Tag Archives: Games

Enter the LEGO D&D dungeon at BrickCon, if you dare!

One of the things I enjoy most about this wonderful LEGO hobby is the people I get to collaborate with on projects. And this year at BrickCon, I have the good fortune to participate in a massive Dungeons & Dragons project with so many talented builders. For the last 5 months, all 24 of us have been working independently on our own rooms for a mega-dungeon, both large and small ones. And I guess builder Doug Hughes stopped reading after “large.” In his intricately-designed room, he’s housed a fearsome lava centipede being controlled by a group of dark elves. The lighting is splendid, the design appropriately ornate, and the technique on the monster gets Volothamp’s seal of approval for sure! Let’s hope our band of adventurers can get past before it escapes its bonds.

Dungeon of the Dark Elves

And in case you’re wondering what I contributed, I guess I can give you a peek at that below. I wanted to go for something that felt a bit more like a “finale.” Anyone care to roll for initiative? And as for the rest of the dungeon, you’ll have to head to BrickCon or look out for pics from the convention after next weekend of the whole thing assembled and on display.

LEGO D&D party of eight: your table is ready

While LEGO just announced the Dungeons & Dragons crossover/contest, these two hobbies have long been intertwined through builds to aid many DM’s dungeon designs, as well as a one-shot during a LEGO convention. And I’m delighted to spice up my next Session Zero with Dan Ko’s blocky character creation process seen here. This octad of adventurers covers genre staples like a half-orc barbarian, but also strays into the more exotic with an aarakocra monk. And while my level nine warforged wizard isn’t represented, my favorite has got to be the dragonborn paladin with its excellently sculpted light gray armor. I love the pauldrons made of escalator steps and the giant gear adorning its chest. Its face is a masterful concoction of green pieces providing that perfect lizard-y look.

D&D Party Pack: The Characters

Which party member is your favorite? Is it the tiefling sorcerer with hot dog horns? The human fighter with a leafy orange beard? Or is it the purple-robed gnome wizard and his owl familiar?

Poultry Pinball

2020 being the first year in a long time without a licensed LEGO video game is a disappointing moment for fans. It is yet another faction of business affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to GameRant. While there is still hope for the tentative release of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga in 2021, this might be a good time for The LEGO Group to develop pinball game sets. Sure, this screams old school. But TLG already notched success when they captured the nostalgia for Super Mario and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Let’s also not forget the brick-built retro games, plus 2016’s Ideas Maze (21305). Just one look at the Chicken-Pen-Ball machine, made by Eli Willsea, has us stuck on tilt.

Chicken-Pen-Ball

Eli’s fifth creation in the Iron Builder competition used the Track Switch 9V in yellow 19 times. He continues to outdo himself going up against Jonas Kramm, another gifted builder. Eli’s use of the Track Switch 9V balances function and form. They serve as the flippers, the flowers (dandelions?) in front of the barn, the handle on the ball shooter, and even the cabinet’s feet. It’s an egg-citing creation that takes our cheap chicken puns to the next level in this demo video. Check it out.

Rock, papercuts, scissors, wait...

The players of the game that settles it all can get a little carried away sometimes. In this cute LEGO vignette by Pedro Sequeira some of our favorite players; rock, paper, and scissors are brought to life in three dimensions and we can see the consequences of such rough play!

Each player – rock, paper, and scissors are made up of some pretty standard small elements such as slopes, tiles, and small bricks. The faces on the objects and their expressions are what make this scene both adorable and hilarious. The rock and paper characters feature woodoo balls with eye prints, while printed round 1×1 tiles with mischievous squinting eyes decorate the face of scissors. A stream of tears on poor cut-up paper’s face is cleverly rendered with a couple translucent clear dragon’s fire elements. I enjoy the lines on the paper created with grey plates to give it that loose-leaf paper aesthetic. Maybe rock can talk some sense into scissors while poor paper heals its wounds from battle. Sequeira does mention that this brick-built vignette is based off of an illustration which can be viewed here.

LEGO Nexo Knights meets Warhammer 40k

Although I have never played the tabletop games, I have always admired the aesthetic of the Warhammer 40k universe, particularly the vibrantly colored hardsuits and tanks. Simon Crocker has created an excellent Warhammer-Nexo Knights mashup with his razorback tank, which is based on a heavily armored variant of the Rhino APC from the Warhammer games.

Macy's Razorback

Although the build may initially appear straightforward, closer inspection reveals the complex shaping and techniques used to make the front and back of the APC look so smooth, and to achieve the light bluish gray accents in just the perfect places. Although I overlooked it at first, the use of dark bluish gray panel pieces sticking out by 1/2 plates distance on the front viewports of the tank is particularly clever. As a finishing touch, custom stickers are used to add the fine details and make it especially accurate to the source material.

Seraph the Cyborg Angel comes to life

Builder Eero Okkonen is a master of bringing characters to life in brick form. This construct is of Do-It-Yourself-Seraph, a character from the Magic: The Gathering game. I must admit the concept of having a Cyborg Angel as a gameplay character is quite an appealing combination. I love the technique of the windswept hair and downcast gaze giving the character a solemn and thoughtful appearance. Builders who choose to work with only LEGO elements have their challenges, especially for creating unusual characters like this, but it’s always helpful to be able to reach into Technic and Bionicle as Eero has done. If those wings look familiar to you, that’s because the came off a set from The Lord of the Rings theme, Pirate Ship Ambush (79008).

Do-It-Yourself-Seraph

Lincoln Logs, Connect 4, Speak and Spell, and other classic toys from your 80s childhood made in LEGO

I remember playing with some of these as a kid. We’ve featured jtheel‘s work before with their fantastic Simon Says; I think it’s high-time to kick the nostalgia factor up a bit and relive the best toys from the 80s. Or 70s. Maybe a bit of early 90s. At any rate, let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

To start, an alternative classic building toy: Lincoln Logs.

LEGO Lincoln Logs 2

Click for more of your favorite childhood toys!

Ghostbusters coming to LEGO Dimensions! [News]

Ghostbusters will be joining a host of other franchises in the upcoming LEGO Dimensions, a multi-character collectible-figurine action game similar to the popular Skylanders and Disney Infinity games.

LEGO Dimensions GhostbustersPlayers will purchase the base game, and then character expansion packs to add more playable characters to the game world. Today at Gamescon in Germany, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, the publisher for Dimensions, announced the latest character pack, Ghostbusters. The game will be developed by Traveler’s Tales Games, makers of many other much-loved LEGO games such as LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. No word yet on when these will be available for pre-order, though the base game and many other character packs can be pre-ordered now! The base game will be available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Wii U.

Today’s announcement included 3 character packs for LEGO Dimensions, as well as a few images of the characters being used in-game. So far confirmed packs include:
• Simpsons
• Portal
• Back to the Future
• Doctor Who
• Ghostbusters
• Multiple DC characters including Wonderwoman, Superman and Batman
• Scooby Doo
• Jurassic World
• LEGO Ninjago
• The LEGO Movie
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Lord of the Rings
• LEGO Chima
LEGO Dimensions Ghostbusters

Click through to see the rest! Continue reading →

Colonel Mustard in the study with the candlestick

Ian Spacek seems to be on a roll in the ongoing 2014 MOCOlympics contest. In a round focused on board games, he chose to recreate Clue, a classic family game that has been around since the 40’s.

I love the way Ian has captured all the woody tones of the original board, as well as packing the build with many beautiful details such as the floor patterns, furniture and props. Check out MOCPages for loads of close-up photos and a chance to compare Ian’s interpretation with the original.

Fallout Enclave Vertibird in Lego

The Vertibird is one of the more recognizable pieces of industrial design from the Fallout universe (and practically the only aircraft in the games). Justin Stebbins (Saber-Scorpion) has done a great job of capturing the shape of the original. While a trans blue cockpit may not match the appearance in the game, it matches the shape well, and still feels right.

LEGO Fallout Enclave Vertibird

Mass Effect Reaper is a Harbinger of the End

This isn’t the first model of a Reaper featured here on The Brothers Brick, but it still warrants highlighting. Ben Caulkins (Benny Brickster) had done a great job of capturing the look of the largest space borne Reapers in the Mass Effect games. The creepy legs and eyes of the machine are perfectly represented.

Harbinger

The Ultimate Video Game System

I don’t want to hear about the Play-Box 420 or the Dream Station 5000 or even the hopelessly derivative Intellivision; the greatest video game system of all time is the Atari 2600 and TBB regular Chris McVeigh (powerpig) has finally brought the mighty console to life. Back in the day we only needed one button to shoot/jump/kill and it was red so you couldn’t miss it even if you were all jacked up from too much caffeine and sugar. So set the dial on the way-back machine to 1977, grab your unscratchable copy of Journey Escape and revel in the four-switch “wood veneer” greatness. If you don’t believe me, just check out a very young Heisenberg react to the 2600 in this advertisement from the early 1980’s. Who needs ultra pure crystal meth when you have Mega Force!

I dreamt in pixels that night.