With the forthcoming LEGO Ninjago Movie and it’s accompanying sets, we’re fully expecting a wave of fabulous Eastern-themed creations. Ming Jin gets in on the action early with this lovely little fishing boat. The brick-built hull is well-shaped, and the black awning lends this an obvious Oriental flavour. But my favourite touches are hanging lantern and the trailing net — subtle additions which create a sense of a working boat.
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 August 2017.
TBB NEWS: Aside from LEGO getting a new CEO, news this week was light but included the most in-depth look at Ninjago City yet.
OTHER LEGO NEWS: In addition to that really big instruction book, this week had a few other interesting LEGO-related news articles. Here are the best of the bunch.
With so many LEGO D-Day dioramas out there, it is easy to forget other important battles of the time. The siege of Bastogne was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during WW2 and an important turning point. Lasting from 21-26 december 1944, the battle took many lives, as did the frigid cold. This collaborative display depicting the battle, directed by Ekjohnson1, won multiple awards at Brickfair Virginia.
There is so much to see in the diorama, but some of the highlights include the excellent battle damage on the houses, the church, and the forested area just outside the town. Collaborations can be very hard to do with builders of different styles and skills, but the team managed to create a seamlessly flowing whole, a respectable feat indeed.
The attention to detail on some of the buildings is impressive. Check out the frontage on this townhouse…
Based on looks alone, BB-8 is always a little less interesting for me than R2-D2 — a couple of sphere’s stacked on top of each other and you’re good to go. But what makes him come alive is his ability to glide across any surface gracefully while looking around and making charming bleeping sounds. Jedi brickmaster Takamichi Irie cleverly constructs a body-spinning, head-turning, light-illuminating BB-8 to bring the character to life in LEGO. All that’s missing is a lighter for recreating that memorable “thumbs up” gesture!
We have a complicated relationship with lemurs here at Brothers Brick. On one hand, they’re cute, cuddly, and good at fishing LEGO bricks from down the back of the couch. But on the other hand, they’re messy, nibble on our server power cables, and smell a bit. Maybe we should look to replace our lemur with one of Mitsuru Nikaido‘s mechanical versions?
This is a great model — natural curves and shaping, with lots of cool functional-looking robotic greeble stuff going on under the smooth plating. Nice use of a hot air balloon plate piece as the lemur’s back — a lovely sinuous curve. And that tail — magic.
This LEGO creation from David Liu feels like a scene lifted out of a kids fable — a pivotal moment where a little kitten presents a gift to a bigger cat. Will the tiger accept the peace offering? Who knows — but while the story plays out in your head, don’t miss the interesting use of the Brick Separator. Did you spot it? Brilliant use for a pouncing pose!
Despite all the different “genres” in LEGO building, there’s something deeply satisfying when our beloved bricks are used to build a really nice house. This creation by betweenbrickwalls is stunning — a stylish contemporary home, with a hint of Modernism about the design. You might imagine a predominantly dark grey and tan colour scheme would look drab, but here it lends the model a smart contrast, and offsets the surrounding autumnal tones. I particularly like some of the details of the structure — those four brick fin-like pillars, and the raised section over the stream.
Don’t miss the detailed interior, including a beautiful spiral staircase…
Animals are one of the hardest things to build in LEGO, due to their natural shapes and smooth surfaces. Unless you’re opting for robotic versions, you can’t just cover tricky parts up with any old light gray part and call it mechanical greebles! Brick Surgeon has done a wonderful job building a perfectly natural, realistic, and non-robotic LEGO bison. Here it’s being ridden by a warrior named Megedagik, whom we can only assume is too cool for horses.
Don’t miss the excellent use of minifigure hair pieces for the bison’s shaggy head, and assorted plants around the scene. The builder has used olive green minifigure heads as cacti — effective part use, further enhanced with some pretty lavender buds.
Would you like to know what happens if a prince strolls into an all-princess party? Yep, you guessed it! Princesses Moana, Mulan and Merida all stand glazed and wide eyed, armed and ready to battle each other for his hand in marriage! While I may tease YOS Bricks about one attention grabbing feature of these models, he’s been at this theme for quite a while now — since we last featured his versions of Elsa and Anna — and there is certain charming consistency about them that appeals.
The builder’s Flickr stream is definitely worth checking out to see similar takes on Jasmine, Belle, Tiana, Cinderella and Ariel. As an added treat, many of the princesses are also shown wearing multiple outfits. But in each case, the brick-built recreations of their costumes and hair styles are almost perfect.
Sea stacks are amazing vertical rock formations that stand in the sea, formed entirely by wind and water as the forces of nature break up part of the headland over time. There are some famous stacks around the world, for example, the Twelve Apostles in Australia or the Old Man of Hoy off the coast of Orkney in Scotland. Tirrell Brown has created a beautiful scene with sea stacks, just off the coast of the imaginary land of Mitgardia. The castle is centrally located upon one of the larger stacks, jutting out the sea with it’s small wooden pier. Tirrell’s sea is very striking, with the combination of dark blue and medium blue depths and transparent waves crashing against the craggy rock faces of the sea stacks.
As if the forthcoming NINJAGO Movie wasn’t already exciting enough, LEGO has been blowing us away with all the related sets and minifigs — none more so than the completely jaw-dropping 4867-piece 70620 NINJAGO City. Well now LEGO has released a video in which the set’s designers give us an in-depth, bottom-up, overview of this amazing modular set and its many, many, many, many cool little details!
The set is available September 1st and will retail for USD$299 / £259.99. And look out for a thorough review of it right here on The Brothers Brick in the very near future!
You may recall last month we ventured back to Meso-America 7,000 B.C. with Ayrlego‘s beautiful jungle scene. Now we leap through time and space to the Golden age of Piracy with two wonderful buildings from the fictional Port Woodhouse. First, we have the piratically themed Infantry Barracks where the Captain inspects the troops’ custom carbines. I love how each of the soldiers has a unique face and expression – a couple of those guys in the front row look like a lot of trouble or a lot of fun, depending on your perspective. The use of older ‘yellowed’ white bricks and un-clutched roof tiles (including one with a broken corner) also lend the build an antique feel.
