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.

The smallest Prime

Optimus Prime is an ever-popular subject for modelling in LEGO bricks. Just recently we featured an impressively large Transformers city scene featuring the big ol’ truck-bot. However, it’s not often we see such cute details at small scale as in Peter Reid‘s latest creation. Immediately recognisable, this great little build has a nice depth of texture despite its size. I can’t help but provide my own soundtrack to this model — Peter Cullen’s tones pitch-shifted up to Calvin And The Chipmunks levels of squeakiness.

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A go-kart fit for a lunar grand prix

Start your engines and race on extraterrestrial courses with a Mario Kart-inspired LEGO space kart built by Luigi Priori. The skeletal aesthetic of the game’s karts is well emulated in Classic Space colors.

My favorite view of Luigi’s model is the detailed engine and massive exhaust pipes in the rear…

A dragon’s smile

A wide mouthful of sharp dragon teeth is probably the last thing any LEGO knight wants to see. But this dragon bust by Aaron Newman looks pretty cool all the same. Personally I love a good LEGO dragon, and this one delivers on all fronts. The “generic” dragon head shape is hard to achieve in bricks, but is created perfectly here. I’d normally advise builders to avoid giving their dragons teeth — it’s tough to get them looking good. But Aaron has pulled it off nicely. In addition, the colour scheme works well, with pastel shades complementing the main white, giving a “realistic” Frost Drake look.

The bust is a scaled-up version of Aaron’s older minifig scale dragon, Fyaska the Unladylike. Here’s a comparison between the minifig and large versions…

A grand day out with the bricks

Wallace and Gromit enjoy a lunar picnic in this LEGO scene by Patrick B. Whilst simple, the renditions of the inventor and his dog are nicely done, with Mixel eyes providing a bunch of character (however did we builders manage before those came along?!). The robot is perhaps a little small, but that’s made up for by the cool picnic equipment — don’t miss the thermos, the wicker basket, and the use of an upturned tricorn hat as a dog bowl. Eeh lad, that’s grand.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for May 28, 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 final week of May 2017.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: It was a quiet week in LEGO news, but we still have a review of the stunning Ultimate Batmobile and some custom kits that will blow you out of the water.

Review of The LEGO Batman Movie’s The Ultimate Batmobile 70917 — Four amazing vehicles combining into one ultimate Batmobile!? A working Batsignal!? Flying monkeys!? Polka-Dot Man!? Take my money!
John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 WW2 torpedo boat recreated in LEGO — Dan Siskind from Brickmania shows off a full-size minifig-scale version of John F. Kennedy’s World War II torpedo boat, PT-109 with more than 4,000 pieces and measuring 27 inches (over 68 cm) long!
Insert a 5.25″ floppy disk and start up WordStar with this retro LEGO desktop — Chris McVeigh posted the final design for his DOS desk kit, which will be available from his online store soon, and it is a walk down technology lane that even includes a printed floppy disk.

OTHER LEGO NEWS: This week had a few interesting nuggets of LEGO-related news beyond the new kits, so here are the best of the rest.

No Minifigs Were Harmed In The Filming Of This LEGO Crash Test, Geek.com — What happens when you drive the LEGO Porsche 911 GT3 RS into a wall at 46km/h? Pure bliss.
Here’s How You Can Make Your Own Fidget Spinner With LEGO Blocks, Time — LEGO released instructions to build your own fidget spinner, with some LEGO Stores even stocking the parts to build it.
Cambridge University appoints LEGO Professor of Play, Daily Mail — After a massive search, Cambridge has named Professor Paul Ramchandani as its LEGO Professor of Play, tasked with examining the importance of play in education globally.
Brisbaine Airport seeks LEGO ‘master builder’ who can supply their own bricks for yearlong artist’s residency, Daily Mail— Are you in Australia and ready to show your master building skills of to the world? Well, working for the airport may be your ticket to fame.

The LEGO Batman Movie’s The Ultimate Batmobile 70917 [Review]

Even though The LEGO Batman Movie has been in theaters since February, LEGO Batman is back this summer with a whole new wave of sets. Many of the sets this time around feature some of the more spoiler-ish elements of the movie, but nothing that will ruin the movie if you haven’t yet seen it. The flagship of this wave is 70917 The Ultimate Batmobile, which we got our first look at in February at the New York Toy Fair. It’s a massive creation from the film’s turning point that features a Batmobile, Bat-Tank, Batcycle, and Batwing all joined into a rolling fortress for Batman and his cohort. By far the largest of The LEGO Batman Movie sets, The Ultimate Batmobile has 1,456 pieces and will retail for $129.99 USD and should be available June 1.

The set includes 8 minifigures, along with a light-up Batsignal.

Click to read the full review

Chrysalis emerges as a beautiful spaceship

It’s always great to see a first-timer in the online fan community introduce themselves with as sweet of a build as Michael Kanemoto has done with his Chrysalis spaceship.

The builder says he spent a few hundred hours over the past couple of months perfecting his design, and I’d say the effort was well worth it. This is a gorgeous and sleek spacecraft featuring all kinds of clever design details. The colors look great and the launch pad has a nice retro look to it. But the coolest touch may be that the builder has also replicated the ship in microscale.

Howl at this moving (dragon) castle

Two heads + two tails + a castle on its back = one excellent Oriental dragon. The Tokyo Tag Team brings us this cracking LEGO creation — all teeth and claws and roof shingles. The castle itself is a great little build, with the dark green roof providing a smart contrast to the orange scales on the dragon.

The twin heads are well-built, with some good angled brickwork to provide the shaping. I particularly like those dark grey whiskers up front — a nice touch which adds an appropriately Eastern mythological feel.

Fancy going Dutch at this pizza house?

The canal houses of Amsterdam are part of the United Nations World Heritage and are famous for their tall, slim stature and ornate façades and stylised gables. While Barrie Crossan has not given his building much of a gable, he has taken inspiration from those famous Dutch canal houses when designing his five-storey LEGO pizza house. If you look closely you will see some lovely decorative details on the façade and the back stairs on the bottom left, leading directly to the restaurant’s busy kitchen.

While the outside is attractive, it’s worth taking a look inside where Barry has made an effort to create a hugely detailed interior. The apartment on the upper floors has an impressive sitting room with a dining area behind the couch. The furniture is certainly not the average LEGO table and chairs: it looks like it has been supplied by an exclusive designer, with a price tag to match.

Take a closer look inside

Miss Muffet is in for another bad day

There’s only one spider in the world I’d actually want to have in my house: this giant LEGO spider by Grant Davis. Grant uses some great techniques in this build. For example, the cherry elements in between the hinges on the legs are used to achieve tiny bands of red, while minifig caps are used to capture the round articulating joints.

However, the presentation is what really makes this build shine. The spider dangles in front of a green background, belying its large scale. Grant continues to put out killer builds for the Iron Builder competition, so be sure to check out the other three we’ve highlighted already: a fan, Whack-A-Mole machine, and lotus flower.

A timeless naval chase

I have a big soft spot for triremes, more so than for other historical ships. This microscale scene by Micah Beideman, despite its questionable historical and engineering implications, delivers on many levels. Both the ships are done well, with a good solution for the sails, and the trireme’s oars look quite convincing. While simple, the overall scene is very immersive, with the clouds adding a lot to the effect.

What is M-Tron up to on Zosma 4?

Given the shared building blocks of matter and the uniformitarian geological processes likely occurring all over the universe, it seems fairly likely that future human explorers will encounter landscapes similar to our own on distant worlds. Mark Erickson has built an excellent gulch that would look right at home in the American southwest. But the builder says that this is the planet Zosma 4, with an M-Tron mining crew trundling along under the watchful eyes of a certain Captain Simon Lou. While the little M-Tron vehicles will probably evoke a certain nostalgia for LEGO Space fans who came of age in the early 90’s, I’m much more impressed by the realistically layered rocks — truly lovely.