Tag Archives: Mech

The rise of the DUPLO bunnies

LEGO DUPLO animals might not seem the most approachable for a model. To start with, there’s the challenge of working around the scale and system differences. Also personally, it’s slightly unnerving to see googly-eyed, toddler-friendly counterparts of some of my favorite brick animals, e.g. the DUPLO goat. But Simon Liu presents a clear solution— just suit them up! Add some expert greebling, equip them with some blasters and now these giant bunnies are capable of doing a whole lot more.

Got a soft spot for adorable animals in mech suits? Simon has also created a fluffier variation of the bunny mechs above, the DUPLO bunny plush mech.

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While you’re away, the Switch will play

Seemingly inanimate objects coming to life – we’ve seen it before in movies like Toy Story or Transformers; now we’re seeing this notion come alive in LEGO form with this Nintendo “Switch Imp” model by Zane Houston.

My favorite part of this build are the imp’s Switch controller arms in their iconic blue and red color scheme. These brick-built arms mainly utilize common elements such as bricks and slopes in various sizes constructed by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique. The buttons on the controller arms are rendered by black 1×1 round tiles while the joy sticks are cleverly composed of black round 1x1s with bar and pin holders, 2×2 round plates with an open stud, and 2×2 plates with round bottoms. The rest of this mythological mashup is comprised of a menagerie of black slopes, bricks, and tiles with a couple white cheese slope pieces serving as teeth thrown in. Better watch where you put your things, judging by this build you can never really know what your household items are up to when you’re away – they really could have a life of their own.

The naked mole-rat of your dreams

I don’t know how many sleepless nights I’ve had while anxiously wishing someone would build a LEGO Mecha Heterocephalus-glaber. I know what you’re thinking; we’ve all been there, right? Thankfully, Mitsuru Nikaido answered our prayers and maybe now we can get some sleep for once. For those uninitiated with this creature’s scientific name, it is commonly called a naked mole-rat. (Tee-hee!) Mitsuru is no stranger to building weird mecha creatures of all kinds. Of all of youse, he’s probably the most qualified to build an awesome mech mole-rat, to be honest. Now, if I can’t sleep, it’ll be for other worrisome reasons like; do algorithms dream of electric murder? Why is my mom using the eggplant emoji? Is that Matt Gaetz behind the hamper?

Spider-bots of the apocalypse!

“Not much still stands of the dead cities, but the twisted ruins make for good cover and even better hunting grounds.” That is the tagline provided for this LEGO render by _Regn. There’s a lot to love here. The dilapidated arching structure is particularly striking and there’s the post-apocalyptic guy doing post-apocalyptic stuff in the background there. The mech-tank-spider though…that’s going to haunt my dreams for a while. It’s just your typical stuff that goes on in the mind of this particular builder. Upon further inspection, there is really nothing typical about this builder at all. They’re new to us here at The Brothers Brick but with creations this imaginative we’ll surely keep all eight eyes in their direction; poised and ready to pounce on what they may do next.

“Honey, where are my pants?”

The title was used in both LEGO movies and references an entire series that entertained the citizens of Bricksburg about a guy who is perpetually perplexed about the whereabouts of his pants. This “Piranga” Heavy Artillery 53-R bot is most definitely wearing a pair of red Scala pants but not in the most obvious way. It has an extra set of arms at the waist and the pants are acting as sleeves! This bot also makes use of two LEGO gel pens as guns. It just goes to show that talented builders like Marius Herrmann can make use of even the most “useless” of pieces. This is part of a series of fashion-forward robots he’s been building. We’ve been following them closely and I suggest you sashay over to the Brothers Brick runway to check out more of these fashionable robots.

We could all use more capes around here

You could say LEGO builder Marius Herrmann is having the best month ever. Earlier I raved about a Police Enforcer bot in a fashionable blue jacket. Then my colleague “Mr. Waffles” picked up a scoop about a flying bot in a sweet pair of Scala pants. Now I’m here again and this time Marius presents a 51L “Elanoides”-NC Enforcer adorned in a ragged cape. What can I say? I’m a fan of all these fashion-forward bots. It doesn’t hurt that the build techniques here and photography are on a whole ‘nother level.

Why don’t you build something cool that’ll attract our attention? That’s how this all works, you know. You build something neat, we feature it, and the world turns. Shampoo, rinse, repeat. It just seems that Marius shampoos and repeats more often than most and that means clean hair and job security for us!

The hare of the bunny that bit me

A Gatling gun, grappling hook, chainsaw, and an unfolding semaphore tower is not the kind of things you’d usually associate with little pink bunnies. But LEGO builder Ted Andes has done just that with this Nousagi (野ウサギ) Reconnaissance Tank. This mech-tank looks like it means serious business. However, just a few pretty pink touches and bunny stickers clue us in that one can pilot a tank and still have a playful personality. The open hatch gives us a glimpse of a playful young driver who can still get down to brass tacks when serious reconnaissance stuff needs to happen.

The Eggblaster 01 is one sunny-side-up mech

Sometimes a LEGO element can inspire a build, and that appears to be the case with the LEGO Eggblaster 01 by Marco De Bon. That oval windscreen led to an egg-shaped cockpit, which in turn led to this cute-and-stompy mech. The dark blue and red colors work well, with just the right pop of yellow from the caution striping. And check out the clever use of horse barding in those gun covers!

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Enjoy my jacket. You have 20 seconds to comply.

When Marius Herrmann said he’d start a series of LEGO robots with a sense of style I said color me intrigued! Here we have “Sialia”-N1 Police Enforcer adorned in a sassy blue number from the Scala line. In order to get this jacket in this specific color, you’d have to have bought the super-rare Scala 3158 Christian in Tough Wear set. Because nothing says tough-guy like a light blue blazer! I’m rather smitten by the look, actually. This robotic law enforcer comes with a matching reconnaissance drone to ensure that you are also smitten by the whole ensemble. Not convinced yet? Then check out our archives where Marius always keeps it interesting. I’ll certainly be on the lookout to see what other fashion-forward robots he comes up with.

A spider mech to give you the creepy-crawlies

LEGO spider mechs aren’t too uncommon, but most of the time they give the impression of a machine with a lot of legs–after all, that’s what they are. But this one by Joss Woodyard is enough to trigger an arachnophobe. OK, technically it’s based on a Harvestman (AKA daddy longlegs) which isn’t a spider. But it’s still an arachnid, and with all those eyes and creepy arms and dripping….something–shudder–it definitely counts in my book. The green bits on the legs are the Technic wire clip, which you may have seen a lot of around here lately, since it’s being used in the latest Iron Builder challenge.

LEGO Ninjago Legacy 71740 Jay’s Electro Mech [Review]

Ninjago Legacy sets are a way for LEGO to re-introduce past sets to newer fans. Usually this means taking a previous set and adding upgraded designs, new parts, and exclusive minifigures. But what happens when you cross the streams and combine a historic mech with the “Learn to Build” 4+ age range market? Come along as we explore the transformation of 2015’s 70754 ElectroMech into Ninjago Legacy 71740 Jay’s Electro Mech. This 106 piece set will be available March 1st from the LEGO Shop Online for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99. Can it possibly survive “junior-ization”? Adventure awaits!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

Weather or not you like this mech, it’s great

When looking for hyper-realistic mechs with great part usage, you know you can count on Marco Marozzi to provide the goods. The Marine N3 Mech feels even more realistic than usual, too, with that great weathering. But don’t discount the minifigure rebreather accessory in the helmet, the snowshoes in the feet, and those decidedly old-school Throwbot visors as shoulder pads. Marco is sometimes known for bending LEGO “purist” rules and incorporating parts from “other leading brick brands”, and I think I see a few of them here, too. But once again, I can’t complain because the end result is just so sweet.

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