Tag Archives: dicken liu

Watch for the right time to build something new

It’s that time again, LEGO fans! We’ve got yet another exceptional creation by Dicken Liu, and this one is the embodiment of exceptional timing. Well, maybe not exactly in the way you were thinking. This goofy, anthropomorphized alarm clock is an exceptional accessory, with it’s cartoonish arms and legs jutting out from a watch face adorned with a blue boomerang for hands. And while it may not actually tell time, at least the band does clip together to make it the perfect brick-built fashion statement.

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Can you best this chest in your tabletop battles?

It’s a good time to be a fan of LEGO, Dungeons, and Dragons (not necessarily in that order). Partly, that’s down to the release of the epic LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons and Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale, as recently reviewed by our resident Dungeon Master Kyle. But equally, its release inspires talented builders like Dicken Liu to build their own creatures of fantasy! The humble mimic is a staple of D&D campaigns, and this one seems a little more dangerous than most. Normally you just need to watch your hands when diving in for treasure – but with its hatchet and shield, you’ll have a hard enough time just getting near this particular chest!

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The Brothers Brick LEGO Builder of the Year 2023 [News]

We here at The Brothers Brick have poured through the list of LEGO builders we’ve featured on the site for 2023. With so many excellent creations blogged by us in those 365 days, it’s always tough to find the singular builder who went above and beyond in that time – who not only rose above their peers, but also improved upon their work from past years. And when we specifically looked for someone who seriously stepped up their game in the year 2023, it was clear who fit the bill.

The Brothers Brick is thrilled to announce that Dicken Liu is our TBB LEGO Builder of the Year for 2023.

Read up on Dicken Liu’s award-winning 2023 below!

You can learn a thing or two from a good LEGO model

Seeing a great LEGO build can take you on a real voyage of discovery. Dicken Liu‘s latest creation is a Japanese Tengu mask, which I think we can all agree looks fantastic with its dragon-wing brows and ‘stache. But it got me thinking what these masks were actually for; after all, I’ve seen a lot of them in comics or on TV without really knowing much about them. So I went to Wikipedia to do some research. But two hours have gone by, my tea’s gone cold, and I’m now reading about Japanese architecture in the Heian period. It’s very interesting, but I’m no closer to finding out what these blasted masks mean! Oh well. At least we learned what a good builder Liu is – but then again, we already knew that.

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A LEGO Super Mario power-up that’s totally lit!

I can’t believe LEGO would do this to us! A few days ago, the toy company unleashed a horde of 71426 Piranha Plant sets on the world, creating all kinds of hazards for your average LEGO Mario just trying to save a princess. Any time you see a brick-built green pipe from here on out, assume one of these bite-y flowers is lurking within. But don’t worry, because Dicken Liu has totally got your back with the perfect power-up to scorch your floral foes. Upon acquiring the Fire Flower, you can either bide your time and snipe the piranha plants when they pop out, or run through the level spamming B the entire time. The choice is yours.

Fire Flower

Be careful with this beautiful black panther bust

Sometimes, good art requires patience. You may have a painting like Monet’s composed of thousands of little dots, or you might make Rubik’s cube mosaics. Or you’re Dicken Liu, and have turned a selection of LEGO bars and hinges into a beautiful black panther bust. I cannot imagine how long this must have taken to line everything up! We’ve seen similar builds in more two-dimensional mosaic form, but this is the first I can remember being a free-standing model. There’s all sorts of parts hidden within, including snakes, brooms, laser rifles, fishing rods, handlebars and more. And while I can appreciate the time this design must have taken, am I the only one who kinda wants to crush it to see how it deforms…?

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KFC: Kentucky Fried Choo-choo!

When I say meals on wheels, you probably picture a burger van. But Dicken Liu has other ideas! Where these crazy LEGO chicks are going, they don’t need roads – only rails. Which is probably a lot more restrictive when it comes to delivering food actually, not to mention expensive. And the maintenance costs will be astronomical. Seriously, where’s the business case here?! This is what happens when a marketing team is given unlimited access to the purse strings. They come up with mad ideas like this and need to hire builders like Liu to make it come to life.

Crazy Chick

Props to them, to be fair – he’s done a great job with such a whimsical design. Despite the bright colours of the train, the way the track is done caught my eye. Rather than using existing LEGO track elements, these rails are built using brackets and tiles, and it looks great. The cooking car even has an interior too! Although suddenly this looks a lot more sinister than it did at first glance, with chicken minifigures cooking whole chickens with tridents, feathers and all…

Crazy Chick

Ace Parts Usage: TBB’s favorite LEGO build techniques of 2023 so far [Feature]

Over the course of the last six months, we’ve featured literally hundreds of excellent LEGO creations. While all of them are already the best we’ve found, there are a handful that stand out above the rest.  Usually these creations feature the coolest techniques and exceptional NPU (Nice Parts Usage), and have us talking about them more than the average build behind the scenes. We’ve seen everything, but occasionally we’re extra impressed by something new and unique. Although we do feature our overall favorite builds (using several criteria) in the running for the TBB Creation of the Year in December, we’ve decided it would be fun to honor some ace parts usage right here, right now. Join us as we count down the best of the first half of 2023!

Click to see the full lineup!

Chonky mech for a chonky pilot

This mech suit by dicken liu has a few excellent part usage of note. The head of this domed bot is from the Star Wars buildable planet Death Star, and the super laser makes a perfect eye. But that’s not the only spherical part… the Minifig-sized gyro sphere from Jurrasic World forms the outer cover for a tiny rotund pilot.

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LEGO Creation of the Week (#16): The Water and Moon Guanyin Bodhisattva by dicken liu

Every week readers of the The Brothers Brick Telegram channel choose the Creation of the Week: one project that impressed all of us the most. In a tight competition Dicken Liu grabs the last week’s Creation of the Week award! His most chilled-out Buddhist deity you’ve ever seen in LEGO form joins our pool of the best creations of the year!

Meanwhile, the new vote is already on! Join our Telegram channel to follow all the best LEGO creations, latest news, and, of course, vote for your favorites. See you there!

The Buddhist deity of compassion, mercy, and looking cool as a cucumber

I’ve been a big fan of Dicken Liu‘s LEGO builds for a while now (find out why here), and my favourite type of build is when he dips into the traditions and mythology of Eastern Asia. The latest addition to that collection is this Buddha statue.  Named Guanyin of the Southern Seas, the restrained colours with the eye-catching gold look absolutely gorgeous here. Liu’s masterful posing also makes him incredibly suave. In fact, the builder also tells us that this pose has it’s very own name: Maharajalila – “royal ease”. The name is almost as smooth as the pose itself!

The Water and Moon Guanyin Bodhisattva-02

Nice Parts Use: the guiding light of microscale LEGO builds

Great parts use can really elevate a LEGO microscale build. It’s an adage that is almost as old as microscale building itself, and is surely imprinted on the minds of tiny builders. Builders that build tiny things, obviously, not actually tiny builders. Dicken Liu is one such creator (we don’t know how tall he is), and has delivered a doozy to remind us of this important principle. Where do we start here? There’s the roller skate cars, the energy burst waterfall, and not just one but two wheels in the lighthouse. And best of all, the slightly meta lifeboard re-purposed into a small boat. One has to assume this would be the coastguard!

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