“In the garage, I feel safe. No one cares about my ways. In the garage where I belong, no one hears me sing this song. In the garage.” – In the Garage, by Weezer “Every builder needs a garage” by Hejin_Quilones If anyone has been wondering where I have been lately, I guess you could say I’ve been “in the garage.” By strict definition, a garage is the structural part of a house where you park a motor vehicle (assuming you aren’t using it for storage space instead) or a place where vehicles are maintained and repaired. However, as captured by the song by Weezer, “the garage” can also be a place to find refuge from the day-to-day outside world; a place to be ourselves, to listen to our music, to read our comics, to roll our 12-sided die, and not having to care about what others think. Most of you...

Impure! Monster! Heretic! There are many terms that can be used when discussing drifters from the pure LEGO crafting code. Today I will be the devil's advocate for LEGO purism to show that we can and should be doing whatever we want with our beloved bricks. First off, let me start by saying that there is a purist LEGO code. To be very simple, I believe it to be using LEGO pieces only how LEGO Corporate intended their use. In essence, “If I were a LEGO set designer, what would I be allowed to do?” I am well aware that there is a lot packed into that statement. While I am not a set designer, we can see how that statement could include copyrights, partnerships, regulations, being able to create new elements, piece counts restrictions, or for any of the above, the lack thereof. Fortunately, lots of that stuff does not...

Purist. It almost sounds like a dirty word, like elitist or other words that end in -ist. Yet whenever I come up with an idea for a new build I always think about how I can accomplish that with bricks that LEGO has produced themselves without altering the bricks in any shape or form. To me, that is the essence of being a purist. It’s the love for the unaltered LEGO brick. Even when the company has encouraged altering LEGO bricks, like flex tube for example, it just hurts to cut it. It feels wrong to purposefully break something that is perfectly fine as it is. I’m probably more purist than most builders who label themselves as such (especially considering all the barely legal “purist” techniques out there). Illegal building techniques are things that give me an itch and I steer clear away from them as much as I can. So...

What do LEGO dwarves have to be resentful of? Well, elves got their own fondly remembered line, orcs featured prominently as Castle foes for a spell, and dragons appear in multiple themes and get their own zodiac calendar year. Oh, the indignity! We can’t know what animus brings motivates the dwarven king in Illia Zubashev‘s grand diorama, but chance are it involves gold, elves, or grudges. Probably all three.  Illia calls this creation The Hall of Grudges of Karak Izûm, a sacred site for dwarves of the Warhammer ilk. It’s a truly grand scene where a lone minifig king and the holy Book of Grudges are dwarfed by a hulking statue and a towering wall of brick and stone, showing the immense scale of the underground dwarven empire. Illia employs a solid mix of profile bricks, offset tiles, and SNOT work (studs not on top) in the impressive wall and floor. The...

Say what you will about the prequels, the opening scenes of the Phantom Menace are extremely compelling. The red Jedi cruiser approaches a Lucrehulk battleship – depicted for us here in LEGO by Jonah – for some tense negotiations. Jonah has made use of a number of classic techniques to capture the smooth curved lines of the ship in the notably square medium of LEGO. The center part of the ship is made using the Lowell Sphere, and the wider curve of the arms is made using hinge plates. Jonah has also added plenty of trans-light-blue accents to increase the visual interest of this build! Unfortunately this LEGO model will probably be short lived, as I can see a certain prophesied child in military hardware approaching bring this battleship to an unfortunate end! The post A spherical Star Wars battleship in a vacuum appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal...