Tag Archives: Sandro Quattrini

Killer Zodiac collaboration from a constellation of AFOL stars

What’s better than seeing your star sign in LEGO? How about all twelve zodiac signs stunningly assembled by some of the brightest stars in the building community?

Two years ago, builder Woomy World created a zodiac-themed “Libra Dragon” for the BioCup competition. Fellow builder Ezreel was inspired and pitched a collaboration for all 12 Zodiac signs to the community. Those invited to participate could claim their own star sign or swap if they had a strong idea, and soon the list was full. But with so many builds to coordinate and busy lives and creative blocks complicating things, some folk dropped out, others came on board, and time was ticking by. Finally, a deadline was set, and the final lineup of builders set to work on their chosen sign. To maintain thematic cohesion, the group agreed that every Zodiac sign would be depicted as a creature, which for some signs meant some creative interpretations were necessary.

Now, nearly two years in the making, the Zodiac Collaboration makes its debut!

Read on to see all 12 Zodiac signs in LEGO!

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Let the shell games begin!

Iron Builder competitions are one of our favorite sources of delight as we seek out new LEGO creations to highlight and share. These playful competitions highlight some of the most creative builders in the hobby while also showing how much potential is packed into a single eccentric LEGO element. The latest Iron Builder just kicked off between TBB regulars Sandro Quattrini and Gerrit Gottschalk, and the “seed part” is the green Koopa shell with spikes. Sandro fires the first salvo with a majestic green dragon, which uses 34 shells to achieve the snaking, scaly body. The head design is very effective, especially the sculpting around the eyes using minifig arms and frogs for an organic shape.

The Green Dragon

gGh0st strikes back with an elegant Japanese sword display, using koopa shells for the hilt. There are plenty of other nice touches in the still life scene, like the life buoys on the tsuba blade guard and the perfect curvature of the blade and scabbard. But the best touch of all: gGh0st’s sly nod to Sandro’s build, incorporating the unmistakeable green dragon design into the sword stand. That playful back-and-forth is another reason why Iron Builder competitions are so much fun to spectate.

First Strike

Sandro keeps the dance going in his follow-up, riffing on the Japanese theme with a beautiful kimono featuring a whopping 87 koopa shells. Mama mia, that’s a lot of koopas! Who knows where the game will go next?

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This Hollow Knight collaboration bugs me quite a bit

I have a special place in my heart for LEGO collaborations; collabs, as the cool kids call them. We have a bevy of cool kids in this article collab-ing on characters from the Hollow Knight video game, so get out your pencils and take some notes. First up is the Watcher Knight, a blue beetle guy built by (I presume) the coolest kid of them all, Sandro Quattrini. I like his stance and there are surely some neat parts usage here. Truth be told, I needed the help of Wikipedia to clue me in on the Hollow Knight game but I’m well aware of its influences such as Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and Mega Man X. Incidentally, the heyday of those games precisely mark the end of my coolness and my foray into being a middle-aged schlub and occasional public nuisance.

Watcher Knight

Click to see what the other cool kids are into

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When Dieselpunk art imitates Dieselpunk art

This new LEGO creation by Sandro Quattrini and we’re all pretty thrilled, by golly. I’m loving the intricate details, the ape-like stance, and the fact that this thing resembles a walking airplane. I seriously want to live in this world for a little while. It turns out that you can as this is based on the work of famed concept artist Emerson Tung and his A6M-S Koumuri Jethead art . This isn’t the first time we’ve been impressed by Sandro’s work, in fact, he was named The Brothers Brick Builder of the Year in 2022. Nor is this the first time he has been inspired by Emerson’s work. Check out our Sandro Quattrini archives to see what I mean. This may be the most interesting thing I’ve seen all day and I’ve Googled potatoes and jelly.

Jethead

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The Brothers Brick LEGO Builder of the Year 2022 [News]

This year, the Brothers Brick team had a blast going through all the names featured in hundreds of posts published during 2022. The year brought us dozens of new talented names, as well as a whole lot of brilliant projects from well-known builders. As usual, when deciding who deserves the Building of the Year award, we focus on finding out who had the most remarkable, memorable and productive year across the global LEGO community. And 2022 revealed one name who impressed us more than anyone else.

The Brothers Brick is delighted to name Sandro Quattrini as our LEGO Builder of the Year 2022.

Click to see why Sandro is our LEGO Builder of the Year

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Tanks for the inspiration

It was fun, silly and therefore I was inspired to write about it. Sandro Quattrini built this Tankhead mech and was himself inspired by Emerson Tung’s Tankhead art. It’s like a circle of inspiration! I enjoy the color scheme, complex curves and overall stance and attitude of this mech. The oversized gatling gun it carries isn’t without its charms either. Maybe it’ll inspire you to build something. What does it inspire in you? let us know in the comments. While you’re at it, check out why we think Sandro Quattrini is an inspiration to us.

Tankhead

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Ammonite? No, this is an ammu-nite

We feature LEGO builds for many reasons here on the Brothers Brick. It might have some great parts use. Perhaps it imitates natural shapes in ways not thought possible with plastic bricks. The most important reason though is, of course, when a build inspires a good pun. So you have Sandro Quattrini to thank for the title of this post. (Naughty-lus was also considered, but I think we can all agree the right call was made here.) To be fair, it fits the other categories rather well too, although I’m not sure I’ve seen too many armed nautiluses (nautili?) before. Maybe that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t want to get hit by the bullets, or the discarded shells…

PITtober 2022: Notilak

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The face of the last Toa

This model hit the feed and gripped the mind of every Bionicle fan that saw it. Builder Sandro Quattrini took brick-built figures to the next level with this fresh take on that iconic Toa face, sans Kanohi. The builder’s take on this warrior’s body varies slightly in their recreation of classic figure-building pieces but pays proper homage to the original nonetheless. Nice parts usage abounds throughout the design as Sandro adorns a brick-built Bionicle with the remains of the Jungle Dragon. Surviving the Ninjago apocalypse can be pretty brutal but not so much for the Toa.

The Last Toa

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A cheery cherry crab

This Sakura Crab by Sandro Quattrini lives up to its name. Not only are there cherry blossoms on the crustacean’s shell, that cherry color carries over to the anthropomorphic critter itself. I love the construction in the eyes, and the quarter-circle tile used on the legs. The mouth is also pretty cool, with minifigure arms making perfect mandibles. The greens of the lily pad offsets the red, making this unusual crab a bit more integrated with nature, too.

Sakura Crab

There’s a lot of fun crab builds happening in the LEGO community these days. Why not add your own into the mix? We have plenty of inspiration in our archives!

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.

LEGO Ideas 21335 Motorized Lighthouse – a beacon of brick-built class... and cost [Review]

During the COVID lockdown, thousands of people all over the globe found themselves with a significant amount of extra free time and the ability to create wonderful builds. The LEGO Ideas page was overwhelmed with submissions, with an unprecedented number of builds being approved for production. Many of these have been officially licensed products like the Fender Stratocaster, Home Alone, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

While licensed LEGO sets can be very cool, it is always nice to see the LEGO Ideas team approve projects that are wholly original and appeal to a wider range of people. Often these sets don’t have the extra cost associated with licensing, but sometimes they do – as is the case for the newest addition: LEGO Ideas 21335 Motorized Lighthouse. This 2065 piece set will be available September 1st and retail for US $299.99 | CAN $379.99 | UK £259.99. Join us as we take a closer look and see if that high price tag is worth it.

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.

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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.

Not just any Mega Man knockoff...

Folks, we here at TBB have got to admit that LEGO builder Sandro Quattrini is a character-creating machine. He churns out constructed personas so fast that it’s hard to keep up! The latest one is this spaceman-looking chum with a blaster for an arm (no relation to a certain Capcom hero). The contrasts at work here are wonderful. Smooth, sleek white casing with the occasional exposure of rough, mechanical interior channels both Eve and Wall-E at the same time. And the posable hinges developed here are absolute magic! Amid all that, my favorite part has got to be Robo-Kid’s robo-kicks. I mean, it’s not every day you see such splendid use of the minifig Scout Trooper helmet!

Robo-Kid Alt Shot

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“It’s not easy bein’ mean…”

Sandro Quattrini gives us a glimpse of what might have happened had Doc Hopper won his battle with Kermit the Frog. This amphibious warrior has had his legs replaced with cybernetic parts, and he’s no doubt looking for revenge against the man who deep-fried those appendages. Sandro’s robotic leg design makes great use of two different sized LEGO skis, and they look like they’d deliver powerful hopping action. The mohawk made from flags adds a decorative bit of warrior-flair. But my favorite detail is the actual LEGO frog delivering the perfect bit of shaping to the nose of this powerful polliwog.

Battletoad 2077 / Cyborg Frog

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