Tag Archives: Building Techniques

Itty bitty Big Daddy will leave you in Rapture [Instructions]

It’s been 18 years since gamers first explored the fallen “utopia” of Rapture and we still can’t forget the Big Daddies who haunt its undersea halls. In game, those lumbering living diving suits are the stuff of nightmares, but built at minifig scale by BrickAA, they’re not nearly as scary. Shall we call them “L’il Papas” instead? BrickAA has quite a knack for pint-sized mechs and makes many instructions for their builds freely available, including the instructions for this adorable Big Daddy. What are you waiting for? In the words of Andrew Ryan, “a fan chooses to build.”

Should you prefer your Big Daddies a little… bigger, why not revisit this classic build from Eero Okkonen?

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.

How to give your microscale architecture a leg up [Building Technique]

Sometimes a “sketch” of a bigger LEGO project can turn into stunning work in its own right. That’s certainly the case with Roanoke Handybuck‘s towering pirate village, where using stilts in place of terrain creates negative space that heightens the fantastical architecture of arches and overhangs, accentuating the surreal beauty. Maybe the results can inspire you to find a hidden masterpiece in your own unfinsihed LEGO projects.

Making mech heads in LEGO with Moko [Building Techniques]

When it comes to building LEGO mechs, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with as much experience and expertise as Moko. The Japanese builder has been posting and sharing robotic creations with us for 20 years, going back to 2005 and this sad little Gundam! Moko’s latest big project, this incredible combining Mechazord, was one of our most popular articles of 2024. Today Moko is sharing techniques for building mech heads like these.

Follow along as Moko guides you through the advanced techniques used to build heads like these from simple parts you probably already have in your collection.

For more mech head tutorials, check out Moko’s previous video with four different styles.

This tree is off the chain! [Building Techniques]

With LEGO, you can turn something as industrial and gray as chains into something organic like a tree. Fedde Barendrecht shows us how, and I believe it involved clicking chain parts together end-to-end, connecting each unclicked end to the barrel-made tree trunk, then twisting the chain into a roughly a tree-shaped mass. Top it off with a wiley raven and you have the makings for an epic neighborhood showdown. Raven:1, Lino:0.

How to elevate your minifig presentation [Building Techniques]

For accomplished sci-fi LEGO builder Jarek Książczyk, minifigures were always an afterthought, but a double dose of D&D in the form of Balder’s Gate 3 and the excellent Collectible Minifigures led Jarek on a building spree that puts character first. From a 4×4 stud building surface, Jarek’s bases amplify each figure’s character and class with a hero prop, a bit of terrain or a splash of color (or maybe some viscera, if they’re really into Bhaal). Whether the characters remain on a shelf or play out adventures on the tabletop, simple stands like Jarek’s can raise your minifig game.

NikiFilik spells out how to build your own LEGO wizard [Instructions]

Blue is a great color for wizards. Majisto, Disney’s Merlin, Gauntlet‘s best hero… Tolkien fancied the idea of a blue wizard so much, he made two of them! But the prize for the cutest blue wizard around goes to NikiFilik, whose LEGO mini-mage is about 90% beard, which is the ideal proportion. This build is a remake of an earlier character design from last August that NikiFilik created for the Vignweek competition. Small changes, like the new hat, cuffed sleeves, a curlier staff, and smoother boots, show how even a small build can benefit from iteration. And now you too can have a li’l wizard buddy for your desk as NikiFilik has generously made free instructions available to all.

2024 TBB custom LEGO advent calendar – Day 24 [Feature]

All year-round, we here at The Brothers Brick spend our time featuring amazing builds made by the LEGO fan community. But we figured, for the holiday season, it would be great to build something together. For each day from December 1st through the 24th, we’ll be posting instructions to a custom TBB advent calendar build, one part each day. Want to participate? You can find all the parts you’ll need for the TBB Advent Event from our announcement in November. Read on to see what we’re building today!