Tag Archives: Greebles

I wonder if his garden is in the shade.

Let’s go on an undersea adventure with this great octopus by Didier Burtin. You don’t normally associate great greebling with aquatic creatures, but if you look close there are lots of fun details here. Sure, the LEGO tires are easy to locate, but what about the hot dog? There’s also a generous helping of hinged articulation, making this one poseable critter. It looks like the octopus has claimed a treasure chest as a perch, and the brown of the chest (and the bright orange leaves festooning it) really make the red and black colors of the octopus stand out.

It’s great to see a creation that’s based so firmly on an accurate depiction of a real-life animal. That’s not to say there isn’t also benefit from a more mechanized approach. What sort of octopus do you want to build?

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

There’s more than a trace of creativity here.

The creator of this nightmarish image, Bart De Dobbelaer, has combined cinematic inspiration from Hackers and Tron Legacy with 22 meters of EL wire in Trace initiated – a chilling image of cyberspace done right. I’m not sure exactly what’s happening here, but it doesn’t seem to be good news. Is the creepy central figure reaching out with a red data probe to track a hacker? Or is the trace running the other direction? Could this be a friendly cyber guardian about to be compromised by the outside world? We may never be sure. Where’s Flynn when you need him?? Either way, though, it sure is a spectacular scene.

At that glorious greebling makes me want to break out my collection of tiny parts and get to building myself. And I’m pretty sure I still have some light kits around here somewhere…

Greebling with a side of more greebling!

It finally happened! This new creation by Angelo Favretti has me at a loss for words. So instead of coming up with the words you can fill them all in Mad Libs style and post them in the comments section.

This (adjective) spaceship is totally the (possessive noun) knees! I like how it is divided into (a number) sections, each more (adjective) than the last. I’m willing to wager my (noun) that this took a metric (unit of measure) of time and LEGO to complete. We’re all (adverb) blown away by the amount of (verb ending in “ing”) greebling this thing has! It’s like a (noun) exploded in (a place) and this is the (adjective) result. I think the gray (plural noun) and the white (plural noun) are (adverb) nice parts usage. (Brothers Brick staff member) says this might be the (adjective ending in “est”) spaceship we’ve seen all year and (famous person) just might agree. Let’s hope for more (adjective) (plural noun) like this in 2020!

Skulls could use more greebling in general

If you’ve read The Brothers Brick for awhile, you may have seen us reference the word “greebling” or “greebles”. The term was first used by special effects artists working on Star Wars and it describes all of the doodads and doohickeys on the surface of an object to help things like spaceships look more…well, spaceshipy. This effect is used heavily by LEGO builders, in fact, if you search Wikipedia for “greeble” you’ll find a photo of a LEGO creation. (Heck yeah!) Ethen T uses this effect, not for spaceships, but rather in a clever mosaic render of a LEGO skull. Subtle light gray, then dark gray parts rounds out the effect nicely and adds dimension to an otherwise flat-ish surface. This piece acts as a stark reminder that inside each of us is a disgusting skeleton hell-bent on scaring neighborhood kids! This is why I can’t wait for Halloween.

And be sure to check out our LEGO glossary for explanations of greebling and many other bits of LEGO terminology!

Greebling from the ground up

If you’re not familiar with the term, greebles are small details that make a simple object appear more complex. In LEGO building, that term is often applied to all those little textural elements you see on LEGO mechs and spaceships. (Don’t forget that you can check out this and many other LEGO-related terms in the TBB glossary.) Redbirch takes the greebling concept one step further with Mechannibal – a mechanical monster that appears to be all greeble.

Redbirch started building with an idea for the feet — minifigure torsos with jet packs. The rest of the monster is built over a core Mixel-joint skeleton, resulting in great articulation. Each move requires a lot of fiddly adjustments, though, as the surface detailing has to be tweaked to close any newly visible gaps. All that effort is worth it, as Mechannibal looks great (and menacing) from every angle.

Now we just need some clever builder to do a similar creation, but with all those Friends accessories that keep piling up…

A Pegasus is more than a work horse

Impeccable maestro of the LEGO sci-fi/space genera Blake Foster seems to not be able to sit still after completing his massive four-year project, the Ugly Duckling. This time, while sticking to his tried, true and tested style, he has created the Pegasus Class Anti-Frigate Attack Fighter. His somewhat iconic, solid dark bluish grey greebling creates the feeling of a substantially sound craft. The white with red pinstripe enclosed paneling is stark in contrast yet strikingly vibrant.

Click to read more about the Pegasus

4×4 Greeble Transporter

In future, greebles will be highly prized and fought over. David Roberts has built a vehicle to safeguard all those precious bits.

I love the brightness of this rover. The white highlights really seem to jump out and I love the steering mechanism! Using the pistons makes for a really smooth turn. Very nicely done, David!

Medieval Cottage – A study in color and texture

This beautiful cottage by Luke Watkins Hutchinson (-Derfel Cadarn-) is full of incredible details. The textures and shapes of the walls are fascinating. Then there is the lovely color scheme, flowing from the blues of the upper story to the patches of grass and the customized tree branches. It is an incredibly well-thought creation.