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.

LEGO celebrates 60 years with a half-ton brick in New York City [News]

To celebrate the 60th birthday of its iconic 2×4 brick, LEGO created a red 10-foot tall brick and placed it in New York City right in front of the Flatiron Building. The larger-than-life brick weighs in at 1,200 pounds, is made up of more than 133,000 individual bricks, and took 350 hours to make.

Even more mind-blowing than seeing such a plastic monolith in a concrete jungle is that a LEGO brick from 1958 still interlocks with a LEGO brick made today. This is due to precision injection molding and the original idea of using tubes to create clutch power. Before the Kristiansens settled on the familiar tube underside, they considered several 0ptions for the original pattern of LEGO bricks.

Click to take a closer look at the massive brick in NYC

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Mystery awaits in a rediscovered Mayan temple

Even though this ruined Mesoamerican temple by Jonas Wilde doesn’t depict any particular site, it’s clear Jonas was inspired by the amazing Mayan structures of the Classic Maya era (250-900 AD). Jungle foliage drapes itself over the building, while palm trees sprout from the platform. The composition of this LEGO build is stunning, with the scene built on a platform that includes cutaway views of earth and stone, and a variety of heights that accentuate the detailed flora.

See more of this fantastic archaeological treasure

Happy 60th International LEGO Day from The Brothers Brick! [News]

Sixty years ago today on January 28, 1958, at 1:58pm, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen submitted a patent application for a toy building brick which was approved six months later. Little did Godtfred know that his “highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system” would lead to LEGO becoming one of the largest toy companies on the globe.

We’ll have more on the LEGO brick’s 60th anniversary later today, but we wanted to celebrate across all time zones. So today, let’s build a set, sort some parts, or create something new and amazing. Play well, everyone.

Want to know more about the history of LEGO? Check out our LEGO History timeline!

A slice of fantasy life

Here’s a great example of how effective composition can turn a LEGO scene into something special. This slice of landscaping from Sergeant Chipmunk is a nice model of two warriors meeting on a smartly-constructed bridge. The surrounding scenery is nicely-done — the layers creating the gradients around the small stream are fantastic, and I like the amount of detail going on with the campsite and animal life. However, what really catches the eye is the way the bridge cuts across the diorama in a dramatic diagonal, and how the framing walls follow the contours making it feel like a slice of terrain cut from a genuine fantasy world. Wonderful stuff.

A good dentist never gets on your nerves

The Brothers Brick features many LEGO models created during build challenges like “Iron Builder” and the “ABS Builder Challenge.” Lucky builders get mailed “seed” pieces and are asked to create a series of wonderful, amazing designs in a short period of time. As luck would have it, Brick Samson (aka yours truly) was invited to participate in the ABS Builder Challenge round 2.8.

After an inspirational chat with a friend about the seed part (the dark brown wheel arch fender looking thing) and the narrow leather recliner was born. Add a suitable gaudy tiled floor, sterile white walls and cupboards, appropriate fixtures and a few lethal instruments and you have a squirmy colourful scene to send a shiver down the back of your spine. Enjoy!

2018 LEGO Speed Champions sets revealed [News]

Fasten your seat belts for the first images of the new 2018 LEGO Speed Champions sets! These sets, unveiled on the website of a major UK retailer, include new cars by Ford, Ferrari and Porsche. Particularly notable are the rally championship cars like the Ford Fiesta M-Sport, as well as Italian classics like the Ferrari 488 GT3 “Ferrari Corsa” supercar.

75888 Speed Champions Porsche 911 RSR & 911 TURBO 3.0
391 pieces, £34.99

Get set to race the LEGO Speed Champions Porsche 911 RSR and 911 Turbo 3.0 cars, with a pit wall, race-position board, lap counter, checkered flag element and 3 minifigures.

See the rest of the awesome vehicles in the 2018 LEGO Speed Champions line

Micro LEGO Technic stepper mechanism [Video]

Elegant, functional mechanical models don’t need to be large. In their “LEGO Technic Micro Stepper Mechanism” video, Lego Technic Mastery demonstrates how to build a simple, manually-operated stepper motor that can attach to any Technic beam. This stepper machine has four 90° stops, allowing for precise quarter turns in both the clockwise and counter-clockwise direction.

At 0:56 in the video, Lego Technic Mastery provides a shot of all the parts needed for this mcahine plus step-by-step instructions. I followed the instructions and built my own “little stepper” with little difficulty (although I did break a LEGO rubber band in the process).

Check out Lego Technic Mastery’s YouTube channel, which includes an awesome pneumatic robot hand!

Burn baby burn, LEGO inferno

Hot on the heels of their last isometric LEGO scene, simply bricking it is at it again. Here’s a hot little number — an erupting volcano spilling lava down the side of a hill, with the deadly streams of boiling rock somehow avoiding all the tiny dwellings. The colour scheme here is wonderful — this feels like a retro 70s-era eruption with all that brown and orange — and the lava flows have a genuine sense of downhill movement. All this volcanic action might be superhot, but this model is supercool.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

Mary and the Witch’s Flower is the first feature from Studio Ponoc, an anime production house formed from the ashes of the legendary Studio Ghibli. Based on the Mary Stewart book The Little Broomstick and directed by the very accomplished Hiromasa Yonebayashi (including his directorial debut with The Secret World of Arrietty), this movie easily matches the charm of any Miyazaki production. I enjoyed it immensely, and even listened to the soundtrack while building this LEGO version of Mary on her broomstick:

The above layout takes inspiration from the pivotal scene where Mary first takes flight on her broomstick. Observant readers will notice the inclusion of Tib the cat, a few Fly-by-Night seeds, and a background made entirely from LEGO bricks.

Tiny Cinderella lives here

Can’t afford the enormous LEGO Disney Castle set? That’s okay, why not use an entirely smaller selection of bricks to create your own tiny version like minimal-brick has done? This is a lovely microscale model, featuring some excellent detailing, particularly around the gatehouse and turret-tops. Check out the use of cog pieces around the model — adding texture to the turrets and as the clock above the entranceway. The relatively large base is nice and the trees and coloured paving break it up nicely. Disney geeks might quibble about the lack of a couple of the taller towers which sprout from the real castle’s rear, but that’s nitpicking at an otherwise great creation.

LEGO 60th Anniversary Classic limited edition sets revealed [News]

LEGO is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its iconic 2×4 brick this year, and to mark the occasion the company is getting back to the brick by releasing a number of Classic-themed play boxes. These boxes typically include bricks in varying shapes and colors with only a few examples or instructions to allow for building and rebuilding, letting the imagination run wild.

In addition to these five already-available Classic sets, three previously unknown sets celebrating the anniversary have now been revealed, as well as one set that will be getting some new packaging. 10715 Classic Bricks on a Roll will receive a limited edition vintage-style box along with a booklet illustrating the history of LEGO.

Click to see the other limited edition anniversary sets

An idyllic blacksmith shop

The blacksmith shop is surely one of the most frequently built medieval LEGO structures beside castles, of course. And this wonderfully detailed shop by Sebastian Bachórzewski looks so peaceful I like to believe this blacksmith is busily making swords into ploughshares. It’s hard to understand why he looks so grumpy… maybe he just hit his thumb with the hammer.

One of the things I enjoy most about this particular shop is the textured roof with those big beams. The wide variety of green parts, including a longhorn steer’s horn used to create the thick vegetation is also a nice touch.