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.

This LEGO Freddie Mercury is the perfect epitome and embodiment of a legend

If they can build a Freddie Mercury like that, there’s little doubt AlexParkDesigns is a fan of Queen. Although the model is simple at first glance, there’s so much to admire about the parts usage to be impressed with. Let’s start with the inverted rubber tires which seamlessly join the torso armour from buildable figures. For a split second, I thought I was looking at a Technic tooth bar, but the lapels on the jacket are brick built with 1×2 slopes on a 1×6 plate. Who says you can’t live forever? Well, at least you can be immortalised in LEGO bricks with this perfect pose.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Freddy in LEGO form, as TBB’s own Iain Heath brought us an excellent larger-scale LEGO Freddy Mercury figure back in 2011.

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Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world

Miro Dudas takes us on a surfin’ safari with a lovely figural model. After working with this surfer girl since 2015, Dudas has finally achieved the look he wants, proving that even smaller models can benefit from extensive tinkering.

This California girl has a wonderfully fluid pose and the limited color palette consisting of only six colors really highlights the elegant figure. It also contains some fantastic parts usage such as the minifig bandanas for the bikini top and the Battle Droid torsos as shoulders. Her windswept hairdo also features a ninja helmet horn standing in for bangs and brown carrot tops that add some nice additional detail to the coiffure. I’m also very fond of the overall smooth look achieved by showing very few studs.

Dudas says he will soon be offering instructions for this beauty so you too can ride the waves all the way to Surf City.

These tires might not be racing slicks, but the racing is sure slick

Everyone likes to watch a racecar speed around a corner at a break-neck pace, caroming nearly out of control, tires barely maintaining friction with the pavement. Add in a bit of ice and snow to reduce that friction to almost nothing, and the excitement increases. Builder Simon Pickard brings us a rally car in just that situation, seemingly mere seconds from sliding into a drift. I love the composition of the shot, with the beautiful movement implied by the curved road.

While the car is the MINI Cooper from Speed Champions set 75894 (be sure to check out our review), the setting for the vehicle is what sets this apart from the pack. The curvature of the road is the detail that catches the eye above all else, with the excellent tire tracks. Formed from tiles and plates arranged carefully, the path and the posing of the car give it all a profound sense of movement, especially with the 1×1 round plates kicked up by the skidding tires. My only quibble is that the front tires are still straight, when all of my highly technical race knowledge gleaned from watching Cars with my kids tells me that he should be turning left to go right…

Stunning designs of the vehicles from Jurassic Park that you can now build in LEGO [Instructions]

Fans sorely missed the various vehicles from the 75936 T.rex Rampage LEGO set that was revealed and reviewed by our team. But as always, there’s the great fan base of builders that will give us what we all need to complete our dioramas or dino chase scenes. Thanks to Miro Dudas, we now have both the Staff Jeep (Wrangler) and Park Tour Transport (Ford Explorer) complete with free instructions for you to build your own.

Park Tour (Ford Explorer) Instructions
Staff Jeep (Wrangler) Instructions

Tip: To download the instructions, scroll down on the Rebrickable page and keep an eye on the right of the screen and look for “Building Instructions” if you’re on a desktop.

Don’t forget to also check out our review of the T.rex Rampage with an interview of designer Mark Stafford if you’re hungry for all things Jurassic Park.

A whale of an opportunity at the Pick-a-Brick wall

If you have ever visited a LEGO store you probably would have noticed the formidable floor-to-ceiling Pick-a-Brick wall. One bin may contain thousands of flower stems and another may have a crap-ton of these pointy bits (metric crap-ton if you’re Canadian). There’s no telling what you’ll find there and you can take this stuff home by the cup loads. For me, I’m like a kid in…some kind of store. While loading cups full of LEGO bricks can be exciting, building something cohesive exclusively with what you found at the Pick-a-Brick wall can be a tricky endeavor, but Mansur Soeleman clearly saw…a whale of an opportunity.

I see plenty of white 2×2 corner plates, lots of 2×2 plates in light bluish gray and plenty of clips make up the baleen. The end result is a pretty good facsimile of a blue whale. You can say Mansur had…a whale of a good time with this. You see, brilliant puns like that is why I am the highest paid Brothers Brick contributor ever. At least that’s what they told me…or at least that’s what I understood when they said “voluntary”. Wait, what does “conditional trial period” mean?

And if you liked this cetacean built from a limited palette of bricks as much as you enjoyed my puns, we’re sure you’ll also enjoy André Pinto’s bonsai tree, also built from nothing but Pick-a-Brick parts.

This planter will grow on you

Realism in LEGO sculpture is a difficult thing to achieve, and when it’s done right it can be amazing. Barbara Hoel has created a tiny slice of (plant) life that feels very real indeed with Small Planter on Books. The human-scaled books each have their own unique style and size. The variations in the spines make this feel like a real pile of tomes, and not just a repeated build in different colors.

The planter and greenery really are what really caught my eye, though. Seeing a plant that is, perhaps, not the perfect specimen of health is pretty unusual. One side of the plant looks like it’s been kept out of the sun a little too long, while other parts are thriving. Unicorn horns and transparent green ball joints represent new growth. Rare blue capes and technic gears make for some vibrant flowering bodies and buds.

There is a detail view of an alternate build of the planter in Barbara’s photostream. I recommend checking it out for even more great botanical creations.

Mech made for the catwalk with a frame that just works

Mecha seem to be coming out of the woodwork left, right, and centre at the moment, and the warrior mech Howlite by GolPlaysWithLego instills a sense of gladness in me. This slim line bipedal mech holds all the familiarity and function of a humanoid hardsuit, only this time, driven by a Trandoshan (aka Bossk from Star Wars). The chest has been ingeniously constructed with a curved windshield forming a smooth collar for the transparent canopy to sit.

The balance between greebling and practicality within this mech is admirable. Not one section of this build is over done, yet it holds some impeccable parts use. The combined use of the new truncated cone piece, alongside a couple robot arms, ice cream cones, and a phone handset makes this pelvis section stunning. Its somewhat skeletal design and colour scheme gives utilitarianism a well needed facelift.

Build a darker Hawkins in TBB’s Upside Down building contest and win 75810 The Upside Down plus rare Castle Byers event set [News]

The third season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” was released on July 4, and we have the perfect activity for you as you binge-watch the whole season. Build any location featured in any season of the show! But unlike some other contests inspired by the show recently, there’s a catch: You have to build both the real-world version of your favorite Hawkins locale and the Upside Down version, as seen in the official LEGO set LEGO Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down — one of our favorite LEGO sets of the year so far. The top builder of our contest, judged by TBB staff, will win this fantastic set, plus the super-rare Castle Byers mini-build set released only to attendees of the LEGO Stranger Things launch events in London and New York.

Learn how to enter the contest and read the fine print

Watch this time lapse as fans use 56,000 LEGO bricks to make a huge Stranger Things Season 3 poster [Video]

Last weekend, Netflix’s brought fans a bit of the 1980s with the Hawkins Fun Fair at California’s Santa Monica Pier. A carnival experience filled with Stranger Things tie-ins like the ice cream shop featured in Season 3 and a Demogorgon photo op. Starting today, the event has moved to New York’s Coney Island for the weekend. To celebrate their recent partnership with an official Stranger Things LEGO set, LEGO was on hand to help fans create a massive Stranger Things Season 3 poster.

The enormous mosaic was built throughout the weekend with the help of fans, who each assembled a small tile to place on the poster. Using more than 56,000 LEGO pieces in all, the poster measures 90 inches tall and 60 inches wide. It took more than 40 hours to design. Check out a time-lapse video of the poster’s construction below.

This terrifying LEGO Demogorgon is here to watch Stranger Things Season 3 with you

What’s the perfect LEGO accompaniment to binge-watching Stranger Things Season 3 today? Of course, it’s building the incredible official LEGO set of 75810 The Upside Down. But you should also check out this amazingly terrifying Demogorgon from expert builder Aaron Newman. Built in a large scale, it captures the otherworldly horror perfectly, with its gangly limbs and menacing flower head.

If you like this, be sure to read our interview with Aaron Newman. Want to see more LEGO Stranger Things? Check out these other incredible LEGO models:
75810 The Upside Down [Review]
LEGO Chief Hopper’s Cabin
LEGO Stranger Things Minifigures
LEGO Stranger Things BrickHeadz
LEGO Stranger Things Miniland Figures

Won’t you be my neigbor?

While kids don’t have deadlines to worry about or bills to pay, childhood can still be stressful at times. Watching “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” for me and other kids, was a nice way to leave our troubles behind and visit a sweet, gentle, understanding soul, even for just a little while. Matt De Lanoy has rekindled some of my fondest childhood memories with this Neighborhood of Make-Believe layout. Far left we see Grander Tiger and his granddaughter Collette at the Eiffel Tower while Mr. McFeely makes a speedy delivery to King Friday the XIIIth and Queen Sara Saturday. About middle and to the right we see Lady Elaine Fairchild tending to her Museum Go-Round while to the right of her in the background is none other than Mr. Fred Rogers himself waving to his friends in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

See more of this LEGO Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood scene

Have a drink on me, fellows, for tomorrow, we fight.

Scenes from Star Wars movies and television have been a major source of inspiration for LEGO builders since the first time we were transported to that galaxy far, far away. Some builders take more subtle inspiration from the Star Wars universe to create scenes that we never saw but were there all along, like this model of barracks for Rebel troopers on Hoth by Gabe F, a charming view into the day-to-day life of the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to fight the tyranny of the Galactic Empire.

The carved organic snow landscaping is great, and there are lots of little details like portable bunks complete with temperature gauge and power cords, pin-ups on the wall, and cups of caf littered throughout. There’s even a lost sock. Hopefully, the owner has a spare pair to keep their toes warm.