Tag Archives: Town

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.

News: Barnyard animals from BrickForge

I wrote in my review last week that BrickForge would soon be selling livestock. Well, that “soon” has arrived!

The $5 cows come in solid black and Holstein white, the $3 pigs are currently available in black and pink (with white coming soon), and the $3 sheep are available in black and white. You can further customize the cows with udders — no, I’m not kidding — and horns that are sold separately ($0.50 for a pair of horns, $0.50 per udder).

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Rapid Transfer Gate #33 by Hippotam

Hippotam over at Klocki has a great entry for the LugPol “BTT” contest. Check out the Brickshelf gallery for more photos.

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1959 Opel Kapitaen P-LV by Michael Jasper

Michael Jasper presents an updated version of his 1959 Opel Kapitaen.

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BrickForge Minifig Accessories [Review]

Reminded by the pictures of their upcoming livestock shown during BrickWorld, I recently ordered a rather substantial number of weapons and accessories from BrickForge.

I wrote a review here on The Brothers Brick of modern weapons from BrickArms last February, so I thought I’d do the same with my new collection of BrickForge products. BrickForge primarily sells historical and fantasy accessories, including Greek, medieval, and “Elven” armor, as well as unique hair and beards.

The Photos
First up, Greek Hoplites and Norse warriors:

Next, a bunch of knights and dwarfs (or “dwarves,” if you prefer):

A wizard and Robin Hood:

Finally, “The Mysterious M” and some partially LEGO Nazis:

Click the individual pictures for descriptions that include which BrickForge products I used, and check out the full photoset, where I’ll be adding some minifigs I didn’t get to when I wrote this review.

My Review

As with the BrickArms weapons I’d bought before, the test for any “LEGO-compatible” accessories is how well they integrate with official LEGO elements. (And it’s going to be difficult not to compare BrickForge with BrickArms, since that’s my only other point of reference.) For me, this has to do with several factors:

  • How well the colors match (or are distinct from) LEGO colors.
  • How the custom pieces [i]feel[/i] to the touch.
  • How well the custom pieces photograph alongside LEGO.
  • The durability of the custom pieces.

BrickArms solves most of these challenges by using ABS (the same plastic as most LEGO) and only selling its products in black, the easiest color to match. A major difference about BrickForge is that it has far more products in many more colors. BrickForge accessories are durable, feel pretty much like “real” LEGO, and photograph well (as proven by Armothe, Kaminoan, and other customizers).

The only remaining potential problem, then, is their color. Here’s what I observed about the BrickForge colors when compared with LEGO colors:

  • Black: 100% match with black LEGO.
  • Bronze: Color unique to BrickForge, so no clashing issues. Really a beautiful color for the Greek accessories.
  • Brown: Matches “old” brown nicely.
  • Dark Gray: Good match with old dark gray, but slightly lighter.
  • Dark Orange: Matches the dark orange LEGO hair color nicely. (Only available in beards.)
  • Light Gray: Forgot to order an accessory in this color. :oops:
  • Red: Good match with red LEGO (and red is apparently a hard color to match).
  • Tan: 100% match to tan LEGO.
  • Silver: Color unique to BrickForge, but close enough to some pearl silver colors (with a slight blue tinge) that you might not want to use both in the same minifig.
  • White: 100% match to white LEGO.

So, in nearly every case, BrickForge produces accessories that match official LEGO elements well, and therefore BrickForge weapons do indeed meet all of my criteria for great “LEGO-compatible” products.

My one qualm is that some of the colors don’t seem 100% appropriate for the accessories that they’re available in (though perhaps I’m not thinking creatively enough). That’s just a matter of choice when you buy them, so a “problem” that’s easy enough to solve from the buyer side.

Ultimately, I think what makes BrickForge products so great is how they enable builders to extend LEGO in ways that using only official parts can’t (“Duh,” all the customizers say). The prime example of this is their Greek set. For $3.00, you get a helmet with a plume, a javelin, and a big round shield. Many builders have approximated these with the dragon helmets, regular spears, and other round shields, but the effect isn’t the same, and the BrickForge versions are so much more authentic.

Another of my favorite accessories is the beards. Available in 10 colors and two lengths, they’re much more realistic than the long white and gray (and non-production black) official beards. Perhaps we’ll see some new colors with the upcoming 7036 Dwarfs Mining set, but I doubt we’ll get new, shorter beard molds. BrickForge beards are the perfect solution.

Overall, I’m very happy with the selection and quality of BrickForge accessories, and I can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with next. Oh yeah, we already know: Livestock! :D

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I am just going outside and may be some time...

Alan Saunders illustrates the moments after Antarctic explorer Lawrence Oates spoke his famous last words. I love the miniature camp in the background.

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Hotel in Japanese is ホテル

Lettering in LEGO is a challenge. Although the possibilities of lettering in Roman/Latin lettering have been explored rather well, especially by LEGO train fans, it’s rare to see lettering in other scripts, such as Japanese.

Brickshelfer Sonix has changed the “HOTEL” sign in 10182 Cafe Corner to ホテル, which is how you write “Hotel” in Japanese (via Brick Town Talk):

While we’re at it, Sugegasa spells out “Nitro” (ニトロ) — a fitting name for his grill:

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Old Red by Steven Marshall

Another beautiful car, Steven Marshall! (Via pootling.)

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A Motorcycle of My Own

Plug time!  Inspired by the work of Noddy (and Micheal Jasper), I built my own motorcycle:

Flickr setClassic-Castle thread.

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Bluesmobile by Mr. Zumbi

I suspect the cigarette lighter needs fixing, but it’ll do:

Always a pleasure, Mr. Zumbi. (Via pootling.)

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Racing around Bodville with Peter Edwards

Speaking of cool videos, Peter Edwards has some really interesting creations on his Web site, including many that are motorized in some way.

Here’s Peter’s very fast LEGO slot cars are built around AFX motors:

My favorite, though, is the video of an ingenious set of “dodgem” cars:

Be sure to check out Peter’s Web site for lots more, including higher-resolution versions of these and other great videos.

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Noddy gets muddy

Noddy has improved on his earlier motorbikes (similar to Michael Jasper‘s), this time with ones that can seat a minifig:

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Mini MOC Madness!

Lowlug’s Mini MOC Madness is upon us again! The theme this year is weather, and there are already some great entries. Check out the gallery, and click “Lees meer” to see bigger pictures of each entry. A few of my faves:

(Thanks for the tip, Martin Jaspers! I’d link to your gallery like I usually do, but it won’t exist on August 1, so I’m minimizing future broken links. :( )

EDIT: Sorry about the broken images — I’ll fix them later.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.