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.

LEGO Ideas 21316 The Flintstones now available for VIPs [News]

Newly revealed LEGO Ideas set 21316 The Flintstones is now available for VIPs (LEGO’s loyalty program that is free to join). The set comes with 748 pieces that make up the Flintstones’ rock-made home, their iconic foot-propelled car, and minifigures of Fred and Wilma Flintstone as well as Barney and Betty Rubble. You can read our review for all the dino-details.

The set sells for US $59.99 | UK £54.99 | CA $79.99, with general availability to non-VIPs beginning on March 1st. As always, when you click through from The Brothers Brick, a portion of each sale goes to support the site, so thank you in advance!

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.

Set your sights on this Scandinavian sea house

Certain builders have a distinct flavor running through their models, certain ingredients that make every build a masterpiece. Sarah Beyer is one of those crafty LEGO creators who I’m really starting to enjoy for the tranquility imbued in each of her models. Take a look back at her Lilium eco-house, the Vanilla House, or even the Jungle Cottage: there’s a clean simplicity in the homes she’s built, and a bit of a running theme of how each unique abode is connected to the natural environment it’s been built in. Now, compare her previous models to her latest production, a Scandinavian retreat by the sea.

See more of this beautiful Scandinavian home

If you could build anything in the world...

Apparently, Martin Latta could not choose between all the amazing things on Earth to build out of LEGO, so he just built all of them, in a really tiny scale. Can you pinpoint the exact brick on which you live? I have found mine!

The build is based on Bram’s Sphere Generator, a free online tool anyone can use to generate instructions for a LEGO sphere of any diameter (Martin’s Earth has a radius of 14 studs). The builder adds a lot of his own flare to the creation with different colours and textures used for different regions of the world – from dark green as vanishing rainforests to white as vanishing glaciers. Stay tuned for our 2075 article when we will feature a new globe made of all tan and grey colours!

A collection of micro city blocks

One of the great things about building with LEGO, is the many different scales which are open to you. Your creations can be built for standard minifigs to live and work, or you can populate your building and vehicles with larger brick-built inhabitants. Or, you can build at a much smaller scale, where the people are only in your imagination. This microscale encourages builders to think about their collection in a different way. LEGO builder Christian Benito has been flexing his micoscale building muscles in a series of city blocks.

In this block, Christian is trying out a few techniques for trees, and I rather like the simple structure of those lime-green trees made from sandwiching 1×1 round plates between 2×2 round plates. The dormer windows are also a nice touch. For the backyard, Christion used a clever way to get more visual interest by alternating 1×1 tiles.

See more city blocks by Christian

LEGO Ideas 21316 The Flintstones [Review]

Last year, LEGO Ideas celebrated 10 years since the first fan idea became an official retail set. Who could have imagined the number of universes, places, and characters turned into official products since then? And now, one more idea joins the club — LEGO Ideas 21316 The Flintstones, a fan project by Andrew Clark, who is known among LEGO enthusiasts as the fan designer of another LEGO Ideas set, 21304 Doctor Who. With 748 pieces, the Flintstones set is much bigger than Andrew’s previous project. It will be available to LEGO VIPs starting on Wednesday, February 20th for US $59.99 | UK £54.99 | CA $79.99.

Click here to continue reading…

Hot dog or hot rod?

Abandon all logic! David Roberts is back at his surreal best, with this fine meat-based entry to the Febrovery building event. David asks us why we wouldn’t want to drive around in a car shaped like a hot dog, and I really have no answer for him. Taking his inspiration from master children’s illustrator and author Richard Scarry, whose mad world saw anthropomorphic pigs at the wheel of just such vehicles, this build ticks all the LEGO fun boxes. Take a final moment to marvel at its mustard windshield, sausage chassis and wrap around bun – genius!

Build your own baby

I love a bit of creepy LEGO, and this scene by Leonid An is probably as unsettling as they come. The Scala baby figure is a perfect foil for this grim tale of genetic experimentation. Lit from below in its artificial birthing pod, the infant’s eyes are covered, as it is slowly infused with whatever vile substance lingers in the second dome. The control panel has a retro-futuristic feel, with its rainbow displays and offset cartridges; an ominous bin of discarded limbs at its side. It’s just another example of the LEGO brick’s untapped uncanny potential.

Ace lace work

I’ve been advocating for many years now the joys of building LEGO models that use bricks as a two-dimensional medium. This genre often works best when it takes its cues from folk art, and Azurekingfisher has done just this in their run of lacework-inspired squares. Whilst essentially simple monochrome designs, the repeats and generation of negative space created from the selection of bricks result in sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing patterns. As a sequence, the stepped scaling of the three pieces adds further interest. Frame them, hang them on your wall and you have that most elusive of things: LEGO art!

Wrap-up from LEGO’s booth at the 2019 New York Toy Fair [News]

As you’ve surely noticed from reading our site in the last few days, this weekend marked the 116th annual New York Toy Fair, North America’s largest toy trade show and the site of LEGO’s product reveals for the first half of 2019. As always, The Brothers Brick was on site to bring you in-person coverage of all the latest sets, which we’ve covered with hundreds of photos in our theme-specific articles (see the full list below). As Toy Fair is the gathering for more than 30,000 toy industry professionals, LEGO is eager to put its best foot forward, so let’s set aside the new sets for a moment and look at LEGO’s presence at the show, along with our experience there.

This was my third year attending the show to bring TBB hands-on coverage, and I followed the news from the show for years prior to that. One thing that never struck me until I attended was how different it is to most other venues where I interact with LEGO. Toy Fair New York is not a fan convention and it’s not a comic book or geek/nerd convention. It’s an industry trade show. Everyone in attendance — the people manning the booths, the people walking around, the people taking photos — is at work, and is there because it’s their job. Make no mistake — most people are having fun (how can you not have fun in seven football fields’ worth of toys?), but you won’t see cosplayers or even families, since children aren’t permitted. What you will see is every type of toy imaginable, from infant toys to RC cars to board games. Continue reading →

Steamboat Willie and TV Show Friends will be next LEGO Ideas sets, second 2018 Review Results reveal [News]

It’s been a long time since the last LEGO Ideas announcement, so here are LEGO Ideas Second 2018 Review Results! Ten brilliant fan projects competed to become the next official LEGO retail set, and only one idea was approved by the LEGO Ideas team…

Click here to find out the name of the next LEGO Ideas set!

The SS-20 “Saber” is a sinister Cold War relic

A little more than forty years ago, with the Cold War still in full swing, the Soviet Union introduced a new ballistic missile: the RSD-10 “Pioneer”. NATO code-named it the SS-20 “Saber”. It had a range of 500-5500 km and carried three nuclear warheads, each of which was roughly ten times as powerful as the bomb used against Hiroshima. It seemed purpose-built to threaten Western Europe. The missile’s short flight time, of roughly 15 minutes, left very little warning. Furthermore, it was mobile, which made it even harder to counter. A large six-axle MAZ-547 transporter erector launcher carried the missile, housed inside a large cannister, to dispersed launch sites.

My diorama shows the launcher at a snow-covered launch site, with the missile cannister raised upright for launch. On the model it is almost solid, so there is no actual missile inside, but you can just see the tips of the three warheads. Unlike most of my models, it is minifig-scaled (I picked 1/43) and built mostly without visible studs. I built it for a Cold War themed collaborative build for BrickFair Virginia, in the coming August.
Continue reading →

The little red Alfa that could

Back in the 1930s, Enzo Ferrari teamed up with automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo to make history on the racetrack. Ferrari wasn’t in the business of making cars yet, but their famous prancing pony emblem was used on team Ferrari cars. One of the most famous team Ferrari Alfas was a 1934 P3, which won the 1935 German Grand Prix with Tazio Nuvolari behind the wheel. Thanks to Pixeljunkie, Team Ferrari’s P3 has been brought back to life in LEGO-form. There is some excellent visual storytelling here, with an intrepid female driver making a pit stop in the woods to admire local wildlife. Both the car and surrounding landscaping look beautiful.

Like many of his other cars, Pixeljunkie places the Alfa in different scenarios. Here, we get a look under the hood at the expense of some engine trouble. Fortunately, the driver remembered to bring along her toolkit.

I particularly enjoy this playful image, which shows the driver’s reflection in the car’s rear view mirror. With the engine fixed, she’s ready to hit the road again!

The Alfa Romeo P3 is just one in a growing number of cars built by Pixeljunkie and featured on the Brothers Brick, including a Ford Model T, Mercedes Benz W196, and Type 37A Bugatti.