For the first time ever, Singapore will be having her first LEGO convention, showcasing never-before-seen creations and models built from LEGO bricks by 80 builders from across 4 countries in the region.
Category Archives: LEGO
What does it take to transform grey clouds into colourful butterflies?
We have featured a beautiful LEGO creation of grey butterflies gaining colour by Dario Minisini before. Now the builder returns to the theme with this meaningful build of grey clouds being turned into a rainbow-coloured butterfly.
I just love Dario’s style of butterflies, as well as the multiple smaller ones. Some of the partially formed butterflies really give an impression of movement. The builder does not provide much of a description, but the message seems quite clear from the title: “Let the colors go out from your heart”.
Roll a brand new car with the unknown stuntman
Let’s head back to 70s and 80s when no action movie was complete without a car chase and a pile-up. Check out Pixeljunkie‘s piece of Muscle-Car Movie Mayhem. This shot looks like a behind-the-scenes publicity image straight off the film set. There’s the director bellowing through his megaphone, the guy with the all-important clapperboard, and a nicely put-together boom camera capturing the action. The crashing cars themselves are simple enough models, but they’re well positioned. In conjunction with the dusty smoke effect, the dynamic angles suggest a high-speed crash, captured at the perfect moment.
This Mustang is in the shop for repairs
You may have noticed an abundance of Ford Mustangs featured on The Brothers Brick lately. The recent trend was ignited by a LEGO IDEAS contest, celebrating the Mustang in beautiful scenery. After wowing us by finding a Mustang in a barn, Andrea Lattanzio’s latest creation finds this Mustang in the shop. While the car itself is flawless, focus of the contest is on the scenery. And this garage is spot on.
The structure is rife with subtle yet brilliant techniques, from the checkered pattern on the wall – alluding to the shop owner’s dreams on race day – to the broken window adding that extra dose of realism. My favourite technique is the droid arms and skeleton legs suspending the overhead lights. Not to be overlooked is the apparent master class in brick built garage and warehouse tools. The pallet jack, air compressor, drill press, gas pump and table vice are all amazing details that help make this garage beautiful.
TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 14, 2019 [News]
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 second week of April 2019.
LEGO broke the Guinness World Record with the largest Stormtrooper minifigure army ever assembled. How many did it take? Read on to find out.
LEGO STAR WARS NEWS & REVIEWS: The Brothers Brick celebrated the 20th Anniversary of LEGO Star Wars with tons of feature content, reviews and news from a galaxy far, far away.
- LEGO Star Wars returns to A New Hope with 1,700-piece 75244 Tantive IV – This new LEGO Star Wars 75244 Tantive IV is two feet long and will be available starting May 3rd.
- Happy 20th Anniversary LEGO Star Wars – Twenty years ago, LEGO introduced one of its most successful product lines of all time–Star Wars! The Brothers Brick celebrated all day long.
- The story behind the 1999 launch of LEGO Star Wars – Celebrate 20 years of LEGO Star Wars with a look behind the scenes of its historic 1999 launch.
- How well do you know your LEGO Star Wars trivia and timeline? – Are you a LEGO Star Wars super fan? We have all the milestones and fun facts you need to know.
- Review of LEGO Star Wars 75258 Anakin’s Podracer – We take a look at a new set from of the Star Wars movies that has not been revisited in a while in LEGO form.
- Interview with LEGO Star Wars designers Jens Kronvold and Kurt Kristiansen – We asked two LEGO Star Wars model designers everything you want to know.
- LEGO Star Wars 75227 Darth Vader Bust now available from Target – Well that came and went fast, but we still have instructions so you can build you own if you missed out.
- Looking back on 20 years of LEGO Star Wars and the LEGO fan community – How has the LEGO Star Wars theme impacted you? We take a look back through the good and bad.
OTHER TBB NEWS: Along with Star Wars, three more new LEGO sets were announced with some new cool wall hangers and custom fan-designed sets.
- LEGO reveals newest Architecture set 21045 Trafalgar Square – London gets another LEGO Architecture set with the newly revealed 21045 Trafalgar Square.
- New exclusive set 40366 LEGO House Dinosaurs unveiled – You can now take home the three Masterpiece Gallery dinosaurs, available only at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark.
- Hands on with LEGO SPIKE Prime at Moscow International Education Fair 2019 – We have your first hands-on look at LEGO SPIKE, but can it replace Mindstorms EV3?
- Last day to pre-order LEGO and BrickLink’s AFOL Designer Program sets – There’s only one day left to pre-order any AFOL Designer Program set including free shipping.
- Giant LEGO stud wall hangers now available for pre-order on Amazon – Want to add some classy LEGO touches to your walls? Check out these brand new “stud” wall hangers!
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:
Click to read even more LEGO news
Care for a bit of apocalypse with your tea?
The mind of Andy Baumgart must be a very interesting place. Somewhere in that chaotic cranial coolness, there was a collision between the neurons responsible for housing the military schematics repositories, the hot rod files, and 90s girl LEGO themes. Thus, out popped the T-42 “Sugarcube” MLRS, which has got to be one of the most insane (and insanely awesome) military vehicles to ever grace our site.
Studded with nearly every chrome silver element LEGO has ever produced, and jazzed up even more with a generous dose of immaculately applied custom decals, this red rocket launcher houses a single Belville figure. As we’d expect with Andy, there’s no shortage of fantastic and unusual parts usages. The most obvious, of course, are rockets sprouting from the back which hail from the Series 17 Rocket Boy. The roof is a piece that isn’t seen often, but is actually being used for its intended purpose, having been a Fabuland vehicle top. Look closely, and along the side you’ll spot a well-disguised derrick arm, while Belville crowns and classic gates line the front. Of course, you wouldn’t want to miss tea time, so there’s a set just in reach of the driver.
Last day to pre-order LEGO and BrickLink’s AFOL Designer Program sets [News]
Last September, LEGO launched the AFOL Designer Program in cooperation with BrickLink to help bring fan designs to life and produce limited edition sets for sale. BrickLink has since crowdfunded and revealed the packaging for several of the sets, and today is the last day to pre-order any of the designs (including free shipping) before they officially launch.
Of the initial 16 finalists, all but three have officially reached their crowdfunding goals to be produced. You can read about each of the designs and place pre-orders on BrickLink’s crowdfunding page.
Click to read more about the AFOL Designer Program sets
Hands on with LEGO SPIKE Prime at Moscow International Education Fair 2019 [News]
During the past week, the recently announced LEGO Education SPIKE Prime sets made their first appearance during the Moscow International Education Fair 2019. Certified LEGO Education teacher and LEGO Ambassador Vera Senyuta, PhD, attended the press-conference and brought us the latest details about LEGO’s most advanced educational solution.
The press conference and the presentation covered both LEGO SPIKE sets, 45678 LEGO Education SPIKE Prime Set ($329.99 USD) and 45680 LEGO Education SPIKE Prime Expansion Set. The event was hosted by Tom Hall, General Manager, LEGO Education International; Yannick Dupont, Content Manager; and Thomas Rose, Training Program Manager. Together they told the audience about the idea behind the new sets and how the set will play a role in modern schools, as well as answered questions about the products.
Editor’s note 4/15: Since publication of this article, LEGO Education reached out to us to share some clarifying information about SPIKE Prime that we have incorporated into the article and quoted below.
Keep reading about the new LEGO Education SPIKE Prime set
Mario gets a BOOSTed makeover [Video]
Who needs virtual reality when you can actually touch the players? Enter LEGO BOOST, some extra bricks, and the imagination of Japanese builder Nipe Nipe. Using adorably crafted characters and interchangeable backgrounds, the classic video game is brought to life on a circular conveyor belt.
This perfectly thought-out game is actually playable via a Bluetooth connection with a phone or tablet. The programming of the system is simple, but comes out looking terrific while in action. With the tap of the screen, you can play the levels of Super Mario Bros in 3D. Like the real game, you have to get the timing just right to avoid those pesky obstacles!
Love Mario Bros? Check out this adorable Goomba, or learn how to build your own LEGO Power Blocks!
Getting to the pressing matter at hand
It is not intuitive, but this little article and the whole internet is really a direct consequence of the first press. German builder Michael Jasper recreates this monumental part of his national (and global) history in a build that can fit in one’s hand, and yet packs more detail than many larger builds.
There are not many names that have been so consistently present at the peak of the crop in the online LEGO community over the past decades, but Michael Jasper is surely one of them. Known for using exotic parts in unique ways, he does not disappoint this time either. Can you find the brown 2×2 magnet holder tile and the brown bar with side studs? The cutest detail for me though, is how the bed holding the “letters” slides between two panel pieces. But Michael does not stop there! The tiny press actually has moving parts, as seen in the little story below!
This one’s a real page-turner! [Video]
When you build something really interactive, you naturally want to show off how it works. At conventions you might spend a whole hour repeating a demo. Then another. And another. And another… Until you realize you haven’t eaten all day. Of course, leave it to Jason Allemann to find a truly impressive solution to this problem. After he and his wife’s arms got tired opening and closing the LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-Up Book, she told him it was time to make an automated, page-turning bookstand. So he has! And it’s brilliant!
As usual, Jason has developed a genius and inspiring mechanism. Just watch the video for the full explanation of what’s going on behind the scenes of this elegant lectern. I don’t know about you, but I find it mesmerizing!
While you’re here, check out Jason’s excellent addition to LEGO Creator set 31088 Deep Sea Creatures!
Try to understand the gravity of the situation
Classic Space seems to be in a boom recently, probably due to the recent re-release of classic space minifigures in the 70841 Benny’s Space Squad set. This gives us quite a few opportunities to share amazing Classic Space builds to share here on the Brothers Brick, including scenes, rovers and mecha. A big fan of Classic Space, Andreas Lenander gives us an immersive piece of action in this beautifully lit all-LEGO scene titled “Gravity failure at Epsilon IV.” It uses the brand-new pink classic spacesuit.
Click to explore more areas of the Epsilon IV base