Tag Archives: Santa

War makes gingerbread boys into gingerbread men

“Man the gumdrop cannons! We’re on General Kringle’s naughty list this year!” Builder Mike Sinclair gives us a LEGO scene that has the Christmas season fighting against itself. Maybe you’re rooting for St. Nick and his elven troops, armed with a present catapult and cannon. But if you’re like me, you’re on the side of the Gingerbread Kingdom. With their cookie castle surrounded by a chocolate moat, these confectionary combatants aren’t about to crumble under pressure. The fortress is a beautiful mish-mash of classic castle shapes laced with bits of icing and other sweet treats. It’s an extremely well-executed fusion of themes. And, much like the smell of gingerbread, it’s got me hungry for more!

Gingy's Revenge

A microscale build you’ll want to check twice.

What do you get for the LEGO fan who has everything? How about a custom creation. Even a small build can bring large amounts of holiday cheer, as Dan Ko demonstrates here. As part of a Secret Santa gift exchange, Dan called upon his excellent microscale skills to create this LEGO ornament featuring Santa Claus soaring through the air in a sleigh pulled by a single reindeer. Good microscale is about creative part use, and there’s lots of that at work here. The formal minifigure collar as Santa’s beard is a particularly nice touch.

Santa's coming to town

Santa’s home away from home.

If you follow The Brothers Brick on social media, you might have noticed we just updated our cover photo to Santa’s house, a cozy A-frame cabin built by Andrea Lattanzio. But don’t be fooled by his jolly demeanor, Santa’s a big celebrity. And he’s living a life with all the perks, which includes multiple houses. This asymmetrical cabin, also by Andrea, is a little more stylish than the A-frame. No doubt this house is for when Santa’s feeling a little posher. That four-wheel-drive vehicle might not be able to travel as far as magic reindeer, but I bet it’s more expensive. And the brickwork on the deck couldn’t have come cheap. After all, it’s actually made from dozens of Mjolners.

Santa's Cottage

TBB Cover Photo for December 2021: Santa’s holiday cabin

While this may not be Santa’s primary residence at the North Pole, we can pretend that this cute cabin by Andrea Lattanzio is Santa’s holiday home. Since Santa only works during the month of December, does he have the rest of the year off? Does he go on holidays? He must go vacationing all over the world since he has so much time. I’d think he has a cabin close by in the Canadian or Siberian wilderness somewhere to to escape his elf-infested home for a bit of peace and quiet. I sure hope he doesn’t need to get away from his wife, and that his marriage to Mrs. Claus is still doing well…

Santa's Cabin

We’ve written about Andrea’s A-frame cabin before, but we forgot to mention who owns the property. Now I’m curious to see Santa’s beach house in a more tropical region of the world. Or maybe I’m just wrong and Santa doesn’t have the rest of the year off, maybe he rents an apartment in a big city and works a boring financial job…

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LEGO Winter Village Collection 10293: Santa’s Visit – Some seriously fun holiday cheer [Review]

I know it’s hard to believe, but we’re already heading in the tail end of 2021. And that means it’s time for LEGO to unveil their yearly addition to the Winter Village Collection. This year there’s no beating around the bush – we get right to the main event. LEGO Winter Village Collection 10293: Santa’s Visit will be available to VIP members starting September 16th, and at LEGO stores starting October 1st, for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £79.99, and brings that momentous event to life. But will it be a holiday disaster? Come along as we take a close look at this seasonal offering!

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

A-frame brings the autumn, uhm, winter A-game

We featured Andrea Lattanzio’s cozy LEGO A-frame home a while ago. It seems however that the A-frame building went through a little bit of a makeover — the autumn theme has been changed to match the current winter season. It looks like the beautiful wooden tiles outside have gotten a fresh coat of red paint. Where the autumn edition of this creation featured minifigure hammers for a cobblestone base wall, the winter edition uses ingot bars for the brick-built wall. The use of the ingots look a bit better-maintained compared to the minifigure hammers, which matches the fresh paint job. One of the small details from the autumn build that I appreciated dearly was the use of mushroom radar dishes. I am glad those got featured in this creation too.

Santa's Cabin

The story behind LEGO’s 1981 Classic Space Christmas card [Feature]

Last year, we shared an article on vintage LEGO holiday greeting cards. The LEGO Group has established a tradition of giving their employees exclusive Christmas themed sets like the X-Mas X-Wing for the holiday season. Even longer than that, since at least the 1970s, the LEGO Group has produced special Christmas cards for employees (and, occasionally, the UK LEGO Club). Each year brings a new card, with artwork ranging from carefully staged minifigures to elaborate brick-built designs. You can find blank examples that were used to send personalized messages, as well as cards with printed holiday greetings from LEGO’s leadership, such as owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

Continue reading for the story behind LEGO’s spacey 1981 Christmas card.

Santa’s ’40 Ford Coupe is the alternative to traditional science.

It’s been proven by…um…science or something that Santa travels the world via a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer named Dasher, Dancer and…um…Vomit and Nixon, maybe? I don’t know, it’s been awhile since my last science class so I’m a little rusty on the names and how it all works. But that doesn’t stop builders like Isaac W. from defying traditional science and going with alternate forms of transportation such as this chopped ’40 Ford Coupe. As a diehard car dude, I am all about this sleek, top-fueled alternate ride!

Santa's chopped '40 Ford Coupe

Now I’m aware that the ’40 Ford Coupe has fairly ample trunk space but I have a thirst for toys as big as the Colorado Rockies. How does Santa accommodate the likes of me? As stated earlier, it has been awhile since science class but I know enough about science to realize it’s going to take a lot more than a coupe trunk to get toys to all the good children of the world. Thankfully, Isaac already has that solution figured out with this matching trailer. Isn’t science grand?

Santa's chopped '40 Ford Coupe

Santa’s got a new kind of sleigh

Santa is going to give the reindeer the day off this year because his sweet new ride is horse-powered instead! Sylon-tw, an excellent ship builder, decided to use his skills this holiday season to give Santa something slick to deliver presents with. His new sleigh is complete with a sleek body shape, thrusters, and plenty of cargo space. He’s even got his own chauffer, the builder’s sig-fig!

Santa's (little) helper

While you’re in the spirit, take a look at a Santa macro-figure as well as this year’s advent calendar!

When your keys become Christmas bells

During Christmas, many of us decorate our homes, trees and more, so why not our keys? Chungpo Cheng has the right idea with this classic Santa keychain creation.

Santa Claus Classic Key Chain

The only problem in this case would be finding keys large enough! The builder has super-sized the classic Santa Claus minifig which still used a pirate cap instead of the modern purpose-moulded piece. What is most amazing in this creation is not just the accurate recreation at the scale (those hands are especially cool!), but the fact that each individual body part is its own finished creation, as seen on the picture below!

Santa Claus Classic Key Chain

Now I really want to see a whole range of up-scaled minifig body parts that can be mixed and matched like the originals!

Dashing through the decades of LEGO’s holiday advertising [Feature]

This time of year is one of the busiest for toy manufacturers, including the LEGO Group. In an effort to associate the brand with holiday gift-giving, the months of November and December bring a flurry of wintry-themed advertising. While much of the LEGO Group’s current advertising campaigns exist online, the company has a long history of producing holiday advertising in magazines, comic books, and mail order catalogs (aka LEGO Shop at Home catalogs). Our elves have been hard at work, sifting through the archives for some of the LEGO Group’s most memorable seasonal ads. Hop in the sleigh and hold tight for a wild ride back through time.

See more LEGO holiday advertising through the years

Santa has been to the LEGO Store!

We all know that Santa’s elves are good at what they do. But when it comes to gifts for LEGO fans, sometimes you just have to leave it to the LEGO experts! This lovely LEGO Santa, built by Brixe63, has decided to do a little shopping of his own. And what’s in the top of the bag? Pick-a-Brick cups, fresh off the giant wall at the back of the LEGO Store! There’s some nice parts usage to create the “cups” filled with colorful Technic rubber bands. We also can’t forget the clever use of gold bucket handles to form Santa’s belt.

Merry Christmas 2018