it will inspire others to make their own modifications to these already awesome cars. Of course, if you’d rather go “stock” you might consider LEGO Speed Champions 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione

Ferrari 308 GTS

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for September 7, 2019 [News]

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 first week of September 2019.

We review the new LEGO Ideas Friends Central Perk set. Could we BE anymore excited?


TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS: This week saw the release of a massive new Star Wars ship, a peek at the 10 set proposals up for review on LEGO Ideas and revealed the winner of our Stranger Things contest!


TBB FEATURES, INSTRUCTIONS AND VIDEOS



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:

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

The elusive wingless Balrog recently sighted

If this hellish looking monster built by Marcin Otreba reminds you of the fire demon who faced off against everyone’s favorite wizard Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, that would be for good reason. Featured in the video game Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Tar Goroth is one of the minions of darkness in Middle Earth. Unlike its better-known cousin, this Balrog has to walk. Maybe that explains why he looks so mad.

Tar Goroth

The use of several transparent orange elements peeking out between the cracks in its ebony skin makes this monstrosity instantly recognizable, along with those downward-pointing horns. Also, it strikes me as very fitting that so many of these 1×4 wing with pin hole elements from the official Lord of the Rings theme were used throughout the model.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it

I’m not a watch guy. I mean, I have a watch, and I wear it every day, everywhere I go. It is even an analog watch, not one of those new-age digital ones (and don’t get me started on smart watches!). But I don’t go in for fancy watches. If I did, I would probably daydream about a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona. I don’t make enough money to even begin to think about daydreaming about buying one, however. One of these timepieces new starts at over $12,000 (depending on your metal of choice), though Paul Newman’s 1968 Daytona sold a few years back for a record $17.8 million. Builder ZetoVince (George Panteleon) has solved the problem of price by building a Rolex Daytona out of LEGO bricks instead of buying it. And what a watch! The scale is deceptive, but this is a massive build; the face of the watch is almost 7 inches across (or 17 cm). With this on your wrist, you are sure to impress your colleagues.

Rolex Daytona

The yellow and light bluish grey do a good job of filling in for yellow gold and Oystersteel, one of the colorways of the Daytona (this one starts at just under $17,000, in case you were curious). The Technic gear rack, with its teeth and assorted pin holes, looks fairly comparable to the numbers and little hash marks around the outer rim of the real watch. Second only to the gear rack in inspired parts usage is the yellow flipper at the 12:00 mark that mimics the golden crown of the Rolex logo. The only thing that could have improved the watch is a black face, rather than just black dials; or else grey dials (okay, I confess, I have been doing some Rolex shopping while writing this article. Maybe I am a watch guy…). But what sets this build apart from any other is that box. Who has a giant watch box sitting around? Or perhaps it was built just for this LEGO creation, which is some serious dedication. Either way, it is time (get it?) to go buy a watch.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.