Tag Archives: Airplanes

Skypunk 2021

It’s probably safe to say that terms like steampunk and cyberpunk have entered into the common lexicon. Complex worlds, either created around clockwork and steam power or technologically permeated societies, have become pretty popular amongst mainstream society. But what about dieselpunk? Or its partner, skypunk? Thankfully, the nature of the monikers is to get the idea across pretty quickly. Personally, skypunk is one of my favorite concepts. Worlds full of floating fortresses, sky battles in agile, obscure fighter planes, or common people shlepping about on islands in the sky. Today, I want to take a look at the latest skyracer model by builder Sylon-tw.

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Down, down, and away?

“Mayday!” – well that’s never good to hear. Douglas Hughes fashions a little red biplane in some big trouble in this LEGO micro-model.

The background featured in this postcard-like photo is brick-built using a number of different elements including various slopes, bricks, and plates in light blue and white for the red plane to crash through. The plane’s body mainly utilizes the plane minifigure costume featured in the series 21 collectible minifigure set, with some added parts to create a second pair of wings and a cockpit. Black 2×2 round tiles serve as a smokey cloud trailing behind the plane – the signifier of disaster. Overall for a minimal build, its concept is surely conveyed.

LEGO 40450 Amelia Earheart Tribute gift with purchase set revealed [News]

Today we’re getting our first official, high-quality images of LEGO’s next tribute set, 40450 Amelia Earhart Tribute, by way of the Australian LEGO certified store. According to the Australian LEGO store, the set will be a free Gift with Purchase for customers who spend at least $199.99 AUD starting tomorrow, Feb. 22, until supplies are exhausted. There’s no word yet on the promotion details in other parts of the world. It follows on two previous tribute sets, 40291 Creative Personalities featuring Hans Christian Andersen, and 40410 Charles Dickens Tribute.

Among the most famous aviation pioneers, Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 on her trip to circumnavigate the globe flying a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. However, the red aircraft portrayed in the LEGO set is the Lockheed Vega 5B that she flew solo across the Atlantic in 1932 and is now on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

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It’s always time for adventure with the new LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31116 Safari Wildlife Tree House! [Review]

A couple months ago some marketing material put out by the LEGO Group seemingly, accidentally teased an image of an unknown new set. Gasps ensued. An adorable giraffe?! Where can I get that?! Well folks, now it’s here. The new Creator 3-in-1 set 31116 Wildlife Safari Tree House is coming to shelves near you! This kit will be available March 1st, and will retail for US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £29.99. Join us as we don our safari vests and tour this fun new addition to the LEGO Creator line.

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.

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LEGO Ninjago Legacy 71736 Boulder Blaster [Review]

Ninjago Legacy – home of updated and reimagined hits from the 10 year(!) history of the Ninjago theme. We conclude our tour of the January 2021 wave of sets with the Ninjago Legacy 71736 Boulder Blaster. Available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99, this set 449 piece set takes us back Season 4. Will the four minifigures and improved jet end our reviews on a high note? Maybe, maybe not. Read on and see if you agree with our conclusions!

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.

Click to read the full hands-on review

In case of a lack of bullets, just use birds instead!

This just has to be one of the ‘silliest’ scene’s from Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade and General Tilney managed to capture it quite perfectly in LEGO. The best thing about this photo is that everything is made from LEGO bricks, even the sky! Partway through the film, Indiana Jones and his father Henry are trying to escape from enemy airplanes. There is a lot of bombing involved and at one point, they get cornered on a beach full of birds. Father Henry charges the flock of seagulls while flapping his umbrella. This startles the seagulls and they take off into the airplane which causes it to crash. Henry mumbles a Charlemagne quote, which might actually not be a Charlemagne quote and the scene ends. That is some classic Indiana Jones right there!

With this giant LEGO Northrop XB-35, “Winging it” takes on a whole new meaning

When you’re looking at a LEGO creation from someone who’s Flickr handle is “BigPlanes,” you’d expect to see something massive and aeronautical. And, sure enough, this LEGO Northrop XB-35 Flying Wing by Jack Carleson checks those boxes. If you’re looking for information about the technology behind the real XB-35, I’d suggest a trip to Wikipedia. But here at the Brothers Brick, we’re more taken by the excellent building techniques of this model. A masterful combination of SNOT building and Technic wizardry makes this not only a beautiful model but a functional one as well. This huge aircraft has motorized engines, a retractable undercarriage, and even a detailed interior including bomb bays.

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This epic Eurofighter Typhoon will blow you away

As a kid, I built a lot of model airplanes. I loved gluing them together and painting them, but never liked applying the decals. I read books about military airplanes, too, and played with tiny toy planes. I loved airplanes, at least ones that carried missiles and guns. I’m going out on a limb here, but I would hazard a guess that James Cherry loved airplanes, too, and still does. Why would I guess that? Because he has built an amazing Eurofighter Typhoon airplane out of LEGO bricks. Measuring up at over a meter in length and 73cm across at the wingtips (it’s a European plane, so we have to use metric), this is one beast of a creation, too. The whole thing is tiled an oh-so-smooth, with a custom canopy and nose cone, since The LEGO Group does not manufacture anything close to these specs.

Click here to see details of this fabulous fighter jet

All quiet on the Western Front

Ah, airplanes. What would we do without them? They make travel over long distances easy and affordable to everyone, which is great, and they make spreading contagion across the world lightning fast, too, which is not so great. Gone are the days when we had to wait for the rats in the hold of the ship to spread the pestilence! But military airplanes, deadly in ways non-viral, have a strong nostalgia attached to them for many people, from history buffs to kids who like to zoom things around and make machine gun noises while spitting on everything. Wesley has made a LEGO model of a RAF SE5a, a delightful WWI-era biplane, complete with said machine gun. The shaping is fantastic, especially on the fuselage, and I love the cheese-slope chocks under the wheels. The under-construction aerodrome gives depth to the image, especially when combined with the minifigures and the green “grass”; it’s a simple addition but brings it from a plain ol’ airplane to an immersive scene.

Building “Pursuit of Flight” is still attainable [Instructions]

Nearly a year ago, we featured this exceptional kinetic sculpture by Jason Allemann. The “Pursuit of Flight” later went on to become a finalist in the recent LEGO Ideas review round. A week ago, LEGO announced which projects made it into the next production run, and unfortunately, Jason’s “Pursuit of Flight” was not one of those projects. But do not despair! He has made the full instructions available to anyone who is dying to build this wonderful piece of art.

For those big Star Wars fan out there, you can try your hand at a trench run variation of the original model.

As you may know, this is not the first time that Jason (also known as JK Brickworks) has been a LEGO Ideas finalist. He has actually previously won the coveted opportunity to have his build become an official set… twice. He’s responsible for 21305 Maze and 21315 Pop-Up Book (the latter in collaboration with Grant Davis).

Join the flight of the Concorde with this beautiful 5-foot long LEGO model

Builder Jack Carleson astounds us again with his spot-on LEGO plane models. This time it’s the British Airways Concorde. I’m actually old enough to remember when the Concorde made its first flight around the globe in a shocking 29 hours all the way back in 1986. It was a huge deal at the time and people often commented on its supersonic speed and crooked nose. Carleson (aka Big Planes) captures the unusual design and sleek wingspan of the Concorde perfectly. The finished model is an impressive 5 feet long and consists of over 6,000 pieces.

Of course, it features the Concorde’s iconic droop nose, which pivots down for better pilot visibility during takeoffs and landings. Continue reading →

The Douglas DC-3C has the quintessential airplane shape

Maybe it’s because this retro shape was so commonly illustrated in children’s books but, when I was a child learning to draw, I’d put pencil (or crayon) to paper and all my airplanes turned out pretty much like this. Without even knowing its name, I seemed aware that this is what the quintessential airplane should look like. Luis Peña not only provides me its name — Douglas DC-3C — but a stunning 1:40 scale LEGO model, which is much harder to build than to draw. A trip to the National Aeronautical and Space Museum in Santiago, Chile inspired this model. He tells us that LAN Chile bought several of these craft in 1946 after they were originally used as cargo planes during World War II, then refurbished them for a second life as passenger planes.

This particular model measures 73 cm (28.74 in.) wide and 49 cm (19.29 in.) long. To Luis this represents an important part of Chilean aviation history and, in my childhood mind anyway, the most perfectly quintessential airplane shape. This is clearly not the first time we’ve been delighted by his work.

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