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.

A honey of a village shows the sunny side of the dark ages

Joe (jnj_bricks) has impressed us many times with his immersive medieval LEGO displays, whether in winter, by the harbor, or across the Pelennor Fields. For his latest epic build, created over 3 months to show at Brickworld, Joe takes us to Honey Crest Village, an idyllic hamlet bursting with color. Half-timbered homes are quite popular among medieval builders, and Joe is master at rendering the style in LEGO with a great using SNOT techniques (Studs Not On Top) for cracked plaster and finding creative parts (like hot dogs!) for the timber. The color scheme for this build is reminiscent of the Inn Plain Sight building from the Dungeons and Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale set, but Joe has been here before.

What makes this build such a delight, beyond the technique and scale, is how packed with delightful details of village life and crowd-pleasing elements. Joe’s trademark shirtless Woody is there, of course, as are at least 11 types of animals, including the LEGO frog in all 16 available colors. (To find them all you have to visit Joe’s instagram gallery). I’ve only located 4 so far. How many can you find?

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Armored LEGO evac bumbles into our hearts

Biomimicry in industrial engineering isn’t just a path to innovation and efficiency — it can also lead to amazing designs that are functional and fun. That’s definitely the case with Bongobert‘s “Bombas Armatis” (armored bee). This evac vehicle has the chonky proportions of a bumblebee, only instead of fuzz it boasts heavy armor for extracting agents from combat situations. The Evac repurposes the wings from the similarly insect-inspired Dune Ornithopter and the wheeled landing struts remind me of a bulkier version of the spider-like Tachikoma tank. The cockpit is perfect, with a purple party bus windshield that complements the bright light orange body, angled down in a way that evokes a bumblebee on the lookout for pollen. Bongobert’s vehicle is both innovative and cozily familiar. Definitely a LEGO creation worth buzzing about.

LEGO Technic 42172 McLaren P1: Does this hypercar live up to the hype? [Review]

LEGO has been on a bit of a roll with model cars this year. A new wave of Speed Champions sets, an iconic car from the 1980s, Technic models of Formula 1 and Formula E cars, and now, the latest entry into the 1:8 scale line of Technic supercars. Except… This one isn’t just a supercar. 42172 LEGO Technic McLaren P1 depicts one of the first hybrid hypercars from 3,893 pieces, and will release this August 1st for US $449.99 | CAN $589.99 | UK £389.99. The Technic Ultimate line has a reputation for pulling out all the stops, with a price tag to match. Will the McLaren live up to this high standard? Read on to find out!

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click here to continue reading our review!

A beautifully tragic ending: Madama Butterfly

Inspired by the opera “Madama Butterfly”, builder Care Creations has combined LEGO elements from the long-retired SCALA theme, last seen in the early 2000’s, with pieces from the recently released “Avatar” theme to create a snippet of this early 20th century masterpiece. The wings from “75572 Jake & Neytiri’s First Banshee Flight” are creatively used for the main character’s butterfly outfit. However, arguably taking more attention, the builder has also given us another significant character from the opera: the flowering cherry tree, constructed using curved brown elements and purple leaves. In this scene, we see the main character in the 3^rd act of the opera, taking her own life as she gives up her baby (a LEGO SCALA element) to her betrayer, the American naval officer.

Olympic high dive build is a clear winner

With the Paris 2024 Olympics just days away, sports fever is really heating up. French builder FOXduFutur offers up a cooling plunge with a LEGO tribute to the 10-meter platform dive. The swarm of clear bricks that hold up the diver is a wonderful gravity-defying technique that mimics the bubbles around a diver seen in underwater photography. On that note, FOXduFutur delivers a gold-medal shot with incredible lighting and use of focus that captures the feeling of being underwater and elevates a relatively simple build into something truly special. (Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of how they pulled off the shot).

FOXduFutur created this model for the BrickPirate LEGOlympics Challenge.

A Lannister always pays attention to detail

With House of the Dragon igniting TV screens, there’s no better time for a return to Westeros—and this amazing Game of Thrones build by Martin Studio will show you the whole darn realm. (In LEGO, obviously.) While the diorama itself exhibits more great details than the Iron Throne has pointy edges, the star of the show is the lovingly recreated map of Westeros, which Cersei shows off to her brother/lover Jaime while Maester Qyburn looks on.

Eagle-eyed fans will be quick to pick out the wealth of lore-accurate sites—from the bleak North bounded on the top by the wastes beyond the Wall to the Gods Eye, the Fingers, and the deserts of Dorne. Go ahead, see what else you can spot—if nothing else, it’ll give you something to do while you wait for The Winds of Winter.

A miniature church with lots of charm

Microscale building is a great way to flex your creative part usage, and this lovely church by Jens Ohrndorf is no exception. The seed part in this model is a trunk lid from the Fabuland theme (the red roof of the main church) to match the red tower roof. Printed window frames from Harry Potter sets make great stained-glass windows, but one of my favorite details is the green minifigure hair pieces used for bushes.

Click this Link to see LEGO Ganondorf return to Hyrule

Ganondorf is back to menace the kingdom of Hyrule in this LEGO creation by mSquid_! The evil sorcerer is clad in the finest clothes and armor LEGO has to offer, so let’s take a look. His boots are made from mudguards and look how nicely the 1×1 corner tiles fit in the gap! His shinguards are barrels only available from one Indiana Jones set from 2009. Further up, Ganondorf is wearing a single handcuff as a collar, and a sail from a pirate ship for a cape. Within the sculpting of Ganondorf’s head, I’m amazed at how all the parts came together to perfectly recreate the villain’s face. Ganondorf’s lower jaw is from a collectable orc minifigure, while mSquid_ borrowed a technique from this year’s Droideka set: using backwards lipstick pieces for Ganondorf’s red eyes. From head-to-toe, mSquid_’s Ganondorf strikes an imposing figure.

This build was an entry in this year’s Bio-Cup 2024, and be sure to check out our archives of the Bio-Cup entries from this and past years. I think mSquid_’s competition will be green with envy!

Greenskin gang is ready to rock in this LEGO tribute to Warhammer

While unlikely as an official license, the cartoonishly bellicose world of Warhammer is a perfect fit for LEGO creations. Both feature bright colors, over-the-top characters, a devoted fanbase, and hand-crafted universes in miniature. Our favorite Warhammer Fantasy builder Dwalin Forkbeard usually stans for Team Dwarf, but for his latest diorama Dwalin moves to Greenskin pastures with a Night Goblin outpost he calls Hooda-Rock.

Dwalin grounds the base in a lovely bit of rockwork sculpted in the shape of a goblin’s pointy hood, with an orange path to provide visual interest. A peppering of mushrooms and details like the hanging bones and tasty rats make up for the lack of greenery. Both setting and minifig accessorizing perfectly capture the brutish and nasty charm of the Greenskins.

In addition to Night Goblins, the rock is home to Squigs, the surly cave-dwelling beasts raised as war mounts. Both the full-grown Squig’s red dome head and balls used for the baby Squigs are sourced from the Beast Master’s Chaos Chariot set. In fact, it was those parts that inspired Dwalin to make this build. The results are a delight, whether or not you’re a fan of the source material, and hopefully the start of more Greenskin builds in the LEGO x Warhammer world of miniatures.

90’s Space minifigures get a LEGO habitat of their very own

LEGO Classic Space has had a few upgrades in recent years, and with the launch of the most-recent collectible minifig series, LEGO fans now have a whole new crew to build habitats for, like this trio from ABrickDreamer. They feature a few of the sub-theme characters and sometimes-rivals of the Classic Space minifigure. M-Tron features the red and black color scheme, Blacktron II appears in white and black with an alien planet background, and Ice Planet 2002 surveys some icy terrain. I really like the subtle inclusion of the striped background with stars inspired by the LEGO Ideas set 21340 Tales from the Space Age.

The Ultimate Car Concept Series gets another addition with LEGO Technic 42172 McLaren P1 [News]

Debuting today on the LEGO website, we see the next Technic supersized supercar headed to a display case near you. And at 3,893 pieces, LEGO Technic 42172 McLaren P1 will be the largest one yet. The model clocks in at nearly two feet long (59 cm) and sports a bright orange livery, distinguishing it from the darker orange of the 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS from 2016. Its physical features include a 7-speed gearbox, V8 engine, functioning suspension, and dihedral-opening doors. But the 1/8th scale set also promises some unique content unlocked via its serial number. You’ll be able to get your hands on one via the LEGO website starting on August 1st, and the set retails for a hefty US $449.99 | CAN $589.99 | UK £389.99. You may also be able to track down the set through Amazon and eBay.

Read on for more on this new LEGO supercar!

Is this car a Good Omen?

If you need to travel the streets in style, look no further than this LEGO Bentley by Daniel Church! This particular Bentley was the preferred ride of the Demon Crowley from the novel and TV series Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman. Everything about this model is as pitch-perfect as the Queen CDs the car keeps creating. Everything from the grates on the side to the headlights and bumpers to the shape of the doors is a perfect match to the original car. To match the organic curves of the original vehicle, Daniel has made use of the 10x2x2 wedge behind the forward wheel well and at the back of the cabin roof. That smooth window at the back of the cabin is due to the interlocking shapes of the 4x1x2 2/3 curved slope and the 1x4x3 arch. And speaking of interlocking, look at the 1x2x3 upright and inverted slopes used to make the shapes of the door. You know what they say; the devils in the details!