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.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for August 27, 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 last week of August 2017.

TBB NEWS: With winter just around the corner, we have a chilly new set announcement, a fantastic sale, and some instructions to keep you busy.

LEGO 10259 Winter Village Station announced — Winter is coming, and that means a new Winter Village set. The Station, a perfect companion to last year’s holiday train, has 902 pieces and will retail for $79.99 USD when it’s available Oct. 1.
76052 LEGO Batman Classic TV Series – Batcave is now 25% off + double VIP points — Holy macaroni, Batman! The classic set is 25% off, discounted from $270 USD to $200 USD plus double VIP points and a free LEGO Batman Movie Minifigure mystery bag with purchase. Don’t wait too long on this one; it’s already back-ordered, but LEGO is still accepting orders—for now.
Instructions to build the shuttle from Star Trek: The Next Generation or a cute little air compressor — We’ve got two sets of instructions this week to build an iconic sci-fi shuttle as well as a tool shed essential.

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

LEGO Matt Denton fan creates giant 3D-printed go-kart, CNET — YouTuber Matt Denton built replica LEGO model of classic Technic set 1972: Go Kart that’s five times larger than the original but looks on point and even functions perfectly.
LEGO’s Bali Padda: The strategic builder, Live Mint — LEGO ex-CEO Bali Padda explains why going digital is important, and how they try to maximize product versatility through greater compatibility between individual sets.
LEGOLAND announces submarine ‘deep sea’ ride for 2018, San Diego Union Tribune — Embarking on its most costly attraction yet, LEGOLAND announced that it will introduce a submarine ride that will feature a deep sea habitat of fish, stingrays, and sharks.
LEGO’s New Netflix Series Isn’t Very LEGO, And That’s A Good Thing, Kotaku — Lego Elves: Secrets of Elvendale, a Netflix original animated series, premieres next week and is more anime than ABS.

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A slice of Medieval coastal life

We go back in time to experience Medieval life in this diorama of a coastal village by goilive. To describe this as a village seems an understatement to me as there are a lot of buildings and infrastructure, even a port with a ship moored up. I love the changing colour gradient of the sea as it reaches the sand and the host of details little wooden jetty located centrally or the market stalls in front of the large castle.

From a slightly different angle, it is easier to see some of the activities going on in this busy scene. There’s a fisherman trying to catch lunch down on the beach, a cargo load being transferred onto the ship, while a jester and unicorn entertain some onlookers in the central park. This diorama is going on display at a couple of locations in France later this month and the next; it’s definitely well worth a close-up look in person to enjoy the full scene.

Post-apocalyptic friendships are the best

It’s not often we re-visit a LEGO model, especially after only a few days. But when we shared an atmospheric post-apocalyptic scene from Adam Sochorec earlier this week we didn’t realise there was more to come. It turns out Adam’s build was only part of a larger collaborative build with Jan T. I love the way the rough terrain has crept over to cover the road, and how the two builds have been united with lovely rock work and landscaping. Jan’s harbour with its little fish market and decrepit building really adds to the whole scene. Clearly, even after the apocalypse, life goes on despite the struggles.

Collaborative builds are not unusual but what makes this one special is the story behind it. As Jan puts it…

“We started planning it about two months ago. Adam is from Czech Republic, so he had to convince his parents to let him go to Poland. Luckily, he made it and his 5.5 hours of travel were worth it. He stayed in my house for 4 days. We traded some parts and minifigs and spent two days and one night building the collab. We shared the bricks, Polish food, and a bottle of Becherovka with each other.”

Two builders are clearly better than one and the resulting collaborative build is a great scene. What a perfect reminder of how LEGO can be a source of fun, learning, community and life-long friendship.

In the blink of an eye

Travel through space in speedy style with WormHole Inc. This unusual LEGO spacecraft from Sheo brings the far-future of space travel to life — wormholes opened by “portal ships” allowing instantaneous travel between distant regions of the galaxy. The detail and texture built into the ship’s central ring is beautiful, adding a real sense of scale to the creation.

The close-up shot with the arriving craft is excellent, but I also loved the image of the portal ship in orbit around an alien world.

An elegant room from a more civilized age

Any gentleman needs a place to do his paperwork and this fancy room built by Rylie Howerter looks just about pefrect. Though simple at first glance due to plain walls, a few seconds of looking at the creation reveals an incredibly intricate floor, which is at least 3, but probably 4 studs deep. It is made of brown bars set between sand green tiles stackedsideways, with dark green tiles in the middle.

In the description, Rylie is not a fan of the minifigure per se, but was happy for any excuse to build appropriately scaled furniture – and the results are well-designed indeed! The chair is made out of plant elements, pneumatic tubing, and similar fine detail pieces, and the ink bottle on the table is an especially interesting part use, although on the border of purism – a carefully cut piece of a ribbed hose.

LEGO shuttle from Star Trek: The Next Generation [Instructions]

We’re probably gonna see more Trek builds than usual this year, it being the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Such as this minifig scale Type 6 shuttle designed by Jerry builds LEGO, which captures the lines of this iconic vessel perfectly, thanks to deft use of some canopies probably from a Star Wars set (I’m not even gonna check, I assume it’s a Star Wars set, since there’s not exactly a shortage of those to choose from).

As an added treat, Mr Builds With LEGO has even put together this neat instructional video, showing you how to build one of these for yourself. I like the format of this video, in which each step is shown being built so you can easily follow along. The video doesn’t show which sets you’ll have to rip apart to get those lovely canopies, or how far you’ll have to search to find matching STNG minifigs — that’s an exercise left for the viewer.

Of course in the Star Trek universe, transporters are method of choice for getting from point A to point B. But if you think really hard about it they’re actually just giant death machines and the entire franchise is just the story of hoards of people (and their subsequent clones) willingly stepping into oblivion. So it’s no wonder there a few characters in the show actually opt to travel exclusively by shuttle craft. Slower, and more tedious, but at least it gets to you your destination without being bloody vaporized.

Chevrolet Corvette C7.R is not just yet another racing car

For his latest scale model Lasse Deleuran has chosen a magnificent Chevrolet Corvette C7.R Le Mans Edition, which is famous for its multiple victories in the most prestigious endurance races in the motorsport world. Lasse recreates the car’s wide hood with some sharp wedges and slopes so that the vehicle definitely looks more aggressive than the smooth original. Bonus points are for very accurate custom stickers, which are an inevitable part of a true racing car’s design.

Modern castle is just a tower with no walls

This very aesthetically pleasing microscale skyscraper by Sheo. definitely houses something evil inside. It totally looks like a villain’s headquarters from a dystopian movie or a book, plus “Nasty tower” is a very peculiar choice of name for a building! Although its design seems to be advanced, this tower is just a polygonal hinged core with attached vertical stripes, and this is what makes this build a very smart and remarkable creation.

Even a LEGO Lamborghini goes faster in red

Only five Lamborghini Venenos were ever produced to celebrate Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary back in 2013. While Lamborhini kept two, the other three were sold for US$4,500,000 each. Lachlan Cameron has built a LEGO version of the road-worthy, racing prototype Lamborghini Veneno, and it’s certainly a head-turner. Lachlan has mainly used Technic parts to achieve the aggressive, aerodynamic shaping, with some clever techniques to achieve the wheel arches and the steeply sloped hood.

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One does not simply walk into Mordor

Serbian builder Milan Sekiz‘s miniature Mordor is the perfect finish to the (accidental?) collaborative Lord of the Rings microscale triptych (see also microscale Hobbiton and a microscale Rivendell). Sekiz’s adorable LEGO creation features a tiny Mount Doom, a teeny tower of Barad-dur (where men fear to tread), and a wee Black Gate. Not to mention, the ashy base and background results in a general feeling of gloom that is wonderful.

It’s got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it’s got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks.

Okay I may have got a little carried away, as it’s not quite the Blues Mobile. Put a giant megaphone on the roof and put a couple of suited, sunglassed musicians in the front seat and I reckon it’d look the part. Slovenian builder Primoz Mlakar has created a wonderful Speed Champions style Police Interceptor. Inspired by vehicles in Ken Block’s Gymkhana 7, the builder has captured the lines and curves of the classic black and white beautifully. Particularly impressive is the use of the tooth piece for a window pillar and the bad robot arms as nudge bars.

Welcome the cold embrace of steel or the sea

I often look at LEGO creations as art or interesting technical accomplishments, but this 13th century naval battle scene brings something different to the table, which we don’t see often in LEGO… education. James Pegrum of the Brick to the Past team shares some interesting information about an important moment in European history in the photo’s description (accessed by clicking the photo below).

The build itself is very interesting. The technique used to achieve the round hull shapes is not new by any means, but I have not seen it used for ships very often and the smoothness is quite impressive. As expected of Brick to the Past creations, the ships are indeed very historically accurate. Opinions about the sea in this build may be quite diverse, as people tend to either love or hate loose pieces on builds – but can anyone deny the impression of movement that the water gives?