Tag Archives: Books

Take a look, it’s in a LEGO book...

When he’s not busy designing LEGO sets like 40505 LEGO Building Systems, Markus Rollbühler finds the time to make creations of a less-official variety. His latest is an entry into this year’s RogueOlympics, a competition where each round’s entry must clock in at 101 bricks or less. And with this limited palette, Markus still tells quite the story, full of forced perspective and hard-to-use fabric pieces. But I think the real victory here is the integration of some of the oldest LEGO trees, circa 1960.

101 Bricks: Storybook Adventures

A peek behind the Wall: building a 200,000-piece LEGO Game of Thrones diorama [Guest Feature]

LEGO builder extraordinaire Anu Pehrson joins us to give an inside perspective on how she built this enormous 200,000-piece minifigure-scale diorama of the Wall from Game of Thrones. If you’re not familiar with Anu, she likes to build big. If you happen to be in Denmark soon, check out her huge model of the Greyjoy Stronghold, which has been showcased in the LEGO House for the past year. She previously gave us a behind-the-scenes look at her 20,000-piece rice plantation diorama from The LEGO Ninjago Movie, but now she’s gone ten times bigger. So read on as Anu walks us through the entire process of building the Wall from early concepts to finished model.

Building the Wall

As builders, most of us are inspired by things we encounter in our everyday lives, travels, and other interests such as books, music, etc. I immensely enjoyed reading Game of Thrones and was inspired with several ideas for building. The Wall was an obvious choice but a very daunting task and would require me to get several tens of thousands of white parts. I started the process of collecting parts specifically for this project in 2012. Nine years later, I finally started building in 2021, and it has taken me over two years to finish it. The model is 5 x 5 feet and approximately 4.5 feet tall, and in the end, I used close to 200,000 pieces.

My thought process here was that the Wall would be the central grounding factor, with several structures added to both the south side of the Wall and the area beyond the wall to the north as described in the books/show.

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Do you dare read from the Tome of Forbidden Knowledge?

Some books, like The Eye of Argon, Mein Kampf and the entire Twilight series should be read by no one. But this LEGO tome built by Áron Gerencsér has the opposite effect on me. As in I want to crack it open and drink in whatever forbidden knowledge lies within. The lock and key and ethereal chains really sell the notion of forbidden lore that is not for the faint of heart. I mean, it probably doesn’t have any high school drama and sparkly vampires so that’s a good thing. With all the attempts to keep this book from being read by the masses, I’m guessing it’s a particularly truthful coming-of-age Judy Blume novel. Juicy!

Forbidden Knowledge

A castle chained to the sky

I’m not familiar with the Deepgate Codex fantasy series, but after seeing this captivating floating castle built of LEGO by I think I might have to check it out, because this microscale structure has my imagination running. It’s a simple build but no less effective at evoking the feeling of precarious city perched atop a magic rock and chained in place. A few carefully placed studs make for great windows on the buildings, while the rock-texture slope gets put to good use giving added dimension to the chunk of earth without looking forced.

Deepgate

LEGO Build Every Day and the Master Builder Notebook – When you choose paper instead of plastic [Review]

Master Model Builder Alec Posta has teamed up with Chronicle Books to share some tips for tapping into the power of LEGO bricks. No, not in a “power a clock with a potato” sense, but more like “how to power through real life issues using LEGO as a source of inspiration.”  Build Every Day is available from Amazon for $13.99 US, and the companion Master Builder Notebook can be had for $13.60 US. Read along as we take a look inside both books and see just what they have to offer!

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick a copy of these books for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

A book report? On Brothers Brick? It’s more likely than you think.

Tiny tall tales

Working with a limited number of LEGO pieces can be a real challenge, but builder Dan Ko rises to meet it with this tiny but awesome build! Building with as few pieces as possible really pushes you to get creative on how to represent your subject, and Dan shows us the way with all the clever parts usage. For example, minifigure skater helmets make up Alice’s shoulders while mugs make up her hair. Orange leaves stand in for the Mad Hatter’s hair sticking out from under his hat. I love the use of shuttle bay doors for the book’s pages! Minifigure hands make up Rapunzel’s flowing hair, which acts as a bookmark of sorts for the open book. And there’s particularly crafty usage of the transparent handle as the heel of the glass slipper. Go ahead, take a closer look and see what wonders you’ll find among these tales!

Once Upon A Time

A fairytale takes root! Magic beans not required

Once upon a time there was a builder named Andreas Lenander who created a magical book whose story came to life through LEGO. This Jack and the beanstalk build is truly a sight to behold! The story spills over the pages, starting with the micro-scale farm grounding the build. The stalk stretches skyward from the heart of the book, its internal structure concealed within the beautiful foliage. The stalk’s zenith reveals a kingdom adorned in silver and gold that promises fortune and adventure. The dragon hidden at the beanstalk’s top crowns the parts usage, adding its scales to the vegetation’s textures. A mythical detail that inspires the imagination the way fairytales often do!

Jack and the beanstalk

LEGO Harry Potter 76396 & 76397 Hogwarts Moments: Divination and Defense Classes [Review]

Last year we got four new Harry Potter books to add to our shelves celebrating the subjects taught at Hogwarts School. In addition to the initial Transfiguration and Potions classes, we were also given the Charms and Herbology lessons. These clever little sets expanded on previous Disney storybook playsets that provided younger LEGO fans with portable scenes and characters, and the translation to the Wizarding World has been fantastic. Back at again this year, LEGO is giving us two more lessons Tetris-ed in between custom printed covers. The first new lesson is 76396 Hogwarts Moment: Divination Class which has 297 pieces and comes with Professor Trelawney, Harry Potter, and Parvati Patil minifigures for US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £24.99. The next is 76396 Hogwarts Moment: Defence Against the Dark Arts Class with 257 pieces and Professor Moody, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom minifigures for US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £24.99. Both are available on the LEGO Shop starting March 1st.

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 the full review of these magical sets

Keep your books secure with these fantastic book ends

Galerie d’Antha has built these beautiful book ends, featuring two characters engaging in the joy of reading. The tan colour scheme of the figures is most likely applied to suggest that the book ends would be constructed out of wood. Small hints of plant life, sprouting up from the ground, add to the relaxing aesthetic of the builds. The books also have some nice details such as ridged bricks representing the pages. These would look great on any shelf, not only to keep books in place but also as eye-catching display pieces.

Art Nouveau book covers

LEGO has been into books as of lately. We got the LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-Up Book, the Hogwarts Moments books, the Disney Storybooks, the 40410 Charles Dickens Tribute, and more. So as a LEGO fan, why not hop on the trend? That is exactly what Ted Andes must have thought. They created a series of lovely hardcover books with Art Nouveau-inspired cover art to go along with the Wasp-wing Table Lamp we featured a while back.

Book Cover - A Fairy's Tale

The blue book looks quite elaborately embellished with golden details which make the satin white jewels pop. The green book uses Spider-Man’s web as a very artistic cloud and the minifigure butterfly wings are used to represent a magical transparent butterfly. Most of all this is a very ingenious way to display minifigures you like and it can be translated to any theme.

The shadows of Shadar Logoth

The eerie city of Shadar Logoth stands in magnificent ruin in this large diorama by Brick Ninja. They’ve been slowly working their way through scenes from Robert Jordan’s monumental Wheel of Time series, presenting each snapshot completely immersively. Brick Ninja doesn’t show us the full build–or even if the structure is more than a facade. Instead, it’s built for the camera, to be seen from this angle, and it’s beautiful, with architectural details sculpted throughout. The detailing at the top of the large central doorway is especially nice, as is the huge domed roof.

Shadows Waiting

Matthias of Redwall is ready for battle

LEGO builder Matt Goldberg presents us with this impressive build of Matthias from the Redwall books, written by Brian Jacques. The model is an entry in the Bio Cup competition and portrays the protagonist of the first Redwall novel. Matt has captured the rodent-like features, even the bulbous eyes, of the young mouse. Rounded plates at the face and knees assist in creating the anthropomorphic form of the body. Ready to hear enemies nearby, the large ears of the model are created using the reverse side of armour pieces. It’s nice to see some Knights’ Kingdom pieces make an appearance such as the sword and the pauldron armour at the shoulders. Let’s hope there’s a grand feast awaiting the young hero at Redwall Abbey.

Matthias of Redwall