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 market raid worse than a medieval Black Friday

Unless you’re stuck in the Middle Ages, you’ll probably know that contemporary LEGO castle building techniques call for texture overdoses and lots of earth tones. That is all great, but I often like builds that are different from this new norm, because variation is key. Joel Tyer approaches the problem of originality from a different angle – the addition of white pillars at the side of the wall in this market scene gives the creation a unique and memorable appearance, without sacrificing complexity for uniqueness’ sake.

The terrace alone is not the only reason the build is so good, of course. The landscape is very fluid and the little stream outlines the base perfectly. The tower has an interesting hexagonal shape, rounded off at the edges with Technic pin connectors. This looks surprisingly good even with the different levels of textures in play.

And don’t miss the action at the back of the market, with soldiers and merchants going about their business.

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LEGO BrickHeadz 41597 Go Brick Me customization kit [Review]

We first brought you the news about the LEGO BrickHeadz 41597 Go Brick Me customization kit at Toy Fair in New York last month. It was clear from the parts selection and packaging that LEGO intends builders to create a broad range of characters from the set, which includes 708 pieces for $29.99 (and will be available on April 1st but is starting to show up in the wild already).

This set is an utterly unique LEGO set, remarkable in many ways. We purchased a couple early copies of the set from a major US retailer, and we spent an entertaining evening building avatars of ourselves and a diverse cast of interesting characters. Let’s dig in and see what’s so different about this LEGO set.

What can you build with 41597 Go Brick Me? Find out after the jump!

Classic Space gets a facelift

The classic space theme is always near and dear to my heart, as my very first LEGO set with a minifig was 487 Space Cruiser. There have been many LEGO creations paying tribute to this theme, from scaled up versions of classic sets to microscale. This long-range scout ship by Alec Hole represents a significant reboot.

The classic division of light gray wing/underside and blue fuselage pays homage to the theme while prolific greebling and other details throughout the model give it a very modern feel. There are a number of elements from the classic sets used here to connect this modern vessel to its historic roots, from the overall blue and gray color scheme to the little “bumblebee” stripes.

Tiny LEGO version of Manila Cathedral

Here’s a LEGO model worthy of a little worship. Gerald Cacas has put together this wonderful microscale rendition of Manila’s Cathedral. There’s an impressive level of detail on display here, with smart texturing around the base, at the top of the walls, and on the dome. My head hurts just looking at the brickwork that’s gone into the belltower.

Modelling an existing building with any sort of accuracy at this scale is an achievement in itself, but to include a detailed interior? That’s just showing off! Gerald does exactly that with a lift-off roof revealing the inside — complete with pews and altar. This is excellent microscale work.

Sweet modular Dentist office

This wonderfully detailed corner modular by o0ger features a dentist’s office as well as a sweet shop, so you can get your ice cream and get your teeth cleaned all in one stop. There are so many great design choices to call out here. Each building has a well-integrated color scheme, from the lime green plus yellow-green stripes on the sweet shop to the brown and rust-red of the dentist’s office.

Both buildings also feature some excellent architectural details, especially around the windows and doors. The details of the dentist office roof window are particularly interesting.

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Lara Croft lives dangerously in this amazing, animated Tomb Raider LEGO diorama [Video]

With the original Tomb Raider video game released back in 1996 and yet another movie this year, it’s clear that there’s a lot of mileage in the Lara Croft story. The mix of adventure, exotic locations and history also makes Tomb Raider great inspiration for LEGO creations. Kevin Wanner has created a Tomb Raider diorama that has some powered features — a cascading waterfall and a perilously angled B-25 that moves as Lara Croft crosses. The negative space lettering is nicely constructed and there’s a lot of character built into the overgrown crash site.

CLick to see close-ups and a video of the moving features

The futile fight of a fearless knight facing the fiery dragon

Until the final season of Game of Thrones is over, every dragon is going to remind of Drogon, Rhaegal or Viserion, but this one hits the mark more than most. Creations which give a sense of life in motion are always exceptional, and this one is simply on fire! Inspired by a dragon that was seen in a piece of artwork, mrxsto99‘s model captures a heroic knight on a steed battling against the odds with a larger-than-life dragon.

Click here to see more of the fiery dragon

The LEGO Throwbots get an upgrade as intricate fan builds

Before there was Bionicle, there were the Throwbots, or Slizers, as they were marketed in some parts of the world. While not as popular as their successors from Metru Nui, the theme introduced many elements that would later find use in Bionicle. Many people still remember them fondly, and now a few of those nostalgic fans have teamed up to give them a modern facelift.

We highlighted Turbo a few days ago, but now eight of the original sets have been taken on by as many builders (with four more slated to come soon), and each of them brings their own style to the table, as well as their ideas for what the original could have been. Some stray wildly from the source material, and others are more faithful.

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A cute castle by the cute sea

Microscale castles are ever-present and always pleasant to look at, but often the width of LEGO bricks works best for minifig-scaled castle walls, making ones built at smaller scales too blocky. Aaron Newman has gone around this problem by using panels and the bottom sides of bricks as walls proportionate to the scale.

The build has a good sense of clutter naturally present in medieval castles, but my favourite part is the fortifications on the towers; the creation is made for a competition that stipulates using silver goblet pieces in unique ways, but all I can see is the brilliant use of upturned 2×2 round bricks!

Your LEGO isn’t connected to the Internet

Google Chrome users who have experienced connectivity issues may recognize this LEGO dinosaur built by joffre0714, which is based on a built-in Easter egg game playable when the browser is offline. I appreciate the effort put forth by the builder to average out the pixel sizes between two and three plates high, maintaining the overall square proportions with rectangular bricks.

LEGO 71021 Collectible Minifigures Series 18 [Review]

Ever since LEGO introduced the minifigure, the tiny plastic characters have enthralled children and adults around the world. With hundreds of new figures each year, they’ve consistently proven to be one of LEGO’s most popular attractions, featuring prominently in most of LEGO’s products, and of course, they’ve spawned a whole theme just for themselves. Eight years from their inception, we’re now up to Minifigures Series 18 (71021), though of course there have been more than 18 series, with some special themes like The Simpsons or Team GB falling outside the numbering system. This wave of Collectible Minfigures (CMFs) features 17 unique characters and will retail for $3.99 USD. They should be available around April 1, though if previous series are any indication they may begin showing up in stores sooner. Let’s dive in and see what Series 18 is all about. (Hint: it’s a party!)

Click to read the full review

An even smaller LEGO Caterham

The microscale style has reached one of my personal favourite LEGO Ideas sets, 21307 Caterham Seven 620R. Builder Victor has managed to cram the important features of that build into a handful of pieces, complete with a simple base that uses one of the printed pieces from the official set. The rear section is where most of the interesting stuff is happening: the use of two fender pieces to make the back fenders is smart, but the minifig headphones as the roll cage is even smarter, while the batarang as the windscreen detail makes me want to invert these colours to make a proper open top batmobile.