Tag Archives: Television

Kamen Rider Black brings back 80’s Japanese nostalgia

As my family left Japan in 1989 after 15 years there, one of the memories I carried with me was all the TV shows my brother and I had watched. While my own favorite was Ultraman, my brother preferred Kamen Rider (the “Masked Rider”). One of the best and most popular incarnations of the titular hero was the Kamen Rider Black series, which aired just before we left Japan, in 1987 and 1988.

Moko has been building various LEGO versions of Kamen Rider for at least the last 10 years — I first featured minifig versions of the characters way back in 2006 — and his latest Kamen Rider features a chibi version of our hero pulling a wheelie astride his iconic “Battlehopper” motorcycle.

Kamen Rider Black

Kamen Rider himself is fully posable, and Moko says that this is his first attempt at a non-minifig scale motorbike. Moko makes great use of LEGO rubber elements in this build: The red and yellow lines on the character are built from rubber bands, and the motorcycle tires are tank treads on radar dishes.

Kamen Rider Black

Moko says that the first Kamen Rider show he watched was the RX series that immediately followed Black, and he only watched Black later, but really loves the show despite its age — which, you know, makes me feel a bit old… You can see more photos on Moko’s blog (in Japanese).

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Mission a-corn-plished: Bob Belcher’s burger joint recreated in LEGO

We love a good pun here at The Brothers Brick. And it’s clear that the creators of the hit cartoon Bob’s Burgers feel the same – a fact that Chris Goddard did not overlook when he built this spot-on recreation of the street from the show’s opening titles. For the ever-changing store next to the titular diner, Chris went with “Butt Stuff Underwear Outlet”. But he could just as easily have gone for “Magnum G.I. Colonoscopies”, “A Fridge Too Far Used Appliances” or any of the hundred different store names snuck into the sequence by the animators over the show’s five year history.

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76052 LEGO Batman Classic TV Series Batcave [Review]

When we announced details of LEGO’s enormous new 76052 Classic Batcave set last month it almost melted our Facebook page. There hasn’t been this kind of buzz about a new set since the release of the equally enormous 76042 SHIELD Helicarrier last year. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I donned my cape, hopped in the Bro-mobile, rappelled up the outside of a mall, and KAPOW-ed my way through the local LEGO store to secure a copy of this decidedly spendy $270 set.

Click to read the full review

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Even in LEGO, Mr. Bean travels in comfort

Brothers Brick contributor Elspeth De Montes puts the new Series 15 Collectible Minifigures mop to great use in this iconic scene from the quintessential British comedy show, Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean can’t fit all his new purchases into his adorable green Mini, so he jury-rigs a device to drive his car from the supple luxury of his rooftop recliner.

Mr Bean & his Mini

If you’ve missed the sketch before, check it out:

And if you’d like to try your hand at building your own Mr. Bean Mini, Elspeth has kindly provided instructions:

Mr Bean's Mini Instructions

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A blast from future past, with Space:1999

Gary Davis is well known for his love of all things Gerry Anderson, and his latest creations are a blast from the ‘future’. Back in 1975 a new British TV show called Space:1999 was aired, following the exploits of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha after the moon breaks orbit and goes wandering in space. I have to admit that before looking into more depth at the show, I thought Gary had designed a new LEGO theme; what a great idea, a new theme of retro space called Space:1999!

Rescue Eagle on pad 5

Above we have a rescue Eagle on the launchpad, which you can compare to one from the original television series. Gary has added some nice lighting to ensure launchpad Health & Safety rules are obeyed. The orange is a lovely contrast colour here, but the greebled pad details are my favourite part.

Eagle Hawk Eagle2

Have a look at these screenshots from the original TV series showing Eagle on the launch pad, a Hawk from the episode War Games and a close-up of Rescue Eagle taking off. Gary’s attention to detail, shaping and SNOT skills all work to create really accurate LEGO models of the original TV models of Eagle, Hawk and Rescue Eagle.

Rescue Eagle on pad 5

All the greeble-tastic details can be seen in Gary’s Space:1999 Album on Flickr.

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Being disintegrated makes me very angry, very angry indeed!

Over the years we’ve featured many LEGO versions of Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam and Marvin the Martian. But this is the first time we’ve seen Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century in brick form. Thanks to the talents of Tyler Clites we see him pictured here during his first screen appearance in 1953, battling for control of “Planet X” against Marvin:

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Musical muppets keep on rockin’

Those hardcore rock music fans will have already recognised this famous band recreated in LEGO by Andreas Weissenburg. They’ve been rocking since 1975 and have played with some of the biggest names in music: Julie Andrews, Elton John, Liza Minelli, Paul Simon. Of course, we are talking about Dr Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, the house band from The Muppet Show.

Dr Teeth and The Electric Mayhem

Andreas has built the original five members of the band: Dr. Teeth on vocals and keyboards, Animal on drums, Floyd Pepper on bass guitar, Janice on guitar, and Zoot on saxophone. There are lots of nice touches used to bring these characters to life, and the wild colours of the muppet characters certainly help with part selection in this case. My favourite is definitely Zoot – that nose looks perfect in LEGO. Plus everybody knows that the guy playing sax is always a hottie!

You can see close up views of the band members and other Muppets including Swedish Chef and Waldorf & Statler in the builder’s Flickr album.

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And as it always has... Rock crushes Scissors

LEGO’s 1×1 tiles with rounded corners, which can be found in the Mixels series 7 sets, look like one of this year’s most interesting new parts. And Takamichi Irie has devised the most hilarious way to introduce them. Here’s a diagram of the rules of the legendary game Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock as presented by Sheldon Cooper in popular American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. These nails look both cartoonish and realistic at the same time. I can’t wait to see tons of different uses of “nail” tiles in upcoming models.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock

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Steven Universe in brick form is a gem of a LEGO creation

Spawned from the loins of mold-breaking show Adventure Time, and apparently destined for a similar kind of cult following, Steven Universe is a critically acclaimed American animation about a boy and his troop of supernatural friends, the Crystal Gems. It’s on frequently in my house, although I’ll admit I haven’t been bitten by the bug yet. But Danish builder Ilia must have, judging by his superb sculpture of the show’s titular character:

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Transforming LEGO Nemesis Prime is *almost* cute

Fans of Transformers will immediately recognise Nemesis Prime, the evil clone of the Autobot leader Optimus Prime, built by Japanese builder Moko. Brick-built Transformers have been featured before on TBB, but Moko’s build is a little bit different. Transformers originated as an animated television series in the 1980s. In the series Nemesis Prime is an evil, merciless killer …but oh my goodness, now he is super cute!

Nemesis Prime

Moko has gone for the chibi feel with this build, yet manages to maintain accuracy and detail despite the diminutive stature. And as if that was not enough, his Nemesis Prime even transforms:

If you want to see detailed views, Moko has more photos of his builds of Nemesis Prime and Optimus Prime on his own blog. (Note: Moko’s blog is in Japanese, but the photographs are easily seen as thumbnails and Google roughly translates the page)

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I am Cornholio, and I need TP for my bung-hole!

Back when MTV was still a thing, a prophetic documentarian named Mike Judge introduced Generation Y with a new set of role models, in the form of two hopeless morons named Beavis and Butthead. Fans of the show will no doubt recognize Beavis’ sugar-induced alter ego Cornholio, hilariously recreated here in LEGO by TBB favorite Jimmy Fortel. Heh heh, heh… ARE YOU THREATENING ME?

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CE-LE-BRATE! CE-LE-BRATE!

The annual Doctor Who Christmas Special seems to have become a new part of the holiday tradition for millions of families around the world. Which is a good thing as I think we were all getting tired of endlessly watching Jimmy Stewart discover his contribution to the world in black and white. So this festive foe by Jimmy Fortel makes perfect sense…

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