Tag Archives: Characters

We love builds with character! Creating characters from LEGO elements, whether traditional System bricks or using elements from Bionicle and Constraction themes, is an amazing way to showcase your building skills. Brining out emotion and personality in bricks is an art!

A new Spider-verse crossover?

Rumors are flying about all the live-action Spider-folk who could appear in the next Spider-Man movies, but what about LEGO versions? This brick-built web-head by Build Better Bricks seems like another quality addition. The shaping of Spidey’s mask is well done, with the eyes being particularly nifty. The figure has some great articulation, too, although that did lead to a small trade-off: those Mixel ball joint connectors currently only come in light grey. Still, that’s the price you sometimes pay for a physical model over a digital flight of fancy.

We’ve spotlighted some other creations from this team before. Check them out here!

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Mech!?

This LEGO model could either be a buildable figure of Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle series or a mech version of the pizza-loving reptilian character. Either way this build by Cecilie Fritzvold seems like a fresh new take on character depictions from the franchise.

Cowabunga, let’s take a look at some interesting parts usage utilized in this build! Where Michelangelo’s six-packed underbelly would normally be, Fritzvold uses two trans-clear orange Nexo Knights parts to shape this area – a pentagonal tile and a windscreen. Minifigure legs are also incorporated in interesting ways here; two green pairs serve as Michelangelo’s hands while a disassembled orange pair is used in tandem with some slope parts to create a martial arts belt. It’s always nice to see unique parts such as the chain element be included in models – here, they serve as nunchuck chains. I like builds that blend interesting parts in popping colors together, and this model certainly does just that. If you’re interested in viewing more colorful LEGO TMNT mechs, Fritzvold created a few more pictured below.

Not having a LEGO costume for Halloween would be CATastrophic

Most folks in the world won’t be trick-or-treating this year on Halloween, due to the pandemic, nor will there be too many costume parties with bobbing for apples and lots of candy corn. But that should not stop anyone from building awesome wearable LEGO costumes, like this cat head by Michael Kanemoto. You might not get to wear it outside the home, but wouldn’t it be absolutely meow-velous for your next Zoom meeting or virtual conference? Sure, there are more studs showing than I typically prefer in builds, but I suspect it’s necessary here; anything more than the simple outer skin of plates would make this kitty too heavy to wear. And you want your audience to see that it’s LEGO, after all, so that they can be impressed by your skills. Oh, who are we kitten? They’d be scared by your meow-someness. But that’s ok, since it’s Halloween, right?

Check out more wearable LEGO builds in our archives here if you need more ideas for costumes!

I guess Sulley is no longer the number one scarer!

We all know Mike Wazowski as Sulley’s best friend and working partner at Monsters, Inc.. He supports Sulley about being the number one scarer. But if it were up to Bart de Dobbelaer, Mike Wazowski would have looked a bit more like a number one scarer himself. Bart based this LEGO creation on the art of Austen Mengler and I have to say, this Mike looks ready to collect some serious screams! Although this creation looks quite small, in reality it must be quite big. Mike’s iconic eye is made of hot air balloon parts which means there is an entire hot air balloon hidden inside this figure.

Constraction faction, why the detraction?

I’ve got to be honest, I never liked constraction figures from LEGO. Personally, I thought Bionicle was lame and more than a little cheesy, the Knights Kingdom, Ben 10, superheroes, and Legends of Chima big figures even worse, and the Star Wars ones at best mildly interesting. Better than Galidor, certainly, but not by much. I was a System builder, period. Perhaps my position is evolving, however, or else I just love great LEGO building when I see it, because this character from Matt Goldberg is amazing. The color blocking is on-point, with bold, crisp red contrasting with the grey, and that gold visor just pops. The whole head is just perfect, in fact. Add in some superhero power bursts, and you have a dynamic sci-fi hero ready to save me from my anti-constractionist bigotry.

Who’s your favorite bounty hunter?

Although he may have started as a secondary role in the trilogy’s middle child, there’s no denying Boba Fett is the king of the Star Wars bounty hunters. LEGO versions of the man in Mandalorian armor abound, whether it’s an official helmet or BrickHeadz, or one of the myriad fan creations, we Star Wars fans can’t seem to get enough of Fett. And here with one more version that’s almost as cool as the caped mercenary himself is Letranger Absurde. This enormous brick-built figure stands more than a foot tall and has all the details right down to the braid over his right shoulder. Sadly, Letranger has released only this single image, so we can’t get a good look at one of Fett’s coolest tools: the jetpack.

Radagast the Brown

Radagast the Brown has to be one of my favorite characters from the Hobbit trilogy. He is a bit not all there, loves nature and animals. Most of all, he has his heart above his head. Radagast also is the main subject in ekjohnson1‘s latest creation. Although he can’t take credit for the figure itself, LEGO did a splendid job on this one; the lovely little cottage he lives in is entirely ekjohnsons’ own creation. The cottage was once just a little house in the woods, but then Radagast dropped a little acorn right in the middle of some dirt on his home floor. A small tree sprouted. Radagast, not having the heart to tear it up, just let it grow because he doesn’t destroy things. Eventually, the little sprout turned into a big tree, splitting the house apart. The lighting is just spot on. But what really sets the scene is the brilliant part usage. The thatched roof is made out of quite a lot of bladed claws. And there are trunk tails used as tree roots and branches everywhere.

A world of 3.18mm bars

Any regular reader of the Brothers Brick knows, LEGO fans can do some pretty amazing things with the wide variety of different LEGO pieces out there. Those endless possibilities include limiting yourself to a smaller palette of parts and colours, like Milan Sekiz has done with his series of Stick Statue creations.

Keep reading to see the rest of these simple yet expressive models

A Saucerful of Secrets

Mysteries abound in this latest creation by Blake Foster. Turning the Tables features a classic UFO scenario turned on its head. Have the cows had enough? Or is this actually a flashback to how the hostilities between the alien and bovine races began? Either way, there’s a lot to unpack in this vignette. On the building front, check out the clever use of on-the-sprue Harry Potter wands in the fence, the cupcake-tipped under-udder-thrusters, and the perfect use of those 1×1 star plates. The Mixel eyes on the cow-pilot just creep me out, though.

We’ve featured a number of Blake’s other Spacy Creations in the past. Could this be the beginning of a new theme of “Cow-Space”? One can only hope.

A Viking? That’s a switch

Making human-featured builds out of LEGO is a challenging task, but Jonas Kramm knows just how to go about it. The trick, as is often the case, is NPU or “Nice Part Usage.” For example, the nose is made from a baby dinosaur. And the fingers from minifigure arms. And the pupils from tiny hammers. And let’s not forget that glorious yellow tresses and beard, resplendent with 2 bananas and over a dozen 9V Train track switch elements. Even the display stand is finely decorated with a twisting branch pattern made from animal horns and claws. Every part of this creation is alive with great details and clever tricks.

The train switch is the seed part in the latest round of Iron Builder and is leading to some great builds. But don’t think Jonas needs any specific goad to create great builds. I mean, just check out the other great builds we’ve featured.

A deep dive into NPU

NPU, or “Nice Part Usage” is often a hallmark of the LEGO creations we feature here at the Brothers Brick. The Sludge Diver by djokson is a prime specimen. A specimen of what, exactly, remains up for debate. It seems likely those eyestalks are partially composed of dinosaur tails, but the bulk of the diver remains hidden behind that fascinating bit of protective gear. Combining Duplo tubes, rubber tires, and even the packaging from the 8050 Bionicle Kraata booster pack, this explorer is ready for whatever life throws at them.

The best bit of this build for me is the DOTS bracelet used for the helmet gasket. If you agree, check out other innovative uses of those bracelets in our DOTS archives.

What’s this? What’s this?

You may have noticed that there’s been a lot of Christmas set news lately. But personally, I think we should be focusing more on Halloween. Luckily, delayice finds the middle ground with these great LEGO character builds from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Both Jack Skellington and his pet ghost-dog Zero are very recognizable. They’re also very cute, with big round tile eyes that are reminiscent of POP figures. I like how both Zero’s ears and Jack’s eyebrows (eye sockets?) sit at unconventional angles, making this build feel less static. The gravestone behind Jack is a nice touch, too, expanding this into a micro-scene, rather than just a character build.

If you’re like me and want to fend off the incoming elf hordes for a few more minutes, why not peruse our Nightmare Before Christmas archives? I promise nothing there is that scary.