This fantastic service shop by _BrickBro_ will tune your official 10242 Mini Cooper to tip-top shape, with just a quick engine and transmission replacement. It’s got all the necessary tools and accessories to spruce up that evergreen hatchback, from replacement hubs to new steering wheels.
Based on the popular youtube series Mighty Car Mods, the shop features hosts Marty and Moog walking viewers through their top-to-bottom restoration of this cult classic car.
A cute pocket battleship combines forces with a whale, apparently to deliver the mail, in this LEGO creation from Revan New. I genuinely have no idea what is going on here, but I like it. First up, we see the chibi-styled dieselpunk dreadnought sailing into a moody sunset, a companionable whale matching the ship’s course…
And then the true nature of this partnership is revealed — some sort of oceanic postal service…
The styling of the little dreadnought is smart — I particularly like the curve of the hull and the maroon striping. Those deck guns are pretty good too. And then the whale itself has a friendly face. Who wouldn’t want this guy turning up at the door with their Amazon packages?
All-in-all, this is nicely built, nicely photographed, and nicely crazy. Just the sort of stuff we like round here.
As Christian and Christian-influenced areas of the world celebrate Easter, we see many representations of Easter eggs and religious motives, with an occasional Easter bunny. This rabbit by accomplished animal builder Felix Jaensch is more loosely related to this subject, as it would be a great creation any time of the year, but the timing still pushes it a bit further.
The rabbit is built in Felix’s signature style, a realistic but pixelated shape with some finer shaping on the head. The bright tan overall colour and white belly draw the eye and make for a very fluffy effect. I just want to cuddle it! (…if I could catch it)
And now, for your continuing Easter enjoyment, Chris McVeigh presents his latest LEGO model — a hypercute Bunny version of the mighty Unikitty. Perched in a smart little basket and surrounded by eggs, Unibunny looks all set to enjoy a mountain of chocolate and then probably go on some sort of sugar-induced rampage. The colour choices here are great, as are the use of Angry Bird egg pieces, and whilst the crinkled paper isn’t quite purist in terms of building techniques, we’ll let Chris off because it’s ALL SO PRETTY.
There’s always a question of taste when it comes to the depiction of religious or political themes in any artistic medium, and LEGO bricks are no exception. However, I hope it’s impossible for anyone to take offence at Lasse Vestergård‘s brick-built interpretation of Jesus’ return from the grave.
This is a great little model, depicting victory over misery and death and carrying an appropriate sense of joy — something you can surely enjoy regardless of your particular choice of belief (or unbelief) system. The thumbs-up and the cheeky inclusion of wounds in Jesus’ palms add a touch of black comedy, but the visual contrast between the grim grey backdrop and the bright flowers carries a more serious message of hope and an eventual release from suffering.
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 second week of April 2017.
TBB NEWS, REVIEWS & INSTRUCTIONS: Star Wars ruled the week with a new movie trailer, new LEGO sets, and even free instructions. May the force ever be in your favor!
OTHER NEWS: There was a good amount of LEGO news from other places around the web this week. Here are a few items we noticed and thought you might enjoy.
There’s been a lot of LEGO creations inspired by LEGO’s new Brickheadz line recently. So it takes something special to catch the eye and rise above the rest of the blocky crowd. James Zhan does exactly that with these renditions of the Staypuft Marshmallow Man and Dr. Venkman from Ghostbusters.
Mr. Puft is looking very dapper in his sailor’s hat, and there’s good work on his little red bow tie too. Setting him loose amidst some microscaled buildings is a nice touch to give an idea of a different scale. Peter Venkman looks fetching in his boiler suit, and the ghost trap is excellent. But just check out Smiler — the use of a green minifigure tub as his mouth is absolutely inspired!
With a minimalist microscale style, Andrew JN to evokes the worn road to Golgotha, where the Christ trod at the start of the Easter story. Andrew uses earth tones to sculpt the narrow way of this normally sleepy Jewish town. The tiny villagers and distinct Roman soldiers consist of only 3 or 4 elements each, but there’s no mistaking the angry mob surrounding a brown cross.
Markus Rollbühler is a LEGO product designer based in Billund, Denmark. Despite spending his weekdays working with LEGO pieces, Markus challenges himself to build microscale versions of the world’s most famous cathedrals in his spare time. His very special series of architectural masterpieces featuring Frauenkirche Dresden and Santa Maria della Salute is now joined by a marvelous copy of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, Russia.
St. Basil’s Cathedral is famous for its nine chapels of vibrant colors. Markus did an amazing job recreating each of them in a unique building style using bricks, hoses, slopes, and tiles of over a dozen different colors. However, the most genius trick of the build is nine sonic screwdrivers right from Doctor Who sets used as crosses on top of the chapels.
And, of course, the cathedral is totally worth checking out from all angles — make sure you visit Markus’ photosream for more high-res pictures!
If you aren’t familiar with Ultraman, allow me to introduce one of his many nemeses, the kaiju Yamaton — a heavily armed battleship with vicious claws and sharp pointy teeth. This microscale LEGO Yamaton by TOKYO TAG TEAM is inspired by the monster that initially appeared in the Ultraman The First manga. I love the trans-blue of the bridge and main deck windows and the aerials and dishes mounted all over the top. The mounted ninja claws make perfect complimentary guns to the main triple gun Technic pin connector turrets. The characterization of the mutated shark part of the kaiju is simply perfect; from the point of his snout with metallic eyebrows, through to his belly/hull with nasty clawed feet, to the tip of his strong tail.
Despite spending the first fifteen years of my life in Japan and living in the same city as one of the largest Go clubs in North America, I’ve really only admired the ancient game of Go from afar. I’ll need to correct that someday, perhaps by building one of my own Go boards from LEGO, as Kadigan did. The 17×17 board takes advantage of the tiny gaps between LEGO tiles, with 1×1 round tiles as the black and white playing pieces. He’s even created realistic wooden bowls from ball turret bases.
If you liked this, you might also appreciate the 9×9 LEGO Go board built by Joe Miller a couple years ago.
Following a successful first year, BrickCan returns to Vancouver, British Columbia for another LEGO convention and public exhibition. Next weekend, Saturday and Sunday April 22-23, hundreds of LEGO builders will converge on the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond (right outside of Vancouver) with creations big and small for an incredible LEGO exhibition everyone can enjoy. Tickets are selling fast, so purchase yours ahead of time online through Ticketmaster for $15 CAD.
Along with the full convention for builders, the general public can select a two-hour block to see everything that is on display, build their own creation, or shop among the many vendors for that one rare set or minifig accessory you’ve always wanted. Plus, all children 12 and under will receive an exclusive custom-designed BrickCan LEGO kit to take home.
The Brothers Brick will be on-site, scouring the builds for the next amazing LEGO creation to showcase, like this collaborative build Fallout Shelter from last year among many more exciting things. We hope to see you there!