Tag Archives: Temple

Johnny Thunder and the Plunderers of the Misplaced Coffer

An intrepid adventurer in a wide-brimmed hat enters a desert temple containing Anubis statues, with a sinister rival in tow. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? What? Indiana who now?! No, we’re referring to Ben Cossy‘s latest masterpiece! It depicts the Adventurers heroes of yesteryear – Johnny Thunder, Pippin Reed, and Dr Kilroy Lightning – in hot pursuit of their erstwhile antagonists, Baron von Barron and Sam Sinister. You can see why they were drawn to this structure. The massive Anubis statue at the back, framed by that broken ring, is striking! It’s almost Stargate-esque – a testament to Ben’s architectural skills. As for Johnny Thunder, it’s a good thing he has that torch in hand. There’s always the possibility of snakes…

Temple of Anubis

900 years to wear down a temple, 7 days to build it out of LEGO

The proficiency of LEGO builders never ceases to amaze me. Timothy Shortell (AKA Classical Bricks) tells a story of coming across a photo of the Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia. A week goes by, and boom – we get this amazing model at the end of it. That’s no time at all! Just the careful positioning of the roof tiles for that jungle-weathered temple look must have taken a good while. In fact, all the weathering is very well judged, and the tree roots winding their way down to the ground – very nicely done. It’s almost unfair how quickly this was all achieved. When I build for a week, I’m lucky if I’ve even got a half-finished model at the end of it, let alone one as good as this!

Ta Prohm Temple

This LEGO temple to the Minotaur is no bull

While this Minoan temple may seem simple at first glance, there is quite a lot going on in this scene by BrickiboT. Inspired by the architecture of archaeological sites like the Minoan palace at Knossos on Crete, the angled pattern along the roof is made from carefully arranged sideways plates and brackets. A small noodle bowl acts as the perfect accent. The plates and rounded plates in two colors, along with a variety of textured bricks gives the front of the temple a weathered look.

Rogue Odyssey-Minoan Temple

The rocky landscape, dotted with plants and vines is a good blend of straight and curved slopes, and even the small beach is filled with details, like the group of hermit crabs, and the head of an elephant disguised as a rock. The angled sides of the small boat are attached with handlebars fit into the undersides of rounded plates with holes. Well done!

Read on to see more details

BrickCon 2023 Best in Show winner Kimberly Giffen talks about her LEGO rendition of the Silver Pavilion [Exclusive]

A little more than 11 months ago, I wrote up a beautiful LEGO tea house by my very talented LUG-mate Kimberly Giffen. That build, The Giffen Gardens, won Best in Show at BrickCon 2022. And here I am, after another BrickCon, pleased to say that Kimberly was able to repeat her achievement and win the Best in Show once again with a recreation of the Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji) from Kyoto, Japan. I had a chance to talk with Kimberly after the convention about her work, and was able to learn a lot about the model and her process.

Read on about the Silver Pavilion below!

A ruin in four LEGO colors

LEGO builder Pan Noda has a stellar record when it comes to color use. Not too long ago, I raved about this monotonal marvel that spilled forth from their mind. And while this creation goes a bit more subterranean than their previous work, it’s still a powerful bit of art composed of cobbled walls, hanging vines, and still water. Even though the palette here only uses four colors of brick (light gray, green, tan, and transparent light blue), their brilliant use of light transforms the scene into a symphony of shades. The uneven textures on the walls create pockets of shadow and reflective surfaces that bring the whole thing to life! Plus, it’s giving me the sudden urge to hunt for jungle temples in Minecraft….

Flooded temple

A LEGO tribute to some ancient architects

Sporting some of the cleanest lines I’ve ever seen, this Roman temple by Lech Kulina is a brilliant bit of LEGO architecture. Widths of a half-plate or less permeate the construction, especially on all the plinths surrounding the temple. And all angles have been cleanly cut off thanks to the use of brackets. The build is so clean that those small bits of decay stick out like a sore thumb. Each notch in the tile, each blotch of tan discoloration, each profile brick is given greater meaning by the “purity” that surrounds it. It’s quite possibly the truest representation of Roman architecture I’ve seen recreated in plastic. Make sure to check out Lech’s Flickr album to see how he pulled off such a feat!

Ancient Roman Temple

LEGO Creation of the Week (#21): The Lost Temple by Jake Hansen and Eli Willsea

Every week readers of the The Brothers Brick Telegram channel choose the Creation of the Week: one project that impressed all of us the most. Neither a Pokemon, nor a fancy Fabuland starfither could crush a charming lost temple by Jake Hansen and Eli Willsea during our last week’s vote! Congratulations!

Meanwhile, the new vote is already on! Join our Telegram channel to follow all the best LEGO creations, latest news, and, of course, vote for your favorites. See you there!

A ruin of cubes amid the jungle

The dynamic duo of Jake Hansen and Eli Willsea have combined their LEGO talents to construct a glorious jungle scene based around a very boxy temple. The contrasts here are brilliant! The natural chaos of the jungle, replete with bladed vegetation, juxtaposes the right angles and clean lines of the temple. I love the choice of non-transparent blue for the water, adding to the feel of consistent color patches throughout the scene. But the real star here is the consistent architectural style throughout the temple’s ruin. Re-use of common patterns makes the build feel whole, while subtle variations on those modules gives the viewer an idea of the site’s state of decay. The consistency is so impressive that I was shocked it was made by two builders.

The Lost Temple

The splendor of Jinxia Cave

Sometimes bigger is better and sometimes scale can look quite deceiving. This LEGO creation by Liu Di Kai looks quite big but my guess is that in person it is massive. Whenever a build gets really big, parts used to add details tend to be less noticeable. If you look closely you can actually spot the Baby Yoda head used on top of the lowest temple roof as an ornament. Sure, the part is quite tiny, but it is hardly noticeable due to the sheer size of this creation. The ninjago dragon amulet is quite a big part, but even that looks teeny tiny. This is one of those creations that definitely deserves a quick zoom-in so you can discover all the hidden details.

Jinxia Cave-03

I got sidequested for a minute

We all get sidetracked every once and a while. Eli Willsea however didn’t get sidetracked, they got sidequested in their latest LEGO creation. Sometimes the side quests in games are better than the quest itself. If this is the case, shouldn’t you just take your time and enjoy the side quest? I sure think so. I also think we should enjoy the use of the combination of the LEGO candle and the axle connector hub. Those parts look like they were meant for each other. Another thing to appreciate is the fact that everything in this shot is LEGO. Even the brightly coloured orange background is brick built.

The Side Quest

LEGO Ninjago 71771: The Crystal King Temple – Tensegrity comes to Ninjago [Review]

While we wait for the first 2023 Ninjago sets to go on sale, let’s take pause and take a look at one of the larger sets from the Summer 2022 Crystalized wave. LEGO Ninjago 71771 The Crystal King Temple is available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99. This 706 piece set includes the temple, a small dragon, six minifigures, and a ton of cool transparent dark pink accents. Is there enough here to keep you entertained until the new year? Read on and see!

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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Idyllic autumn shrine

Some LEGO creations we feature are really big and elaborate. Others, like this one by Geneva Durand, are rather small. But that does not mean that they are less impressive. When you build on a smaller scale, everything is in focus. This means everything that you put into your creation has to be thought out thoroughly because everything will be much more noticeable. Idyll by Geneva is a very good example. As the name highlights the creation is meant to look idyllic and it does. It gives you a sense of calm which I love. The autumn leaves give this creation a big pop of colour and I love the addition of the coral pink. Using black or dark brown for the tree, the wooden frame of the house, the shrine, and the minifigure accessories balance out the vibrancy of the fallen leaves. If this doesn’t get you in the autumn mood, I don’t know what will.

Idyll