Inspired by the opera “Madama Butterfly”, builder Care Creations has combined LEGO elements from the long-retired SCALA theme, last seen in the early 2000’s, with pieces from the recently released “Avatar” theme to create a snippet of this early 20th century masterpiece. The wings from  “75572 Jake & Neytiri’s First Banshee Flight” are creatively used for the main character’s butterfly outfit. However, arguably taking more attention, the builder has also given us another significant character from the opera: the flowering cherry tree, constructed using curved brown elements and purple leaves. In this scene, we see the main character in the 3rd act of the opera, taking her own life as she gives up her baby (a LEGO SCALA element) to her betrayer, the American naval officer. The post A beautifully tragic ending: Madama Butterfly appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: John Trevino

With the Paris 2024 Olympics just days away, sports fever is really heating up. French builder FOXduFutur offers up a cooling plunge with a LEGO tribute to the 10-meter platform dive. The swarm of clear bricks that hold up the diver is a wonderful gravity-defying technique that mimics the bubbles around a diver seen in underwater photography. On that note, FOXduFutur delivers a gold-medal shot with incredible lighting and use of focus that captures the feeling of being underwater and elevates a relatively simple build into something truly special. (Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of how they pulled off the shot). FOXduFutur created this model for the BrickPirate LEGOlympics Challenge. The post Olympic high dive build is a clear winner appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes

With House of the Dragon igniting TV screens, there’s no better time for a return to Westeros—and this amazing Game of Thrones build by Martin Studio will show you the whole darn realm. (In LEGO, obviously.) While the diorama itself exhibits more great details than the Iron Throne has pointy edges, the star of the show is the lovingly recreated map of Westeros, which Cersei shows off to her brother/lover Jaime while Maester Qyburn looks on. Eagle-eyed fans will be quick to pick out the wealth of lore-accurate sites—from the bleak North bounded on the top by the wastes beyond the Wall to the Gods Eye, the Fingers, and the deserts of Dorne. Go ahead, see what else you can spot—if nothing else, it’ll give you something to do while you wait for The Winds of Winter. The post A Lannister always pays attention to detail appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original...

Microscale building is a great way to flex your creative part usage, and this lovely church by Jens Ohrndorf is no exception. The seed part in this model is a trunk lid from the Fabuland theme (the red roof of the main church) to match the red tower roof. Printed window frames from Harry Potter sets make great stained-glass windows, but one of my favorite details is the green minifigure hair pieces used for bushes. The post A miniature church with lots of charm appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Daniel

Ganondorf is back to menace the kingdom of Hyrule in this LEGO creation by mSquid_! The evil sorcerer is clad in the finest clothes and armor LEGO has to offer, so let’s take a look. His boots are made from mudguards and look how nicely the 1×1 corner tiles fit in the gap! His shinguards are barrels only available from one Indiana Jones set from 2009. Further up, Ganondorf is wearing a single handcuff as a collar, and a sail from a pirate ship for a cape. Within the sculpting of Ganondorf’s head, I’m amazed at how all the parts came together to perfectly recreate the villain’s face. Ganondorf’s lower jaw is from a collectable orc minifigure, while mSquid_ borrowed a technique from this year’s Droideka set: using backwards lipstick pieces for Ganondorf’s red eyes. From head-to-toe, mSquid_’s Ganondorf strikes an imposing figure. This build was an entry in this year’s...

While unlikely as an official license, the cartoonishly bellicose world of Warhammer is a perfect fit for  LEGO creations. Both feature bright colors, over-the-top characters, a devoted fanbase, and hand-crafted universes in miniature. Our favorite Warhammer Fantasy builder Dwalin Forkbeard usually stans for Team Dwarf, but for his latest diorama Dwalin moves to Greenskin pastures with a Night Goblin outpost he calls Hooda-Rock. Dwalin grounds the base in a lovely bit of rockwork sculpted in the shape of a goblin’s pointy hood, with an orange path to provide visual interest. A peppering of mushrooms and details like the hanging bones and tasty rats make up for the lack of greenery. Both setting and minifig accessorizing perfectly capture the brutish and nasty charm of the Greenskins. In addition to Night Goblins, the rock is home to Squigs, the surly cave-dwelling beasts raised as war mounts. Both the full-grown Squig’s red dome head...

As intimidating as the Borg can be in Star Trek, the Next Generation, I still recommend lowering the shields for this gorgeous LEGO transmission by Pandis Pandus. It’s a stellar example of what we in the brick-building business call “greebling.” But unlike the Borg, don’t let this technical lingo scare you. Think of it as a “technical texture,” all pipes and tubes and grills serving some nondescript purpose on a spacecraft. And unlike the smooth exterior of a ship like the Enterprise, all these bumps and ridges don’t play nice with aerodynamics and the need to enter a planet’s atmosphere. On fact, you should use it on your next build -no, on EVERY build from now on. Assimilate. Assimilate. The post The Borg of Star Trek are never bourgeois appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Kyle Keller (TBB Managing Editor)

Sometimes great minds really do think alike, as evidenced by two rhyming vignettes created for the Summer Joust “Beast Masters” category. Each creation features a brick-built blue spellcaster and their over-sized corvid companion, but despite similar theming, the two models demonstrate very distinct approaches to setting a LEGO scene. First up we have “The Wizard and the Raven” by Ids de Jong. Another admirer described the build as having an “I Spy appeal,” which is a great way to put it, with so many fun elements from throughout the years decorating the scene. The human figure, for which Ids credits the style to Markus Rollbühler, is definitely bringing strong wizard energy with the clever beard technique utilizing Gandalf’s hair piece. I love the personality of of the crow with the nightmare eyes from LEGO Dreamzzz, a good friend who seems eager to deliver scrolls to distant lands. Next is “Rook and...

LEGO builder Kristel Whitaker is an absolute rebel! She’s not going to let something like a grid of studs keep her from crafting a spot-on remake of the LEGO Scala logo. With so many curved tiles, modified plates, and stud offsets, Kristel is able to trace out S-C-A-L-A in only two layers of red. It certainly pulled its weight for the Scala Murder Mystery Mansion at Brickworld Chicago a few weekends ago. The post LEGO lettering: a blessing and a cursive appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Kyle Keller (TBB Managing Editor)

In the world of LEGO Star Wars, it’s not often that we get a reference to the all-too-brief animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars by Genndy Tartakovsky. But builder r_t_zan is not ready to move on from the Cartoon Network piece in this scene from Chapters 14 through 16. Depicting the start of the Battle of Ilum, Jedi Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee are surprised by Separatist droids attempting to destroy caverns on the ice planet of Ilum. Kyber crystals, shown in transparent greens and blues, are the power source for all lightsabers. So it goes without saying that keeping this cavern safe is a top priority for the Jedi. Color plays a big role in this creation, whether it’s using light aqua to add an icy blue tint to the snow, or the mix of old and current dark gray in the caverns below. While the display doesn’t contain much...