Blare Media has finally revealed the full trailer for it’s brick-themed mocumentary Brick MADNESS. The film pits an underdog “Brix” builder against an arrogant long-time champion in a battle to build his way to not only fame, but redemption. The PG-13 rated film premieres on September 8th.
Click here to learn more about the film
They say that Disney movies touch the heart, but Studio Ghibli films touch the soul. None more so than the Miyazaki classic Spirited Away. I’ve modelled the works of this legendary Japanese animator in LEGO before, but on the 15th anniversary of its US release I figured it was time to take a deeper dive into this particular masterpiece:
Spirited Away remains unrivalled for its blend of the spiritual, realistic, fantastic, and human. In balancing all of those realms, Miyazaki was the master. No surprise then that this movie won the Oscar for best animated film and remains Japan’s highest grossing movie to date.
Click to see more Spirited Away scenes
Pixar fans — or parents of Pixar fans — will no doubt recognise Karl Fredrickson’s beautiful colourful house from the heartwarming animated movie Up! (…if you haven’t see the movie I thoroughly recommend it). Jonas Kramm loved the movie and loved the image of the flying house getting carried away only by balloons. However his supply of colourful bricks was limited so he went with a scaled-down version of the famous airborne cottage, and it looks superb!
I love the azure trim around the eaves and the well-constructed railing around the front porch. Jonas has even managed to capture the detail of the sidings at this scale, and employed some great techniques to recreate that chaotic cluster of balloons. Oh, and if we happen to get separated, don’t forget to use the wilderness explorer call: “CA-CA! RAWRRR!”
The list of largest LEGO sets ever produced is dominated by Star Wars and Architecture sets, with the likes of the Ultimate Collector’s Series Millennium Falcon and the Taj Mahal topping the charts. Now, though, LEGO’s home-brewed Ninjago theme is proving to be a serious contender. Having already brought us two sets over the 2,000 piece mark (the Temple of Airjitzu and Destiny’s Bounty), Ninjago’s latest entry has an incredible 4,867 pieces, skyrocketing 70620 Ninjago City to the third-largest LEGO set ever created.
From left, Senior Editor Chris Malloy and Founder and Editor-in-Chief Andrew Becraft with 70620 Ninjago City
The primary locale in The LEGO Ninjago Movie, which opens September 22, Ninjago City is an Eastern-inspired cyberpunk city, brimming with action and loaded with hidden details. 70620 Ninjago City will be available to VIP members in the LEGO Shop Online and in LEGO stores Aug. 16 for $299.99 USD, and will be available to everyone Sept. 1.
Would you like to know what happens if a prince strolls into an all-princess party? Yep, you guessed it! Princesses Moana, Mulan and Merida all stand glazed and wide eyed, armed and ready to battle each other for his hand in marriage! While I may tease YOS Bricks about one attention grabbing feature of these models, he’s been at this theme for quite a while now — since we last featured his versions of Elsa and Anna — and there is certain charming consistency about them that appeals.
The builder’s Flickr stream is definitely worth checking out to see similar takes on Jasmine, Belle, Tiana, Cinderella and Ariel. As an added treat, many of the princesses are also shown wearing multiple outfits. But in each case, the brick-built recreations of their costumes and hair styles are almost perfect.
As if the forthcoming NINJAGO Movie wasn’t already exciting enough, LEGO has been blowing us away with all the related sets and minifigs — none more so than the completely jaw-dropping 4867-piece 70620 NINJAGO City. Well now LEGO has released a video in which the set’s designers give us an in-depth, bottom-up, overview of this amazing modular set and its many, many, many, many cool little details!
The set is available September 1st and will retail for USD$299 / £259.99. And look out for a thorough review of it right here on The Brothers Brick in the very near future!
Swiss builder Hannes Tscharner has created a LEGO version of a scene from Star Wars: Rogue One depicting an Imperial Star Destroyer hovering menacingly over Jedha City like the proverbial Sword of Damoclese, and the result is truly breathtaking. The rockwork is simple yet quite effective, while the construction of the actual star destroyer is full of details including a docking bay, laser cannons represented by binocular parts, and tons of aesthetically pleasing greebles. Jedha City is instantly recognizable in the distance, with its single towering structure.
The rear shot (which is also beautifully edited) reveals full engine detail and wedge plates used to achieve some complex angles.
Don’t forget to check out the behind the scenes shot, which reveals the ingenuitive use of a computer monitor as a light source for the scene.
The Prometheus movie wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t stop it providing inspiration for good LEGO models. Grant Masters has created a wonderfully eerie scene of curious astronauts about to get themselves into a whole world of trouble. The build itself is relatively simple (although I do like that backdrop of arch pieces), however the use of dry ice and LED lighting, coupled with good photography, creates a striking image.
Summer (if you live in the Northern hemisphere) is movie blockbuster season, and it’s already turning out to be a good one! What better choice for our August cover photo than this beautifully decked out retro movie theater façade by RVA LUG, which comes complete with LEGO-themed posters and is illuminated using 260 lights.
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Fans continue to create their own versions of BrickHeadz for the community to enjoy, and tankm brings us RoboCop and the Terminator (who have shared a crossover comic book series, for those who didn’t know). RoboCop wins my vote — I prefer his overall design. But the Terminator is packed with nice details such as the subtle sloping around the nose area, great greebling in the head, and smart use of hinge pieces for the “teeth”.
Back in 2012, filmmaker Justin McAleece used Bricks by the Bay as a background to film scenes for his independent film Brick Madness. Five years later, the director has shared the first official teaser trailer for the mockumentary, which is scheduled to premiere publically in September.
Brick MADNESS teaser trailer from Blare Media on Vimeo.
One of the really cool real-life aspects of the movie is that Carl Merriam designed many of the models used by the actors in the movie back during filming, and now Carl works full-time as a set designer in Billund.
The BrickHeadz character style has firmly taken root amongst the builder community, as evidenced by an ever-growing collection of fan-created BrickHeadz models that frequently exhibit more creativity, fun and ingenuity than some of the heavily printing reliant exclusives that LEGO is making convention-goers stand in sweaty lines for hours to acquire. Taking inspiration from some memorable movie characters, here are a few excellent examples that came across our desk recently:
Maleficent and the Wicked Witch of the West by tankm
Holtzmann and Slimer by James zhan
Russell and Carl from UP by JAE WON LEE
