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.
Category Archives: LEGO
Light-hearted brick Jesus reminds us of the real meaning of Easter
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.
TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 16, 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 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!
- Review of LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector’s Series Snowspeeder 75144 – TBB has your exclusive early review of the most iconic Rebel vehicle of The Empire Strikes Back, the Snowspeeder, clocking in at 1,703 pieces and a $199.99 USD price tag.
- Build your own Twin-Pod Cloud Car from Empire Strikes Back – Fly through the clouds of Bespin in your own orange, iconic two-seater.
- BrickCan LEGO convention is back in Vancouver next weekend – Next weekend, April 22-23, hundreds of AFOLs will converge on BrickCan, and tickets are selling fast!
- LEGO City Undercover now available – Chase McCain is back and better than ever, solving puzzles and defeating bad guys in the crime-ridden LEGO City, now remastered for the Switch, Wii, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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.
- Thousands of LEGO daffodils are blooming in Britain, Smithsonian – Nearly 2,000 daffodils have packed the town square there—each made entirely of LEGO bricks.
- At 90, a great grandfather latches onto LEGO, Hartford Courant – Only nine more years to go before the box says he can’t play with them anymore.
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How LEGO could change what we know about plants, Smithsonian – Researchers are using toy bricks to study how plants react to environmental factors.
- LEGO on the hunt for top marketer as Taylor exits for Asia role, Ad News – LEGO is on the hunt for a senior marketer as Australia’s top marketer Troy Taylor is exiting to take on a senior management role at LEGO in Hong Kong.
When there’s something square in your neighbourhood
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!
The road to Golgotha
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.
Nine chapels of St. Basil’s Cathedral are a marvelous example of LEGO microscale architecture
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!
A lighthouse keeper’s worst nightmare and a dentist’s best friend
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.
LEGO Go board provides more possible outcomes than atoms in the universe
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.
BrickCan LEGO convention is back in Vancouver next weekend, Apr 22-23 [News]
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!
A very, VERY mad punk mecha
When one hears the phrase “LEGO mecha“, the name of the legendary Japanese builder Moko is probably one of the first that springs to mind. While he was one of the builders to define the genre, he still continiues to progress it, as is the case with his latest mecha, MFS-11 MAD Garm. After over a decade of active building, Moko can still make mecha that look unique and memorable. There is a lot to love here, from poseability to its unique face and the awesome mohawk. The mecha’s posture and spikes both add to a complete, menacing look. This is definetely not something I want to meet in a dark alley, no matter how unlikey that would be.
Thales Orbital Defence Orcinus Class PAD Gunboat
Immersed in and inspired by a broad range of innovative source materials in sci-fi — from novels and short stories to TV and video games — builders of LEGO space creations have no boundaries to their creativity. Tromas proves this by not only building a chunky, believable starfighter but also giving it a chunky, believable name with a chunky, believable backstory. This gunboat sports a massive quad cannon toward the rear, with lovely orange stripes on a white hull. The reclined cockpit configuration has a viewport built from a transparent hexagonal wing piece integrated among wedge plates. But what really draws the eye are all the little technical details around the edge — not your usual gray greebles, but hyper-realistic black and gold thrust nozzles, white sensor arrays, spots of sand green, and more.
The rear includes no less detail, with primary engines that match the color scheme of the small directional nozzles.
Check out more pictures of this great spaceship after the jump
Begun, the LEGO Clone War has
KW_Vauban captured the Geonosian Petranaki Arena scene from Attack of the Clones rather well with LEGO bricks. The builder’s use of dark orange bricks on detailed and accurately constructed Geonosian architecture was a smart choice. In particular, I like the construction of the main gate with the CIS overlook above.
Dozens of Geonosians line the arena, while Battle Droids and Jedi fight below.
Click to see more of the Geonosian Arena