Not to be a downer, but conventional wisdom tells us that in the future there will be more ocean to sail than ever before, so why not plan to explore it in style? That’s where this futuristic sailing craft by Daniel Church comes in. The sleek hull, with its well-crafted curves, should cut through the waters with ease. And we figure that sail, stitched together from numerous hexagonal patterns, probably doubles as a solar panel. Perfect for long voyages!
Without wishing to toot my own horn, I’m proud to count being a fluent francophone as one of my diverse skills. That list also includes making mediocre LEGO builds and being able to recite the first 10 digits of Pi off by heart. There’s nothing mediocre about seb71‘s tiny water craft; a build which, despite using only 30 pieces, still conveys a great sense of movement and drama. But it did pose some questions, not least of which was what a ‘coup de tabac‘ is – the title of this piece. As it turns out, despite literally translating to ‘hit of tobacco’, it’s a maritime term for a sudden, violent squall or storm at sea. And with such careful selection of constraction pieces, Seb has really nailed his impression of just that!
From the 1960s to the early 80s, the aquatic expeditions of Jacques Cousteau brought the deep sea into millions of homes. I fell under the Frenchman’s ocean spell watching reruns on public television as a kid, and a big part of that enchantment was thanks to the aptly named Calypso, the British minesweeper boat adapted for scientific use. Fellow 80s kid turned LEGO legend Alex “Orion Pax” Jones also fell in love with Cousteau’s undersea world and decades after trying to build the Calypso as a child, he returns with a masterful LEGO rendition built at 1/50 scale.
Alex includes a functioning version of the crane used to lift the Denise mini-sub, as well as a midi-scale helicopter on the rear deck landing pad.
See more of the Calypso and Orion Pax’s other creations after the jump
Ben Grayson has been featured a few times on The Brothers Brick, but this week the builder is taking brick brotherhood to another level as he joins LEGO Masters season 5 alongside his brother Michael. Ben completed this pre-show piece as a color challenge, contrasting yellowish green foliage with lavender moss. We’re big fans of floating rocks around here, and Ben makes this motif soar on a small footprint with excellent verticality and crisscrossing vines as a dynamic flourish. Ben pairs the build with a little narrative. Fisherman Bjorn Clidestine is journeying far from home, an old man alone into the Aether on a desperate mission to help his starving village. Good luck, Bjorn, and good luck to the brothers Grayson!
This is part of our series on MOCs of the Masters where we preview the work of the newest batch of LEGO Master contestants. Have a look at creations from other builders in the lineup.
LEGO sets based on the Jurassic films have a notoriously high price-to-piece ratio thanks to the large molded dinosaur figures. This has never been more true than the current wave of Jurassic World Rebirth sets, which offer incredible play paired with big price increases. One set in the line bucks the trend – 76974 Brick-Built Mosasaurus Boat Mission. With a retail price of US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99 for 858 pieces, the set promises something that other sets leave wanting: value. But is this brick-built behemoth a model of excellence, or is it dead in the water? Let’s find out!
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 here to read our full review!
Every so often, I’ll stumble upon a LEGO model that has accidental Wes Anderson vibes, but this cross-section of the Belafonte from The Life Aquatic is definitely Wes Anderson on purpose. Builder Eddie Marshall deliberately sticks to the look of classic LEGO sets from the 80s and 90s, fitting for a film that was itself a nostalgic tribute to the late 70s adventures of Jaques Cousteau. Eddie captures most of the Belafonte‘s rooms in a miniature tableau, with most of the crew represented in simple minifig form. Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from dozens of colors, NPU, and amazing SNOT techniques and unwind with a build that could have drifted in from another era.
If you need a refresher on the Belafonte and its crew, Martin Balazs offers an animated tour of his incredibly detailed LEGO version.
The puzzle goes like this: you have a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage and you have to transport all three across a river by boat. As a LEGO minifig serf, you can only carry one passenger in your boat at a time. If you leave the goat and the cabbage unattended, the goat will eat the cabbage. Same deal with the wolf and the goat. What is the fewest number of trips you need to take in order to get all three across the river without anyone being eaten?
Variations of this brain teaser go back over a thousand years, but it took modern-day genius Ciamosław Ciamek to solve the puzzle in LEGO form.
See the solution in beautiful brick-built form after the break!
Remembered as one of the great turning points of World War II, the evacuation of allied forces from the beaches of Dunkirk would not have been possible without a flotilla of small private craft. In this dynamic LEGO diorama by Nicholas Goodman we see one of the hundreds such civilian craft lending a hand, plucking waiting Tommies out of the tumults of the North Atlantic and the European Theatre. The wooden pleasure-craft model is lovely by itself, evoking the period’s brightwork and elegant lines. I can almost feel it bobbing on waves of varying size and shape that capture the Channel’s distinct color and character. A standout detail of the somber scene is the way Nicholas beautifully contours the sand, slumping rough-to-smooth into the surf.
A look through the history of Nicholas’ featured builds is like a look through history itself. (Or into a galaxy far far away. If it was “a long time ago” that counts as history, right?) Click here to see more of Nicholas’ work, and watch this builder with an eye for detail go from strength to strength with each installation.
The LEGO Ideas line has been churning out sets at a record pace! There are lots of fun models coming down the pipeline. However, speed is not the focus of the latest edition to the collection. Quite the contrary, we’re headed for a relaxing, serene paddle downstream. The LEGO Ideas 21356 River Steamboat arrives on the scene as the largest Ideas set ever produced, coming in at 4090 parts. Based on the winning submission by fan designer Aaron Hall, and made a reality by LEGO designer Marina Stampoli, this model is quite the sight to behold. But does it sink or float (metaphorically – it’s definitely too heavy to actually float)? Join us on a voyage of discovery as we take a closer look! It will be available to LEGO Insiders April 7th and everyone else April 10th, retailing for US $329.99 | CAN $429.99 | UK £289.99.
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.
When the all-star builders of RogueBricks came together to recreate Edo era Japan in an epic LEGO collaboration last fall, the results blew the building community away. We shared an overview of the full collaboration, but now Markus Ronge offers a more detailed look at his contribution, a Goza Bune. Basically a pleasure yacht of the feudal lord (think Jabba’s Sail Barge or megayacht of kindred spirit Jeff Bezos), the boat offered all the luxuries of palace life with a side of sea sickness. For the craft’s design, there are few historical references to work from so Markus drew inspiration from several sources to create a composite that captured the spirit of the era.
Come along to see more of Markus’ remarkable Edo-era pleasure yacht
Whenever we’ve had LEGO sets representing old sailing ships, they have more often than not been connected to pirates or their adversaries. In that respect, the newest entry in the Icons line is rather unique: a vessel designed purely for exploration. Polar exploration, that is! This is 10335 The Endurance, a model of the ship which took Ernest Shackleton and his crew to the Antarctic, only to get stuck and then crushed in the ice of the Weddell Sea. The Endurance has since become one of the great undiscovered shipwrecks until it was found in 2022, 100 years to the day after Shackleton’s death. Two years on, and you can now recreate this legendary ship from 3,011 LEGO pieces for US $269.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £229.99. Availability starts from November 29, while it may also be available from third-party sellers like Amazon or 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.
Set sail on the Endurance and read the rest of our review here!
New Hashima, the sprawling cyberpunk LEGO fan collaboration, is known for its towering buildings, but thanks to builders like Gerrit, the futuristic city is home to some impressive vehicles as well. The Aerox C-1 Heavy V8 Twin Engine ICS is a powerful flying tug that can move hover barges around New Hashima with ease. I love the blend of futuristic tech and mundane utility in models like this, but what I love most about Gerrit’s creation is the colors! Purples, azure, and bright yellow orange all contrast nicely with the dark grey utility. Those anime engines and the purple tower evoking a tug’s steam pipe give the vessel an eye-catching profile.
