We like when LEGO builders take on the task of trying to recreate famous artworks, or reimagine the styles of well-known artists through the medium of brick. Grantmasters takes on Keith Haring’s iconic cartoon pop-art in this cool little creation. I had to take a closer look to scope out the selection of curved black pieces Grant used to provide the signature outline to the red character — nicely done. The stripped-back colour schemes of Haring’s work obviously lend themselves well to the LEGO palette, and the collection of black “motion marks” are perfectly-placed to echo Haring’s style.
Category Archives: LEGO
The arrival of the Blue Comet
Fancy a train trip to New Jersey? Make sure you have your ticket booked as the iconic Blue Comet by Cale Leiphart is arriving! Its thoroughly designed body measures more than 40 studs in length and features a ton of the tiniest elements: valves, sand and steam domes, levers and regulators — all in blue, which makes this build a remarkable assembly of LEGO parts in regular blue color.
And it wouldn’t be a proper locomotive without a full set of carriages. As usual, Flick album has all the details of this impressive train.
LEGO Ideas 21312 Women of Nasa [Review]
LEGO recently unveiled its latest LEGO Ideas set, 21312 Women of Nasa. The set includes four minifigures depicting women astronauts, scientists, and engineers from throughout the US space program’s history. LEGO sent The Brothers Brick an early review copy of the set, which is due out on November 1st.
While the minifigures are certainly the heroes of the set, the set also includes three mini-builds, with 231 pieces. When released, the set will retail for $24.99. Given the science-oriented, minifig-centric nature of both LEGO Ideas sets, comparisons to 21110 Research Institute will be inevitable among LEGO fans, and we’ll do our best to compare and contrast them along the way.
Click through to read our full review of LEGO Ideas 21312 Women of Nasa
Learn from a LEGO master at the Royal Academy
There’s a whole medieval world created by LEGO fan builders as part of a role-playing game called Nine Kingdoms hosted by German-language site RogueBricks. Even RPGs need educational institutions and Markus Rollbühler has built the Royal Academy, a place for students to come and learn from the masters. There are lots of interesting LEGO techniques that we can also study at the Royal Academy with some fine LEGO construction and parts use on show. My eye was immediately drawn to the tree, with its foliage uniquely constructed using plumes of green feathers. I also love the bird’s nest sitting on the roof of the Academy, my ornithological knowledge is rather limited but it looks like a stork has made a home up there.
There are almost too many gems to mention, as the Academy itself has some lovely architectural details such as the beautifully shaped dormer windows. Can you spot the brown minifigure hockey sticks in the scene? There’s a lot to love in this creation and if you like this build, you will certainly enjoy spending a quiet summer evening at Markus’ windmill.
2018 LEGO set images for LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes, Creator, City and Technic revealed [News]
Official images of a selection of early 2018 LEGO sets have been released, including LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes, Creator, City and Technic sets due for release. The details include the set number and part count or pricing in some cases, but not all the information has been released as yet. There are a couple of interesting sets in particular with 31081 Modular Skate House within the Creator theme, and 42074 Racing Yacht from the Technic line-up.
Images for three sets from LEGO DC Comics Superheroes have been released.
76097 Lex Luthor Mech Takedown, $39.99
76098 Speed Force Freeze Pursuit, $29.99
76096 Superman & Krypto Team-Up, $19.99
The LEGO Creator Line up includes a fun looking mini-modular build 31081 Modular Skate House and a selection of vehicles including a stunt plane, racing car and a 4×4 outback explorer jeep-like vehicle.
31081 Modular Skate House, 422 pcs
See more of the first wave of 2018 LEGO sets
Just another bug hunt
It’s not often that we see LEGO creations that incorporate the large Technic figures that LEGO included in sets back in the late 80’s through the 90’s. Similarly, most of the LEGO xenomorphs we’ve featured largely use standard System bricks to recreate the terrifying creatures from the Alien movies. Weilong Yao breaks with both of these traditions by building a work loader around a Technic figure and incorporating lots of Bionicle in the alien itself.
A harsh but satisfying life in the village of Avalon
Four young builders join forces to bring us this extensive medieval village diorama. While I often complain about lack of variety in top-end castle-themed LEGO builds, there is a very bright side to this; if I had not known this creation was a collaboration, I would never have figured it out. The main image is hosted by Timothy Shortell, but the others involved are Micah the fire-breathing hobbit, Mountain hobbit and Cole Blood.
There are many details to see all over the diorama; the market has many interesting elemets, houses are all exceptionally done with interesting textures and angles everywhere, and the plant life facilitates the time and place where this diorama is set up – dried grass, autumn leaves and pine trees show us a cold but habitable place.
Volvo – they’re blocky but they’re good
70s Sweden. What do you think of? If you didn’t say ABBA, there’s something wrong with you. But here’s a fabulous LEGO diorama from LegoJalex which manages to capture the era perfectly without a hint of the Scandi-SuperTroupers. We’ve got an excellent orange Volvo 242 in the driveway, but for me, it’s the surrounding scenery and attention to detail which make this model pop. I love the textures of the different walls, the use of forced perspective to create the buildings and factories in the distance, and the little touches like the pail and the abandoned football in the grass.
The car itself is a smart model in its own right, well worth a closer look…
No time to waste – the garbage is piling up [Instructions]
Nobody likes to talk about waste/trash/rubbish/garbage — but it’s part of our lives as consumers. Call it what you like, but somebody still has to collect and transport it. de-marco has stepped up to help out our minifigures, building this adorable little waste container transporter. The garbage transporter will happily pick up any used and discarded LEGO bricks for disposal. de-marco has kindly provided instructions to help you build your own version. Just make sure you have the necessary training to work those hydraulics…
Here is an instructional video. Soon your LEGO town will no longer have rubbish piling up in the streets…
Down and dirty swivel-frame truck
If you have played any GTA V then you may well recognise this delightful scene by Pixel Fox. It’s a Dodge Power Wagon W300 with Swivel-Frame. The base is a LEGO box filled with real dirt and rocks — an unusual touch which elevates the model out of the ordinary. My favorite little detail is the Collectible Minifigure Spy rope piece used on the telephone pole.
The Cadillac of big trucks rolls into town
Nothing says man machine like a huge truck, and the thoroughbred stallions of the truckin’ world come from US brand Peterbilt. Affectionately known as a “Pete”, these long haul trucks are often referred to as “The Cadillacs of big trucks”. Jarek Wally has built a LEGO model of a Peterbilt truck that is anything but pocket-sized — 61cm long, 15cm wide, 21cm high, and weighing in at nearly 3kg. The model contains 1 XL motor, 1 servo motor, 5 sets of lights, a few engraved bricks, and a whole lot of chrome. I’m going to stick my chick neck out here and say this is a 379. I’m sure some of you guys out there had posters of trucks like this hanging up in your teenage bedroom.
Sometimes still images alone aren’t enough to showcase the wondrous stature and manly muscle behind these trucks. Just as well Jarek has made a short movie to show off all the shiny details. Sit back and enjoy the ride…
Announcing winners of The Brothers Brick’s Millennium Falcon LEGO building contest [News]
The Brothers Brick’s LEGO Millennium Falcon building contest ran throughout the month of September, with more than 160 entries large and small. When we announced our contest, we had no idea that LEGO would be running a Falcon contest of their own, with the new 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon as their grand prize. However, LEGO kindly leveled the playing field between the two contests, and the First Place winner of TBB’s contest will also be receiving a UCS Falcon, courtesy our friends in Billund. Each of the four winners will also be receiving the super-rare “Escape the Space Slug” set.
In First Place, taking home the UCS Falcon, Josh Fowler built a large-scale Millennium Falcon interior that depicts the creatures from the Dejarik “holochess” game that Chewie played with Threepio, but with the game’s creatures playing with minifigs instead. All of the judges agreed that the creative inversion of roles, large scale, and excellent recreation of both the Falcon’s interior and the creatures themselves deserved our grand prize.
We asked contestants to submit only one photo as their entry, but do be sure to peruse Josh’s photostream on Flickr for more close-up shots, like this one showing off the hilarious results of the game in progress.
In Second Place, winning the current 75105 Millennium Falcon set from The Force Awakens (plus a space slug), city son used LEGO bricks to create what is essentially an Impressionist painting of the Millennium Falcon. We can only think of a handful of LEGO creations that use this technique to good effect, and this is certainly the best — we just can’t imagine transporting it to a show!
Click through to see the runner-up winners and honorable mentions