If this handsome structure from builder legolux1973 looks familiar, you might recognize it from its young, wild, LEGO World City days as 10027 Train Engine Shed. Since then, though, it’s moved to the country and developed a quiet, studied sophistication clad in dark red. Only one engine bay is needed these days, but it’s grown to make space for modern locomotives and there’s a small office smartly tucked to the side. The black half-circle arched windows top off the banks of windows, and note the small 1x2x2 window with grille tucked in sideways above the bay doors. The scene is finished with lots of little details, including some fuel containers (Octan, of course!), a pallet jack with a pallet and boxes, a little portable tool cabinet, and lots of tasteful landscaping. We’ll raise a grease can to you, Train Engine Shed! The post Train Engine Shed? Now that’s a name I...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, R2-D2 discovered there was more to life than plotting courses through hyperspace. Greg Dalink tells a story with this fun mech built to fit R2-D2. Using credits saved up over years of loyal service, the galaxy’s most loved astro-mech commissioned an expert droid-smith to fashion a mighty mech, so he could join the rebellion and wreak havoc. And make sure to check out all of Greg’s mecha tributes to the Star Wars universe that we’ve featured on TBB! The post The galaxy’s favorite droid gets a serious upgrade appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Daniel

Outside of LEGO conventions and LUG meetups, the LEGO community primarily gathers online. With forums, social media and chat apps, AFOLs have been sharing their creative work digitally for years. The rise of the decent phone camera has exacerbated this trend, making sharing your MOCs the easiest it has ever been. But when you have a lot of ideas and build quickly, sometimes completing only the MOC's front side that will be photographed is all I have time for… and who else will know? Is this a LEGO building sin that needs to be confessed or a shrewd speed building secret for the digital age? Is only building the parts of a MOC that will be photographed sheer laziness? Is it a smart strategy to build more? To explore these questions, let me share with you a bit of my building process. The Need For Speed When I build MOCs, my...

Earlier this year, a new website joined the AFOL eco-system: Open L-Gauge. It is aimed at a very specific target audience of LEGO train builders but could have impact far beyond the train community. Open L-Gauge logo Instead of describing the site for you, I’ll let the site speak for itself: “The goal of Open L-Gauge is to make high-quality LEGO train models available to everyone in the community, but we do want to set some rules for how these models can be used. The goal of the site is to encourage the sharing and remixing of ideas with other LEGO train fans and simultaneously protect the original designers against commercial parties reselling their designs without permission.” I wanted to find out the story behind the site so at a recent LEGO train event in the Netherlands, I met up with two of the driving forces behind the creation of Open...

Bonus points if you can work out which fonts have been used. Hint, all have been used by LEGO and some can be found below! In the last couple of years, you may have noticed the boxes, instructions and LEGO website looking a little different. A small facelift perhaps? What you might’ve seen but not realized is that LEGO is now almost fully switched over to a new brand font. Cera Pro is now in full flight within the brand, and I have one main theory as to why I believe this switch was enacted. Other than shaking up the style a little with Cera Pro’s slightly playful characters, accessibility is its strong suit. The website now follows the same typographic choices as the packaging; not previously possible with Chalet. Cera Pro in its entirety supports more than 270 languages with its Cyrillic and Greek character sets, allowing for a far...