Tag Archives: Stranger Things

This Hawkins Lab set is straight hellfire

Vol. 2 of Stranger Things Season 4 drops this coming Friday, and to celebrate KaijuBuildz has crafted a Hawkins Labs suitable for creating mysterious happenings in your own LEGO Town. This digital build does an impressive job of recreating the TV location’s unique wired windows, and the rooftop is loaded with 80s era communications equipment.

LEGO Hawkins National Laboratory set (MOC)

Inside you’ll find plenty of details from the show – the Rainbow Room, the sensory deprivation tank, and even a portal to the Upside Down. We’d love to see LEGO release something similar to this to pair with set 75810.

LEGO Hawkins National Laboratory set (MOC)

What? DEMOGORGON is evolving!

I will confess that I’ve never watched Stranger Things, but I do know of the rather scary demogorgon. Joss Woodyard (Jayfa) clearly thought it wasn’t scary enough, and has built this magnificent – albeit nightmare-inducing – demogorchild. To me it seems like the last in an evolution that you might see in games like Pokemon, with the demogorgon itself the starting point. Thankfully I’m too engrossed in the fascinating build to be terrified. The demogorgon minifigure heads do get a look in, albeit from the Botanical Collection rather than Stranger Things. Some of the dark green parts from that same set are used on the legs and shoulders as well, while white leaf elements make up the ribcage. I like how the feet and lower legs evoke the dirt and ground that a flower might take root in. Perhaps this creature disguises itself as a beautiful orchid and devours unsuspecting passers-by. OK, now I’ve gone back to giving myself nightmares…

The Demogorchid

LEGO BrickHeadz 40549 Demogorgon and Eleven – Get ready for some Stranger Things [Review]

Few characters sweep the world like “Eleven” from Stranger Things. Since its premiere in 2016, Millie Bobby Brown’s immensely quirky character has proven to be iconic in every season. Meanwhile, the feature creature of the first season inspired dread and fear in all of us. Hailing from the mysterious and grotesque “Upside Down” version of our own world, the “Demogorgon” made a perfect Eldritch beast for the beginning of the series. Despite the immediate success of the series, it’s surprising that LEGO took until the third season to release the award-winning set 75810 The Upside Down. With a summer 2022 release still possible for season 4, LEGO seems to be getting ahead of the hype with two new BrickHeadz. The LEGO BrickHeadz 40549 Demogorgon and Eleven will be available from the LEGO Shop (US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99) on February 1.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick 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 art and science of LEGO tensegrity builds

The recent trend in the LEGO-sphere community has all been about magical floating compression structures, better known as a tensegrity – a portmanteau of “tensional integrity”. The fad started with a very rudimentary build on a Reddit and soon spawned many more creative iterations. We pick a few of the more outstanding ones that we’ve seen that has impressed us. A couple of them come with build videos and instruction guides for you to build your very own.

Click to see some of the best we’ve spotted around

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

Announcing the winner of TBB’s Stranger Things “Darker Hawkins” building contest [News]

To celebrate the launch of the third season of Netflix’s sci-fi drama Stranger Things, TBB kicked off a contest on the Fourth of July, challenging our readers to build other locations from Hawkins, Indiana not featured in the LEGO Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down. The challenge was actually quite simple — the LEGO creation needed to feature both the normal world and its “Upside Down” counterpart location, as we showed in our own free instructions to build a LEGO Castle Byers. It’s been great to see builders interpret this design brief in so many different ways, through the contest entries on Flickr. Today, we’re happy to announce the clear winner of our contest — “Barb’s Disappearing” by talented German builder Jonas Kramm.

Barb's Disappearing

See more of Jonas’ winning creation along with honorable mentions

Build your own reversible LEGO Castle Byers model from Stranger Things [Instructions]

Does your copy of 75810 The Upside Down look a little lonely displayed all on its own? To help celebrate the TBB Upside Down building contest, we’ve got step-by-step instructions to build a minifigure scale Castle Byers to keep it company. Created by yours truly, the creation features both Will Byers’ pleasant-looking forest abode and an upside-down version in the same style as the official set.

LEGO did release a tiny version of Castle Byers which we reviewed recently, but we think this one fits the theme a bit better. The instructions PDF can be downloaded here, along with the Bricklink Studio digital file. And if you have an itch to build more Hawkins locations and their corresponding upside-down versions, don’t forget to enter our TBB Upside Down building contest! There’s only a week left to enter, with the deadline on August 15th. Now’s your chance to swoop in and win a copy of 75810 The Upside Down, along with the LEGO store exclusive Castle Byers build.

LEGO Stranger Things Castle Byers event build & Comic-Con exclusive Barb minifigure [Review & Editorial]

LEGO has gone all out to promote the new LEGO Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down set released earlier this summer, with a hilarious retro designer video, and a contest on LEGO Ideas (don’t miss TBB’s own Darker Hawkins LEGO contest). These are all things that every LEGO builder can enjoy together, but LEGO has also released two items to much more limited audiences — Will’s fort Castle Byers (a small build given away only to attendees of launch events in London and New York City) and fan-favorite Barb (a unique minifigure only available at San Diego Comic-Con). Both of these are now only available at exorbitant prices on the secondary market. The Brothers Brick picked up each of these so we could bring you a hands-on review.

Read our hands-on review of these unique LEGO exclusives from Stranger Things

Fan-favorite Barb from Stranger Things revealed as yet another Diego Comic-Con 2019 LEGO Exclusive Minifigure [News]

LEGO just revealed Barb minifigure as the Stranger Things Exclusive Minifigure that will be available at San Diego 2019 Comic Con. The fate of the fan-favorite citizen of Hawkins, Barbara Holland left many displeased. Finally, LEGO does justice for Barb in its own way; the minifigure will make a perfect addition to LEGO Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down set. The minifigure can be obtained as part of a randomized draw on July 19th at the LEGO both in San Diego Comic-Con.

Click here to see more pictures of the exclusive minifigure…

Build a darker Hawkins in TBB’s Upside Down building contest and win 75810 The Upside Down plus rare Castle Byers event set [News]

The third season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” was released on July 4, and we have the perfect activity for you as you binge-watch the whole season. Build any location featured in any season of the show! But unlike some other contests inspired by the show recently, there’s a catch: You have to build both the real-world version of your favorite Hawkins locale and the Upside Down version, as seen in the official LEGO set LEGO Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down — one of our favorite LEGO sets of the year so far. The top builder of our contest, judged by TBB staff, will win this fantastic set, plus the super-rare Castle Byers mini-build set released only to attendees of the LEGO Stranger Things launch events in London and New York.

Learn how to enter the contest and read the fine print

Watch this time lapse as fans use 56,000 LEGO bricks to make a huge Stranger Things Season 3 poster [Video]

Last weekend, Netflix’s brought fans a bit of the 1980s with the Hawkins Fun Fair at California’s Santa Monica Pier. A carnival experience filled with Stranger Things tie-ins like the ice cream shop featured in Season 3 and a Demogorgon photo op. Starting today, the event has moved to New York’s Coney Island for the weekend. To celebrate their recent partnership with an official Stranger Things LEGO set, LEGO was on hand to help fans create a massive Stranger Things Season 3 poster.

The enormous mosaic was built throughout the weekend with the help of fans, who each assembled a small tile to place on the poster. Using more than 56,000 LEGO pieces in all, the poster measures 90 inches tall and 60 inches wide. It took more than 40 hours to design. Check out a time-lapse video of the poster’s construction below.

This terrifying LEGO Demogorgon is here to watch Stranger Things Season 3 with you

What’s the perfect LEGO accompaniment to binge-watching Stranger Things Season 3 today? Of course, it’s building the incredible official LEGO set of 75810 The Upside Down. But you should also check out this amazingly terrifying Demogorgon from expert builder Aaron Newman. Built in a large scale, it captures the otherworldly horror perfectly, with its gangly limbs and menacing flower head.

Demogorgon

If you like this, be sure to read our interview with Aaron Newman. Want to see more LEGO Stranger Things? Check out these other incredible LEGO models:
75810 The Upside Down [Review]
LEGO Chief Hopper’s Cabin
LEGO Stranger Things Minifigures
LEGO Stranger Things BrickHeadz
LEGO Stranger Things Miniland Figures