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.

A new beauty born from a new beauty born from decay

Château Nottebohm is an abandoned mansion in Belgium, and while it may not be the only one of its kind, there has to be something special about it to inspire Marion to build it in LEGO not once, but twice! Abandoned buildings are an acquired taste, but even if we would not all agree they are beautiful, decades of disuse have granted the mansion an aura of mystery and the impression of nature reclaiming what man has taken.

This amazing creation really rewards a closer look, so click here to see more!

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A miniature city on the edge of forever

Inspired by artist Mike Kelley’s series of works based on Krypton’s capital city, Grant Masters has built his own cool microscale LEGO version of Kandor. The collection of transparent pieces is well-chosen, with internal structural elements within the bricks showing through to add texture and visual complexity you might not expect for something so small. The dramatic presentation and lighting is excellent too — that hint of green subtly evoking Superman’s lost homeworld and preventing the model being too stark and cold.

Do you really believe your puny powers can threaten a member of the Order of Mata Nui?

Long-time fans of Bionicle may remember the character of Brutaka, released as set 8734 in 2006. Masteryker has completely revamped and re-imagined the classic design into a beautiful but brutal-looking Brutaka. Brutaka has his signature mask and pearl gold colors but is constructed at a much more massive scale. The overall build feels wonderfully organic.

See the weapons wielded by this mighty Bionicle warrior

A chapel that won’t be assaulted

With their towering stone walls, crenelated turrets, and ornate decoration, medieval churches could almost be seen as castles–an idea helped in no small part by the frequency of medieval clergy acting like their secular counterparts. So whether this structure by KevinyWu belongs to the church or the state, the Fortress of St. Jocosa certainly prepared for what the world may throw at it. The fortress’ foundations are a nice bit of rockwork, giving a great feeling of a tiny castle perched upon a lonely rock, and the winding path leading to it, while using simple techniques of stacked dark tan plates, cuts a striking line through the scenery.

Click to see inside the fortress

A well-planned house for a big LEGO family

Everyone can build a LEGO house, but what about a thoroughly planned one? aukbricks shares an outstanding project of a cottage featuring both a brilliant exterior and fully furnished rooms. Because of the dimensions of the LEGO bricks, building interiors in minifigure scale can be pretty challenging, but this house boasts a lot of pieces of furniture that don’t look bulky or weird.

See more photos of this gorgeous LEGO home

Play on, my dead brothers

Character is everything when it comes to building LEGO figures, and Redverse’s Calavera Caballerso – literally “skull gentleman” – has this quality in spades. Stepping straight out of the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival, these two skeletal musicians show off an exaggerated graphic style not easy to capture in LEGO. Look closely and every detail reveals another clever building technique: from the fluted sleeves of their jackets, built from layered cones, to the technic element that doubles as a cravat. My favourite though has to be the black t-bar and white clip plate that forms both a mobile jaw and a toothy grin.

The eyes have it

I am mesmerized by Djokson’s latest build, Mask of the Spirit Caller. The bold colors and intricate design of the Orient Expedition shields make the eyes really pop. After recovering from the trance induced by staring deep into those eyes, I noticed the rest of the build is quite wonderful as well.

In addition to some clever parts usage, particularly the Hero Factory armor plates that ring the neck, this model also has great color blocking. The dynamic pose chosen for this photograph also brings the character to life. Rather than simply showing us a greqt build, Djorkson shows us a moment of a story and invites us to imagine the rest.

Towering in the sky, watching over the clouds

There are such things as classic themes in LEGO builds, like Castle or Space, but there are also very well-established motifs that can fit into these broader themes. One such motif that is often visited by many builders over what is now decades is floating rocks. Marcel V. takes inspiration from some of the more famous floating rock builds to bring us this cute little floating watchtower.

The best part is the watchtower, in my opinion. It has a unique polygonal shape with a cute little dock and very good colour work. Notice that the door is actually a window piece wedged in front of the wall. There are a few other examples of unconnected bricks used on it as well, a technique people seem to either love or hate, but in this case it works really well — connecting the piece just for the sake of it would not change the look of the creation anyway. Besides the watchtower itself, the little landscape adds just enough colour to set the mood and give the titular tower a nice contrast.

A fun bit of Super Mario nostalgia in these custom LEGO cubes [Video]

If you ask me, the combination of Super Mario Bros. and LEGO can equal nothing less than awesome. There certainly is lots of it out there, but this is definitely one of my favorites. Sean from Build Better Bricks has graced us with this bit of awesome: a quartet of the iconic blocks from the beloved Nintendo game.

Arguably the best part about the blocks is the fact that they are hollow and designed to hold various things. The mushrooms fit perfectly inside the question/mystery block and the brick block is naturally a coin bank! Watch the video to see more!

New 6,000-piece LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle 71043 revealed as 2nd-largest LEGO set ever [News]

Today LEGO has unveiled the flagship playset from this year’s Harry Potter franchise. Consisting of a massive 6,020 pieces, it’s the largest set to be revealed this year and by far the biggest Harry Potter set ever. In fact, it’s the second-largest LEGO set of all time, coming in behind the Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon. The set will be available August 15 for VIP members with a general release on Sept. 1 for $399.99 USD.

The set includes the most complete layout of the Hogwarts castle yet including the Whomping Willow and Hagrid’s Hut, all created in microscale and populated with numerous microfigs of students, teachers, and Dementors, along with Aragog, the Basilisk, and even a Hungarian Horntail. It also includes four minifigures of the Hogwarts house founders: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, and Rowena Ravenclaw, none of whom have appeared in LEGO form before.

Click to see more of the Hogwarts Castle

“How about a ride, mister?”

When it comes to fan-built Back to the Future models, there are a plethora of DeLorean time machines out there. Heck, there was even an official LEGO set! While I love the DeLorean as much as the next person, who can forget the 1985 Toyota SR5 pickup truck (also known as the Hilux outside of the U.S.)? This was the truck Marty McFly pined over with his girlfriend, became a reality when he returned home to a transformed 1985, and nearly ruined his life when Needles called him “chicken” for refusing to race. Fortunately, Nikolay Gamurar remembered Marty’s truck and built a fantastic rendition of the vehicle in Technic form. While the Toyota from the movie was a two-door model, Nikolay modified his truck to have four-door extended cab. Outside of this mod, the sculpting of the rest of the body feels faithful to the original truck. As a Technic build, it looks stunning in black.

Nikolay’s truck is packed with a lot of detail, right down to the Chassis. This photograph also gives at glimpse at some of the Toyota’s key mechanical functions.

It also features a nice and roomy interior, perfect for a comfortable drive to the lake.

A great yellow spaceship that isn’t from Star Wars

When it comes to building a spaceship with character, sometimes the spaces in between the LEGO elements are just as important, if not more so, than the parts themselves. A good gap or connection can provide the perfect breathing room or white space in a model. This craft, known as the Vulture, from the upcoming video game Star Citizen, by GolPlaysWithLego is packed with some very nice details. One of the most interesting of which would have to be the post-production effects used to place the vessel in action.

One of my absolute favorite details is the use of two black roller-skates on either side of the black 1×2 ingot just behind the front cockpit (and another on each of the forward arms). Another well-placed mini-figure accessory is the ice skate. Finally, the builder achieves a half-plate gap behind a pair of cheese slopes attached to headlight bricks.