Now that the second series of Disney Collectible Minifigures are available, LEGO fans are already using them in creative ways. For example, grubaluk took Chip and Dale and turned them into a selfie image on a smartphone. To finish the scene, the builder made adorable versions of Disney’s beloved chipmunks. Dale’s goofy charm is intact here, complete with his face turned away from the camera with a toothy grin. While the image is not exactly mirrored on the screen, Chip and Dale’s expressions certainly are. The overall scene captures the spirit of Disney’s little rascals while, at the same time, bringing them into the modern age.
Category Archives: LEGO
Whale watching without getting wet
Creating organic natural shapes using plastic bricks is not a simple thing, and making those shapes fit together into something simple and beautiful is truly an art form. Despite being monochromatic, this sculpture of a Humpback whale by Anthony Séjourné does an amazing job of capturing the majestic grace of one of the world’s largest marine mammals. I especially liked the use of so many hollow studs to represent barnacles. And the fluke is quite nice as well (that’s the whale’s tail, for those less well versed in whale biology).
This motorhead is monkeying around!
Builder Vincent Kiew presents his latest LEGO creation combining both System and Technic, and it’s an eye-catching racing scene that features a grinning gorilla gear-shifting through the grass!
There’s a convenient storage crate in back for all the accessories needed for an afternoon joyride around the jungle in the off-road racer. Continue reading
Dragon unit LL-32167
I always wanted to make a mecha dragon, even as far back as 2012 when I fell in love with LEGO dragons. I always knew it would be gray and greebly, but it almost seemed like cheating. Light gray is the LEGO colour with most the available detail pieces, so it would make finding solutions to building problems easier than I would like them to be. Ironically, this is the most complicated dragon build I have made yet (of which there are 24 now, including some more open interpretations of what a “dragon” is). I working on building this one on and off for 2 months from late December to mid-February.
Click to read about the building process and see a few extra pictures
Giant LEGO stud wall hangers now available for pre-order on Amazon [News]
Here’s a bit of LEGO swag sure to liven up your LEGO room. These giant 1×1 round plate “studs” are actually wall hangers, perfect for coats, bags, or just bringing a bit of LEGO flair to your walls. While many of the LEGO-branded home decor items we see are aimed at a younger audience, I think these are pretty classy. Perfect replicas of their miniature counterparts, the three studs range in size from about 2 inches in diameter for the smallest, to nearly 4 inches for the largest. The set of 3 studs is priced at $9.99 USD.
The best part is that they don’t just come in the classic colors, either. There’s a pastel-toned set and a monochromatic set, too. All three will be available April 30, and are currently available for pre-order on Amazon.
Classic colors
Pastel colors
Monochromatic
And while you’re checking out LEGO on Amazon, don’t miss the Iron Man Hall of Armor, which just released April 1. The Avengers: Endgame set is already out of stock at many retailers (my local LEGO store was completely sold out today), and meanwhile Amazon not only has the set, but has it for 20% off. That makes it just $47.99 to jumpstart (or complete) your collection of Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits, since this set has 5!
75125 Iron Man Hall of Armor
Why not close the window at night?
If you happen to come across the obscure Flickr photostream of why.not?, you will likely be asking yourself the question “why?” more often than “why not?” The builder seems to specialize in very obviously giving her builds a message, but more often than not, the message is hard to pin down. Her latest creation is a nighttime scene of a room with an open window. This scene captures the ambiance of fresh night air so well that I can almost feel the cool breeze. It is actually so beautifully mundane that I can not help but relax and go to sleep now… Wait, nope, there are some chains on the floor and I have no idea what they are there for. No sleep tonight.
The build itself seems quite simple, with a cute city skyline in forced perspective as the background, using different shades of yellow as windows with a bit of variation, making for quite a realistic effect. I also really like the moon, built with a round tile and a white rubber band around it that gives a glowing effect. The room has a few interesting details as well, especially the little marbles on the table, which seem to be made of either levers or antennas. The handles on the windows and the door are a great idea too, using pearl gold minifig arms to achieve a very classy look.
Let’s get back to the moon
As NASA looks forward to the challenge of getting back to the moon and establishing a permanent habitat, here’s a vision of a lunar base we can all sign up to. Who wouldn’t want to spend some time in Jon Blackford‘s brilliant LEGO Research Outpost? The styling is excellent, with an attractive angled frontage and good greebly detailing along the roof. The hatch and the support pillars are particularly good, and the habitat’s smooth studless look offers a nice contrast with the rougher baseplate, creating a feeling of rocky surroundings.
All the important Classic Space elements are in place — the blue and grey colour scheme, the trans-yellow windows, the multicoloured team of astronauts. But is are some novel parts use too, including the paint rollers used in the rover’s front sensors and the ingots used to create unusually-shaped cargo crates. Best of all, there’s a fully detailed interior to enjoy.
Gotta hand it to this brick artist
Hands up if you love this LEGO model! Australian artist Kale Frost is a master at handcrafted LEGO models of varying scales and this time he’s constructed a little scene full of 1:1 scale items. Although this scene was posted as a tease for a future creation, we felt this work stood on its own for the composition of the modeled artist’s hand, paintbrushes with all sorts of neat tips including a cheerleader’s pompom and rare dark green broom, pen and pencil, the spiral-bound notepad using Nakia’s chakram rings.
Hands down the biggest mystery to me here is the inclusion of the crayon girl costume collectible minifig. What’s her role? Is she one of the artist’s tools come to life? Maybe Kale’s next creation will lead us by the hand and explain it to us.
If Kale’s name sounds familiar, his handiwork has been featured on TBB several times in the past covering a broad range of styles and subjects. I’m keen on his roadside diner and microscale castle diorama.
Just cruising on the lake in my Ford Mustang
In this incredibly detailed digital build, ExeSandbox was tasked to put a 1965 Ford Mustang in beautiful scenery. I think nobody told him it was supposed to be placed on a road, but the builder just slapped it straight in the middle of the scenery. And it looks amazing! Never before has a car driving on water looked so right.
The centerpiece of the scene is the quite accurate Ford Mustang, and it really gives the scene context. But it is the landscaping that shines here. There is a lot of simple parts that just work really well, like trees built of stacked leaf pieces or the clean layers of the ground. On the other hand, there are also very intensely textured trees with plates facing all directions and an extremely realistic lake bed covered in rocks. The water benefits the most from computer rendering, as finding this many perfectly clean translucent panels and placing them this straight without bending would be nearly impossible. What does not benefit from computer rendering is the perfect curved road though. While this technique looks beautiful and requires a proportional amount of work in real life, the builder states that it was a nightmare to do digitally, reminding us all that digital builders face their own challenges (the whole scene contains over 90,000 pieces). Often skeptics see digital builds as cheating or an easy shortcut, but the naysayers are often people who have never opened a brick-building program. And below is the final piece of art with a full background, and we can all agree that digital or not, the end result is a stunning image. And sometimes that is what matters.
New exclusive set 40366 LEGO House Dinosaurs unveiled [News]
Remember the mighty brick-built dinosaurs exhibited in the Masterpiece gallery of the LEGO House? Now, after your next visit to Billund, you can take all three of them with you – or rather their adorable copies designed for 40366 LEGO House Dinosaurs set. The set will contain 864 pieces and will be exclusively available at the LEGO House starting April 17, 2019 for the price of 599 DKK (appr. $90 USD).
Click here to read to full press release…
Looking back on 20 years of LEGO Star Wars and the LEGO fan community [Editorial]
Back in April 1999, it would have been hard to imagine what LEGO Star Wars sets might look like in twenty years, but it would have been even harder to predict how the LEGO fan community would evolve over the next two decades. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the LEGO Star Wars theme, I also wanted to take a moment to reflect on how LEGO Star Wars has affected my life, along with the lives of countless other LEGO fans all over the world.
Read more of what it’s been like to be part of the LEGO Star Wars fan community for 20 years
Interview with LEGO Star Wars designers Jens Kronvold and Kurt Kristiansen [Feature]
Earlier this year on March 29th, The Brothers Brick team was invited to take part in a Star Wars Fan Media Day at the LEGO House in the centre of Billund, Denmark. One of the main events was a round table discussion with LEGO Star Wars designers Jens Kronvold and Kurt Kristiansen — designers who have been working on LEGO Star Wars sets since the very first wave of products hit shelves back in 1999. Jens and Kurt had a lot to share with us, so we didn’t miss a chance to ask them some of the most exciting questions.
Kurt Kristiansen (left) and Jens Kronvold (right)
Q: Tell us about the LEGO Star Wars model design team. How many people does it include? How many lead designers are there?
Jens: Right now, the model design team consists of 10 people: me as the Creative Director and Lead Model Designer and nine other model designers. We also have two graphic designers, who create designs for all the stickers, printed pieces, and minifigures. While in the office, we sit it an open office environment together with the marketing team, people who design building instructions and other specialists. So, all together we form one “super-team” which I find particularly nice and convenient. If you need to talk to somebody, they’re just next to you!
Kurt: It’s the same with any other model design team. And if, say I have a question regarding LEGO Technic elements, I just need to walk 10 meters down the aisle and I can talk to anyone of my colleagues who are working with LEGO Technic pieces. So, it’s a very open office environment.
Q: How many sets does LEGO Star Wars model team create each year? How many sets are designed by each member of the team?