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.
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。
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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.
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.
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…
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 Mondial Cabriolet
Ferrari 348 TS
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…
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
BrickCon 2019 is only one month away. For those who don’t know, each year BrickCon hosts some of the most talented builders at the longest-running LEGO fan convention in Seattle. The general public can see the amazing models these builders bring during the weekend of October 5th and 6th by purchasing tickets. However, registered builders have their own private convention during BrickCon, participating in classes, games, workshops and a keynote. This year, we are excited to announce the keynote will be delivered by Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks and is sponsored by none other than The Brothers Brick.
Jason (the J in JK Brickworks) is no stranger to The Brothers Brick. We last interviewed him about his latest LEGO Ideas set 21315 Pop-Up Book. (And yes, we said latest because he also created 21305 Maze and has another project currently under review.) He is known for his mastery of movement, creating kinetic sculptures out of LEGO like Sisyphus pushing a boulder, a galloping horse, motorized rail cars and most recently a graceful flying luck dragon. Not only does he share his build process, but he also goes to the effort of sharing instructions for most of his creations helping us all become better builders. If anyone epitomizes BrickCon 2019’s theme of “Just Build It,” it is Jason.
BrickCon 2017’s keynote was given by Ty Keltner, who built the food pictured below for The Brothers Brick collaboration.
In addition to the keynote, The Brothers Brick is also organizing a reader collaboration called the Brick Banquet–a life-size LEGO potluck. Builders attending the full private convention can bring any full-scale food item to the TBB table to participate in the feast.
Whether you come to see everything with general public tickets or register for the private convention as a builder, we hope to see you at BrickCon 2019!
Today we’re getting our first official look at the tie-in sets for Disney’s upcoming Frozen II. As the sequel to the incredibly popular 2013 animated movie, the new film will follow the further wintertime adventures of sisters Anna and Elsa and snowman Olaf and is slated for release Nov. 22 of this year. Six new sets based on the movie were revealed by toy retailer Kockarium, so we’ve got all the details below. There are four regular sets, and two in the 4+ line (which used to be known as Juniors). We don’t have USD prices, but we do know an approximate Euro price for each.
UPDATE | Sept. 11, 2019: The images contained within this article were sourced in good faith based upon their being made public by multiple toy retailers, including Kockarium. The LEGO Company has determined that these retailers should not have published the images, and have asked that the images be removed from The Brothers Brick as well. In furthering our good-faith efforts, we have removed the images. We will return the images to the article at a later date once they are made public again.
