Tag Archives: Space

From giant space carriers to starfighters, moon bases to moon buggies, whether you love LEGO models inspired by real-world space programs or science-fiction, you’re in the right place.

If you’re going into space, you may as well do it in style

A new LEGO spaceship from Nick Trotta is always worthy of note, and Firebreak, his latest, is an absolute belter. The shaping is a beautiful collection of angles and curves, making clever use of tiles and a bewildering array of sideways-building techniques to keep the lines smooth. But it’s the color scheme and the ingenious striping which grab the attention — look at the white highlight outline on the asymmetric engine intake, a fantastic piece of LEGO engineering. The angled snub nose is also great, adding a touch of malevolence by invoking attack helicopter styling. Finally, the use of black and chrome for the functional-looking greebles is inspired — a nice change of pace from the “standard” LEGO spaceship greebles in light or dark grey. This is one of the best LEGO spacecraft we’ve seen for a while. I’d recommend zooming in for a closer look at all the quality building involved in its creation.

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LEGO wins three Toy of the Year awards at Toy Fair New York 2020 [News]

Yesterday at Toy Fair New York, the prestigious Toy of the Year (TOTY) awards were handed out, and LEGO took away a total of three coveted prizes including Construction Toy of the Year, Specialty Toy of the Year, and STEM/STEAM Toy of the Year. The Brothers Brick wishes a heartfelt congratulations to The LEGO Group and especially to the designers, creative team and unsung heroes behind these sets.

The Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards (also known as the “Oscars” of the toy industry) are presented annually to the top toys, games, and properties of the year. Administered by The Toy Association, the awards program supports the philanthropic work of The Toy Foundation, which delivers new toys to children in need.

Click to see each LEGO set that won a 2020 Toy of the Year award

Another mini LEGO Masters challenge: the exploding alien

If you’ve watched last week’s episode of The LEGO Masters, this little build should look familiar! In the explosive space challenge, Tyler Clites and his wife Amy designed an incredible alien and bomb-toting hero sculpture to be dropped from a balcony. The duo named the creation “The Sacrifice” and the story behind it involved the hero giving up his life to destroy the alien. And in glorious fashion. The ensuing destruction as host Will Arnett launched it over the rail was indeed epic!

Tyler and Amy received the highest praise for their build and are top competitors moving into this week. The show airs at 9PM Wednesdays on Fox. Be sure to follow our extensive coverage! Also, check out Tyler’s Funny Farm mini build from the first challenge!

A colourful fleet of fighters

There’s a fine balance in creative endeavours between finding a groove and getting stuck in a rut. There’s no doubt which side of the scale Ted Andes is on with his latest run of LEGO starfighters. Whilst there’s a common shaping and techniques involved in the production of his Corsair models, the variety of styling applied to the variants make for quite a fleet. First up, there’s a red and white beauty, which showcases the use of the Technic panel parts alongside the cockpit…

Ted has put together a whole range of these craft, each a skilful combination of Hero Factory armour, Bionicle pieces, and regular LEGO parts. These are models I’d love to see “in the brick” — I’m sure they’d make for an impressive formation flypast.

A-roving a-roving a-roving I’ll go with a set of balloon tires

Across the moons of the outer systems, thin dusty soil causes problems for surface vehicles. Without big chunky tires, your fancy new rover isn’t going anywhere. LEGO builder Frost has put together a flashy moon rover with the requisite balloon tires but also bedecked in an eye-popping color scheme. The tires are a beefy joy, tiles attached to caterpillar tracks wound around standard wheels. This design allows for a multi-layered multi-colored look, perfectly matching the bold styling of the rest of the vehicle. The curved stripes over the bonnet are nicely done, as is the front grille and the integration of the angled windscreen and roll-cage parts around the rear. The fin sticking from the rear is easy to miss amidst all the color, but is a great use of a parts separator — lovely stuff.

I think I finally get Radiohead

LEGO builders Timofey Tkachev and Sheo have put together a tragic band that somehow has nothing to do with Radiohead or Joy Division. That is a total bummer because I really wanted to lay on the references for either band pretty thick but that’ll have to wait for another post now. Instead the members of this sad band are rooted with a much more highbrow notion; each bears the name of great Greek tragedians.

Click to delve deeper, you know you want to!

Color out of space

We see plenty of spaceships here at The Brothers Brick but we rarely see any that are quite as colorful as this one. A LEGO builder who goes by the name of F@bz has conjured up a space tanker that would look right at home in a carnival…parade…fire? Carnival parade fire. I’m seeing some very retro pieces that may have been pilfered from some old Aquazone sets from about 1996 or so. The tanker pieces, or at least the ones with the “AT.02” decal, come from the Exo-Force Mobile Assault Tank from 2006. If ever F@bz gets tired of this colorful model (but who would, really?) it can get pried apart using the two new dark turquoise brick separators included in the design. Now that is totes fabs!

Star Wasps: The Empire Stings Back

A quick Google search reveals that over the last decade the Brothers Brick team has featured at least a couple of brick-built wasps and dozens of impressive space hangars. But have we ever shared wasps inside a space hangar? Thanks to the latest sci-fi work by incredibly talented Sheo., now we have. We have no clue where these giant wasps came from and how they became a popular mean of interplanetary cargo transportation, but we are sure you can spot a ton of excellent building solutions in the picture below. The futuristic cargo crane is my favorite part of the build; just look at those adorable wheels!

Made for a purpose but destined for greater things

Every custom builder’s LEGO bin of parts would likely have elements that would leave them bewildered and likely a sigh of defeat can be heard. Elements that fit into this category are typically purpose-built and typically only have one use for its intended purpose. One such example is a cockpit fuselage of a helicopter. Oscar Cederwall (o0ger) is not daunted by such a challenge and seamlessly integrates the part into his Assisted Robotic Maintenance ship and made immensely amazing.

Two mechanical arms sweep out with multiple sensors surrounding the shell of the ship. Maintenace activities in space never looked so good.

LEGO Ideas officially reveals 864-piece 21321 International Space Station [News]

LEGO has just announced the final design of the fan-voted 21321 IDEAS International Space Station. Catered for adult LEGO fans as a display piece with authentic ISS details including rotating joints and adjustable solar panels, the main build is accompanied by a buildable mini NASA space shuttle and cargo spacecraft. The 864-piece set will be available in LEGO stores and online on February 1st, 2020 retailing at US $69.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £64.99. We’ve already got our hands on an early copy, so be sure to check out our review: 21321 LEGO Ideas International Space Station Review.

Click to see more images and the full details of the International Space Station

LEGO Ideas feels right at home in orbit with 21321 International Space Station [Review]

Many of us here at The Brothers Brick are space fans in one way or another, so we were pretty excited to see that the next LEGO Ideas set would be 21321 International Space Station when it was proclaimed the winner of the 10th-anniversary fan vote last summer. Now less than a year later, LEGO is revealing the final version of the set today, and we’ve got our hands on a copy to bring you a full review. Retailing for US $69.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £64.99, the newest model from the LEGO Ideas crowdsourcing platform has 864 pieces and will be available starting Feb. 1.

Click to read the full, hands-on review

At more than 6 feet long, this giant LEGO Enterprise built from 30,000 bricks is ready for its five-year mission

Star Trek creations are seen all too infrequently in the LEGO fan community (compared to other sci-fi worlds, say, from a galaxy far, far away). Another LEGO fan once told me it was impossible to build a convincing Enterprise. Perhaps he just wasn’t bold enough to go there, because that’s exactly what Chris Melby has done. This model is huge – 6 feet long and almost 3 feet wide. It’s so big that he built a custom aluminum stand for it.

See more of this 30,000-piece LEGO Enterprise