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.

In a fishing town, where the sharks go to practice their 8-ball

A couple months ago we featured a spectacular LEGO shipyard, built by Arjan Oude Kotte. Adding on to his harbor town, his most recent creation is this awesome billiards hall. The architecture of this building has its own sense of style, as it perfectly resembles what you might think of when you hear, “Hamilton’s Billiards”.

There are lots of great side-builds used to create the signage and siding of the structure, especially the lettering. The roof shingles look fantastic as well! And, as always, the billiards hall fits seamlessly with the rest of the town. Our only wish is that we could see what fun lies inside!

We’re really impressed by Arjan’s attention to detail, and the story that he tells with his work. For this reason we’ve requested an interview! Stay tuned for a chance to learn more about this awesome builder.

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LEGO Advent Calendars and Hogwarts Castle now on sale [News]

September has arrived and so have new LEGO sets, from the Hogwarts Castle and 2018 LEGO Advent Calendars to the Las Vegas Architecture skyline set. These will likely sell out quickly, so make sure to get yours soon before they are out of stock.

Click to take a closer look at the new LEGO sets for September 2018

Brickfair Virginia: fourteen builders from six countries collaborate to commemorate the Vietnam War [Feature]

Last year, after Brickfair Virginia 2017, over a few drinks Magnus Lauglo, Aleksander Stein and I had a discussion on what to bring for 2018. The three of us have been attending BrickFair for years and have often admired the large collaborative displays at the event, with builders creating something together. Because of this we figured it would be nice for us to collaborate too rather than bringing our own stand-alone models. We soon agreed to build scenes from the Vietnam War.

I suspect that most ideas that come out of conversations in bars lead nowhere and that is probably a good thing. However, earlier this year we found that we were still pretty excited about this idea and we found that more people wanted to get involved. Ultimately, eleven more builders contributed (in no particular order): Peter Dornbach, Stijn van der Laan, Matt Hacker, Dean Roberts, Eínon, Evan Melick, Casey Mungle, Corvin, Yasser Mohran, Bret Harris and Brian Carter. Corvin, Aleksander and I are the only builders who don’t live in the US or Canada to regularly attend the Virginia event, but our Vietnam group turned out to be a pretty international crowd. We had builders who live in six different countries: the US, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Norway and the Netherlands.

We picked Vietnam as the subject because we all watched classic Vietnam War movies when growing up, it is largely novel for most of us and it is far less common for military builds than models from, say, WW2. We considered building a single collaborative battle diorama, but chose to build separate scenes instead. It is hard to find a single battle that is actually interesting to build, as there is usually just a lot of terrain involved and multiple copies of trees, bunkers or vehicles. Separate scenes have the advantage of allowing different builders to give the subject their own twist. I was excited to see what the other guys came up with. The Vietnam War offers a lot of scope for building interesting military hardware, but we could also show some of the history, including the aftermath. Given the wide range of different models on display, we nailed it.

See more details and a gallery of the builds

The minifigure turns 40: a colorful history of LEGO’s most beloved characters

Did you know that 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the modern minifigure? In recognition of this very special birthday, the LEGO Group released its party-themed Series 18 minifigures a few months ago, including a remake of the 1978 policeman. The LEGO Group continues to celebrate, this time by reaching into their archives to share some historic images with our readers. Here at The Brothers Brick, we love minifigures and are excited to share the images and history behind the LEGO Group’s versatile and lovable characters.

A system is born, and so is a police officer:

In the post-World War II economy, the LEGO Group began shifting its priorities in toy manufacturing. While the foundation of LEGO rested on wooden toys, Ole Kirk Christiansen saw a future in plastics and purchased the company’s first plastic injection molding machine in 1947. It was with this equipment that the LEGO group first began producing its Automatic Binding Bricks in 1949. These hollow-bottomed bricks were the forerunner of the modern LEGO brick.

LEGO’s earliest sets were fairly basic construction toys, and characters were never packaged with the sets. This changed after Ole’s son, Godtfred, introduced the System of Play series in 1955. “System of Play” referred to the versatility of LEGO bricks to be used by themselves and with a child’s existing toys. LEGO advertised the toy as the perfect companion for dolls and HO (1:87) scale toy trains. LEGO created the Town Plan series, which is populated by brick-built buildings and prefabricated vehicles, to serve in part as an add-on for model railroading.

It was also during this time that LEGO introduced the great-great grandfather of the minifigure, a set of four tiny police officers. The figures were posed in four different positions, designed so they could direct traffic throughout the intersections of the Town Plan. Resembling HO-scale figures, they did not have moving limbs or recessed indentations for connecting to studs but were nevertheless LEGO’s first people manufactured for the System of Play.

Click to read the full history of the LEGO Minifigure

How to build a LEGO Batmobile from Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman Movie [Instructions]

There have been dozens of Batmobile designs over the years — one for each generation and iteration of the Dark Knight. If you grew up in the late 80’s and caught the 1989 Batman movie directed by Tim Burton, you probably love and remember that version well. Jerry Builds Bricks shares with us a version of the 1989 Batmobile in an instructional video format. The best part is you can actually fit a Batman Minifigure in the vehicle quite snugly!

If you like this, check out this amazing build of a “UCS”-scaled 1989 Batmobile too!

The Valzaleer spacecraft has a beautiful veneer

This incredible spaceship by AdNorrel features distinctive profile shapes and smartly integrated LEGO pieces. The lovely bits of filled-in details within the crevasses and armored surfaces of the starship are great examples of greebling done well. Not too out of place, not too overshadowed — there’s some real inspirational craftsmanship here.

I don’t want all of my articles to become running checklists of parts, but see if you can spot the messenger pouches, croissants, and frying pans. It’s a really fun scavenger hunt kind of model.

Click to see even more of the Valzaleer

Nature always wears the colour of the spirit

Earth, Fire, Water, Plants — all these elements combine in rockmonster2000‘s Nature Guardian figure. The tribal mask-style face is excellent — bound to intimidate any who dare trespass on this Elemental’s territory. The body is a combination of Technic and regular LEGO parts, something that isn’t easy to do well. I particularly like the drips from the watery arm and that trailing frond of greenery from the foot. They add visual interest and some real character, breaking up what might otherwise have been a little predictable.

Take a moment and appreciate the calm

Serenity. It’s what many of us experience as we build LEGO models — rummaging through the brick bins can be as meditative as raking the sands of the Zen Garden. Rollon Smith captures a little oasis of calm in this model — “a peaceful place for peaceful hobbies”, he calls it. It’s a nicely built scene, packed with detail. I really like the mix of “wood” along the shoreline, and all the little domestic touches visible on the open upper floor. That splash of pink from the tree adds an attractive colour contrast to the building’s black and red tones. Overall it makes a pleasant change to see all those new-ish Ninjago printed pieces making an appearance in a model which isn’t packed full of Ninjas disrupting the peace and quiet with all their martial arts nonsense.

And of course, this model would fit right into the huge Ninjago City collaborative layout that we’re organizing with our readers at the BrickCon LEGO convention in Seattle over the first weekend in October.

This little LEGO moody Groot is on the move

In Avengers: Infinity War, cute little Groot has grown up — at least, a bit. Now he’s moody Groot, a treenager with his nose deep in his games. TBB’s Builder in Residence Iain Heath is getting Groot out of the house, but good luck getting his headphones off. In a series of photos over the next few days, Iain will be showcasing this adorably grumpy Groot around the city — not that Groot is likely to notice anything. The little LEGO Groot is remarkably poseable, and has the perfect squinting scowl befitting a petulant youngster.

Be sure to watch Iain’s Flickr album, where he’ll be sharing more of Groot’s adventures in coming days, or follow him on Instagram.

LEGO built a life-size Technic Bugatti Chiron that actually drives [News]

LEGO has revealed a life-size Bugatti Chiron built from more than a million Technic elements that actually drives. Powered by more than 2,300 Power Functions motors, the car is the first ever fully-functional self-propelled LEGO sports car, reaching top speeds nearing 20 mph (30 kph).

More impressive, LEGO designers didn’t use any glue in the construction which took more than 13,000 hours total. The life-size Technic Bugatti Chiron even includes a working speedometer and rear spoiler while replicating the sleek curves of the iconic sports car.

A bit bigger than the 42083 Technic Bugatti Chiron we reviewed earlier this summer, the life-sized model can fit two passengers inside and weighs a whopping 3,300 pounds (1,500 kg), supported by a steel frame.

Click to get a behind-the-scenes look at the life-size LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron

Frigates of mass destruction never looked so good

As September looms nearer by the day, seems like builder noblebun is already flexing his muscles for the upcoming SHIPtember event where fans of LEGO battle to outdo one another creating huge ships. Sounds simple? The challenge rules just say the SHIP needs to be 100 studs or longer (also known as a Seriously Huge Investment in Parts). This digital build is outstanding for the seriously smooth texture that makes it feel like the lines are all actually part of a futuristic design and not the signs of LEGO elements pieced together. I seriously love how the microfigures were used as part of the centerline texture and greebling effects.

A Demiguise on the loose spells trouble

This Demiguise character from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is one hard little beast to capture if ever on the loose. First of all, invisibility is one of their magical powers and on top of that, being precognitive insight which really makes it difficult even if you are able to see them. They can only be captured by Wizards and Witches that are skilled and trained with the right techniques including making unpredictable moves to counter the foresight of the little creatures. It is fortunate that we indeed can see this Demiguise built by yu chris and its wide-eyed stare made up of the bright light orange 4×4 inverted radar dish and a round 2×2 boat stud for its dark pupils to stare into the abyss.