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.

LEGO Resistance Skimmer from Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The recent Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi teaser trailer has sparked a lot of dicussion amongst fans, but the visuals are undoubtedly breathtaking. The most impressive of all would be the speeder scene from the planet Crait, which has already inspired many LEGO builders to make their version. One of the earliest is this one by Grant Davis, and I am sure it will remain one of the best for a long time. Grant does an incredible job recreating the speeder with the already iconic red dust trail, inspired by a mere six seconds of blurry video. The speeder has excellent shaping and Grant’s signature greebling (which ironicaly he most often uses on pirate-themed builds), but the highlight would have to be the coloured lines, some of which he achieved with rubber bands.

Judging from this build, The Last Jedi will bring a lot of inspiration to LEGO builders, and I can’t wait to see what we see next.

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But where are Princess Ida & the Totem?

Ok, I have to admit when I first saw this I immediately thought it was supposed to be from Monument Valley, the addicting puzzle game from ustwo. But alas, Bangoo H was actually building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. However, my misinterpretation of the source material most certainly did not take away from the fact that this is a serene little model that is wonderfully built.

The cascading water, terraces and steps all come together to perfectly represent some of the funnest levels of the…oh sorry…I mean, the ancient Babylonians’ amazing feat of engineering.

I betcha if you spun the base those two staircases would line-up perfectly, and a few stacked 1×1 yellow bricks couldn’t hurt either…

I want to discover the secret path a bird delivered into my heart

We’ve recently featured a sci-fi diorama sporting some nice portals, but this diorama by I Scream Clone places portals in a very different theme indeed. Both of these were built for a loosely connected collaborative project named “Portals” presented during the Sydney Brick Show. The builder brings an oldschool castle diorama to the table, with some very good structures, but mostly simple landscaping that helps the portals stand out even better. I wonder, are these dioramas really connected…

All aboard the Zagreb Funicular!

Probably thanks to perceptions created by movies like Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, I’ve always thought that funiculars were somehow a uniquely European mode of transportation. Although that’s not actually the case, they definitely have a certain Old World, vaguely steampunk vibe — reinforced by the fact that many of them were first built in the 19th century. Croatian builder Sven Franic has lovingly recreated the Zagreb Funicular, a tram that takes passengers up a relatively short incline in his hometown.

See more photos of this wonderful, working LEGO funicular

Oh, yeah! It’s time to get schwifty!

Ever since LEGO revealed their BrickHeadz line, AFOLs around the world have entered a building frenzy trying to replicate the souless, blocky style of the series. Out of the hundreds of custom BrickHeadz I’ve seen, Yang Wang‘s Rick and Morty Brickheadz are hands down my favorite.

Yang chose the perfect color palette to depict Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith. Just look at Rick’s unibrow and spiky hair! Morty even has two Megaseeds. And while the background might be an offense to the eyes, it’s a clear reference to Dimension 35C (home of the coveted Megaseeds).

Get your helmet on and pilot this red-hot starfighter

Some spaceships are made for carrying cargo, others for deep space exploration. But there is no doubt that Leonard ZX is a ship designed for the offensive manoeuvres of war. Flavio has designed the starship Leonard ZX with speed and agility at the fore, with a sleek nose leading to a powerful, edgy hull. I love the colour blocking of red and white and the use of tails to give the sharp angles on the outside of the hull.

Just behind the white cockpit area is the ingeniously placed red hockey helmet, proving that health and safety is paramount, even in a war fighting machine.

The Sisyphean labors of Rey

Establishing himself as a master of customization and variation, Pangeran Panda, whose Imperial Carousel and BB-8 variations we featured recently, has created a version of Jason Allemann’s kinetic Sysyphus sculpture inspired by The Force Awakens. The base features Rey lounging in front of her crashed AT-AT home, while the upper sculpture shows Rey pushing BB-8 along.

Like Jason’s original, the figure’s legs “walk” and BB-8’s body rocks back and forth.

Mech is the new black

There’s a term in the aftermarket car hobby known as “murdered” where you try and make every part of the vehicle black. Brian Kescenovitz has applied this same principle to this mech, the VIOLISE Stealth Sniper, and it’s a real beauty. While you could just replace the pieces of any mech with black bricks, the design of this build really compliments the colour choice. The sleek lines are expertly done and the tall stature goes perfectly with that.

We should also point out what an outstanding job Brian did with his photography. Working with black is a challenge and we’re sure the builder spent a long time polishing it to remove any fingerprints. Another point worth mentioning is that this is a true mech, as it sneaks a full minifig into the cockpit.

Pretty much the cutest LEGO Dumbo one ever did see

You can’t get much more adorable than this little blocky representation of Disney’s most famous elephant. David Liu says that he built this because Dumbo is his wife’s favourite character. And I am glad he did, because that has always been one of my faves as well.

David has done an amazing job portraying Dumbo at a relatively compact scale. But the little display stand really takes the overall build to the next level. With some very efficient parts usage David created an instantly recognizable scene, in particular the use of the black 1×1 clip plates as the three crows is super clever.

I am a leaf on the wind – watch how I soar

Shown at Bricks Cascade 2017 and winner of Interstellar Bella trophy, Jonathan Walker‘s breathtaking Shadowcaster is a masterpiece. At 133ish studs in length, the leaf-like beauty is massive. Inspired by a train station in France by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, Jonathan spent a lot of time building curves, stressing LEGO in ways it shouldn’t be stressed; the results are extraordinary. Each 4 stud section is attached by a single stud to the spine and they are all held in place by the curve of sand green on the edges. I love the colors he has used and the multi-directional engines mounted underneath. A spectacular spaceship to demonstrate the limitless potential of our beloved plastic brick.

Tiny LEGO Mac built from Rasperry Pi with e-paper display

One of my favorite custom LEGO kits of all time is Chris McVeigh’s Mac, but German programmer Jannis Hermanns has gone one step farther by building a tiny Apple Macintosh classic case from LEGO around a Rasperry Pi Zero with an e-paper display and Wi-Fi running Docker.

Jannis says in his blog post that he designed the case in LEGO Digital Designer, ordered the bricks (upon which he performed some rather shocking customizations to fit the display), and inserted the electronics he’d programmed himself.

The whole thing — LEGO, e-paper display, Rasperry Pi, power supply, and Apple stickers — cost barely over $100, and Jannis provides detailed instructions on his website if you want to build your own.

Wiffy 2k17 is a true next gen mecha

Builder FLAVIO continues his “Wiffy” series (years in the making) with one such robot fitted with twin rotors. His mech is full of brilliant parts usage, color blocking, and unique design choices; I don’t even know where to begin noting my favorite parts. What I can say is FLAVIO’s mech is one of the finest examples of mech building I’ve seen in a while.