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.

Gazooks! Here come Cahdok and Gahdok!

Years after being discontiniued, Bionicle remains a strong and very much autonomous theme in LEGO fan builds. Unique pieces and almost complete freedom of angles set it apart from most other styles, but was it always so? Jayfa and Andrew Steele bring us back to 2002, a time when Bionicle was still searching for an identity and was for the most part a sub-theme to Technic. The glorious titan set Cahdok and Gahdok was a load of gears, rubber bands, liftarms and most importantly, play features. I do not think this re-imagining has much of those, but it does capture the spirit of the Bohrok queens.

Click to see Cahdok and Gahdok compared to the original set

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The tree house of your LEGO dreams

Once gain I have the pleasure of highlighting Alanboar Cheung‘s amazing work for TBB, previously sharing his butterfly mimicry and cloud car models. Never predictable, his newest build, a quirky dream treehouse, is inspired by The LEGO Movie 2.

Built for the movie’s unique cast of characters, it incorporates a rainbow, clouds, piano room, and even a Unikitty slide — although I’m little worried as to where you’d end up if you actually tried to ride it. Simply exploding with colourful charm and cute details, it’s one of those creations that is going to be just as much fun to play with as is to marvel at. It’s also another reason – as if I needed one – to get excited about seeing the film, which comes out later this week.

You know my methods Watson

When the body of Sir Charles Murgatroyd is discovered in his library, the local Constabulary are immediately called for. Foul play is suspected, and an investigation begins. Despite their best efforts, the police remain baffled as to motive or culprit. Only one hope remains, to summon the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr John Watson…

Since reading The Hound of the Baskervilles as a child, I’ve always been a huge fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. I’ve often pondered the idea of building scenes from some of his most famous adventures, and this little model was something of a trial. The library-based murder depicted is not based on any particular story, but I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. The trickiest bit of the whole model was the window — it took my ages to get the curtain to look right, and to get the leaded windows to fill the space without gaps.

The LEGO Movie 2 Collectible Minifigures 71023 Feel Guide [Review]

The latest series of LEGO’s Collectible Minifigures theme based The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part are now hitting stores. We’ve already brought you our full, in-depth review, so that means it’s now time for our Feel Guide to help you poke and prod your way to a full set of 20 characters. 71023 LEGO Minifigures – The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part are available now in retail stores and online, for US $3.99 | CAN $4.99.

So let’s check out what makes these figures stand out from one another when all you’ve got is an opaque package and a crowd of onlookers in the store aisle.

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Tropical paradise is a plea for warmer weather

Those of us in the northwestern hemisphere have had a tough time lately, what with the polar vortex, record-shattering temperatures (as low as -63 degrees Celsius at my mom’s house in Winnipeg, Canada) and unrelenting snow and ice. Even here in southwestern Arkansas, where winter generally just means anything below 10 degrees Celsius, we were racing to buy wintry garments normally only seen in movies about Alaska. On the flip side, the nasty weather meant more time shamelessly spent in the LEGO room. I built this tropical scene while daydreaming about places where I don’t have to leave faucets running for fear of water pipes bursting inside my home.

This was a simple but fun build to throw together. There are no crazy techniques or excessively nice parts usages (NPU) to highlight here. But a dash of color, proper composition and a bit of photography know-how can just about always turn a bland build into something that really catches the eye. If you like the trees, they are easily recreated using the 4mm pneumatic hose and cylinder bricks. They can be twisted around each other and held in that position with the leaf elements. Simple and easy jungle tree!

Long have I served as the guardian spirit

Guardian of the Hyrule Forest. Giver of Quests. Insides infested with Skulltula Spiders.
The Great Deku Tree from Nintendo classic Zelda: The Ocarina of Time is given the LEGO treatment by Julius von Brunk. The microscale model is nicely-done, perfectly capturing the tree’s sleepy-looking face. But it’s the amazing photography which sets this creation apart — Julius has combined three images into one to create this stunning look, which manages to make a small model appear much larger. I love how the low angle and out-of-focus foreground foliage gives the tree such physical presence. Excellent stuff.

LEGO Millennium Falcon hides in plain sight

It’s one of the coolest moments in The Empire Strikes Back, when Han Solo evades the Imperials by hiding his ship in plain sight, latched on to the hull of a Star Destroyer. Here this memorable scene is recreated in LEGO bricks by Didier Burtin. The model is immediately recognisable — indeed, at first glance it’s practically indistinguishable from a still from the movie. The Star Destroyer’s surface is impressively detailed, packed with a generous level of detail that breaks up all that grey, and the lighting for the photo is spot-on, managing to capture the stark contrast and drama of the original scene.

The city of Cyrene falls to the Pierian Empire

Despite the inclusion of Classical or Greco-Roman characters in several waves of Collectible Minifigures, the ancient world just isn’t as popular with LEGO Castle builders as the big gray castles of the medieval era. As a result, it’s always refreshing to see great LEGO models from that earlier era. Talented TBB alum Mark Erickson has created a fictional battle between rivals the Pierian Empire and the great city of Tylis. Mark’s diorama is full of fantastic architectural detail — I particularly love the contrast between the tan city walls and the shining white temple with its gold details and green roof.

See more of Mark’s fantastic Greco-Roman city

1% inspiration, 99% perspiration

That was Thomas Edison’s recipe for innovation. But he failed to mention the importance of keeping things simple. When it comes to LEGO creations, sometimes the simplest models are the most impressive, and this wonderful LEGO lightbulb by Josephine Monterosso is a great example. It may be comprised of only seven pieces, but this economy of parts only makes it all the more impressive. The transparent minifigure head and clear space helmet make for the perfect recreation of retro lightbulb curves, and the short length of silver ribbed hose is a nice way to evoke a screw thread. Maybe this LEGO lightbulb will give other builders ideas too!

Block-rocking beats from this LEGO Walkman

When Ralf Langer put together his excellent LEGO headphones and tape cassette, all that was missing was something to provide the tunes. Now he’s filled the gap with a brick rendition of the innovative 80s hardware that reinvented how we listened to music — the Sony Walkman. The colour scheme is a perfect match for the 1979 original, and the details down the side are simply spot-on — don’t miss the use of a silver ingot piece and grille bricks to recreate the volume slider, the offsets so the buttons stand out from the casing, and the nice deployment of the “back-to-back grille tile” technique to make those tiny square holes. I also love that silver stripe separating the blue from the grey — excellent attention to detail.

Just the LEGO tree you were looking for

When it comes to fun landscape techniques, Emil Lidé has you covered. This tree made out of slopes is whimsical and creative. For me, it’s a little mesmerizing. It almost looks like it has been turned into 3D fractals!

But this is just a small sample of Emil’s handiwork. He’s not only an expert at building unique flora, he is gracious enough to create instructions on how to build them. His free instructions for both the trunk and canopy of this tree are on his personal website fullplatebuilds.com. You can also check out our article about one of his part experimentations, or another featuring multiple techniques in a single build.

Impressively detailed “Ugly Duckling” Long Range Research Vessel is over 4 feet long

Years in the making, Blake Foster presents one of the finest examples of LEGO spacecraft masterwork with the Ugly Duckling Long Range Research Vessel. It’s a rare achievement; it boasts impressive measurements at 168 studs long, 47 studs wide, and 45 studs high (approximately 52.5×14.5×14 inches), yet its size doesn’t prevent Blake from carefully considering every stud on his craft inside and out.

See more photos of this amazing and huge LEGO spaceship