Extending to a length of 125 studs — or for better scale, the length of 4 LEGO modular buildings — this battlecruiser dubbed the Basilisk was designed and built by Pico van Grootveld, and it’s a thing of stunning beauty. The belt frame built in yellow gives it a sturdy and unique texturing for a spaceship’s body. The army green all over makes it feel like it’s a tank-class battleship not to be messed with, especially with the menacing looking fins — or spikes shall I say!
BrickCon 2017 in Seattle is about a week away, and we are giving away tickets to the public exhibition! Come see the amazing creations that builders from all around the world have brought to BrickCon. (You may even see some of your favorite writers from The Brothers Brick roaming around in our bright green shirts!)
The BrickCon 2017 Public Exhibition is open Saturday Oct, 7 from 10am to 4pm and Sunday, Oct. 8 from 10am to 3pm, located at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.
You can get your tickets online now, but if they sell out you can try to win some from The Brothers Brick! We are giving away three family packs of four tickets each, good for entry on either Saturday or Sunday at any time.
The contest runs from today until 11:59 on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Leave a comment below about what you are most excited about seeing at BrickCon 2017. We’ll randomly select three entries Thursday morning and then notify the winners. Winners will be able to pick up their tickets at the will call window at the BrickCon Exhibition Hall beginning Saturday morning.
(For builders attending the convention, check out these last minute reminders to register your creations and sign up for games before the deadline at the end of the week.)
If you’re a fan of the sci-fi film Oblivion, you should recognize this unique bubble ship piloted by Tom Cruise. Builder Marcin Otreba constructed a worthy replica of the vehicle sparing no expense for details and function. He did a good job capturing the visual styles of the movie into LEGO brick form. It is said that the ship was inspired by the Bell 47 helicopters of today.
Marcin did slightly modify the design to fit a single passenger to provide details from the actual movie ship.
It’s not often you see a build that you want to take a bite out of. But especially for this LEGO wedding cake, I’d think twice about my pearly whites before I took a mouthful. LEGO chef Handoko Setyawan brick-baked a LEGO cake for dear friends who clearly are fans of both Harry Potter and a galaxy far far away. The icing on this cake is not what is outside, but a hidden showcase of a diorama showcasing the couple’s favorite movies.
Click to see all the hidden surprises inside this beautiful LEGO cake
On 22 Sept, LEGO House opened it’s doors to over 600 adult fans of LEGO and their families, allowing advanced access to this world of creative experiences. The official public opening is on the 28th Sept, but The Brothers Brick flew over to Billund to attend the preview opening to give you a closer look inside the Home of the Brick.
LEGO House exterior is certainly striking, designed by Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels to look like a stack of bricks from the outside with the keystone white 2×4 LEGO brick on top. The 21 colourful interlocking bricks contain four playful Experience Zones, with tons of creative fun, a Masterpiece Gallery inside the Keystone at the very top, a LEGO History Museum in the basement, three restaurants, and a LEGO Brand Retail Store. Lets step inside.
On entering LEGO House, you find yourself in the main foyer. A cavernous area that reaches from the floor to the Masterpiece Gallery in the roof. The foyer is known as LEGO Square and is where the LEGO Retail Store, two restaurants, Brickaccino cafe and elevator access to the roof terraces can be found.
Read our complete review of the LEGO House
With exotic colours, contrasts and aggressive angles, there is a lot to this little speedy spaceship by Chris Perron. The front prongs are simple, but they do not detract from the whole, and thicker ones would probably not even look as good with this compact construction.
The general shape somewhat resembles the once-popular Vic Viper spaceship style, with some deviations. I wonder if adding a tail fin to meet pre-existing templates would make it more impressive or whether it would feel less fresh. In either case, Chris is a very good builder and has probably considered both options and chose the better one.
The 2017 Bio-cup Bionicle contest is a great source of outstanding creations in the titular theme, with Tengu by the Belarussian builder Vlad Lisin as a prime example. Vlad’s theme for this round was feudal Japan and this samurai- and oni-inspired character has Japanese style to spare.
The menacing and muscular body gives a strong first impression, and details like the bead necklace and sandals reward closer inspection. In the end, all that is overshadowed by the masterfully sculpted face with a glorious white beard and the yellow eyes standing out in contrast with the dark red skin.
We’ve seen a lot of LEGO batcaves over the years, but what of the stately mansion the Dark Knight calls home during the daytime? After all, LEGO Bruce Wayne needs a place to kick up his feet. Never fear! KW_Vauban has built an impressive minifig-scale LEGO Wayne Manor. According to the builder, over 150,000 LEGO pieces went into this massive creation.
The outside of the building is encrusted in beautiful architectural details like columns, molding, and even gargoyle-like relief sculptures. And the inside might be even more detailed than the exterior. Vauban’s bat mansion includes dozens of fully furnished rooms such as bedrooms, dining rooms, a billiards room, kitchens, a spa, art galleries, gyms, and more. To peek inside for yourself, click through to the gallery below.
Holy Wayne Manor, Batman! Click through for the full gallery
Unsurprisingly, LEGO is going all out promoting The LEGO Ninjago Movie, which made $20.4 million in its first weekend (compare to $53 million for The LEGO Batman Movie earlier this year or the original LEGO Movie at $69 million). Following quickly on the heels of the newly revealed Ninjago Movie wave 2 set images, LEGO has released a pair of BrickHeadz characters from the movie, 41487 Lloyd and 41487 Master Wu. Both sets, which will only be available through the end of 2017, retail for $9.99 US/$12.99 CAD and are available in LEGO Stores and online already.
Master Wu is built from 89 pieces, and features his straw hat, kimono, and walking stick. Master Wu’s eyes and cloak toggles are printed.
Lloyd includes 102 pieces, with printed elements for his eyes, headband, and ninja gi.
Click through to see the box art for these sets
Last week, The Brothers Brick attended the preview opening event at the LEGO House, the new LEGO experience centrally located at the home of the brick in Billund, Denmark. Two of the exclusive Pick-A-Model sets available at the LEGO Store within LEGO House are mini fish tanks. These will provide a memory of the day as one of the awesome attractions is a huge selection of bricks available to build your own fish, scan it and then watch as it happily starts to explore the digital underwater world around you.
The instructions are for two different Fish Tank pick-a-model builds, 3850060 and 3850061, with 33 and 34 parts respectively. Each set comes in a blister pack with parts and a instruction booklet but they are simple builds that can be made with similar parts you have at home.
See the step-by-step instructions for these two fishy models after the jump
When most people today hear the name Tesla, you probably think of those snazzy electric cars. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla, with or without credit, influenced our modern world in ways that perhaps no man ever has. the_jetboy knows this, creating a fantastic kinetic magnetic tribute to the great inventor. If you include designing the first hydroelectric power plant, advocating Alternating Current, and inventing electric motors, robotics, new ways of harnessing and distributing light – including lasers and X-rays, radio (sorry Marconi), and wireless communication (including TV remotes), then there’s not a lot he hasn’t contributed to today’s modern world.
Inspired by Sensei Yoshihito Isogawa, the builder has also created a video showing this beautiful, magnet-bearing kinetic sculpture in action. One final tantilising piece of Tesla trivia: Teslas are a unit used to measure the strength of magnetic fields.
A final quote from the genius madman inventor himself:
The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.
The answer: You get a Hag Titan, or more precisely, this spacecraft by Shannon Sproule. Built for the annual SHIPtember building challenge, it just goes to show you don’t need thousands of pieces to make an interesting SHIP (Significantly Huge Investment in Parts). I love the way it looks like a half-mechanical, yet half-alive alien creature.
Early in the build process, Shannon made a neat collage showing some of his inspiration sources for the ship, including a Star Wars Trade Federation transport and a weird black blob with tendrils that is likely some kind of parasite (a shark’s egg case, actually), various creatures, and various lava fortresses. It is interesting to try and spot how each inspiration had small effects on the final build.
