Towns in the world of LEGO have everything cities in the real world do — police stations, fire engines, trains, hairdressers and veterinarians. Check out all the beautiful buildings and vehicles we’ve featured here on The Brothers Brick.
Some people build spaceships and castles. Others build more down-to-earth items, but build them amazingly well. It doesn’t get more down to earth or well built than this Caterpillar D11T by Davy Linden, which can plow through mountains of earth with ease. The D11T is an unbelievably large bulldozer, weighing in at 115 tons and just shy of 1000 horsepower, capable of crushing trucks with ease. This model excludes no detail, and is roughly twice minifig scale, giving it a whopping 22 inch length. Take time to carefully pore over the details, as many of the tiny greebles are hard to spot against the yellow body.
Andrew Tate was feeling nostalgic for a time of full-service stations with an art-deco style, so he built this 30’s-inspired filling station. The curved corner window looks perfect for a classy old shop where the attendants would pump your fuel, wash your windows, and check your radiator, and Andrew says it was one of the inspirations for the model.
Antique trams scurry along the streets of Porto, carrying visitors to Portugal’s second-largest city hither and yon. rupilego has built one in Coca-Cola livery, complete with a cobblestone street for a base. The rounded cab and little windows on top of the roof are lovely details.
Longtime readers of the blog will be aware that the Mercedes Unimog is one of my favorite vehicles. While rare here in the US, they’re ubiquitous across Europe. Polish builder Damian Z. doesn’t disappoint with his Unimog crane truck in high-visibility orange.
Here’s your first look at the latest set in the popular Winter Village series, 10249 Winter Toy Shop. Now, some of you may be scratching your heads, wondering why this looks so familiar: this set is a re-release of 2009’s 10199 Winter Toy Shop. This time around LEGO has swapped out a few colors, and added a few pieces, bringing this version to 898 versus the original’s 815, which is apparently enough to justify a $20 price bump. It will retail for $79.99 USD, available beginning in October.
It is disappointing that LEGO won’t be releasing an all-new Winter Village set this year, but should make folks happy who missed out on the Toy Shop the first time around. Let us know in the comments if you think a re-release like this is great for fans, or just disappointing. Don’t forget to pick up the last several Winter Village sets, which are still available: 10235 Winter Village Market, and 10245 Santa’s Workshop.
Full press release below, and the full gallery on flickr.
10249 Winter Toy Shop
Ages 12+. 898 pieces.
US $79.99 – CA $99.99 – DE 69.99€ – UK £59.99 – DK 599.00 DKK
Enjoy the holiday season with the Winter Toy Shop!
Welcome to the Winter Toy Shop! The holiday season has arrived and the toymaker is busy finishing off his latest creations! Outside, children ski and snowboard, and a freshly built snowman sparkles in the light that shines from the toyshop tower. Help decorate the huge tree that stands at the center of the square, play with the curious kitten on the cozy wooden bench or join in with the carolers beneath the ornate streetlamp. This charming set also features a ladder, trees in various sizes, jack-in-the-box, a toy biplane, helicopter, rocket, train, race car, truck, robot, tugboat, teddy bear and a wrapped gift. Have fun building this enchanting winter wonderland! Includes a snowman and 8 minifigures with assorted accessories: a male caroler, female caroler, a woman, 2 men, 2 boys and a girl.
• Includes 8 minifigures with assorted accessories: a male caroler, female caroler, a woman, 2 men, 2 boys and a girl
• Features a toyshop, large Christmas tree with decorations, ladder, bench, ornate streetlight, carrot-nosed snowman and a cat
• Toyshop features a LEGO® light brick, cash register, clock, chair, table, tools and a ladder
• Accessories include a wrapped gift, snowboard, skis, 5 wreaths, 2 sets of strings lights, 2 top hats, 2 carol songbooks and 10 toys, including a jack-in-the-box, a toy biplane, helicopter, rocket, train, race car, truck, robot, tugboat and a teddy bear element
• Also includes trees in various sizes and snow elements
• Light up the toyshop tower with the LEGO® light brick!
• Decorate the Christmas tree!
• Enjoy the holiday season with this fun, festive model!
• Winter Toy Shop measures over 6” (17cm) high, 7” (19cm) wide and 3” (10cm) deep
• Christmas tree measures over 5” (15cm) high, 4” (11cm) wide and 4” (11cm) deep
Kyler Wilson has built a series of wickedly cool minifig-scale arcade machines. I love the different genres you can pick out from the machine styles and the simple graphics on the screens. I think these would look fantastic in a future Modular set of an 80’s-style arcade.
Zachary Lewis is quite the LEGO architect. For the last year or so since picking LEGO up again as an adult and joining a local LEGO club in Ohio, he’s been alternating between highly detailed houses and highly detailed interior rooms — each one built for a specific person. My favorite of Zachary’s houses so far is this one: “Mom’s House.”
While the classic 1950’s one-story ranch house is not my favorite form of American architecture (I live in one), this build by Zachary is pretty amazing — from the paneling on the garage door to the wood slat siding and brick walls. Smaller details jump out as well, like the barbecue out back and the small window/fan into the attic.
I could highlight just about every photo Zachary has posted in his photostream, but I won’t spoil your enjoyment — go spend some time poring over “Wesley’s Room,” “Robert’s House,” “Elliott’s Room,” and more.
But since I can’t help myself, here’s a beautiful Georgian-style house in Zachary’s hometown of Shaker Heights, Ohio.
WingYew takes us time traveling in an unnamed city with a MOC that spans a hundred years, from the arrival of streetcars to the proliferation of megachains. The dueling coffeeshops are replete with excellently detailed interiors and give a striking sense of how little has changed – and exactly how much has changed.
Polish builder Jakeof has been building minifig-scale big rigs and construction equipment for a while now, and has gotten rather good at it. We’ve highlighted one of his builds once before, but it’s high time for our readers to see what other excellent models he’s been churning out in the meantime. It takes a great eye and even better building skills to create this sort of detail and realism at minifig scale. At a glance these don’t even look like LEGO models. The front-end loader in particular is one of the finest brick-built examples I’ve ever seen.
This might be an older model, but this adorable early design from Jordan Schwartz just has to be shared. The car’s got such an elegant design, with those lovely lines and most excellent grill.
And should you be interested, Jordan’s also got some delightful older vehicles for you to enjoy. Or in which to avoid government officials. Depends on your needs.
When I left Japan in 1989, I don’t think I’d ever seen any Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food — though Indian food was certainly popular (and a reliable choice for us vegetarians). Moko has built a kebab stand, though, and writes about it as though they’re on every street corner — as they certainly are in London and Berlin. How Japan has changed in the past quarter century, apparently!
Moko says that kebab shops are most often on the first floor of multistory buildings, but that he was most interested in building the rotating gyro meet, the sauces on the counter, and the sign, so he just built those and moved on. Despite the lack of an upper story, it’s a lovely little shop. One’s eye is inevitably drawn to the excellent lettering on the large sign, but my favorite detail is the striped green awning.
This gorgeous piece of machinery is a Gräf & Stift 1911 double phaeton, built by Karwik. Besides being a mightily fine looking automobile, its significance lies in the fact that this car was owned by the late Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, whose assassination in this vehicle sparked the Great War.
