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.

These two Bionicles are not identical

This is one of my creations that has been waiting for a few months to be uploaded, for many irrelevant reasons. I think this one takes a bit of insight to be appreciated fully. While my build (on the left) is a servicable mechanical build on its own, its true strengths can only be appreciated if compared to the original LEGO Bionicle 8532 Onua set on the right, as this is a piece-by-piece LEGO System recreation of the classic first generation Toa Onua set. My version is completely unstable and unplayable, but visually comes close enough to the official version that it passes my personal quality standard.

This was a somewhat quick build, but I was so inspired by the idea that it completely took over my life for a few days. It strikes me that Bionicle (or as the cool kids call it these days, “bonkle”) is quite similar to classic space in a way – while classic space is the most popular nostalgic theme for many older LEGO fans, Bionicle is the go-to nostalgia trip for ones growing up in the early 2000s, which makes it surprising how rare reproductions are. There are few even in the actual Bionicle building genre, but besides my build, I have only seen one other example of systemized Toa, but even that was just the builder taking his own spin on the concept.

Now, I have indeed built Toa Onua (because this one is the easiest to build due to wide selection of parts in both of his primary colours, black and very dark grey), and I see myself being able to build Toa Kopaka, but for any other ones my selection of parts just can not do. So here is a challenge to any builder brave enough and equipped for it: I would love to see more of the first generation Bionicle characters (or later ones?) made out of system parts!

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This LEGO Zoid is much bigger than it seems

While LEGO builds based on Zoids have been done in the past, it’s still awesome to see them, especially at a large scale. This Blade Liger by d’ Qiu Brick is deceptively presented in these pictures, as it’s much bigger than the first time you glance at it. Focus on the rather large orange windscreen in the middle of the head to get a sense of scale. Yeah, this thing is huge.

Individual parts usage doesn’t suffer at this huge scale, with simple but effective building going on everywhere. The segmented areas on the legs and head are really pleasing to look at, and the large blocky proportions give it that robotic feel to mix in with the clearly animal form. Make sure you spend some time on the builder’s photostream for more angles of this build.

Watch the first teaser trailer for Brick MADNESS [Video]

Back in 2012, filmmaker Justin McAleece used Bricks by the Bay as a background to film scenes for his independent film Brick Madness. Five years later, the director has shared the first official teaser trailer for the mockumentary, which is scheduled to premiere publically in September.

Brick MADNESS teaser trailer from Blare Media on Vimeo.

One of the really cool real-life aspects of the movie is that Carl Merriam designed many of the models used by the actors in the movie back during filming, and now Carl works full-time as a set designer in Billund.

This tiny version of Cinderella’s Castle uses 3000 pieces

While an impressive set, 71040 The Disney Castle disappointed builder Swan Dutchman in the fact that it was only a facade and did not encompass the rest of the castle “in the round”. To fix this, Swan built his own microscale version, if we can call it that, because the finished build is actually rather large. It’s built on top of a 48 x 48 baseplate and contains around 3000 small pieces.

Big numbers aside (and not even mentioning that it took three months to create) this is a brilliant build that is instantly recognisable. There’s a lot of clever techniques, such as gears used in the turrets for stone detail and the use of two different kinds of 2 x 2 round bricks. Make sure you take a few minutes to soak up not only the castle, but the builds around it in the body of water, brick road, and vegetation.

At the end of the iron road

Some classic LEGO themes are wildly popular, but somehow feel underrepresented by custom LEGO models, such as LEGO Pirates and Wild West. At least for the latter we have a new build to enjoy in this frontier train station by Marcel V. With its unique roof and prominent clock, the build looks almost steampunk, but there are no fictional elements to be found.

There are a lot of interesting bits to see here. The semi-circular section’s construction is quite impressive, as is the roof itself. The railroad tracks look very good, done with a technique I am seeing more and more in fan creations. And as a cherry on top, Marcel has sprinkled the creation with all sorts of clutter, from sacks and guns to the local wildlife — all of which breathes life into the scene.

Deadpool Duck or Howard the Deadpool?

Miss out on the LEGO San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Mallard with a Mouth that everyone was talking about? You’ll love this poseable version of Howard the Dead Duckpool – this hilarious contribution by DOGOD Brick Design looks fantastic. Poolduck the Dead Howard is complete with swords on his back, automatic weapons in his hands, a vacant stare in his eyes and a quirky tuft of hair. Whatever you want to call him, there is no doubt this is one sarcastic mother ducker.

Soak up the sun next to this lovely green Volkswagen T3 Westfalia camper van

Back in 2011, LEGO introduced the 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van to its line of Creator vehicles (followed more recently by the lovely 10252 Volkswagen Beetle). Both these official sets are at a larger scale than LEGO’s own Miniland scale, which is the scale that TBB’s own Ralph Savelsberg frequently builds his cars and trucks in. Ralph’s latest vehicle is VW’s T3 Westfalia camper van, complete with a pop-up top for extra head room when you head inside after a long day of drinking cold beverages from a cooler while sitting in your lawn chair.

Ralph makes extensive use of hinged connections and 1×1 “cheese” slopes attached sideways to achieve subtle angles throughout the model, from the section below the windscreen to the shape of the van’s body underneath the sliding door. Naturally, the interior upholstery is a lovely checked pattern of orange and tan.

Fried eggs – the greatest thing since sliced bread

If you’ve ever tried to create stop-motion animation using LEGO bricks before, you’ll know it takes a lot of effort. Before you check out the latest YouTube video by BrickBrosProductions (no relation to The Brothers Brick), take a moment to appreciate that it took three days and 1,500 pictures to film their 2-minute animation!

Inspired by PESfilm’s stop-motion animations, “Lego In Real Life” is a really cool short film about a boy with a LEGO Movie T-Shirt making his breakfast using LEGO-built ingredients, and the result is fantastic. Keep an eye out for the minifig fridge magnet, the bread turning into toast, and my personal favorite, the butter melting into liquid and bubbling in the frying pan.

Like a cold-weather moth drawn to the flame

In spite of its delicate features, this mechanical LEGO moth by Mitsuru Nikaido looks sturdy enough to brave the sub-zero temperates of the Arctic. At least, that’s what its wings would lead me to believe. Mitsuru took what many might consider to be a pretty useless part and turned it into a beautiful (and surprisingly natural-looking) creature. Nicely done.

All aboard the Kintetsu Railway at Hyōtan-yama Station in Osaka

There’s a strong possibility that I’ll be traveling to Japan for work later this year, and I’ve spent the last couple of evenings revisiting childhood haunts via Google Maps and looking at rail connections to get from one end of the country to the other. This train station by Japanese builder Kaz Fuji was thus quite timely as I plan potential rail travel to places like Kyoto and Nara.

See more of these Japanese trains and the train station

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for July 23, 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 fourth week of July 2017.

TBB NEWS: News this week was slim for LEGO as everyone was focusing on Comic-Con in San Diego. That said, there were still a few pieces of news worth posting!

Review of The LEGO Ninjago Movie Collectible Minifigures 71019 — Revealed only a last month, these minifigures will be hitting stores August 1 ahead of the movie, and feature 20 characters who, nicely enough, are not all ninjas.
The LEGO Ninjago Movie Trailer #2 arrives — The LEGO Ninjago Movie arrives September 22, and will be accompanied by a full line of sets, including one of the largest LEGO sets ever, 70620 Ninjago City.

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

LEGO Luke Skywalker statue brings The Force to Comic-Con, Entertainment Weekly — A 6-foot-tall model of Luke Skywalker from Star Wars made out of 36,743 LEGO bricks was unveiled Wednesday, ahead of Comic-Con’s kickoff.
Video Shows that the LEGO zoetrope of our dreams is only a build away, Nerdist — A recent video by YouTube’s Sariel’s LEGO® Workshop shows us a zoetrope made with a handful of Lego Star Wars stormtroopers and a Technic motor base.
Warriors Clash in The LEGO Ninjago Movie Comic-Con Panel Recap, Coming Soon — Attendees at Comic-Con International got a special early sneak peek at what’s to come from The LEGO Ninjago Movie, and here is a recap with all the juicy details.
Rant: San Diego Comic Con exclusives are terrible and LEGO needs to stop them, Jay’s Brick Blog — “Artificial scarcity from a company that mass-produces toys is such a fundamentally flawed practice that only serves to penalize actual fans and enrich scalpers.”

When fanz take matterz into their own handz

The BrickHeadz character style has firmly taken root amongst the builder community, as evidenced by an ever-growing collection of fan-created BrickHeadz models that frequently exhibit more creativity, fun and ingenuity than some of the heavily printing reliant exclusives that LEGO is making convention-goers stand in sweaty lines for hours to acquire. Taking inspiration from some memorable movie characters, here are a few excellent examples that came across our desk recently:

Maleficent and the Wicked Witch of the West by tankm

Holtzmann and Slimer by James zhan

Russell and Carl from UP by JAE WON LEE