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.

An elegant carbine for a more civilised age

We see plenty of well-built LEGO recreations of weapons from videogames, and I’m full of admiration for the scale modelling skills on display. But I also love when builders produce something which doesn’t rely on existing sources for inspiration. This steampunk machine gun by Martin Redfern is a lovely model — full of chunky cartoony detail and classic ray gun styling. The bullets on the belt are excellent, and the flared muzzle and touches of gold give this a wonderful Flash Gordon feel. And don’t miss the use of a gold elephant trunk part for the trigger.

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The Knights of the Cubed Table

The classic LEGO Castle themes, like Forestman or Wolfpack, charmed fans with their simple and straightforward designs — faction colors and plain symbols providing the only distinctive elements for each clan. IamKritch makes the most of the styling, reviving two heroes of the past — a couple of fancy Brickheadz warriors. These guys look adorable with their small bow and sword!

Ladies in tank tops win the war

In December 1941, the National Service Act made the conscription of women legal in the UK, employing those of working age in essential work for the war effort. When production of tanks, planes, boats and munitions were needed, the women of Britain were called on to come into the factories and build the war machines, and without them success would not have been possible. Martin Harris has built a tribute to these women, and his scene is set in a converted railway station, using the track as an assembly line for the British-made Churchill tanks.

Women are the primary workers. However, you can see that there is an older man who has just turned up after work to help with turret placement. I had to try and forgive Martin for having a yellow faced minifigure with flesh hands in the scene …perhaps it is just me that finds that distressing to look at! The overall scene is beautifully tied together as a cohesive whole. I particularly love the old railway station backdrop with its large light fixtures and combination of glass, dark red brick and stone grey pillars.

Who doesn’t love zombies?

After watching The Walking Dead, most people have trouble sleeping. Jonas Kramm must have had a bit of insomnia too, as he had to build something from the TV series out of LEGO. I like how Hershal and the rest of the undead-fighting underdogs get to cultivate some small fields and hold pigs while keeping the area safe from walkers. The Tower looks just like the real thing, and the detailed plants and garden look beautiful — I love the little wheelbarrow. Using Technic wiring and minifig hands as the barbed wire fence was a touch of genius, and using it to hold up the LEGO cargo net as the fence is a masterstroke. It is certainly holding up well against the zombie hordes.

Portapoc

If there’s one clear sign the Cyberpocalypse is upon us, it’s that indoor plumbing has ceased to exist, and we are forced to use communal toilets on the street, or (though a little more civilized) public porta potties for our sanitary needs. Thus, my most recent build for the ABS builder Challenge features exactly that: a communal porta potty smack-dab in the middle of the shantytown. How much would I have to pay you to use it?

The roof of the main black building was my main inspiration for building this scene. I was able to come up with a cool roof technique using the seed part for the challenge: the handheld minifig fan, which enabled me to use the part a total of 24 times in this build.

When generations intersect in a weird theme mash-up

I didn’t grow up with the classic space sets, so naturally I was never overly inspired to build in the colour scheme and building style. I did, however, grow up with classic Bionicle sets. Having built a 1:1 Toa Onua replica a while ago, I contemplated the comparison between the two themes as core nostalgic focal points of LEGO fans from different ages, which gives this casual looking MOC some surprising symbolic depth. Toa Enstau wasn’t started with an intention to be a Classic-Space/Bionicle mashup, but since I had borrowed a blue Hau kanohi mask and light gray is the easiest colour to build robotic details in, Classic Space turned out as the only logical choice.

The build is based on my experience from my earlier system-style bionicle, but since it is a completely original creation, I had less restrictions in recreating details and shapes. I realize the solar pannels don’t fit very much in either of the stlyes, but I still decided to use them, as it makes for a more unique character and I personally like them. The figure is well articulated, but fragile. There are more pictures of other angles and poses in my Bricksafe folder.

From a convent in Brazil to LEGO on your screen

Microscale builds are great for fantasy castles and sprawling sci-fi cities done on the cheap, but it’s also a great tool for recreating real buildings with a reasonably small number of pieces. Brazilian builder Gilcelio chagas has done that with the Penha Convent, which is located in the Vila Velha region of Brazil. Compare the build to pictures of the site and you’ll see the effort that has gone into making this look authentic at such a small scale. Make sure you also spot the clever used of an army helmet as the top of rounded tree and an alternate view that offers a better look at the build of the mountain that the convent sits on.

First steps into the wide wild world

There is a sense of playful curiousity in this bear cub creation by Miro Dudas. The effect comes from the animal’s posing, with a raised paw and a tilted head, which really makes the bear look alive. Carefully chosen colours and studs pointing outwards at all sides round off the build as an almost photorealistic recreation. While many builders would stop there, Miro goes an extra step, adding a few rocks and foliage to enhance the presentation. This bear cub is the latest of Miro’s creations for his woodland creatures series.

One man’s window decorations are another man’s rover wheels

Serbian builder Milan Sekiz surprises us with a truly remarkable design of rims for his newest futuristic rover named Duster. Rounded 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 windows work stunningly well shaping both round and elliptic wheels. Rounded windows like these can make any building look very elegant, but coupled with Technic chain tracks, they contribute a lot to this vehicle’s somewhat militaristic look.

A-gah-gah-gah-gah-gah-gah!

With his philosophical proposal “Cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”), French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist René Descartes may have had a clever way with words. But I think Popeye summed it up admirably with “I yam what I yam and tha’s all what I yam”. Like many of us here at TBB, Oliver Becker is old enough to remember this underdog with bulging forearms, a mean uppercut, and a love of canned spinach.

I love how he has managed to capture everything about this famous star of comic strip and screen; it’s almost as though he’s about to bust out with that classic line “I oughta busk you right in the mush”. As the star of his own comic strips and animated series, on both the small and big screens, Popeye became quickly ingrained in American culture, and today remains one of the most recognizable pop-culture icons in the world.

Ship In A Bottle: The Flagship Leviathan and Voltron – Defender of the Universe are the two next LEGO Ideas sets [News]

LEGO has announced today that Ship In A Bottle: The Flagship Leviathan by Jacob Sadovich will be the next set in the Ideas line. This project was selected from a group of 12 ideas that had gathered 10,000 supporters by January 9, 2017. The project was originally submitted to the LEGO Ideas platform in November 2016, so it took the ship only 48 days to gather fans’ support. Pricing and availability for this set are yet to be announced. The LEGO Ideas Blog interviewed Jacob back in May 2017, where he talked about the challenges he faced creating the model.

And after being held over from a previous review stage, the Voltron – Defenders of the Universe project was also approved to become an Ideas set. You can find the interview with the author of that project, Leandro Tayag, on the LEGO Ideas Blog tool. As usual, pricing and availability will be the subject of a future announcement.

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A skyline view of Flemish architecture

Belgium doesn’t feature in the LEGO Architecture theme yet but Bert Van Raemdonck has corrected this oversight with his own skyline view of the Flemish municipality of Temse. His skyline of Temse creation includes, from left to right, Boelwerf Crane, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Church, Old Town Hall and Temse Bridge. As with a lot of microscale builds we feature, Bert has used some clever parts and techniques to pack texture and detail into a small space. I love the helmet that forms the spire of the church and the lever handle flagpoles on the side of the town hall. You will need to look closely at the church to spot the clever placement of tiles forming the buttresses.

The Old Town Hall is a magnificent piece of neo-Flemish renaissance architecture so my only critique would be the lack of colour as the actual building is a fantastic shade of pinky red and tan.