Category Archives: People

LEGO fandom is a worldwide phenomenon, a vast community. Whether you consider yourself an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO), ALE (Adult LEGO Enthusiast), some other crazy acronym, a parent of a young builder, or even just a casual fan who appreciates all the amazing models LEGO builders create, there’s more to LEGO than just the models themselves. Here at The Brothers Brick, we bring you the stories behind the models, with interviews, builder profiles, and more.

Tiny builds, big imagination. Talking bricks with Dan Ko [Interview]

Longtime readers of The Brothers Brick will definitely be familiar with the builds of Jordan Jivkov, better known as Dan Ko, one of the most prolific builders of recent years, who specializes in small models that are packed with personality and wit. He honed his skills as an Iron Builder and continues to show up in LEGO challenges like Brickscalibur and the Rogue Olympics. It’s no surprise he’s been featured here dozens of times since 2020. In addition to sharing his models, Dan has also been generous with sharing ad-hoc instructions for his most popular builds. This month Dan is starting a new venture: a website where Dan can release free digital instructions every week for delightful builds that can be made from a modest collection of parts. We thought this would be the perfect time to catch up with Dan on his site, his journey as a builder, and the state of LEGO fandom.

Click for our interview with Dan and some of our favorites of his tiny builds

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Zen and the art of building LEGO Castles with Cathedral of Bricks [Interview]

There’s no time like the present to find your creative voice with LEGO. Today’s guest is another builder who only recently began sharing their works online and already they are making quite a splash with fellow AFOLs. Luke, aka cathedralofbricks, creates castles and vignettes that blend gothic architecture and fantasy through a romantic lens.

Over just a few months, Luke has created an impressive body of MOCs. We’re excited to sit down with Luke to learn more about how he found his creative voice in LEGO as someone coming to the hobby later in life.

Our interview with cathedralofbricks follows, along with a gallery of the builder’s incredible castle creations

Bricks of questionable character: We chat with internet phenom, Iain Heath [Interview]

We sat with LEGO meme factory, Iain Heath, who immediately revokes my Gen-X card, schools us on the not-so-subtle art of going viral, and tells us what it’s like to hobnob with celebrities. Hilarity ensued! Grab yourself a good beverage and a bag of popcorn and join us as we lift the hood and try to figure out what makes him tick. Hint: I’m pretty sure it’s London Dry Gin and Jägermeister.

TBB (Lino) Thanks for being with us, Iain. I’ve known you for many years as an artist who engages in several mediums including video making, painting, and LEGO. No matter the medium, you have been consistently irreverent and funny as all get-out. Our readers likely know you by the formidable name of Ochre Jelly (I had to google what that was). How did you choose this name and is the Ochre persona different from Iain, or are they one and the same?

IH: The name comes from a monster in D&D. Lino, as a fellow Gen X-er, I can’t believe you did not already know this, but also not have its stats memorized. For shame… I think the only fitting punishment here is to confiscate your vinyl copy of Sports by Huey Lewis and the News. Bro, do you even D20?!

IH: The name is less of a persona and more a mask to hide behind, as I think many of us online prefer to do. Some people are comfortable putting their own identity and persona front and center of their art, especially creators who make a living from it, or posting daily, or want to use their personality as part of their brand (I’m looking at YOU Lego Masters contestants!). But in my experience you are more likely to just run into people’s prejudices that way (which in my case usually means age-ism, as I am older than Cthulhu). I’d prefer to be seen as a Lego Banksy, using my art to anonymously poke fun at the world, rather than “some old dude with too much free time on his hands”. Not to say that I don’t sometimes step in front of the camera for the sake of The Bit.

Click here for more not-to-be-missed hijinks from Iain!

Engineering for excellence – the Star Wars builds of Jürgen Wittner [Interview]

Today we’re joined by fan designer Jürgen Wittner, whose incredible Star Wars vehicles, built at 1:16 scale, are masterworks of LEGO engineering. We talk about his latest project, the Fall of Hoth, creative collaboration, and the process for designing and sharing these premium builds.

TBB: Hi, Jürgen. It’s been some time since the Brothers Brick checked in with you, but you’ve been quite busy. Maybe we can start by talking a bit about your latest build, the Fall of Hoth. I saw the illustration by Laurie Greasley and the 3D model by Jeff Lu. What inspired you to continue adapting this image into LEGO? Did you coordinate with either of the other artists?

Our interview with master fan designer Jürgen Wittner follows…

Building on the wild side with rising MOC star Hodgepodge Builds [Interview]

Every so often, a builder shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, with a creative style so distinctive, complex, and cool that you feel shook – like walking barefoot on a pile of bricks, but in a good way. C, who posts as @hodgepodgebuilds, only started posting LEGO models three months ago, is such a builder. Of course, talent doesn’t come from nowhere. Today we sit down with C to learn more about his LEGO journey and unique style.

TBB: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. Maybe you could talk about your LEGO journey. What was the first set or theme that really excited you?

C: The first theme that really excited me was definitely the 2009 Pirates line, which came out when I was about 5 (and insanely obsessed with pirates). I still think that line is remarkably well-designed. My interest in nautical aesthetics and ships has morphed since then, but is still rooted in my love of it back then. A recent build that speaks to that would be the research vessel ketch sailboat that I built this past winter. It was a full circle moment for me, finally being able to build a ship I was completely satisfied with from a technical and visual standpoint.

TBB: Have you stuck with LEGO continuously or did you go through a dark age before coming back to the hobby? What inspired you to start sharing your models?

C: I’ve never had a true dark age when it comes to LEGO, but it’s always ebbed and flowed for me. It’s always functioned as a sort of calming process in times of stress, especially during the last year as a college English major. It helps me relax and express my creative ideas in a visual sense. Honestly, what inspired me to share my models was the community, I had made the account a few months earlier to follow builders I liked and got very excited by the work I was seeing. I had been building consistently for about 8 months by the time I first posted, so I was also very excited to finally get my work out there (and thank you to my dear friends who encouraged me to post!)

Our interview with rising star HodgepodgeBuilds continues

Talking Iron Builder with LEGO space legend Tim Goddard [Feature]

The most recent Iron Builder competition just came to an end, providing the LEGO community with some truly excellent creations fueled by the creativity of two amazing AFOL talents: Tim Goddard and Bousker. For those who are not familiar with Iron Builder, it is a competition that puts two builders directly against each other in a two-week contest of creating models that incorporate a specific LEGO piece. In this instance, the Airplane Door in White. Fresh off an amazing run of 7 stellar creations, we sat down with Tim about his thoughts on competing for the Iron Builder crown.

Read TBB’s interview with Tim below!

Spreading joy and crossing cultures with LEGO legend Dicken Liu [Interview]

TBB: Your LEGO creations first came to our attention after your appearance on LEGO Masters China, when you started a Flickr gallery. From the start, you were building at a very high level. I’m sure there was a long journey between when you first discovered LEGO to where you are today. When did you first discover LEGO?

Dicken Liu: Lego hasn’t been in the Chinese market for very long, and the price was a big reason why it wasn’t a toy for the average person when they first appeared in China. I first saw Lego in a shopping mall in the 90s. But it was more than a decade later that I actually bought my first Lego set.

TBB: How did you discover that LEGO was more than just a toy? When did you become “serious” about making your own creations?

DL: It was probably from 2016 that I started to try my hand at making small pieces. (Before that my interests were more focused on models, drones, and film.) I started to look around for information and learn techniques to enrich my MOC knowledge, but at that time the actual LEGO MOC pieces I saw were quite limited. Here are a few pieces I’ve kept. They’re pretty rough to look at now, but it was really the start of my MOC journey.

Our interview with Dicken Liu continues

Gayle Spiller’s enchanting LEGO box dioramas [Interview]

Gayle Spiller turns whimsical ideas into inspiring LEGO models packed with detail. Her builds, like the Butterfly Collector, are so dense with imaginative use of parts, you can get lost in them. In 2023, Gayle joined the exclusive group of builders to be featured at the LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery. In recent months, Gayle has been playing with a new, cozier build format – one that, like minifig habitats, could inspire builders looking to make their own MOCs from their favorite pieces who might be intimidated by larger constructions. We checked in with Gayle to talk about her latest series and life with LEGO since her invitation to Billund.

TBB: First of all, congratulations on being chosen as one of the latest builders invited to display your creations at the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO House. What was it like to learn that your works would be displayed in Billund? What was it like meeting the other amazing builders and the LEGO team? Has anything changed in your relationship with LEGO building since your works were spotlighted?

Gayle: Thank you. Being asked to exhibit at the Lego Masterpiece Gallery 2023/24 was a complete surprise and I definitely had imposter syndrome. It was a fantastic experience and I loved meeting the other builders who I had admired online for so long. It was interesting to learn about their building methods, how for instance Zach produces some of his spectacular pieces in only 3 hours. That was a revelation and definitely inspired me to scale down and create something that would take a weekend to finish rather than some of my larger projects which have taken months.

Click to see more of Gayle’s immersive box dioramas

Tags and trains: Capturing the gritty side of the tracks in LEGO with Sérgio Batista [Interview]

We’ve been admirers of the LEGO trains from Sérgio Batista for some time now. Builing at 1:45 scale, Sérgio recreates the trains of his native Portugal in incredible detail, earning prizes and the attention of local media. In his latest project, it wasn’t the trains themselves but the setting that caught our attention – specifically the minifig-scale graffiti on the ruined buildings, walls, and train cars along the tracks. Some might call painting on bricks in this way vandalism, but we were taken by how immersive the effect is. It’s a side of life by the train tracks that you don’t often see in LEGO or models in general. We reached out to Sérgio to learn more about his love for LEGO trains and how he came to playing with graffiti in his latest work.

TBB: First off, how did you become interested in LEGO train modeling?

Sérgio Batista: Since childhood, I have been fascinated by trains. I was born in the ’80s and grew up in the ’90s, often riding suburban trains with my parents. As for LEGO, I had catalogs featuring the Metroliner, which had a design/shape similar to the Portuguese trains I used to ride (the CP 2300 series from the Sintra Line). However, it was an expensive set that my parents couldn’t afford, so it remained just a memory.

Years later, as an adult, I emerged from my dark age and bought the Metroliner on eBay around 2005/2006. That’s when I thought, what if I built Portuguese trains in LEGO? I searched online and discovered the work of builders like James Mathis and Raised on Brickshelf, and I figured I might be able to do the same. I came across BrickLink and began my journey to replicate Portuguese trains in LEGO.

Next stop, more on Sérgio’s LEGO train journey

LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31165 Wild Animals Panda Family [Review]

Recently, LEGO set designers have taken the Creator 3-in-1 line of animal sets to the next level. Sets like LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31129 Majestic Tiger, LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31154 Forest Animals: Red Fox, and LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals have given wildlife fans a lot to be excited about. With 4 new sets coming in January, this trend is showing no signs of stopping. The most impressive of the latest wave features a panda bear and cub snacking on bamboo, with a penguin and chick and a pair of orcas as the alternate models. LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31165 Wild Animals Panda Family contains 626 pieces and will be available on January 1st for US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99. You may also be able to find the set after release from 3rd party sites like Amazon and eBay.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read on for our full review

Building with character: a conversation with NPU wizard Djokson [Interview]

LEGO elements are a fascinating creative medium where the palette of possibility is constantly evolving, but the pieces of yesteryear never go away. Duplo bricks from 45 years ago can still connect with forgotten Znaps or the latest Dreamzzz. Serbian builder Djokson is an undisputed master of bridging obscure LEGO B-Sides with new shapes and colors. Over 10 years, he has created and shared nearly 400 LEGO models, each remarkable in form, personality, and originality. Djokson has been on a hot streak this year with multiple new models a week that showcases his growth as an artist. This seems like the perfect time to sit down with Djokson and learn a bit more about the mind behind this incredible run of LEGO marvels.

Read on for the rest of our interview with Djokson and a retrospective of his amazing builds! !

How Aaron Newman went from being a LEGO fan to a LEGO set designer [Interview]

LEGO fans take many shapes. Some enjoy building official sets, while others dive into their imagination. Still others take great pride in hunting down every minute variation of 2×4 brick, or in capturing beautiful images of minifigures. For some, though, LEGO is a career path. Aaron Newman has been building with LEGO all his life, and has successfully navigated the dream that many fans have: not just building with LEGO, but getting paid to do it. Aaron has been on a rocket trajectory, moving from fan to full-time LEGO artist and then to a contestant on LEGO Masters Season 1. We’ve interviewed Aaron before about his work as a fan and on LEGO Masters, but now he’s moving to Denmark as the LEGO Company’s newest designer, so I caught up with Aaron once more to learn about his journey and how he approaches building.

Click to read the full interview