Logey Bear’s latest LEGO build was inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon and includes a number of scary-good part choices. Front and center is an alien clinger from the Alien Conquest theme bringing fun curvy details to the face. It pairs exceptionally well with the minifigure arms that surround the eyes. A pair of bigfig arms are cleverly used as upper legs and several pairs of flippers are used for the webbed feet and gills.
From Jurassic Park to Jurassic World, velociraptors have remained a fan favorite in the series. While the raptors in Jurassic Park were hungry killing machines, Jurassic World gave us lovable trained carnivores. The scenes of Owen Grady bonding with Blue since birth are memorable, and I bet Owen would be proud of this wonderfully detailed LEGO version of Blue built by PaulvilleMOCs. There is a pleasing balance of form and function here. A splash of color keeps the model visually interesting, while ball & socket and hinged joints allow Blue to “strike a pose.” I really like Blue’s mouth, which consists of a 1×3 hinge tile, with the finger wedged between a modified 1×1 plate with clip. Finishing off the mouth is a dark pink minifig hand, which makes for a really cool-looking tongue.
And if you still haven’t had your prehistoric fill, the builder has also done a fun rendition of Mr. DNA.
If there is any indicator that the winter holidays are fast approaching, it’s the release of LEGO’s annual addition to the growing Winter Village collection. Each year at around this time, we see another charming set hit the shelves, and they’re arguably just as prized to collectors as Modular Buildings like 10260 Downtown Diner. This year’s holiday season brings us 10163 Winter Village Fire Station. The set has 1166 pieces, including 6 minifigures, a baby, and a dog. It’s currently only available for LEGO VIP Program members, but will be available to anyone starting October 1st, retailing for $99.99 USD.
Click to read more about the newest addition to the Winter Village holiday collection!
It’s one of the contradictions at the heart of LEGO building, that we love to see the rectilinear brick subverted. Bravo to jaapxaap, who has centred his latest model on some seriously wonky geometry. There’s no doubt that Falcon Castle is suffering from years of subsidence, its central tower quaintly leaning at the most acute of angles.
Of course it takes real talent to do this, which you pick up again in the embellishments that have been added: the ingot bricks used to simulate wear, or the golden tower painstakingly formed form telescope pieces. In the end though, you just have to marvel at the way the imperfections of the ramshackle fortress have been so perfectly built.
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 September 2018.
TBB NEWS: This week was relatively quiet for news, seeing only two large sets becoming available for purchase, and the announcement of Bricklink’s new design program.
75222 Betrayal at Cloud City and 10263 Winter Village Fire Station available – Whether you’re already prepping for Christmas or just want to see Han Solo dunked in a vat of Carbonite, LEGO’s two newest sets are ready for you this week.
Bricklink announces AFOL Designer Program – LEGO partners with Bricklink for the latest way for LEGO fans to have a chance at their designs becoming official sets.
TBB Reviews & Features: This week’s reviews were all about Star Wars, and we reviewed two sets from their respective trilogy’s middle movies, The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Jedi.
Review of LEGO Star Wars 75222 Betrayal at Cloud City – We do a deep-dive in this hands-on review, examining every aspect of the first-ever LEGO Star Wars Master Builder Series set.
Review of LEGO Star Wars 75230 Porg – We’re taking a look at LEGO’s first-ever life-size creature from Star Wars, the cute Porg.
Star Wars never looked so good as with this LEGO Friends-themed makeover. This B-Wing is a fully custom build by Tyler Sky and reimagined for a more colourful Rebel vs Imperial universe. If the peaceful and friendly lasses can’t melt the heart of their enemies, my advice is to just lock, load and fire the ion cannons away! What makes this even slicker is the lack of visible LEGO studs (save for a couple around the sides of the cockpit). And if you really like this, read our earlier article on Tyler’s similar take on the Y-Wing
When it comes to building historic Chinese architecture from LEGO bricks, it can prove challenging to capture the sweeping curves of rooftops and ornate details. While we’ve seen builders employ a variety of techniques for this, with his model of the Aiwan Ting Pavilion, Chinese builder Smoker Nie has managed to pull off both the shape and the details in an especially eye-pleasing manner. Aiwan Pavilion is located on Mount Yuelu in the Chinese province of Hunan.
Smoker’s building is an excellent likeness, both inside and out. According to the builder, 12350 LEGO bricks were used in its construction.
Click to see more of this LEGO Aiwan Pavilion
This article is Part 2 of an ongoing series. Read about the LEGO Grumman E-1 Tracer Part 1 here.
About two weeks ago, I started building a new aircraft model: a Grumman E-1 Tracer. Because some of you might like to know how one might build such a LEGO scale model, I am documenting my process in a short series. In the first part I described why I decided to build such an oddball aircraft in the first place and how I plan a build like this. I also explained that I usually start by building the difficult bits. A few of those are the subject of this article.
The Tracer’s wings are not quite perpendicular to the fuselage. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if the engine pods and the main undercarriage weren’t attached to them. I have built angled wings before, including some rather large ones. In practice, however, it is almost impossible to mount the wings using hinges and also have them carry much of the model’s weight. Furthermore, if I were to build the wings at some weird angle, I would then have to figure out how to align the engines attached to still be parallel with the fuselage. My solution is to attach both engines directly to each other and also to the fuselage using a bridge structure. I built this bridge perpendicular to the fuselage using plates. I then put the actual wings on top of it. By combining 2×3 and 2×4 wedge plates I filled in the gaps where the tops of the engines join the wing. Getting everything to fit nicely involved a lot of trial-and-error, but it works.
When Final Fantasy 7 came out for the PlayStation console in 1997, I spent many, many hours playing it, and one of the most pleasurable aspects, aside from kicking the pixels out of a multi-stage boss in epic 45-minute battles, was riding all over the world on my trusty Chocobo, searching for the elusive Giant Cactuar. This creation by Vincent Kiew captures the game’s protagonist, Cloud Strife, astride his Chocobo in large scale.
Vincent managed to make the Chocobo look very light on his feet, which is exactly how they looked and felt in the game. Also, Cloud is very accurate to his on-screen inspiration, down to the large clunky hands, his giant sword slung across his back, and that signature spiky anime hair.
LEGO building is cool. Smoking is not. Everyone clear on that? Excellent. Having got that public service announcement out of the way, we can get on with featuring Andreas Lenander‘s excellent LEGO ashtray. This is a brilliant bit of work — a nicely-executed cigarette and cigar, a snake for a twist of smoke, a pile of grey bricks for ash, and a little trans-orange lurking within as an ember’s glow. Add in a brick-built tablecloth with a retro 70s feel and some appropriately gloomy photography and you’ve got a cracking little creation.
One of the most gorgeous airships to grace the skies has finally emerged from the distant clouds. This is the long-awaited Skytanic, built by Markus Ronge and alluded to in his equally epic-looking Maersk Pier, featured on The Brothers Brick last week. In Markus’ steampunk universe, the airship’s massive size was made possible thanks in part to the ultra-light steel used in its construction. When it comes to the characters involved in the ship’s construction, Markus once again gives them clever names. Hiram Lever is the designer behind Skytanic, which is in turn piloted by Captain Ulysses Wheeler.
From bow to stern, Skytantic looks phenomenal. The red, black and white hull is reminiscent of the ill-fated Titanic, while the gold trim helps give the finished model that steampunk vibe. According to Markus, the ship stands a whopping five stories tall, and each level looks distinct. The top level features a lively looking bar, and the royal cabin is directly below that. If you look carefully enough, you will also find what appears to be a tribute to the Jack and Rose “flying” scene from James Cameron’s hit film, Titanic (1997).
Click to see more of the Skytanic
Love them or hate them, Porgs are one of the most iconic creatures from the new Star Wars sequel trilogy. Nearly universally loved for their cuteness, the tiny feathered creatures have featured prominently in promotional materials and scores of toys from The Last Jedi right from the beginning. The first minifigure-scale LEGO Porgs appeared in the 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon last year, but LEGO is now releasing a life-size sculpture of the fuzzy birds. 75230 Porg contains 811 pieces, and we believe it will retail for $70-$80 USD beginning in October, but LEGO has declined to confirm either the price or the availability date at the time of publishing.
Update Oct. 1: The set is now on sale from LEGO for $69.99 in the US ($89.99 in Canada | £59.99 in the UK).
Update Sept. 17: LEGO has confirmed that the official release date for 75230 Porg is Oct. 1, and it will retail for $69.99 USD.
Original update on Sept. 16: We have personally observed this set being sold in retail stores, where it’s priced at $69.99 USD. Obviously, that also means that it’s already available, at least in some markets.
Click to read our full, hands-on review