Tag Archives: Halo

Another construction toy brand might have the Halo license, but that doesn’t stop LEGO fans from building characters, vehicles, and locations inspired by the venerable Xbox series from Bungie and Microsoft. Check out Pelicans, Warthogs, the Master Chief, and more LEGO Halo weapons than you can shake your armored fist at right here on The Brothers Brick.

Top 10 most popular LEGO models of 2011

We’ve taken a look at the top LEGO news stories of 2011, but The Brothers Brick is really about the great LEGO creations built by LEGO fans all over the world. Let’s take a look back at the ones that proved most popular over the course of the year.

Plum B’s LEGO Gears of War Lancer assault rifle with firing action and motorized saw blade

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Life-sized Halo sniper rifle built with LEGO

Nick Jensen finished his most ambitious LEGO Halo project yet of building the Sniper Rifle System 99 Anti-Matériel (commonly known as the Halo sniper rifle) for his arsenal of brick-built Halo weapons. I asked the builder to share the process of making the SR99 from inspiration to the finished model. Here is his response.

How It Started

The graphics of Halo: Reach blew me away when I first played it. Textures, environments, and character designs all impressed me, but as a LEGO gun builder, I was most impressed with the detail of all the guns. Since then, I built the pistol and combat knife from Halo: Reach. I wanted to build more weapons from Halo: Reach and I was debating between the shotgun and the sniper rifle. I had the parts and money to make one of them. I went with the shotgun but got really frustrated when I couldn’t find a way to make the pump slide back and forth in the front. So I gave up and started the sniper rifle.

I captured many close-up screenshots of the sniper rifle in Halo: Reach’s theater mode, looked up information about the gun on halopedian.com, used the Halo: Reach action figures from McFarlane, and looked at Perry B.’s version as references. I wanted to include as many details as I possibly can squeeze in. I wanted the final MOC to be perfect.

The Build Process

One of the first things I worried about when I decided on building the sniper rifle was the length. It seemed that I would never build something that was going to be 5.5ft long. I thought about the project from another perspective: building the sniper rifle is like building the assault rifle but with a really long barrel. Breaking the project down into three simple parts (body, barrel, and scope) really eased some doubts I had. The sniper rifle in Halo: Reach is approximately 5.5ft long, so a tape measure locked at 5.5ft was always around for reference. I built the body of the sniper the same way I built the assault rifle, SMG, and pistol: Start from the front and build my way to the back. The barrel was easy and I had a plan in mind from the start. I would cover a supporting rod with 2×2 quarter cylinder bricks. So the only difficult tasks were the body and scope.

Problems

I did drop the gun once during the WIP stage. I got impatient and wanted to hold it as if it were finished, and it fell to the ground. There was another time later on where the front grip collapsed because of its weight.

Facts

Length: 63 inches (1.6 meters)
Weight: Approximately 10.5 pounds
Non-LEGO used: dowel rod, custom waterslide decals
Features: Removable magazine, sliding bolt, moving safety
Time spent building: about 4 months
Piece count: uhh…?

More pictures

Lego Halo Ghost and Banshee by Legohaulic

Tyler shows that you don’t need a pre-designed piece to build a Lego Halo Banshee in minifigure scale. The Ghost and Covenant units are also quite nice.

New BrickForge Shock Trooper armor & printed accessories [Review]

As readers will have noticed in our LEGO News feed last week, custom minifig accessory vendor BrickForge has just released a new batch of items, including a new “Shock Trooper” armor. We ordered a couple batches, and I managed to find enough sunshine in the Seattle “summer” to take a few pictures.

The armor comes in a sort of steel color that’s rather lovely, along with black that has a similar metallic sheen. Neither color really matches typical colors available for minifig legs and torsos, but they combine reasonably well with neutral colors like bley and black. BrickForge also offers two printed variants, with an eagle on the gray and a flaming skull on the black. I’ll be interested to see how other customizers use these helmets and armor, but I focused on their inevitable use as ODSTs from Halo. Armor for a squad of six will run you a bit over $20.

One of the few areas in which BrickForge and BrickArms overlap is in items inspired (a safe assumption, I think) by the Halo universe, so minifig customizers have a bit more choice in this area. I like to mix and match custom parts from everybody, and I have to admit that I personally prefer the BrickArms versions of these sci-fi weapons (including the previously reviewed BrickArms minigun). I think the combination of the BrickForge armor and BrickArms weapons is undeniably awesome — “better together,” as I always say.

I cracked myself up by putting one of the troopers on a BrickForge scooter, which my wife dubbed the UNSC “Shrew”. I was amused enough that I would like to share this little masterpiece with the world. You’re welcome.

As fun as a couple squads of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers might be, I had the most fun putting together the Avengers — inspired by the blue helmet with an A and the big American shield that begged themselves to be equipped on a classic Captain America. Wolverine (with BrickForge “Savage Mask”) and Thor (BrickForge hammer) quickly followed, supplemented by a HAZEL-helmeted Iron Man, official Spider-Man, and my old Hulk.

The ODSTs and Avengers were distracting enough that I didn’t get a chance to do much with the test tubes, bottles, martini glasses, and other new glassware BrickForge has just released. Briefly, they complement official LEGO items nicely, and I’m highly entertained by the idea of minifigs squaring off against each other in tiny bar fights with broken bottles.

Lego Halo Pelican

Ben Caulkins (Benny Brickster) didn’t end his Halo building streak on the Master Chief suit, he continued to make the iconic Pelican dropship in minifigure scale. The challenging angles are one of the highlights of this model; you can explore more details in the gallery on Flickr.

John-117

Master Chief is neither the most interesting nor my favorite character from the Halo universe, but he is lucky to have the honor of being sculpted in LEGO by Jack Marquez (Ewok in Disguise).

Though a bit foreshortened in this photo, the assault rifle is a nice build in its own right.

Nathaniel Shields’s Halo grunt

We’ve featured two Lego Halo grunts in the past, but this one by Nathaniel Shields is perhaps the most accurate. The builder makes great use of Bionicle parts as well as a few System bricks for intricate small details.

Master Chief’s helmet looks good in Lego, but won’t stand headshots

Ben Caulkins (Benny Brickster) created a faithful rendition of a gray version of Master Chief’s helmet from Halo. If you’re like me, you’d like to know if it’s wearable. Yes, it is.

Lego Halo pistol makes me wonder if it has 2X zoom

The M6D Pistol is a favorite weapon of many Halo players back in the days of Halo: Combat Evolved. This life-sized rendition by Robo-Man is best I’ve seen. I particularly like the SNOT details and the utilization of studs on the grip.

Halo: Reach Spartan is ready to play Headhunter on Sword Base

I’ve been enjoying multiplayer gameplay in Halo: Reach for some time now. I just can’t get enough of the jetpack, and my enjoyment is enhanced by the fact that I’m not quite as terrible a player as I am in Halo 3.

While I’ve been busy trying not to get beat down too frequently, Shawn Snyder has been building this awesome Spartan.

See a ton more pictures in the full gallery on MOCPages.

Master Chief gets active camo in the February BrickForge promo

For the month of February, BrickForge is giving away an exclusive Trans-Clear Space Marine Armor Set on any order totaling $25 or more. You can see it in the imminent assassination of this Halo Jackal built by Kyle (Armothe).

Space marine light assault vehicle and instructions

Tyler Clites has built the space marine light assault vehicles (SMLAV) inspired by the Warthog from Halo. By popular demand, Tyler created a set of quality instructions available for purchase at a very reasonable price of $5. Having built the SMLAV from his instructions, I can say that parts for the model are easy to acquire and the model itself is very solid.

Check out these fun variations of the SMLAV and military variants.