More than three years ago Arjan Oudekotte started design work on a new ship model. He then got side-tracked for a bit, building a few other things such as a lovely American themed harbour and a large excavator, while the unfinished ship gathered dust. He still has to add a few small details, but he has now finally posted pictures that show the model in its entirety.
Click to see more of this incredible ship
The battle scene from Crait from Star Wars The Last Jedi was most memorable for its distinctive blood-red dust plumes that billow from the wake of the Resistance Ski Speeders in their feeble attempt to bring down the First Order. Their target was the modified canon protected by the First Order Heavy Assault Walkers (AT-M6) that towered over the battlefield. Builder Irwan Prabowo miniaturised the scene with a diorama that perfectly captures the tense moment.
We love the cracked planet surface texturing approach Irwan used. If you take a closer look, the tiny Ski Speeders use minifigure skates to complete the look (albeit on the outrigger, not the ski). How appropriate!
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 final week of April 2018.
TBB NEWS: It’s a week of summer fun for LEGO fans, with not one but two brand new roller coaster sets revealed, along with several other new sets such as the long-awaited City Hospital and an outdoor-themed people pack.
TBB REVIEWS: We close out our reviews of the new LEGO Star Wars sets from Solo: A Star Wars Story and look ahead to Star Wars Day on May 4th.
OTHER LEGO NEWS: There were a few other LEGO news articles from varying places around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:
Read the rest of LEGO news from around the web
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie received mixed reviews — a shame if you were a fan of the comic series on which it was (loosely) based. However, the production design was a definite highlight, with some amazing steampunk-styled creations popping off the screen. Martin Redfern has taken inspiration from the film’s rendition of Captain Nemo’s automobile to create this stunning car. Sleek retro lines are complemented with neat golden trim and some impressive grunt up front — all coming together in stylish steampunk fabulousness…
Click to see more of this great model, including the detailed interior and engine
May the Fourth or “Star Wars Day” is right around the corner, and LEGO has sent us an early copy of the free promotional set, 40288 BB-8. The set will be available May 4th through 6th (or until supplies run out) with LEGO Star Wars purchases over $75. We’ll bring you more details on the May the Fourth sales and deals later this week, so check back soon for more updates.
This buildable character joins the large-scale 75187 BB-8 released in 2017, and is about the same size as last year’s buildable R2-D2, so let’s dig in and see how this new droid compares.
Read our full review of the buildable BB-8 promo set
We all love Star Wars, but why should only the spaceships and battle scenes get all the love? How about some Jawas? This is what I imagine could have gone through Jacob Sadovich‘s mind when starting this build. This Jawa is so realistic, I just want to sell all my scrap copper to it!
What I really like about this build is that it is 100% LEGO, including the cloth. We have seen large Jawa figures in LEGO before, even life-sized ones, but most of them cheated at least a little. There is more to Jacob’s interpretation than just the robes, of course. The eyes light up and the belts with pouches are ironicaly made out of pouches with belts. The ion gun the little guy is holding in his hand also adds a lot to the character, as does the Technic-lined base.
At the far end of Bagshot Row at number 10 is the house of Fredregar “Fatty” Bolger, the son of Odovacar Bolger and Rosamunda Took. Patrick B. has captured Fatty with his wife and a furry friend outside his beautiful house at Bag End — another Shire creation for his “ExploringTheShire” project he started a year ago.
Like many a member of the online LEGO community, Patrick has credited fellow builders in the comments on Flickr to acknowledge where he has “borrowed” Jonas Kramm’s cobble design and appropriated the watering can design from Simon NH. I love how the online LEGO community reminds me very much of Hobbiton in more than a few regards.
In case it wasn’t obvious from previous features, we here at TBB love BrickHeadz, and the recent release of 41597 Go Brick Me has fueled the fire even more. Since we already published a full review of Go Brick Me, I decided to take an alternate approach with my own early copy and focus on putting the versatility of the included parts to the test. As mentioned in the full review, the most amazing aspect of this set is the ability to personalize your BrickHeadz character to truly reflect your own unique appearance and personality.
Larger LEGO sets always have enough pieces to make a decent alternate build — after all, that’s what LEGO bricks are meant to be, an unlimited configuration for limitless creations. This offroad vehicle was made by Nathanael Kuipers from the 10252 Volkswagen Beetle, and the colour scheme likely gave it away at the very first glance.
I find it pretty interesting how the Round Corner 5 x 5 x 1 without Studs element usually reserved for the shaping of the wheels is now used for the shaping of the engine hood compartment. And of course, no vehicle can run without an engine block — the only mystery is that we just don’t know what the brick power is that keeps it running. My guess is a single H-block engine 4 studs wide!
One of the joys of building in microscale is the challenge of doing more with less. In “The Bull Girls,” flickr user Letranger Absurde has proven adept in the art of micro-building. The entire scene has a Mediterranean flair to it. In particular, the microfigure with the red dress reminds me of a Spanish flamenco dancer. You can even find a piece of a flamenco dancer in the thatched-roof building…literally! The curtain over the entrance is actually the dress from the Series 6 collectible minifigures flamenco dancer.
It’s amazing what one specific part can do bring a little LEGO creation to life, and this model is packed full of fun details. The use of the black wizard beard for hair is brilliant, and I’m a big fan of the roller skates & cupcake holders that make up the microfigures’ dresses. The curved tree trunk also adds a lot of character.
My favorite part is the bull, which uses brown frogs for legs, minifig arm for a tail, “gorilla fist” for a head, and white cattle horns that first appeared in the 1994 Pirates Islanders theme. It’s a truly inspired design!
Massive new Marvel movie coming out? What better way to celebrate than with a set of teeny-tiny LEGO Avengers? I couldn’t resist giving these guys a go in micro/nanoscale. There’s not that many characters you can reduce to this scale and still keep them immediately recognisable, but the distinctive colour schemes of comic book superheroes make it possible. The model is not quite purist — there was a little bit of cutting involved (HERESY!), and two sections are balanced on each other rather than stuck together. But I think it looks cool so I’m begging forgiveness. (Bonus points for any eagle-eyed commenters out there who can spot which piece I cut…)
This scene was built by Eli Willsea (also known as ForlornEmpire) for a recent brick challenge. Brick competitions usually consist of using a seed piece of which various builders have to find clever ways to use it in their creations. The seed piece for this build is the Silver Goblet. See if you can spot how they were used in the theme.
What’s great about this build is not only the level of detail it took to pull off this futuristic lab scene, but Eli took the time to share with The Brothers Brick an exclusive in-depth behind the scenes video on how it was built. He shares the thought process and analysis you won’t be able to grasp by just looking at a static photo. If you have aspirations towards doing a scene like this or even just want to enjoy hearing what goes on in a builders brainwave when constructing a complex scene, this is for you.
Did you enjoy the video? Would you like to share your creative build process with the world? We are always looking for interesting builds and videos to feature and discuss. Feel free let us know, and you could be the star of the next video!