Tag Archives: Collaboration

Magnificent Moorish tower with a modern twist

Blake Foster has been wowing us with epic builds for over a decade. His M-Tron Magnet Factory remains the most epic tribute to that retro LEGO Space theme I’ve ever seen, and just last month we highlighted his towering contribution to the New Hashima collaboration. Blake is back with another tower for an upcoming near-future Middle Eastern city collab with the Mehmet Agha Mosque, named for the tower that inspired it on Rhodes. In modular fashion, Blake situates the mosque next to a multilevel urban structure containing a street-level carpet shop and a rooftop hookah bar.

Mehmet Agha Mosque

The model is a big departure from the SHIPs and sci-fi works we’ve come to expect from Blake, with a focus here on Moorish architecture and urban decay. The cracked plaster is brilliantly done, and the exposed brickwork strikes the perfect balance between fragility and permanence. I really appreciate how Blake combines at least three architectural styles here, capturing the nature of old cities to develop in layers, while also making the model exciting to study (much like the upcoming Tudor Corner modular!).

Mehmet Agha Mosque

As an easter egg, the rug seen hanging through the ground floor doorway is a custom printed sticker modeled on a rug Blake owns, and that’s his sigfig tending the shop!

Blake’s tower will be joining the epic Medina al Musawrah collab that we highlighted earlier this year. You can see the work in person at BrickFair NoVa 2025.

Fall leaves when snow falls in LEGO

There is so much to appreciate about Mark van der Maarel‘s Edo-era Japanese diorama in LEGO, but it’s the red leaves against the newly fallen white snow that draw me in like an ukiyo-e woodblock print. The central cottage is charming and full of details of everyday life. A bundle of reeds over the window made from broom elements is a great touch. Towering over the cottage is an incredible wall made of interlocking brick-built stones (Mark gives credit to collaborator Marshall Banana for this technique). Down by the river, a woodcutter kneels as a samurai approaches on horseback. While Mark doesn’t offer a story, I imagine the woodcutter has a blade hidden in the cottage and soon leaves won’t be the only red splashes in the snow.

Rogue Ronin

Mark’s build was part of the Rogue Ronin collaboration displayed at the Bricking Bavaria event in Germany where over 30 members of the Rogue Bricks community participated. We also adored felix-workshop’s award-winning contribtion.

Remote Dantooine outposts make for an effective demonstration of LEGO craftsmanship

Dantooine is first mentioned in the very first Star Wars film, a throw-away bit of worldbuilding that made George Lucas’ galaxy feel so much more lived in. Since then the world has shown up in games and books, and now, thanks to builders Jonas G and WG Productions, we can explore the outer rim world in LEGO form. First up, Jonas shares an industrial farming outpost run by Republic sympathizers. Jonas absolutely aces the monolithic Imperial architecture with gorgeous curved corners, a thin window, pinstripes of red, and a mandatory dose of greebles. The massive Blba tree is just as impressive, insanely dense with leaves. Minifigs tell a story of resistance with Republic troops securing thermal detonators, while a Sith helm is used on a scarecrow.

Dantooine

While Jonas’ many Star Wars builds focus more on the galaxy’s heroic forces, WG Productions favors the Dark Side. Here we see the Sith troopers seizing a transport station for the Sith Empire. Using dozens of rollers skates for the rail is a brilliant technique. Both builders coordinated on the terrain to ensure consistency in the Dantooine ecosystem.

Dantooine seems like a lovely planet, whatever side you’re allied with. What a relief the planet was too remote for Grand Moff Tarkin to use as a demonstration for the Death Star’s power.

Ben Brickson dreams of electronic greebles

One of the most exciting attractions at LEGO conventions over the past two years is the massive Cyberpunk collaboration of New Hashima. An array of builders contribute cubes or toppers to the modular megacity that keeps growing and evolving. Ben Brickson is one such collaborator and he recently shared a wonderfully detailed gallery of his residential Hex Home Block. Capsule homes slot into a honeycomb grid of girders like a high-rise hive.

New Hashima: Hex Home Block

Jack in and see Ben’s block up close

Fire Breathing Fortress reforged in epic collab from LEGO pros

In their professional capacity as LEGO designers, Chris Perron and Wes Talbott have collaborated on some of the best fantasy sets ever released, including Rivendell and the Red Dragon’s Tale. So what do these friends get up to when they’re off the clock? How about an epic reimaging of a beloved ’90s castle with modern building techniques and design aesthetics? The massive build debuts at the upcoming Skærbæk Fan Weekend event, but for those who can’t make it to rural Denmark, the builders graciously offer a detailed tour of this house of the Dragon Masters.

Fire Breathing Fortress

Click to explore the reforged Fire Breathing Fortress!

Middle Eastern megacity is a triumph of LEGO collaboration and creativity

Every day we see incredible LEGO creations built from one person’s imagination and collection of bricks. When builders come together for collaborative LEGO builds, not only are we blessed with scenes of incredible scale, but the mix of builder styles harmonize to create to create something truly special. One such collaborative project debuted at BrickFair 2024. Organized by George Hawes and Michael Willhoit, the “Medinat Al Musawrah” collaboration depicts a fictional Middle Eastern walled megacity.  The other contributers are Brian O’Leary, Intense Potato, Detroitika, Evan M, Renobricks, Ryan K, Skooby C, and Zach Bean.

Medinat Al Musawra - Overall

This impressive scene captures the sort of 80s urban sprawl that inspired sci-fi works like Blade Runner. (Fittingly, many of the collaborators also participated in last year’s truly epic New Hashima cyberpunk collab at BrickWorld Chicago). But it’s real-world cities, like Cairo, Algiers, and Kowloon that inspire the grounded sense of place.

Medinat Al Musawra - Backstreets

Continue on our tour of this epic Middle Eastern megacity collab.!

Award winning builders are back with a champion LEGO diorama!

A team of elite historical LEGO builders have come together to create a sprawling diorama! Natelego_, Carson, Hunter E., Noah, Max, Matt, Hunter C., and Gary have taken on the Battle of Isted fought in 1850 between the Danish forces and rebels from the local provinces at the village of Isted. This build was displayed at BrickFair VA 2024 where it won Best Battle Scene! Take a look at the partially demolished church on the right side. While there’s one window still standing, the wall has collapsed leaving only the windowsill and part of the frame of the second window. And be sure to gander at the wider landscape too! Building hills and dips in the terrain one plate at a time must take a lot of patience. All of the lush vegetation really brings this scene to life, too.

Battle of Isted

Take a look at more closeups here!

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.

Ekimu and Makuta, The Mask Makers

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.

LEGO takes you back to childhood

When I think back on my childhood, spending time indoors with LEGO and video games figures prominently, but for those sunny days when mom wanted me out of the house, it was all about the playground. The more slides and things to climb on and hide in, the better! The Brothers Brick alum Nannan Zhang captures that nostalgia with a playground so familiar that, chances are, you probably played in one just like it at some point. It’s an elegant build, making the most of prefab rails, slides, and Harry Potter pavilion tops to recreate the modular and child-safe look of an authentic playground structure.

Playground

Nannan’s playground was created as part of OhioLUG’s collaborative summer camp display for the Columbus Metropolitan Library – the full gallery of the massive display is guaranteed to make you feel like a child again.

Rebellions are built in teal

How can a scrappy Rebellion possibly stand up against an Empire with massive fleets of grey, dark grey, sometimes black, but mostly grey ships? By using the one thing the Empire, in all of their power, could never imagine bringing to battle: teal. Teal, the color of hope, beloved by LEGO fans across the galaxy (except of course for designer Mark Stafford)! A band of rebels in the LEGO community have been slowly expanding on the Teal Squadron theme, and the latest addition is this brilliantly-shaped Teal Tower from Tim Goddard. As Tim explains, Rebels often repurpose existing buildings for their bases, and this tower’s weathered exterior certainly suggests a long history, with just small details to let the crafty Rebels lie low. Dark orange weathering looks great amongst the white masonry, and perfectly contrasts with the vital teal. The greebling (or sci-fi texturing) along the sides, rooftop antennae, and the decidedly low-tech awning perfectly capture the Star Wars aesthetic. And Tim’s teal-accented droidekas are maybe the best minifig scale versions of the droids I’ve seen.

Teal tower

For more teal-infused Star Wars creations, Mansur Soeleman’s Cerulean Phoenix, Alec Hole’s Capital E-Wing, Inthert’s Teal-4 Skylark, and Wami Delthorn’s Cobalt Thorn.

This year’s TBB sponsored collaboration at BrickCon 2024 is all about growth! [News]

Once again, The Brothers Brick is hosting a collaboration of LEGO builds at this year’s BrickCon convention in Seattle. But in order to do this, we’re going to need a little bit of a rebrand. For BrickCon 2024, “TBB” is going to stand for “The Brothers Botany” as we host a garden of botanical builds on the convention floor.

If you’re interested in participating, our tilled plot of table space will be open to botanical creations of any scale, though we’re especially interested in real-world scale plants like those found in the LEGO Botanical Collection. Any creation where the plants are the focal point is welcome to join in. We have awards and prizes planned for the collab, with some additional surprises planted in the garden as well. To help fertilize any budding ideas you may have, I’ve got a few early MOCs of my own that’ll be making an appearance in the display.

Flex those green thumbs, builders, and be sure to select the “TBB Collaboration” when registering the theme of your botanical MOCs. We’ll see you all at the Meydenbauer in September!

A modular slice of Cyberpunk

Although only one facet of a larger collaborative build, Bart Marable’s first foray into LEGO cyberpunk provides much of the requisite detail to identify it’s overall theme. While most modular buildings have such a great facade, we are left wanting when viewing the sides and backs of the building. Bart, in a relatively small build, has provided 360-degree detail with images to prove his effort.

Let’s call the ‘Fan-side’ the facade. The use of both vivid and understated colors creates a facade that seems to have evolved and been enhanced over time fulfilling the goal of portraying a cyberpunk realm, in my opinion.

A Study in Cyberpunk

Let us have a look at the full effort here.