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.
Last year around the holidays, LEGO launched an incredibly popular Star Wars surprise box promotion available only in the US and Canada. Now a similar box is being offered to LEGO fans in the UK starting on April 11 with Star Wars purchases greater than £85 (an offer that coincides with the launch of the 20th Anniversary sets). This time around, the box promises five unnamed Star Wars items and a chance to win an unspecified limited edition Star Wars minifigure.
The UK LEGO Shop is also currently offering a gift-with-purchase of a cute Chicken Skater Pod just in time for Easter, available with orders greater than £35. (The chick should be available as a gift-with-purchase later this month in the US and Canada.)
Though we do not know what will be included in the UK boxes, the Star Wars boxes in the US and Canada contained five rare minifigures including Colonel Wullf Yularen from the conference room scene on the first Death Star, DJ from The Last Jedi, a stormtrooper sergeant, Han Solo in Hoth gear, and a Scarif shore trooper squad leader from Rogue One.
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Today we are excited to announce The Brothers Brick has acquired the popular YouTube channel Beyond the Brick, creating largest LEGO-related online content provider in history. The acquisition essentially triples the volunteer staff at The Brothers Brick and will bring a whole new level of quality to Beyond the Brick’s long-form interview videos.
In addition to The Brothers Brick’s current contributor recruitment drive, acquiring Beyond the Brick’s army of editors will ensure that each video will receive professional editing with scripts, teleprompters and an accompanying written article with high-quality photos. The ultimate goal will be to publish LEGO convention videos the same day they are recorded rather than having to wait several months after each event.
Joshua Hanlon, one of the founders and main host of Beyond the Brick was asked about the purchase: “HEY EVERYONE, JOSHUA HANLON HERE. It makes so much sense to be part of The Brothers Brick since John and I are brothers and we always get confused as being The Brothers Brick anyway, so it is great to have that cleared up so we can focus on upping our quality and create new daily videos hopefully featuring even more LEGO Star Wars builds, and now with the acquisition we are free to travel to EVERY fan convention and LEGO event no matter how small or remote, even to all the tiny train shows or kid displays at libraries, plus personally I think I look better in green anyway.”
In the short term, every daily video from Beyond the Brick will be published as a post on The Brothers Brick as well as on YouTube. The acquisition will also allow Beyond the Brick to feature smaller, high-quality builds that often get overlooked by the bigger, flashier and moving LEGO creations that have been a primary focus of the YouTube channel. Beyond the Brick will also start to produce and publish instruction videos to the LEGO builds they feature as well as finally start highlighting Great Ball Contraptions (GBCs), an area they have sorely underrepresented until now.
Andrew Becraft, founder of The Brothers Brick said: “This was a strategic LEGO community acquisition that will push us ‘Beyond The Brothers Brick’ to new heights and deeper brand awareness.”
The exhaustive branding transition is expected to take up to one year, with The Brothers Brick iconic green taking over Beyond the Brick’s existing red and yellow coloring before the eventual absorption of the brand altogether including all merchandise, t-shirts, stickers and logos.
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.
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.
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 last week of March 2019.
How many bricks did it take to create this full-scale LEGO McLaren Senna? Read on to find out.
TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: We have a few exciting set reviews for you plus a bunch of LEGO news. Also, have you ever wanted to write for TBB? Now you can!
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
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.
You could almost say that this is the perfect example of being a Scrooge, well, sort of anyway. In the world of LEGO custom building, there’s a term defined as Nice Parts Usage (NPU) where a LEGO element is used in a very different way from its original purpose. Well, if Scrooge McDuck knew this, he’d repurpose every single LEGO brick in his possession to avoid buying new bricks that he doesn’t really need in the first place. This build by Logan W. is simply filled with NPUs that shine through, from the Bionicle parts to pneumatic hoses, helmets and even a unique-colored piece from Boba Fett’s buildable figure for Scrooge’s beak.
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.
Star Wars is one of the flagship themes that has kept LEGO fans on their toes every single year since its first appearance in 1999, and there seems to be no end to it. 2019 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Star Wars joining the LEGO lineup. In celebration, the latest wave of sets feature nostalgic packaging and some unique exclusives to commemorate the early years of LEGO’s best-selling license. Today we’re taking a hands-on look at the largest set, 75243 Slave I – 20th Anniversary Edition, which comes in at 1,007 pieces and is available starting April 1 for $119.99 US | 159.99 CAD | 109.99 UK.
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.
LEGO fan Tim Goddard is perhaps best known for his space-themed builds, such as this microscale space station we shared in February. Building off of his intergalactic experience, Tim is now diving below the seas to revisit the classic mid-1990s Aquazone theme. The centerpiece here is a large submersible, cleverly designed to look like a lobster. Instead of building the sub in lobster red, Tim went with the iconic yellow, black, and neon orange livery of the Aquanauts. By combining a mix of period-correct parts and more modern elements, Tim has created a submarine that feels both modern and true to the original source material. Meanwhile, an adorable fishy “drone” makes for a fine finishing touch.
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.
Roller coaster parts had been a long time coming when they were finally released last year. I, personally, was someone begging for them, and was ecstatic when given the chance to review the LEGO Creator Expert 10261 Roller Coaster. Since then, it’s been cool to see what others have done with the track. This time, Daniel Church has built a super cool Steampunk monowheel. All the greebly bits create a lovely design, and the triangular signs and 2×3 pentagonal tiles finish it off well.
The best part is that it actually moves! Who doesn’t love a good LEGO build with movement? I hope the next task is to make it stand by itself and remote controlled!
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.
No LEGO creation impresses me more than a well done microscale build. When building bigger, you can essentially sculpt any shape imaginable with basic bricks and plates. With microscale however, the parts you choose can make or break your design. Take david zambito’sCalm Seas for example, and focus on the trees and the ship. AT first glance, the trees might look pretty straightforward since he uses a leaf to represent a tree canopy. For their trunks though, he’s used a long horn instead of a straight bar, and this choice makes the tiny palm trees lean in a way that feels natural.
Next up is the brilliant little ship. Before I gush about the bow and sails, I’d like to recognize the apt use of a droid arm as the bowsprit. While it wouldn’t have been my first choice, now that I’ve seen it, I can’t think of a better piece to use in its place. Now on to the true stars of this build…. The obvious standouts are the crocodile heads as sails, which stand out as trapezoids, whereas most LEGO elements are rectangular. What’s more, the ridges over the eyes make them appear to be blowing in the wind. My favourite aspect of the entire build is the mummy’s headdress as the bow of the ship. Not only does the part fit in with the scale, but its functional areas are both used: the ship connects to the inside where a minifgure head would normally go, and the stud on the front of it is the connection point for the bowsprit. Take a closer look yourself and see what other amazing parts usage you can find.
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.
This bulky mech by Zane Houston is called a brawler, and it could not match its name any better. From the large wheels built into the legs to massive shoulder and hip joints, this is one heavy mech. However, this is more than a simple brute of a model, as there are plenty of details worth mentioning. In particular, the mech has several pistons and other mechanisms that ground it in practical construction. Throughout the model, the builder has also added simple repeating details like cheese slopes in the thighs, and canisters in the forearms.
In addition to some fantastic angled structures that would look quite at home in any massive LEGO spaceship, the color blocking is also well-executed. However, I think my favorite detail would have to be the 2×2 round bricks with grooves tucked into several joints, playing off of the more noticeable gears.
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.
Whether made out of real-life bricks or LEGO bricks, castle walls can be as simple as bricks stacked one on top of the other. However, some real castles have detailed walls, as does this LEGO castle by amenk sachio. The combination of sloped and arched grey bricks make the giant stone walls appear as if they were designed to be part of the finest renaissance château.
Particularly cunning is the use of socket joints to create arches: the wider end makes them naturally curve when stacked – an effect utilized here to great success. On top of the fine masonry, this castle is adroitly adorned with golden embellishments, with plant, animal, and weapon pieces used to create architectural details. My favourite detail of all is the repeated use of Witch-King crowns throughout, tying the entire fortress together.
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.
We recently featured a tunneling drone, which was uploaded on the initiative of a year-long online mecha building project – Mech Monday. One of the builder’s sources of inspiration was Markus Rollbühler, who built this adorable drilling robot for the latest Mech Monday.
While not overly complicated, this little guy has a bright and well-blocked colour scheme. The robot also features some unique parts like the chrome silver Rock Raiders drill piece, which is used instead of legs. With its weird and wacky expression, this is a mech any miner would love to take to work.
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.
