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.

French revolution of steam-powered gears

We have spoken about the LEGO steampunk genre many times before, but for the uninitiated it is a genre of science fiction that has a historical, normally Victorian, setting and features steam-powered machinery. Castor Troy‘s latest creation adds to his growing Paris Steampunk 1889 display with the world’s largest museum, the Louvre. The architecture has been brilliantly captured using a host of smaller parts to add decorative features, ranging from Technic gears and monochrome tan minifigures to studs, slopes and droid body parts.

The larger glass pyramid has been replaced with an altogether different type of pyramid, worthy of a place in steampunk history.

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Still LEGO life worthy of an art gallery

Traditionally, still life is the drawing or painting of items such as fruit, flowers and household objects, which are usually arranged on a table top. Birgitte Jonsgard has crossed LEGO with a typical still life set up to give a still LEGO life piece of artwork that seems to emulate the work of Dutch Golden Age painter, Pieter de Ring. The dark background and table contrasting with the vibrant colours of fruit, vegetables and, of course, the central lobster have been carefully arranged to really give some serious artwork vibes.

If you like Birgitte’s still life style of LEGO art, you will love another of her creations that we featured; Still life painting of LEGO fruit and seafood.

Anyone up for a quick round of mini golf?

Taking a break from his normal pastel art-deco-inspired buildings which look like they belong on postcards, Andrew Tate‘s most recent LEGO creation is something even more whimsical, a putt-putt golf course! There are so many fun details, like the colorful putting greens with obstacles, employees dressed like they work in a renaissance fair, and different colored golf balls for all the players. It’s also impressive how Andrew captured the look of a castle that appears real at first glance, but upon further inspection, seems like it’s probably made out of carved foam and painted wood rather than stone.

LEGO Group is to “reset the company” after single-digit decline in revenues for first half of 2017 [News]

According to their most recent press release, the LEGO Group’s revenue for the first half of 2017 is 5 percent down compared with the same period in 2016. Other key figures like operating profit as well as net profit are down too — 6 and 3 percent respectively. The board of management blames increased costs associated with investments in production capacity and organisational capabilities for causing mixed performance across various market regions. For instance, revenue has declined in the United States and in parts of Europe. On a brighter note, in growing markets such as China, revenue grew by double digits.

Commenting on the financial report, LEGO Group Chairman Jørgen Vig Knudstorp claimed that the company has already taken steps to change the situation for the better. The Group aims to bring the LEGO building experience to more children all over the world, and for this purpose the management is looking forward to resetting the company and revising and restructuring various internal processes.

Pressing the reset button includes some decisive moves which pursue a goal of simplifying the company’s elaborate global structure built during the past five years. “This means we will build a smaller and less complex organisation than we have today” said Knudstorp. As a result, the LEGO Group believes it would need to cut its total global workforce by around eight percent. This would impact about 1,400 positions. Currently the LEGO Group employs about 18,200 people.

One of the key goals of resetting the business is the development of innovative new toys. Knudstorp explains “We will find more opportunities to engage with kids and parents, including innovative ways to blend physical building and digital experiences, such as our successful LEGO Life social platform and LEGO Boost building and coding set”.

The full press release can be found on the LEGO Newsroom page.

Progress and ambition with bricks: Russian builder Timofey Tkachev [Interview]

Today we’re sitting down to talk to a rising Russian superstar builder, Timofey Tkachev. He has been in the online LEGO community for quite a few years, but the past two years have seen his spectacular creations gain increasing traction. Each of Timofey’s new builds improves upon those before it, but even with a sizable Flickr following and regular activity in the Russian LEGO User Group RFFL, there are many who haven’t yet discovered his work. Time to find out more about him!

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Guy Smiley Killing Drone [Instructions]

Have you ever wanted to build your own meatbag killing machine? Or perhaps a robot helper for your minifig friends? Have you seen a drone made by some dude who goes by Guy Smiley on the internet, and thought I need one of those…? Well now’s your chance, because I made instructions for my deadly little robot, to fulfill all your LEGO drone building desires.

Not your ordinary witches

Holidays continue to creep into each other’s seasons if retail stores are any indication, but it is never too early for Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, brought to us by Eero Okkonen. These two witchy looking characters are straight out of Terry Pratchett’s brilliant mind and are part of a large cast of characters that bring Discworld to life, which Eero has been working through. We’ve already featured a number of them, such as the denizens of the Unseen University, or Lu-Tze. I absolutely love the detail that goes into the witches’ faces; you can clearly see two distinct characters despite using a small selection of parts. The black dresses are both unique to each character and have plenty of detail.

Cycling the Paris-Roubaix

The Paris-Roubaix is one of the oldest bicycle races in the world, having begun in 1896. Its famously rough cobblestone route is memorialized here by Luca Di Lazzaro as a large vignette, with carefully spaced tiles arranged to create the uneven pathway. The grim faces of the riders harken to the race’s nickname as The Hell of the North. The trees are a simple design, yet quite effective for adding a bit of greenery to the grueling route.

Facing off with 70612 Green Ninja Mech Dragon from The LEGO Ninjago Movie [Review]

Ninjago is never complete without at least one dragon, and new The LEGO Ninjago Movie line is no exception. Today we’re face to face with 70612 Green Ninja Mech Dragon, available now for $49.99. The dragon has 544 pieces and comes with four minifigures.

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Have a slice of this delicious cake because it’s somebody’s birthday somewhere!

The possibility of mimicking literally any material or texture with plastic LEGO bricks never ceases to amaze me. This extremely appetising chocolate cake by Kai NRG/Geneva features just a handful of curved slopes in reddish brown colour and is fairly simple, but the decorations are a little confectionery masterpiece. Elegantly shaped elephant tail/trunk pieces, which the sweet cream on top of the cake is made of, look almost edible.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for September 3, 2017 [News]

In addition to the best LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick also brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of September 2017.

TBB STAR WARS NEWS: A galaxy far, far away dominated the news this week, with the reveal of the long awaited (though not unexpected) UCS Millennium Falcon.

New LEGO Star Wars 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon unveiled as largest LEGO set ever — The new UCS Falcon will include 10 minifigs, and clocks in at a whopping 7,541 pieces, making it the largest LEGO set ever released. The set will hit stores on October 1st for $799.99, and will be available early for VIP members beginning Sept. 14.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi LEGO sets officially revealed; available now — The full range of LEGO sets for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, including a buildable BB-8, are now available in stores and from the LEGO Shop Online. Potential spoilers ahead!
LEGO’s Force Friday sale drops prices on more than 30 Star Wars sets — LEGO slashed prices across nearly the full LEGO Star Wars lineup, along with a sprinkling of other themes. Plus, double VIP points and some other freebies for Star Wars purchases.
Announcing the TBB LEGO Millennium Falcon Contest — To celebrate the unveiling of LEGO’s monumental new 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon, the Brothers Brick is holding a building contest! Build a custom LEGO creation featuring the Millennium Falcon and you could win a a super rare limited edition Escape the Space Slug set.

OTHER TBB NEWS: We have two videos for you of a new LEGO mockumentary and a showcase of this year’s addition to the Winter Village, plus instructions to build a beautiful bird.

Official trailer for Brick MADNESS released — TBB has your first look at the trailer for brick-themed mocumentary Brick MADNESS. The film pits an underdog “Brix” builder against an arrogant long-time champion in a battle to build his way to not only fame, but redemption.
LEGO designer video offers an express look at 10259 Winter Village Station — LEGO’s winter holiday sets have become annual must-have items for fans looking to expand their winter village scene. LEGO has released a video in which the designer of 10259 Winter Village Station gives us a closer look at this highly anticipated set.
Instructions to build a LEGO scarlet macaw — British builder Alan Mann shares his instructions to build an incredibly simple yet accurate scarlet macaw.

OTHER LEGO NEWS: This week had quite a few other interesting LEGO-related news articles. Here are the best of the rest.

This LEGO Formula One Car Is a Perfect Match to Fernando Alonso’s McLaren-Honda, Jalopnik — The builders used 349,911 bricks that ultimately weighed 1,250 pounds. It took 844 hours to develop and 750 hours to actually build, which is nearly 65 full, 24-hour days.
This 9-year-old girl from London is the world’s first child LEGO designer, Mashable — 9-year-old Sienna from London loves LEGO so much that she decided to have a go at designing her own set, that was so good it hit shop shelves worldwide on Sept. 1.
LEGO mosaic re-creates “The Last Supper”, Orange Observer — Students in an Oakland Presbyterian Church club combined Seurat’s Pointillism style with da Vinci’s vision to create a 10-foot-long, 5-foot-tall re-creation of “The Last Supper” out of 78,408, bricks.
LEGO job application from boy, 6, claiming ‘lots of experience’, BBC — A job advert for model builders at LEGOLAND Windsor attracted one star application – from a six-year-old boy who said, “I am the man [for] the job because I have lots of experience.”
LEGO releases drone footage of BIG’s LEGO House nearing completion, de zeen —LEGO has flown a drone over its visitor center in Billund, Denmark, to capture stunning footage of its nearly completed stacked-block building.

The brick is mightier than the sword

The Iron Throne is probably one of the most iconic elements of the hysterically popular Game of Thrones series. But if you became the ruthless ruler of your particular domain, taking trophies from those you crushed to create a throne of your own to rule over them, what would it be constructed from? Builder Chris CAPTAIN uses LEGO to re-imagine the concept outside the crushingly limiting confines of a fantasy world filled with gigantic pies and toilet murders. Check out the full set here. This is a concept I’d love to see other builders try their hand at! (nudge, wink)