Tag Archives: 1:1 Scale

Lifesize props that will have you asking “Is it LEGO?”

I’m Batman. You can be too.

You should dress for the job you want and not the job you have. Which explains why I spent the afternoon in the HR office dressed as Batman. I wish I could take credit for that joke but it’s not mine to claim. Still, I’m certain LEGO builder Riley Scott can appreciate the sentiment as evidenced by this wearable Batman mask. This is not Riley’s first rodeo with 1:1 scale wearable art. Here’s the Stormbringer from the Avengers: Infinity War and be sure to try D.C.s Atom outfit on for size. Also check out Starlord’s helmet. Riley seems to give equal love to both D.C. and Marvel, which just shows we’re all superhero dorks at heart, regardless of sides.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Just a little messy

LEGO bricks are used to make stuff, sure. But when LEGO bricks are used to make stuff that makes stuff…that’s a different level of meta. SephiMoc FF7 has created some painting supplies that do indeed look ready to be applied to canvas. I like how they’ve used different building methods to show the pooling paint, but it’s the brushes that make me smile most. We’ve seen minifigure brooms and plumes as brush tips before, but this may be the first time I’ve seen both a banana and carrot in play as well. I do kind of feel bad for the table, though. That’s a lot of messy spillage to clean up.

If you’d like to see a different design for paint tubes, I found a gem in our archives.

If it’ll please the court, Exhibit A...the wedding photos.

A photograph is a literal snapshot of a moment in time, but often so is the camera. This LEGO disposable camera by nobu_tary reminds us that the real sweet spot for these was from about the late eighties to the early oughts. The builder pretty well captured the sort of the throw away cheap quality these cameras possessed. The lenses were usually plastic, the photo quality questionable but they served in a pinch. One popular use of these was at weddings. A disposable camera was placed at each table and wedding guests were encouraged to snap impromptu pics of themselves. Then once the honeymoon was over, the newlyweds would then develop their photos only to find a record number of butts, boobies, and ding-dongs. It was immature and a complete waste of film if you ask me! Thankfully we all do the same now but on our smartphones like responsible adults.

Artifacts from a vintage family room

The ’50s are calling! Don’t tell my father – he was born in 1955 and would be highly offended if he heard me using the term “vintage” to describe these items. I’d love to know what inspired LEGO builder Jaap Bijl to choose this era, but I’m so glad he did. The collection inspires images of a very different point in history. A tube radio, rotary telephone, and even a WW2 medal define the time. And the old-school toys and treats mixed throughout tell the story of a young family. Jaap used a bunch of the white 4×4 flower elements to achieve the look, but a couple of my most favorite examples are the ones that aren’t as easy to see, like the racecar wheels and radio tuning sliders.

There are many more fantastic examples of Jaap’s work in our archives!

Not your grandma’s lace tablecloth

LEGO builder and co-fan-designer for the Ideas Pop-Up Book set, Grant Davis is on a roll lately. As in, one of the best runs of excellent builds in a short time I’ve ever seen. In this latest project, the candlestick holder and rose are lovely. But the real hero of the display is the “lace” tablecloth. Made up of 16 white nets and adorned with both older and new flower elements, it’s certainly convincing. Anyone who has worked with nets in this way knows how tricky and fiddly they can be, but these are expertly held together with carefully hidden connections. There are even white tusks/tails clipped to octagonal parabolic rings for the more intricate center. LEGO has never looked so delicate.

To see the rest of this excellent series of builds, check out Grant’s giant playing card, gingerbread house, renaissance man, and sheep.

A LEGO flower by any other name smells of plastic

Flowers are a frequent subject of artists and photographers, capturing the many brilliant colors of nature. LEGO artists are no exception, as the many bright colors available can be combined with stunning results. Amado Canlas Pinlac has chosen a more monochrome palette for this model of baby blues. The curved bricks provide wonderfully textured petals and the white planter box is simple, yet effective in giving the model a sense of scale.

In case of emergency...

We’ve all been there. Maybe you’re on lunch break at your office where you don’t usually build LEGO. Or maybe you are like me and your brick separators can be in any one out of a number of tin boxes. Luckily Allyson Gail shows us how we can prepare for such disasters in her build – a twist on the old classic “break glass in case of emergency”.

The composition of this build is quite simple – mostly red LEGO bricks and some tiling at the top with large clear translucent windows to create the glass portion. Gail even includes a much needed brick-built hammer hanging off of a long chain element – to break the glass of course. Inside is the coveted original bluish-grey brick separator, the preferred separator of some builders and all the more reason why it should be tucked away safely for emergency use only! Thanks to Gail’s inspirational model, now you too can be prepared for a potential brick separating emergency.

Eat your fruits and vegetables!

A major problem with the diets of many folks these days is that they do not eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables, instead deriving too many of their calories from highly processed wheat, corn, and soy. There’s nothing wrong with wheat, corn, or soy, per se, but they don’t provide many of the vitamins and minerals necessary for human health. So consider this LEGO build by Barbara Hoel to be a public service announcement: eat your fruits and veggies! Your gut will thank you. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This still life is awash with bright colors, with red apples, green, dark red, and purple grapes, orange oranges, yellow pears, and perhaps a dark red plum. Yummy! Organic curves are hard to do in LEGO, but Barbara has done a great job sculpting them. And then there is the tablecloth beneath them all, with every shade of blue imaginable featured. Someone must have invested in some LEGO DOTS sets! If only the background were black velvet, this would look great surrounded by a gilded frame and hanging on the wall of my dining room, reminding me to eat my fruits and vegetables.

Rattus LEGOlus is a most uncommon rat

In my opinion, rats have earned an unfair reputation… maybe it started with the whole bubonic plague thing, or maybe it’s the fact that they have a tail that looks like a snake. Whatever the reason, I think that we can all agree that this rat by Felix Jaensch is anything but common. The subtle angle on the side of the face is a nice touch, and the underside of a round plate for ears, along with simple sloped parts for the hands and feet are simple but effective.

A not-quite standard “Standard”

The Gibson Les Paul was one of the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitars. There are a lot of versions and editions, but this is the first time I’ve seen one made out of LEGO, at least at a 1:1 scale. Builder morimorilego has paid close attention to realism in this reproduction of the “Les Paul Standard”. The body is decked out in layers of red, orange, and yellow tile and brick, with the pickguard standing out in vibrant white. Golden dishes and transparent yellow 2×2 round brick are used for the control knobs, and the output jack is courtesy of a system wheel rim. Those details complement the work done in the neck and headstock, which help make this build feel like it’s ready to play.

Click for a closer look

Music for my babushka

Last weekend, Timofey Tkachev went to see his babushka. There is no place like a countryside cottage to spend long summer evenings, sipping hot tea, and enjoying a slice of a berry pie. But one doesn’t simply go to babushka empty-handed. Being a very talented LEGO builder, Timofey designed something exceptional: a full-sized replica of a traditional balalaika, a Russian stringed instrument. The brick-built design looks wonderful in its simplicity. The iconic triangular shape became possible thanks to the clever use of regular slope pieces. And thanks to the hues of LEGO colors, this balalaika looks almost exactly like a real one.

Kudos to Vera Senyuta for joining the tea party and taking her camera with her. We always love to see custom LEGO creations shot in beautiful settings. For a musical instrument like this one, there is no better background than a couple of birches in the evening sun.

Oh, shoot!

The Fujifilm X100 Series is an iconic camera line, and builder John Huang has given it an equally iconic LEGO treatment. Curved slope tiles in grey and black give the housing clean edges and lines. A minifigure frying pan makes a great stand-in for the viewfinder selector switch, and a Technic gear forms the shutter speed dial.

As nice as those details are, the viewfinder on this one is really a cut above. It’s also cool to see the lens housing rotated and sitting at a tilted angle; it makes this feel even more like a functional piece of camera equipment. I’m just loving all these 1:1 scale LEGO cameras lately, but this one makes me particularly happy.