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!

“I’m not a toy, I’m a building system!”

Forky, the breakout character from Toy Story 4, may be a crude assemblage of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and a spork, but he opens up major existential questions about the nature of ~~life~~ toys. LEGO did once release this not-a-toy monstrosity as a single molded piece, think this brick-built ~~abomination~~ masterpiece by Bas van Houwelingen does a much better job at capturing Forky’s special charms. Stacked red flowers make excellent pipe cleaners, and a bent blue tube closed with a minifig hand is a genius solution for Forky’s mouth. Bas’s creation is made for friendship (or for soup, salad, maybe chili).

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The magic of the Bio-cup lives on!

We often feature builds that are entered into the many contests the LEGO community holds, among them the Bio-Cup. But have you ever wondered what happens to these builds once the contest is over? Some are presumably dismantled, but Benjamin Anderson‘s wizard has found a new lease of life after contests’ end! The flowiness – for lack of a better word – is what give this magnificent mage so much character. The way his robes, hat and beard are billowing away from his staff suggests he’s cooking up a particularly spicy spell. As Benjamin put it in his caption: “I didn’t ask how big the room is, I said ‘I cast FIREBALL’!” I would stand back, everyone…

From collectible minifig to majestic model, this Aarakocran Ranger soars

Ever since the release of LEGO Dungeons & Dragons Collectible Minifigures 71047, builders and role-players have been celebrating the mix of new fantasy elements to play with. While the figures are great out of the box, D&D has always been about making your own characters. Some builders prefer to stick to minifig scale for their custom creations, but Mitch Phillips always goes big. Mixing Bionicle, Constraction, and System parts, Mitch’s Aarakocran Ranger strikes the perfect balance of fluffy and and fierce.

There are many great techniques to appreciate, from the intense eyes crafted from nested ninja scarves to the lush wings to the excellent sword brooch. If you’re curious about how an expert goes about designing articulated characters like this, Mitch generously breaks down his process in a video. MitchBuild walkthroughs are among the best resources available for understanding how to integrate disparate LEGO parts.

This isn’t Mitch’s first D&D ranger character. During the 2024 Bio-Cup, he rolled a critical hit with this Dragonborn Ranger.

Little LEGO spirit in the big forest

According to Japanese animist traditions, Kodoama are tree spirits, part of a rich and very real world of spirits that exist in the objects and phenomena all around us. Outside of Japan, they’re best recognized as the bobble-headed forest spirits seen by the hundreds in Princess Mononoke, the brutal and beautiful animated masterpiece from Hayao Miyazaki. Builder Martin Klein pays tribute to Miyazaki’s take on Kodama with a “life-sized” LEGO model. Martin perfectly captures the pale spirit’s eerily asymmetrical face with just a trio of 1×1, 2×2, and 3×3 round tiles in black. I wonder if the head rattles when shaken? The Kodoma is paired with a leafy branch that buzzes with insect life.

While Martin also photographed this lovely model in a studio setting, I think the Kodoma looks best in its natural forest habitat.

Don’t bug me with your PC problems!

There’s two things I love in this world: great LEGO builds, and word-play. Philippe Moisan‘s latest build has both in spades! You might think it looks like an insect’s apartment – but in fact, this is a computer. Don’t believe me? Well for starters, there’s a literal computer – i.e. an object to compute or calculate – in form of an abacus. There’s a bunch of hard discs on the walls; a deck of (expansion) cards on the shelves; a mother (surf) board; some (integrated) chips; and of course the fan. But front and centre of it all is a problem. This PC’s got a bug! But as long as they still let you access The Brothers Brick, I think we can let them stay…

Have you had a fruitful LEGO summer?

If there’s one thing you should know about me in this wonderful LEGO hobby, it’s that I love a good brick-built anthropomorph! So this trio of summertime fruits getting their chill on by Palixa And The Bricks really speaks to my core. First up is an adorable watermelon slice relaxing in a lawn chair. There’s nothing like a refreshing beverage to cut through that summer heat, and there’s no doubt this little dude needs to hydrate. While simple, the Converse-style shoes here are everything! But if you desire something more technical, the design of that LEGO folding chair is absolutely wicked.

We’re just getting warmed up. Check out the other two summer fruits below!

Building under the influence(r)

Ah, the influencer. A much-maligned – sometimes unfairly so – mainstay of modern social media. Although I don’t know much about LEGO influencers, I do know about some influential LEGO builders; namely, Nick Jensen. And he has turned his talented hand to… Well, a brick-built influencer! (These articles aren’t just thrown together, you know!) This social media savant’s pose gives her so much character, and it’s not hard to picture what that selfie she’s taking will look like. Front and centre of the piece is a great use of a particular LEGO part, though. A cupcake holder – seen in a couple of Dots sets – makes for a fantastic miniskirt!

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Fairy and toad are friends

Prolific builder Eero Okkonen is the Geppetto of the LEGO community, crafting detailed characters with such personality that they seem ready to come alive. His latest model of a blue fairy isn’t inspired by Pinocchio, however, but by a fairy tale from Eero’s native Finland, Pessi and Illusia. Eero employs his usual panache for NPU (nice parts usage), with the highlight perhaps the Queen’s Dragon heads used as Illusia’s skirt. As lovely as the fairy is, it’s Pessi the adorable toad who steals the show here, with those perfect saucer eyes and sporting a wonderful wicker basket of interwoven flex tubes. The scene is rounded out by delectable cloudberries on stems that incorporate foam leaves, appropriately enough, from the Belville Flower Fairy Party.

Bionicle Mask Makers reforged in darkness

While not all LEGO fans have embraced Bionicle, there’s no denying that for a generation of builders, Bionicle was a gateway to both a world of construction and deep lore. For a recent collaboration between top Bionicle builders in the community, participants re-imagined characters from Bionicle Generation 2 utilizing the latest constraction techniques. We were especially struck by the pair of Ekimu and Makuta, The Mask Makers, as designed by Toni A.

Toni cites Dark Souls and H.R. Giger as influences, which might seem an aesthetic jump for Bionicle, but perfectly fits the lore of these bio-machine gods. Ekimu, wearing the Mask of Creation, is the culmination of 3 years of iteration from Toni and the effort shows with some of the most impressive dark fantasy sculpting I’ve ever seen in a character. Makuta, wearing the Mask of Control (inverted), came together quicker and perfectly compliments his brother with a devilish Victorian aesthetic.

The cutest cherry bomb this side of the Mushroom Kingdom

When you think about it, the Super Mario world has a lot of role reversal in it. Suddenly, humble plumbers are superheroes, mushrooms become a deadly nuisance, and cherry bombs are made to look so harmless you could almost describe them as cute. Make no mistake, those wide eyes are those of an explosive killer: the Bob-omb, as recreated here by Łukasz Alagierski. The bulk of it uses a technique known as the Lowell Sphere, with a few additions to recreate the features of this cold-blooded killer. The cherry on top of this cherry bomb is the fuse, made by twisting LEGO string into a rope!

Respect! Power! Banana (abs)!

Just the other day, I was singing the praises of Maxx Davidson‘s LEGO building skills courtesy of a yellow taxi-crab. However he’s raided the yellow parts bin again, and this time I don’t think I can be as complimentary. Now we’re no strangers to unsettling builds on The Brothers Brick; we’ve featured everything from Eldritch horrors to gory brick-built bloodbaths. After all that, I never expected a muscular Minion to be the thing to give me sleepless nights. I’ll admit, the bananas for chiseled abs are kinda neat. But I don’t like how seductively this guy is looking at me, particularly with that flex going on. Some things, once built, just can’t be unseen.

Maxx says he’s “truly sorry” about this one. We’ll go and cleanse our minds in our archives of Max’s less-disturbing LEGO builds, and consider it “apology accepted.”

This fab crab can point you in the right direction

The “Beast Masters” category of the Summer Joust 2024 competition is producing some wild flights of fancy, and this cartographic crustacean is no exception. Pohaturon‘s “Crabtographer” imagines a world where seafaring guilds wouldn’t get far without the expertise of giant crabs who know their stuff. And speaking of technical know-how, I adore all the unconventional uses of commonplace and less-than-common pieces to give this build some extra flair. Check out the One Ring used for the naval officer’s buckle, or the white energy blast standing in for melted candle wax, for example. Both the crab and the officer are dynamic and well-executed, and it makes me long to explore this fictional world a little more. If only I had a map…