Tag Archives: Music

Just like many other artists, LEGO builders find inspiration in the music they listen to as they create the wonderful models you see here on The Brothers Brick. It’s no surprise, then, that music inspires many LEGO models more directly, from minifig musicians to album art recreated with bricks.

In search of the perfect beat... I found my own rhythm

German-based Australian builder Arran Hearn is ready to fill the dancefloor and raise the roof with his 1:2 scale DJ setup! This creation started with a brick, namely part 58846 (Brick Round Corner 10 x 10 with Slope 33 Edge). Four of these bricks make up each of the platters on the turntable and, from that simple beginning, the 1:2 scale creation began to take shape. Arran’s  DJ setup is complete with two turntables and a mixer, in the brilliantly named ‘battle-mode’ position – definitely beyond my knowledge as a mere easy-listening, sing-a-long chick!

Lego DJ Setup Half-scale [1:2]

Arran went to great lengths to accurately reflect the details with custom chromed “Barraki eyes” used for the spindles, custom designed transparent stickers for the outside rim of the platters and the custom boat studs used for the detailing on mixer controls. I had to look twice at the initial Flickr photograph to check I was actually looking at LEGO. It is all hooked up and ready to go, look at those cable tidies keeping all the wires in position.

Lego DJ Mixer Half-scale [1:2]

And as if the attention to detail was not enough, power functions are brought via a 9V train controller to light the LEDs on the mixer and spin those platters. Arran also created this video showing off his model next to the real deal:

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If music be the food of love, build on...

Every so often we come across LEGO versions of iconic album* covers, although more often than not they’re unconvincingly recreated using mini-figs. So it was refreshing to see umamen take a crack at some fully brick-built ones:


 

Pictured above: Nevermind by Nirvana (1991). One Step Behyond by Madness (1979). London Calling by The Clash (1979).

Album covers represent an absolute gold mine of immediately recognizable material for possible LEGO treatments. If you’re a builder, why not take a crack at some of your favorites – we’d love to see what you can do!

(*Album: How your parents got their music before iTunes)

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Parrot sings Everything is Awesome from the LEGO Movie

We’re having an animal-centric day here at The Brothers Brick (at least so far). A parrot named Princess Yellow Feather sings selections from Everything Is Awesome!!! from The LEGO Movie — need I say more?

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The axe man cometh

Even in the Bionicle universe people need to rock out once in a while. So meet Bio-Klaanian rock star Toa Kyberi, Toa of Sonic! This bad-ass was created by Finnish builder and master of the LEGO System/Bionicle mashup, Eero Okkonen. Read about this character’s full backstory on Eero’s blog.

If you wanna learn more about Eero’s unconventional character creations, or what it’s like to be a Finnish AFOL, check out my interview with him in Issue 31 of Brickjournal magazine.

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Two-dimensional personality

Another big build unveiled this weekend at Brickworld (the first of many, we expect) is this 60 x 40 inch mosaic of our favorite synthetic celebrity Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) painstakingly put together over the course of the past year by Chris Rozek. The funny thing is, this isn’t even the first time we’ve featured a life-sized LEGO Hatsune!

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Boy, oh boy

We’re very proud of our boy bands here in the West, with our One Direction and our Backstreet Boys and our Nickelback. But across the Pacific they’ve perfected the art to a whole other level. Here’s Jang Wooyoung from the band 2PM, LEGO-ized by our favorite Korean building collective OliveSeon:

Apart from the cute chibi-fication of the singer, and the fact that this thing was sculpted using the studs-up technique (which is pretty challenging for small character sculptures), I love the particular choice of costume here… It’s the one Wooyoung wore to promote his single ROSE, which actually featured him wearing a LEGO bow-tie. Bravo, sirs. I tip my hat to you! Even though I’m more of a BIGBANG guy myself…

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Building a teenage dream

While many here in Seattle spent the last week getting over our last-minute defeat at Super Bowl XLIX, the rest of the country seems to have been focused on Katy Perry’s half time show – in particular the fabulously unsynchronized “left shark”.

Several of you were puzzled that I didn’t jump on this viral image with one of my trademark LEGO parodies. That’s because I decided to experiment with a different format on this occasion. So hats off to Conrado PLG for stepping in and creating the LEGO version that we were all dying to see!

I’m crossing my fingers that this will inspire our friends at the LEGOLAND theme parks to add a left shark “easter egg” into one of their Miniland displays. I think he’d look perfect next to sad Keanu ;-)

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Vocaloid Hatsune Miku – “Snow Miku”

Mike Dung has done an incredible job of recreating the “2013 Snow Miku” version of Hatsune Miku. The posing of the figure is great, but the folds and layering of the shiromuku are really exceptional. It’s too bad he had to make her hair green instead of turquoise but the figure wouldn’t have turned out nearly as well, due to parts constraints. It was a great compromise, as there are limitations, even in LEGO. Mike really turned out a beautiful creation here!

2013 Snow Miku

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Jem and the Holograms rockin’ it out in LEGO style

Here’s to your daily dose of nostalgia, presented in technicolor by fujiia. Built for an event and inspired by rumors of a potential movie, she’s created this vibrant, eye-catching ode to everyone’s favorite 1980s all-girl rock-band, Jem and the Holograms.

JEM

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If music be the food of love, build on

Those crazy Swedes are at it again! Rickard & Helen from SuckMyBrick have followed up their excellent movie character quiz with another one, this time featuring past and present icons of the music industry. See if you can identify them all…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukJhm_6_Y7s
You can also check out photos of all 16 characters on their Flickr stream. Below are some of my favorites. But… No ABBA!? O_o

   
 

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The road less travelled

It was 45 years ago today that the Beatles released their penultimate album, Abbey Road, which included such hummable ditties as Here Comes The Sun and Octupus’s Garden. Five years prior to that, the “Fab Four” made their first appearance on American television with the Ed Sullivan Show. Letranger Absurde has decided to capture that moment in this Miniland scale vignette:

And while Abbey Road didn’t exactly produce as many smash hits as the Beatle’s earlier albums, it’s cover was certainly a memorable one, and continues to be mimicked in one form or another to this day …including Miniland form, twice! These versions by minicoop4 and Lauchlan Toal respectively both make great use of forced perspective to recreate the road and cars in the background:

 

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Life sized Hatsune Miku  built from LEGO

It’s been almost three years since Japanese builder Chaosbrick (カオス煉我) created the first LEGO version of the wildly popular digital pop star and Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku (初音ミク). Since then there have been plenty of other versions, by such builders as Moko, Mike Dung, LegoWyrm and even yours truly. But now Chaosbrick has returned to outdo them all with this life sized version!

Construction of the model began in October 2013 and took 6 months to complete, during which time the builder teased fans with work in progress shots from his Twitter feed. The final model uses over 20,000 bricks, and by all accounts it was quite a feat of engineering to make such a tall and slender LEGO model stay in one piece. But the end result is spectacular in its detail and accuracy, and should meet the expectations of even the most hardened Hatsune fan. Especially with the cheeky inclusion of some brick-built fan service ;-)

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