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.

Labour of love pit stop for hot rods recreated from real life

Once in a while you see a build that not only looks great, but simply blows it out of the water, combining great details and huge playability potential. This build by Andrea Lattanzio of a famous hot rod workshop is surely one of them. What brings this place to life are the small details scattered around, such as the electrical poles and the junkyard at the side.

Andrea tells us a little history of the Mooneyes Headquarters, where gearheads and hot rod modders hang out to get their repairs and mods. Today, Mooneyes is still located in Santa Fe Springs, California, where it’s been since 1962. The builder is obviously a huge fan, and has painstakingly recreated the full workshop layout inside.

Click to see more of the Mooneyes shop

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Neo-Tokyo menaced by spindly mechanoid

It’s nice to see a LEGO mech placed into some sort of context, and F@bz knocks it right out of the park with this diorama of an unusual mech making a nuisance of itself on a busy city street. The cars and commuter train give an idea of the scale of the fearsome machine, and while the rest of the backdrop is very plain, it creates a real focus on the mechanical star of the show.

The mech design is wonderfully weird — spindly legs, a relatively smooth carapace stuffed with greebly detailing, and that vast sail panel sticking up from the machine’s rear. I love when LEGO builders let their imaginations run riot in genres that generally have established “rules”. This model breaks just about all the norms — and does it with real style.

LEGO 71018 Collectible Minifigures Series 17 Feel Guide [Review]

Collectible Minifigures Series 17 are due for release May 1 at the standard price of $3.99 USD, but if previous series have been any indicator, lucky shoppers may begin finding them earlier. We’ve already some reports that they’re on sale in LEGOLAND Billund, so if you’re excited about this series, start keeping an eye out now. We brought you an early review of Collectible Minifigures Series 17 a few weeks ago, but now to help you prepare for hunting for your favorite figures, we’re providing a Feel Guide.

As is standard for the Minifigures line, 71018 Collectible Minifigures Series 17 are each packaged in a blind foil bag, preventing buyers from knowing which characters they’re purchasing. That is, unless you use your nimble fingers to prod and poke the bags into revealing their secrets. We’ve already sorted an entire case of Series 17, so we’re here to help you figure out what you’re feeling inside each bag.

Click to read the full Feel Guide

All you need to make a stone troll is some LEGO

This little stone troll build by Simon NH is a great showcase of mixing old and new elements together. The old grey elements really help sell the ancient nature of the creature, while the new parts such as the curved 1×1 tiles provide the necessary shaping. I’m especially fond of the nose and chin sections, which have been shaped with a beard and hair piece.

Elegant character from Journey created in LEGO

Toronto builder Mel Finelli has built a rather wonderful model of the character from the 2012 indie game Journey. I am the first one to admit that apart from Mario Kart I don’t know a ton about most video games, in particular when they are indie, but that doesn’t take away from the appreciation I have for Mel’s beautiful model. She has done a fantastic job of layering curves and slopes to create the flowing robes of the character, something that is anything but easy to do with LEGO.

The resulting 15″ character is interesting to look at from every angle, which Mel was nice enough to provide in her composite image. Those of you that are lucky enough to be going to BrickCan this weekend will be able to see the model in person.

Gorgeous 8-foot-tall LEGO mobile crane has complete working functions

Leibherr’s LTM 1090-4.1 mobile crane is an impressive piece of construction equipment with a top speed of 85km/h, a telescopic boom up to 50m, and a maximum load capacity of 90 tonnes. If that doesn’t impress you, then this scaled LEGO version of the mobile crane by Dirk Klijn should attract your attention. Dirk has spent 3 and a half years working on this 80cm long model that has 5 Sbrick‘s controlling 17 functions, including driving, working rear lights, indicators and reversing lights, boom and jib extension, power-lifting objects, steering and motion, as well as non-motorised functions such as full suspension, opening doors, and the manual folding jib.

On a model this big, there are plenty of details to pore over…

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Happy 20th birthday, Brickset’s database! [News]

20 years ago today, in 1997, Huw Millington created his first LEGO set guide online, laying the foundation for what would become Brickset’s database. The database is arguably the most complete, thorough data archive on all things LEGO available online today, and has certainly come a long way.
Initially just an online copy of a LEGO catalog, the database has grown and evolved to include sets, prices, pieces, colors, photos and more. Brickset posted a look back at various versions of the database over time, which is worth a read and a good chuckle, if you remember what old HTML web pages used to look like (shudder). If you want to know more about Brickset’s past, check out this article Huw wrote in 2014: Brickset through the ages.

TBB has a great relationship with Brickset, and we’re honored to have Huw and his assistants as part of the LEGO community. So how does one properly express gratitude to such an amazing site? Through poetry, of course, and by borrowing heavily from fellow brit and poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s famous sonnet:

How do I love thee, Brickset database? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height of a 2×4 brick.
My searches can reach, and find that part that clicks
For the means of winning the set collection race.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and moonlight.
I love thee freely, as I look up a set price.
I love thee purely, your color chart I praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs without thee, and with my dark age.
I love thee with a love never to lose
With my lost parts. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my AFOL life; an idea of Huw’s,
I shall but love thee database until death.

Mining with spaceships and portals

Everybody likes a good Classic Space model, and this crystal mining diorama by Brick Knight has all the right details. From the characteristic grey-blue colour scheme with yellow and black stripes, to antennas and recreations of vintage sets, all placed on a tan landscape, just like the box arts of the 1980s. The cracks filled with green minerals break up the landscape very well, but the main focus is obviously in the sci-fi elements like space stations, spaceships and most notably the round portals. The builder explains the diorama as an uninhabited planet where the Classic Space explorers discovered a new energy source and are mining it for its engineering uses.

Click to see more of this space outpost

Everyone’s favourite Disney princess

Immediately recognisable, and packed with a whole heap of attitude — that’s Miro Dudas‘s latest LEGO model: Princess Leia Organa, dressed for cold weather, hand on hip, all ready to give Han a hard time. In a relatively small amount of bricks, this creation really manages to capture Leia’s feisty character. The padded jacket and the boots are nicely built, but it’s the way the model has been posed which does all the work. The stance is perfect. I can almost hear her speak. “I don’t know where you get your delusions from, laser brain.”

We’ve covered one of Miro’s brick-built Leia figures previously, but he appears to be on a roll with a whole series of them. As well as the great Hoth-variant above, there’s an excellent rendition of the Princess disguised as Boushh the Bounty Hunter. Don’t miss the clever use of the printed letter-E tiles on the mask, and the great brickwork to create the belt and harness…

Looking for a private spacecraft? Hokkien jumper is your best choice

There is a certain type of LEGO builder who never runs out of ideas and concepts. Adrian Florea is one of them. When you’ve seen hundreds, thousands of brick-built starships and nothing excites you anymore, you visit Adrian’s photostream and — surprise! — here’s a new one, even more bizarre and alien than any other. And the longer you stare at the picture, the less sure you are about how this pretty ugly thing grabbed all of your attention. The only thing that bothers me right now — where can I sign up for a ride?

Keep your Mini running like new with this well-oiled shop

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.

Click to see more of the shop

Dreadnought delivers the whale mail

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.