Tag Archives: Minifigs

Everybody loves LEGO minifigures — well, almost everybody. Minifigs are often the stars of the LEGO models we feature here on The Brothers Brick, but we also feature some amazing custom minifigs you’d never expect to see in an official LEGO set.

Please ensure your dignity is stowed safely under the seat in front of you

The plot continues to thicken – and United Airline’s hole continues to deepen – over last Sunday’s incident aboard a plane in Chicago. And now the satirical commentary is starting to emerge. But no current event is really newsworthy until it’s been parodied using LEGO bricks, and our friends over at BrickMania have wasted no time in designing a custom minifigure to make this possible:

To quote the product description on their website: “Today’s travelers are ready for any adventure that comes their way. They have no fear of being stranded by weather, undersized seats, ridiculous baggage fees, TSA pat downs, or even re-accommodation by bullyboy airline employees. Grab your boarding pass and fly the unfriendly skies with Brickmania’s Frequent Flyer – Re-Accommodated Edition – Minifigure!”

Now is the perfect time to pick up your Frequent Flyer Re-Accomodated minifig, not only because of all that money you saved dumping United stock, but more importantly because BrickMania is donating a portion of the proceeds from this product to Traveller’s Aid International.

The stickiest situation since Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun!

Ever wondered where those yellow sticky notes came from? Well as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Arthur Fry was tired of losing his place in his hymn book, wanted a reusable bookmark, and viola – the Post-it note was born! Builder JD Keller has created an hilarious scene featuring Mr. Fry on a fantastic wheelie chair surrounded by his beloved little yellow re-stickable notes. Clearly he has a lot on his plate – not only are there stacks of memos on the table, stuck on the walls, filing cabinet and classic old CRT monitor, but they also feature on the pot plant, telephone and (my favorite) the bottom of his coffee mug.

Sticky Situation

The wooden fortress of Valahadrian can withstand any force (except fire)

The Elven Fortress of Valahadrian is located deep in the Mystic Isles of Avalonia, and was created from the imagination of LEGO builder Tirrell Brown. The  tan and reddish brown colour combination fits well into the green woodland landscape surrounding the fortress. I love the unusual circular construction with overgrown arches to give a really organic feel to the architecture. Tirrell has clearly spent time on the trees and greenery to bring the whole build together, resulting in a lovely vignette. There’s a story unfolding before our very eyes with the rowing boat arriving and someone awaiting the visitor’s arrival.

Valahadrian

I can’t help but draw your attention to the multi-layered base mimicking the differing grass, soil and water layers — a very nice detail!

Planes, trains, automobiles ...and a hot air balloon

LEGO City remains one of the most popular themes designed by LEGO and is always fun to see a large city layout. And you will definitely not be disappointed by this bustling city scene by Korean building team OliveSeon – a huge minifigure scale diorama that is over 6 meters (19 feet) in length. The main central part of the scene includes a few official modular sets such as the Detective’s Office, Parisian Restaurant and Ghostbusters HQ on the left. But there is much more to this diorama than buildings, as I believe it depicts almost every form of transport system imaginable from an airplane, to a suspension railway, to HGVs and even a hot air balloon.

2017 Lego City Diorama 02

On the far right beyond those skyscrapers, the concrete plunges into a chilled out beach scene and then a mountain peak complete with cable car. The red and white cable car is very cute, as is the hot air balloon, even if every Health & Safety bone in my body is shouting that it’s too close to the high wires!

2017 Lego City Diorama 03-1

On the far left the transportation has a more nautical feel with the port and harbour area. Don’t go for a dip in the water on this side of the build though, cos I’ve spotted a few hungry sharks on patrol.

2017 Lego City Diorama 01

So can you think of any other forms of transportation the builders have missed in this huge 3-part diorama?

Engine 54 is the pride of Midtown

The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the largest municipal fire department in the United States, but Engine 54 stands out within this huge fire department, and its firehouse is known the “Pride of Midtown”. Fifteen members of Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 were killed while responding to the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. sponki25 has built an accurate scale model of Engine 54, a 2014 Seagrave Attacker HD 2000/500 High Pressure Pumper that is only six studs wide but packs an incredible amount of detail within that small space.

FDNY Engine 54

There are plenty of brick-built details within the six-stud wide confines. The home-made stickers may not be to everyone’s taste,  but you have to admire Sven’s attention to even the smallest detail. It is also touching that Sven has dedicated this particular build to the memory of Engine 54’s heroes.

FDNY Engine 54

Sven has a growing collection of FDNY apparatus that you can see in his FDNY album, including the FDNY Ambulance below. I simply had to share this image of his ambulance responding to a scene, Sven’s minifig scale Stryker stretcher is really an awesome little build.

FDNY Ambulance

First look at LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 17 at Toy Fair [News]

LEGO had the box for the next series of Collectible Minifigures (CMF) covered up when we were at their preview event in New York yesterday, but after we, FBTB, and others had left, they uncovered the box for some reason, and media who were still hanging around got a peek. The box confirms a number of previous leaks and rumors, so let’s dig in on what we’ve learned so far.

Read our list of LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 16

Vignettes from How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother, for those of you who don’t know, is a romantic comedy about 6 friends and their everyday stories told from Ted’s viewpoint. The entire premise (surprise!) is Ted telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. It took him 9 seasons finish telling that story! It kept viewers guessing who was Ted’s wife all along. Builder Sascha is clearly a huge fan, and he’s built a series of vignettes from a few key scenes that fans should love and remember.

That famous yellow umbrella in the final episode

Tracy & Ted

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The Golden Empress watches over you

While I’m not sure I’d ever pick a golden scorpion as the steed for my guardian angel, I can appreciate the beauty of this character crafted by Sean and Steph Mayo. Sean shares that this lovely creature comes from a online, forum-based LEGO role-playing game over at Eurobricks. The Golden Empress scorpion is a player’s Guardian Angel.

Golden Empress Scorpion

The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead

11inthewoods has used an interesting combination of newer minifig parts and accessories to create an excellent LEGO version of the Dead Men of Dunharrow from Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings. Zombie heads, Ninjago spirit “legs”, Nexo Knights armour, an Avengers Ultron jaw-piece, and a crown nicked from The Witch King of Angmar himself — it all comes together brilliantly to create an eerie army of oathbreaker ghosts.

CCC XIV Knight & Squire

I’d like to see these guys in a full build now, please — guarding the entrance to the pass at Dunharrow, or maybe gathering around the Stone of Erech?

A waterfall of colours hides a secret

We have been left to form our own conclusions about the meaning of this latest colourful creation by Delayice. The only potential clue given is the title, Maze of Entrance, which simply adds to the intrigue rather than offering any explanation. The medium azure waterfall was the first part of the build to capture my attention and it contrasts perfectly with the dark orange inverted slope. The texture of this inverted slope gives a pixellated feel to the build and my overall impression is that this door is part of a colourful quest, almost like a video game.

Maze of entrance

Who knows what lies beyond the doorway, but it seems that there’s a few intelligence tests on the wall to overcome before it will open.

Exclusive LEGO Star Wars Rogue One preview, thanks to a bed sheet and a broken lamp

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story releases later this week, but Ian MacDonald has built a special preview shot in LEGO with help from a bed sheet and some extreme forced perspective in his basement. Rogue One takes place just before 1977’s A New Hope, when the Death Star was being built. Ian’s scene depicts Jyn Erso walking out of the hanger on Yavin IV, where the Rebellion is based. His scene matches a shot seen 44 seconds into the second official trailer, and 2000 bricks went into just making the huge hanger, let alone our view into the distance.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I just had to quote Ian’s description of putting this scene together, as I’m sure many builders will recognise their own experiences in these words: So many things had to go just right to make this image. There’s 3 layers of background, a bed sheet for a sky, and a couple lamps, one of which is broken. All shot in my basement.

As you can see, the end result is fantastic, but I really enjoy seeing ‘behind the scenes’ photographs that show the work and thought that goes into this kind of cinematic LEGO shot. The forced perspective of the layers of background gives the impression of differing size and scale with huge mountains at a distance, a tall pyramid-like structure and then the expansive hanger itself. A lot of effort for one shot but the finished shot is awesome.

Behind the Scenes of Rogue One

Do you have a reservation?

This hotel lobby, built as a 16×16 stud vignette by Sven Franic, is all ready for guests. You will be able to check in on arrival and have your suitcase taken up to your room by the smartly dressed porter pulling the luggage rack. There is everything a hotel lobby requires: tasteful wallpaper, a local map, comfy leather couch and a reception desk complete with bell to gain attention.  I particularly like the wooden display behind the reception desk with pigeon holes for guests’ room keys or messages.

hotel01b

If you fancy trying out some of these builds as inspiration for your own creations, Sven has even supplied an exploded view:

hotel05b