Twas the night of Mask Gifting, and all across Mata Nui, not a Matoan was stirring, not even Krakua, for all were anticipating the arrival of the Toa of Holy Nights. Armed with the staffs of Naugt and Nys, this Toa would render judgment on all young Matoans on this Holy Night, and not even an offering of bula berry cookies and warm liquid energy could sway his verdict. Craniac17 pays tribute to this holiest of Toas based on the scant sightings from Matoans who saw him manifest in the ashes of fire and ruin with his sack full of masks. If you celebrate Mask Gifting, may the Toa of Holy Nights spare the staff of Naught in your household this blessed morn. The post Toa of the Holy Nights wishes you a Bionicle Christmas appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

All good things must come to an end. Today brings us to the end of our Advent Calendar adventure. Thanks for coming along with us for 24 days of surprise gifts. We hope you enjoyed the bonus builds and banter. We have an all-star cast of custom minifig creators leading our Advent adventure this year. Fool’s Figures is wizarding his way through Harry Potter and Frozen calendars. ExpansionBricks is launching Star Wars and Friends. And beyondb0nes is digging into Minecraft and City. Now let’s open some doors and see what gifts are in store for today! Fools: Harry’s (Or his dad’s, James) Patronus is our last wizardly gift this holiday season. I think it’s a suitably whimsical build, but looking back over the calendar as a whole it certainly feels lacking this year, especially compared to other themes. Bones: Like yesterday’s Disney gift, trans-light blue is a win. Somehow it looks...

Our good friends at Habit Challenge run events throughout the year where adult and kid builders can create minifig habitats with the community and maybe even win prizes. The Holiday Habitat Challenge brings is one of the biggest draws of the year. Here are a few of our favorite habitat stacks from this year’s participants. Be sure to check out #letsbuildholidayhabitats25  on Instragram to see all of the entries. Happy Holidays, one and all! candy.bricks plays with traditional colors for this sweet gingerbread and candy stack. Candy is a true habitat artist, with clean lines and detailed scenes that effortlessly blend tradition and innovation. Malcolm Brown celebrates the one of the greatest Christmas movie of all with a stack showcasing carnage at Nakatomi Tower. Yippie kay yay, mothers and fathers! femmefromtheblock honors the other best Christmas movie with this dense with detail stack based on The Nightmare Before Christmas. Llana’s brick-built...

The buildable Technic Star Wars figures from a decade ago received generally mixed feedback, but several of the molded and printed parts were a big hit. This topic reappeared with the release of 75434 K-2SO Security Droid this year, with many builders and collectors discussing the possibility of using the molded head from the buildable K2SO instead. Builder nobu_tary takes a similar approach here with an expert build of General Grievous, using the head from the buildable figure in set 75112. This is a sizable build with a ton of great details all over. The most impressive aspect of the build is that it captures Grievous’ especially tricky shape and proportions very well, and when compared to the Technic buildable this version feels so much more like the Separatist leader that we’ve all grown to love. The post General Grievous, you’re taller than I expected appeared first on The Brothers Brick....

TBB alum and RebelLUG member Nannan Zhang can always be counted on for builds that mix innovative techniques with elegant presentation. The AFOL legend’s latest creation depicts a medieval farm where lavender is in bloom. Originally created as part of a collaborative castle build at Brickworld Chicago this past summer, Nannan created a back from to hold the andscape and added a new farmhouse. There’s beauty in how the build breaks from the grid in a mix of angles. The field is skewed using 2×3 wedge plates. Meanwhile, the path uses simple landscaping for an asymmetrical look, which is amplified by the gently curving fences. For the farmhouse, Nannan employs a slew of the newish D-snot paired with rounded tiles for a  distinctive stone finish. Nannan says: “the technique is parts-intensive, time-consuming, and may even look busy, but I’m happy to bring something new to the many ways of building a...

It’s nice to know that the LEGO community are such kind-hearted people. Take our friend Deborah Higdan, for example. This frosty-themed pair of mittens alone would have warranted a feature this time of year but she’ll build a unique pair every day in December. This one happens to be day sixteen. The kind-hearted part is this is for the Build to Give charity; build something with the heart theme, post to social media with the buildtogive hashtag and LEGO will give sets to children in hospitals, care homes and other disadvantaged situations. The holidays can be a rough time of the year for some folks and it’s nice to see Deborah and others become a part of something so special. I couldn’t pick just one favorite so here is a very dimensional pair wrapped up in a bow. And finally here’s another that’s sort of abstract, like a mitten snow angel...

I’ve always loved seeing new Treebeard MOCs, because he’s rarely ever built the same way twice. The variety of scales and building techniques we’ve seen used to create one of my favorite Tolkien characters makes it all the more interesting, and this Treebeard build from Ben Arkley is one of the most impressive yet. The sheer scale of this build is the first thing that sticks out, especially when you notice how tiny Merry and Pippin are in contrast. Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice a seemingly endless amount of tree branches and horns/tails in a variety of colors to really make him feel like a forest come to life. I especially loved finding the little hidden details living all over him – mushrooms, birds, and of course an unwilling Orc. Ben  kindly provide work-in-progress images of his colossal Ent so that we can appreciate the engineering challenge of building a character...

Our favorite holiday tradition is opening all six LEGO Advent Calendars, one day at a time, with you, our readers! Along with spoiler pics of the daily gifts, we include commentary and alternate builds to celebrate the season and creativity. We have an all-star cast of custom minifig creators leading our Advent adventure this year. Fool’s Figures is wizarding his way through Harry Potter and Frozen calendars. ExpansionBricks is launching Star Wars and Friends. And beyondb0nes is digging into Minecraft and City. Now let’s open some doors and see what gifts are in store for today! Fools: Luna Lovegood is here, not much else to say. It’s at this point that I can point out the major flaw in this year’s Harry Potter calendar; we went from 7 unique minifigures in last year’s calendar, to practically four this time. Jake: Yeah, it’s great in a “battle pack” sense, but the variety...

This landscape is an homage to my grandmother, as I’ve always seen her surrounded by nature, living in a house between two mountains with a large garden and forests. As you can imagine, this moc has a special place in my heart. The idea for this moc came, as usual, from wandering on Pinterest to seek inspiration. Pinterest is packed with fantastic arts of all kinds, making it really easy to gather inspiration, even if AI art is spreading there like crazy nowadays. One day, I came across a series of pixelated microscale landscapes such as valleys with villages, hills and fields that caught my attention. At first I thought it was yet another AI image, but I was informed it came from a human  – Franek pixel art. The person behind it even made a game, so beautiful. Every time I hike or just wander in mountains, plains, or forests,...

Scrolling through the creations of Thorben (tee_baum_bricks) is like a glimpse into a nerdy LEGO fan’s fever dreams. It’s a place where Saturday morning cartoons and eldritch horror meet over a slice of pizza. This year, Thorben has created a series of mechs and super soldiers based on family-friendly game and cartoon characters. This SpongeBob mech first grabbed my attention (with those sick clawed arms). In Thorben’s world, the absorbent power of sponges aid pirates in their undersea invasion. Poor SpongeBob, trapped inside this infernal machine. Meanwhile, in the Mushroom Kingdom T.O.A.D.E.T.T.E. in AI-enhanced power armor leads the charge. Thorben credits Brickbot Studio for the power armor frame fundamentals. In Thorben’s Bluey world, canine space marines battle in the name of the God Dog Emperor. Tom Nook is notoriously eager to force loans on people that they have to pay back through cozy servitude. It’s only natural that the mech extension...