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.

A little dirt never hurt: LEGO Technic 42099 4×4 X-treme Off-Roader [Review]

Here is a simple truth: these days LEGO remains one of those few common activities that give you a rest from a smartphone. For me and for many of our readers, building with LEGO has always been a pastime that requires no downloads, installing or updates; you open a box and the play begins. Obviously, winning over modern-day kids who love digital entertainment and touchscreens is a tough challenge for a toy manufacturer. They say if you can’t beat them, join them, but LEGO thinks differently: if you can’t beat them, build them into the play experience. Along comes LEGO Technic Powered Up — the first generation of LEGO Technic electric elements that bring smartphones and tablets into play. With a whole lot of sensors and features, the new smart hub and motors are among the most advanced LEGO pieces ever produced. LEGO Technic 42099 4×4 X-treme Off-Roader introduces the new play system. The set includes just 958 pieces, but the new expensive electric elements are to blame for the price tag of US $249.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £199.99. It is available starting today, so we are building and testing the model in an attempt to discover the limits of the new Powered Up system and Control+ smart app.

Click here to see our impressions…

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In memory of Ingmar Spijkhoven [News]

Our friends over at The LEGO Car Blog have shared sad news with us today. Legendary builder Ingmar Spijkhoven has lost his battle against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He is best known for building highly detailed trucks and has been featured here several times, the latest being an incredible 18-wheeler and trailer. His work has even been published in The Art of LEGO Scale Modeling.

ALS currently has no cure, with sufferers expected to live no more than five years from diagnosis. (Dr. Stephen Hawking was perhaps the most notable exception). You can learn how to help fight this debilitating disease through the ALS Foundation.

Igmar was an inspiration to many of us and will surely be missed.

LEGO Hidden Side now available with more than 65 other new LEGO sets and gear [News]

The brand new LEGO Hidden Side augmented reality product line is available starting today, as well as more than 50 new sets from Architecture, Harry Potter, City, Friends, Jurassic World, Technic and more. LEGO fans in the U.S. have had to wait patiently for this new wave of sets which has been available in Europe for a few months now.

LEGO is also offering two promotions including a reversible VIP tote bag and a LEGO Jurassic World polybag. If you combine this wave with the newly available LEGO Ideas Treehouse, Jurassic Park T-Rex, Creator Expert Harley-Davidson Motorcycle and Star Wars Droid Commander, there is an incredible amount of new LEGO sets just waiting to be built!

Click to see all the LEGO themes with new sets now available

Black IKEA bath mats? I thought you said Baphomet The Black Goat!

How many times has this happened to you? You call up IKEA customer service and in botching up the admittedly difficult names of one of their do-it-yourself furniture offerings, you unwittingly summon some demon hell-beast from the underworld. Wait, never? I can’t count the amount of times it has happened to me. Avery Robertson knows what I mean. Probably. Using some clever build techniques, she has conjured up Baphomet The Black Goat and now he’s here to loaf on your Söderhamn sofa for awhile. The LEGO wings and star hair clip usually come in pretty pastel colors but with a red filter the whole shebang is made to look scary as hell. Tattooed on his arms are the words “solve” and “coagula” which either means “dissolve and coagulate” or “loveseat and ottoman” in IKEA speak.

The air dragon soaring above the stone and water

I love LEGO dragons, and the air dragon Bandea from this immersive (almost) fully LEGO scene by one of our contributors, Benjamin Stenlund, is one of my favourites from the past few months. The body is chunky and curvy like a “real” dragon is. What gives it the edge are not the Ninjago sword edges, but the awesome background it is presented on. The horizon is put on just the right point with the corresponding camera angle. What I love most are the realistic rocks, made of wedge slopes and polygonal panels fitted together to represent the cracks and angles of a real rock face.

The builder has quite a few elemental-themed dragons in his portfolio: Moto the Fire Dragon, Maji the Water Dragon, Hewa the Air dragon and Daera and Kijani, the Earth Dragons – the last one being my personal favourite so far.

A palace fit for the sun

In the realm of LEGO castle builds, most of what we see is based off the European stereotype of grey fortresses, but thankfully this year’s Summer Joust building competition has a category for Middle Eastern creations. Instead of boring old grey, we get intricate tan! Talented castle builder Classical Bricks brings us the gates to a palace called Qasr Alshams, beautifully decorated with a touch of teal to complement its earth tones.

What draws my eye in the build is the amount of depth alluded to by having the different levels climbing higher and higher; what we see is just a small segment of what is undoubtedly a sprawling palace complex, complete with baths, a harem, dining rooms, administrative offices, and everything else that I have read about in the Arabian Nights, but it seems much larger. The battle droid legs make for an excellent railing above the gates, and the heads of the same droids make a nice detail beneath the battlements on the left. My favorite piece usage, though, is the pickaxes for door pulls on the gates. After a long ride on my camel through the desert, across the hot sand—I don’t like sand, since it is coarse and rough and irritating and gets everywhere—this looks to be a welcome place to stop and rest. That’s assuming I make it past the guards, of course.

Duck duck robot

What do you do if your robot walker develops a waddle? Make it a feature rather than a bug, of course! At least, that’s what I like to think happened in the backstory for Moko‘s latest LEGO creation. This Mecha-Duck is a delight, nicely-built with some cool mechanical details, but also invested with a brilliant sense of fun and character. I’m pleased to see that, like its inspiration, the walker is also amphibious — there’s a little red propeller sitting at the rear, allowing for effective transportation on water too.

A day of winter fishing in the solace of frozen silence

A prolific LEGO builder who’s graced our pages before, Ted Andes has presented a creation I resonate with at the moment, Winter. I’m typing this from Victoria, Australia, where the frosts and bleak days have been many. This beautiful vignette, a small capture of a snowy morning on the edge of a siheyuan. I can almost feel the stillness in the air.

Andes’ parts use is always exceptional, though not just in obscure part usage. His harness on basic parts to get the maximum effect is outstanding. The bare tree is made from roughly thirteen different pieces, twisted into some outstanding, gnarled forms. See if you can spot them all — can you see any I’ve missed? The river and its edging is also another highlight for me. The 4L trans-light blue bars surrounding some fish is a nice touch, giving the impression of icy cold, rushing water. Having the land predominantly in two colours has also worked elegantly, while the simple touches of trans-clear near the edge of the river have brought it closer to the reality of the camping trips I’ve taken in winter.

Yup. That’s one fully Assembled Avenger

By now the ending of Avengers: Endgame has been well and truly revealed to the world through Disney’s own marketing. The fact that Captain America can wield Thor’s hammer is common knowledge. Regardless of how you feel about that sort of spoiler, you are sure to find joy in Sam Beattie‘s recreation of the iconic moment in LEGO. Sam has enhanced the build with a few custom stickers, but even without them, there’s no question of what you’re looking at. (LEGO has released a large scale figure of Cap in the past – 2012’s Buildable Hero Captain America (Set 4597). I think it’s fair to say that the look there is…somewhat less accurate than’s Sam’s.

Some of the fun details from the build are the use of a gold ingot for Cap’s belt buckle and the whip used to shape Mjolnir’s strap. I also like how the support beams in the rubble work well at this larger scale. Standing atop that rocky and flame-strewn battlefield, Cap looks ready to kick some serious butt. And speaking of butt, here’s a rear view of the build showcasing “America’s ass.”

Set sail amongst the clouds

It’s a Sky Pirate’s worst nightmare when The Valvalevidan hoves into view. AdNorrel‘s massive steampunk flying vessel is a wonderful LEGO creation — beautifully detailed, and packed with functional-looking elements. The overall shape carries a faint whiff of Jabba’s Sail Barge from Return Of The Jedi, but that’s no bad thing. I love the touches of gold and the striped sails, and those lanterns on the raised rear deck are excellent.

The airship is 80 studs in length, making for a formidable construction project which took 9 months to put together. However, all that space is put to great use with some fabulous details. Here’s a close-up view of the impressive motors which keep the ship moving when the wind drops… Continue reading →

For the life of every plane, I will keep watch.

A good LEGO creation will be good despite the motive and theme it depicts. Some times though, a build comes up that is both built well and plays on your personal interests. The builder that does that to me most often is Eero Okkonen. If you have been following The Brothers Brick for a while you are probably familiar with Eero’s beautiful character builds of various themes, many of which come from the Magic the Gathering trading card game, just like this particular one.

The build represents an elf planeswalker (basically a glorified mage) important in Magic’s storyline. The character’s likeness is incredibly well captured in LEGO, especially the iconic green markings on her face. The clothing and posing is great as well, with a flowing green cape and a green flame in her hand. You can read more about the build on Eero’s blog, Cyclopic Bricks. The builder is so good at capturing iconic characters that one could call him an Iconic Master…

Batman – Steaming Mad at Criminals

Marvel Comics has their multiverse — alternate realities where the heroes you know are reimagined as something new. DC comics does something similar with their own characters, usually super grim and dark ones resulting from the timeline being broken by something the Flash did. (Really. It’s a trope.) But sometimes these stories can just be bight spots of fun, and if you’re really lucky you’ll get to enjoy one of them in LEGO form. For instance, have a look at this take on Batman and the Batmobile by Breado’s Bricks. Batman always has a ton of resources, so what if he really leaned into the glitz as much as the flying rodent thing? You might end up with the steampunk version we see here. Decked out in gold chrome elements, cape and cowl, and body armor, this Batman may not be stealthy, but he certainly is shiny.

SteamBat brings this sense of style into his ride as well. The BatRod mixes the traditional BatBlack with new and improved BatGold accents. Mag wheel covers and rims echo the highlights in the engine and exhaust. Even more gold adorns the front grill and headlights.

No matter what angle you view this car from, you’re going to be well aware that SteamBats has a lot of cash to spend. Take that, criminals!