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.

Updates to the Brothers-Brick.com Privacy Policy for the EU GDPR

You’ve probably seen dozens of emails and dozens of pop-ups about updated privacy policies from just about every website you’ve ever visited over the past few weeks, and Brothers-Brick.com is no different. Ever since our founding in 2005, The Brothers Brick has been committed to our readers’ online privacy and security. Like nearly all websites that share content for free, Brothers-Brick.com relies on advertising to cover the costs of server infrastructure, products for review, event travel, and so on. As a result, we have always relied on a variety of advertising partners and technologies to operate the website. TBB’s commitment to your privacy and security remains unchanged. Similarly, how The Brothers Brick uses your personally identifiable information is not changing as a result of the new Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is coming into effect on May 25th, 2018.

LEGO City 60197 and 60198 will introduce the new LEGO Powered Up smart application [News]

The new City train sets have been revealed last week partially confirming the long-rumored updates of the Power Functions system. With only the pictures of the front of the boxes it was pretty hard to say whether the new system will support Bluetooth connection or not, but now, as pictures of the rear side have appeared online, the answer is “yes”; the new trains can be both controlled with a remote controller (included in each set) or with a smart phone.

Click here to read about the new Power Functions 2.0 system

LEGO Overwatch sets coming, Activision Blizzard announces [News]

Today at the Licensing Expo 2018 in Las Vegas, Activision Blizzard has announced they’ve reached a licensing agreement with LEGO for the blockbuster game Overwatch, according to Business Wire. Overwatch is a first-person shooter with a loose sci-fi setting, breaking new territory for LEGO in their licensing agreements, as they’ve traditionally steered clear of such properties. The announcement comes amidst a slew of other new license partners for Activision Blizzard, including UNIQLO, Nerf, and more.

There’s no word yet on specifically what sorts of sets we’ll see from LEGO, but with LEGO’s theme-crossing video game Dimensions finished, it’s certain this won’t simply be a small tie-in expansion pack. We hope they’ll be as cool as this yellow D.Va mech by TBB’s own Nick Jensen. And if you can’t wait to buy some official Overwatch sets, Nick has provided instructions for this mech in the link above.

Stunning AV-22 Sparrowhawk from Halo Wars

Video games are a great source of inspiration when it comes to building LEGO spaceships, especially the Halo franchise, with a wide variety of orbital, deep space, atmosphere, and ground vehicles from many space-faring species. Marius Herrmann, who has built models from Titanfall 2 and Horizon: Zero Dawn has built a stunning version of the AV-22 Sparrowhawk from Halo Wars.

While this might look like a digital render to some, the source for many of the unusual olive green elements is much more analog. The builder used a very careful application of spray paint to produce the needed parts for this wonderfully detailed craft, and the results speak for themselves, if you ask me. On the more traditional side of things, I especially like the propellers, made from a lattice radar dish plus mini-fig hands and hooks.

Here is even an added bonus, a depiction of the craft in action.

Hobbiton is more than just Bag End!

The excellent photography and advanced building techniques may be what drew my attention to this creation by Patrick B., but they are not the most interesting part to me. What is so unique about this creation is the accompanying description, crediting a handful of builders who inspired Patrick’s Sandyman’s Mill, either by building their own versions prior or as Patrick’s sources for some techniques used. It is normal for builders to both reuse previously discovered techniques and credit their sources, but I rarely see it like this particular example. It almost reads like a scientific publication!

Click to see and read more about the build!

Sebulba’s Podracer Revenge

I’ve been a fan of Podracers ever since they made their debut in The Phantom Menace. These strange vehicles have two bulky engines towing a cart that has very little protection if things go wrong. Jon & Catherine Stead take a spin on the iconic scene where Sebulba is defeated. However, unlike the movie, this time the Dug pilot has a souped-up, mean machine ready to take out any other future Jedi wannabes.

I guess one thing Sebulba didn’t quite learn is bigger may not necessarily mean better, as he opted for oversized engines yet again. Probably unseen and hidden are all those illegal mods to take out any other podracers that may be of threat. Continue reading for close-up shots of Subulba’s new podracer.

Sure to be smooth sailing, wind or no

The Esmeralda is an unusual LEGO ship for several reasons. First, it’s a steam corvette from the 1800s, a period when many ships were rigged with sails and outfitted with steam engine-powered screws. Despite the abundance of source material, not many LEGO builders have recreated these ships. And secondly, builder Luis Peña has chosen an interesting size, scaling the ship to the game microfigs.

The finished result looks excellent, with a ship that’s big enough to incorporate lots of details like the anchor pulleys, while still small enough to be manageable with a reasonable number of pieces. Other great details include the Technic panels as sails (a technique LEGO employed on the Sea Cow) and the excellent little Chilean flag.

The LEGO Movie 2 officially announced [News]

Today LEGO and Warner Animation Group have officially announced the sequel to their mega-hit film The LEGO Movie. Slated for release in theaters next February, exactly 5 years after the original, the new movie will be titled The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. We don’t yet have any word on the plot, but the movie has lined up the same all-star voice acting cast as the original, including Chris Pratt as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, and Will Arnett as Batman.

Star World Wars II : Return of the Dogfights

Hardcore Star Wars fans would know that many of the scenes from the original trilogy were heavily inspired by World War II dogfight scenes, and even some of the ship designs were lifted from aviation bombers of that period. Builder Steve Peterson has reversed this inspiration and transposed the space vehicles back into what they could have looked like if World War II fighters were instead inspired by the vehicles from Star Wars. He took the fan favourites of the X-Wing, the Y-Wing and the TIE fighter and made them look very retro cool. It seemed like they stepped through a time transformation machine. If you’re familiar with the era, tell us what WWII aircraft you think inspired these builds!

Click to check out all 3 vehicles

A bridge beneath the tracks

There is so much about this little scene that stands out as awesome. Regularly featured here on TBB, excellent master builder Tim Schwalfenberg does it again with his River Crossing. He says, “You can’t really have a train without some sort of track to display it on,” so he built one. The textures and colours of the rocks and foliage are impeccable. The intricate detail that has gone into the iron framework of the span across the turbulent rapids is amazing, and the brilliant red engine leaps out from the subtle textures of the natural colours and contours on the cliff face.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for May 20, 2018 [News]

This was the biggest week of LEGO news of the past several months, with hands-on coverage from LEGO’s Fall Preview event in New York City as well as numerous product announcements — with more yet to come! This is our weekly Brick Report for the third week of May 2018.

TBB FEATURES & REVIEWS: In case you missed it among all the news coverage this week, we have a hands-on review of the latest LEGO Ninjago Movie set.

Review of 70657 Ninjago City Docks – A new dock scene joins one of our favorite LEGO sets of 2017. Read our review to see how it stacks up against 70620 Ninjago City.
Bre’s Classic Space pinball machine – If you’re into LEGO (and you probably are if you’re reading this), by now one of your friends or relatives has probably shared a link to one of the many articles about this working LEGO pinball machine on your Facebook timeline. In case you missed it here on TBB last week, here’s our original coverage of TBB contributor Bre Burns’ amazing Technic creation.
75192 UCS Millennium Falcon back in stock – The largest LEGO set of all time is back in stock, and you can help support TBB’s coverage of events in places like New York and Billund by clicking through from TBB when purchasing your LEGO!

TBB COVERAGE FROM LEGO’S FALL PREVIEW EVENT IN NYC: LEGO’s selection of sets unveiled at Toy Fair 2018 back in February was more limited than in years past, but LEGO invited TBB to a special Fall Preview event. Don’t miss all the new products we were able to play with!

LEGO Harry Potter sets hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – We saw the prototype Hogwarts at Toy Fair, but here’s our first detailed look at the complete line of sets from both Harry Potter and Magical Beasts.
LEGO Star Wars sets hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – We take a close look at the complete line of LEGO Star Wars sets for summer and fall, including a new, classic X-wing with both Luke and Biggs.
LEGO Batman Fall 2018 sets + hands-on demo of App-Controlled Batmobile – Only three new LEGO Batman sets were revealed this week, but one of them is a Batmobile with mobile app integration that has some serious potential for building remote-controlled vehicles.
LEGO Marvel Superheroes Ant-Man hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – With Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War behind us, the next wave of LEGO Superheroes Marvel sets consists of just one set supporting the forthcoming Ant-Man sequel.
LEGO City People Pack hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – Collectible Minifigures are not the only way to get great new minifigures and accessories. We took a close look at the next People Pack, which includes a gorgeous bald eagle.
LEGO City Arctic Expedition hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – Pleistocene megafauna (large animals from the last Ice Age) join the menagerie of LEGO animals with the next wave of LEGO City sets, and our Editor-in-Chief Andrew couldn’t be more excited.
LEGO Creator sets hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – Although the assortment of LEGO Creator sets unveiled in New York was limited, the main attraction was 10261 Creator Roller Coaster. Watch the demo video below!
LEGO Technic sets hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – The next wave of LEGO Technic sets includes the futuristic 42081 Volvo Concept Wheel Loader ZEUX.
LEGO Unikitty sets and Unikitty Collectibles Series 1 hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – The forthcoming Unikitty! TV show (yes, the title itself includes an exclamation point) is yielding a full wave of LEGO sets, including a blind bag assortment similar to Collectible Minifigures.
LEGO Powerpuff Girls sets hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – With the LEGO Dimensions video game canceled, LEGO puts its inventory of Powerpuff Girls figures to good use with a range of sets.
LEGO City Trains hands-on coverage from the Fall 2018 Preview event – The next wave of LEGO City Trains includes two new trains, a cargo train and a passenger train.

See all of the LEGO news from TBB and beyond

Aedes from Hades

Interestingly enough, Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann starts the description of this creation of a mosquito with a questionable choice of words, “Hate them or love them”. I am either oblivious to a huge mosquito fandom or perhaps I’m right that nobody can love an annoyingly high-pitched flying sound and the endless itching of their bites, not to mention the far more serious world health issues. I understand if many of you are turned away from this creation due to very well justified hatred towards mosquitoes, but you can just imagine it as a male mosquito, which does not suck blood, as the builder very informatively points out in the picture’s description.

All anatomical characteristics of Aedes aegypti are captured perfectly, of which the most difficult looks the subtle curve of the abdomen. Most notably though, the model can stand on its legs as a true insect would, which is hard to do at this scale and with legs as thin as these while still keeping them poseable.

Click to see the mosquito up close, with zero itch risk!