Perennial LEGO castle constructor Louis of Nutwood has debuted a glorious watchtower complete with palisade wall. I’m amazed at all the different brick-built textures he’s managed to work into this model. The cobbled stonework utilizes half-plate gaps to great success. The smooth wood of the watchtower’s roof stands in contrast, relying heavily on tile parts to emulate wooden beams. And the wonderful implementation of curved slopes in that tattered red flag evokes a weatherworn age that can be difficult in plastic bricks. But the real highlight for me (pun intended) is the choice of lime for the surrounding grass. This pop of color contrasts the grays and browns of the rest of the build well, further emphasizing all the brilliant textures in the construction. The post A lookout tower with a proper palisade appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Kyle Keller

For me, as long-time fan of the Transformers and having built LEGO Transformers myself, LEGO releasing LEGO Transformers 10302 Optimus Prime was a pleasant surprise. It looks great as a robot, decent as a truck and the transformation sequence is fantastic. Its look is also largely faithful to the original Optimus Prime toy from the eighties. In my book, the one thing that could make it even better was for Optimus to have his trailer or Combat Deck. So, I built one myself. The outside has a distinctive pattern of blue and white stripes, as well as a prominent Autobot logo. I did not want to use stickers, so I brick-built them into the sides. The original toy trailer was quite large in comparison to the tractor. This is great, because it gave me enough space for all of this. Optimus’ blaster, when stored on the rear of the tractor, has...

I’ve lost count of how many LEGO versions of Porco Rosso’s iconic seaplane we’ve featured here on TBB, going way back to Uspez Morbo’s Savoia S.21 I wrote about in 2008. And yet I enjoy every version we’ve highlighted, not least this fantastic microscale version by Marcin Otreba, complete with stand and tiny Adriatic seascape. A miniature Porco pilot may try to steal the show here, but the details I love most are the little contrails emerging from the engine exhaust and the rounded cowling on the seaplane’s bow. The post Porco Rosso takes the lead in his Savoia S.21 seaplane appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)

At first glance, this North Pole build by ForlonEmpire is as heartwarming as it is well constructed. A young penguin interrupts Santa’s fishing expedition to offer him a present. Santa himself is teeming with great parts usage, from the big-fig arms getting an upgrade as Santa’s upper arms, to the pair of bucket handles doing double-duty as his belt buckle. And the semi-circle tiles as bows are inspired. But the more you think about it, the more sinister this scene becomes. Why is there a sled full of presents in this remote location? The answer is obvious. Santa has laid-off his elf work force because penguin labor is so much cheaper. This penguin isn’t giving Santa a gift. He’s made the gift in exchange for a fish. Santa’s cornered the market on herring and if the penguins don’t work, they starve! Merry Christmas! The post Something’s fishy about this holiday scene…...

Nothing beats a good sit in your favorite chair after a long shift at work. And in this yuletide LEGO build by Koen Zwanenburg, we see the man of the hour, Saint Nicholas himself, taking a break after his most logistically-challenging night of the year. And boy, does he deliver (Koen, that is) when it comes to the use of curved slopes. They’re adeptly used to shape Santa’s beard, boots, and belly, not to mention the dark red seat he sits in. The exposed studs to represent the white fur on the outfit is truly a gift, as is the gold filigree along the edges of the armchair. But my favorite bit has got to be the cute little bows on the packages. I’ve struggled this season to create ribbon in this blocky medium for my own builds, yet Koen achieves it so easily here with wedge plates, cheese slopes, and...

The latest LEGO creation by builder Evancelt‘s depicts a wintry scene with an impressive castle towering above the nearby village. The castle, with its yellow colour scheme, is reminiscent of the classic LEGO Yellow Castle, but what impresses me with this castle is that the walls are made from a digger bucket! In micro builds like this, I’m always impressed when parts you wouldn’t expect should work really do work so well! But it’s not just a great castle on display here. Surrounding the castle is a beautiful wintry scene complete with snow-covered forests, using various horn pieces, and a small village which utilises the printed plate from the latest CMF series, but my favourite piece of detail in this scene? The snowy mounds made from white croissant pieces! Now, all this talk of winter leaves me needing to find an open fire to warm up… The post Here’s the scoop...

Sometimes you stumble across a LEGO fan creation that you’d just love to see in the brick. This creation by Barthezz Brick is a good example of that. Each and every building in this creation could be featured on TBB. We generally wait until a builder has finished their work in progress before highlighting the finished build, but at some point I couldn’t control myself and wrote an article about a couple of detail shots that Barthezz posted. But finally, it’s done! It took Barthezz about 3000 hours over the last 3 years. You are looking at a creation containing roughly 250,000 bricks. Barthezz drew inspiration from a trip to Venice and was dared by their partner to actually build the city with everyone’s favourite construction toy. One thing that is lacking from this Venice are the tourists and their trolley cases. Barthezz imagined what the city would have looked like...

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the third full week of December 2022. TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS Did you catch last week’s Brick Report? This week we’ve got a bevy of reviews including Collectible Minifigures, the latest Creator Expert Modular, and a trio of Star Wars sets! Plus, another week of 5 different advent calendars to build and comment on! [REVIEW] LEGO Icons 10312 Modular Buildings Collection – Jazz Club : A great night out on the town modular — Chris D reviews the 2023 modular building and decides whether it’s music to his ears or hits a sour note.[REVIEW] LEGO Collectible Minifigures 71037 Series 24 – Nostalgia included — Chris M reviews the latest in LEGO’s long-lived and -loved blind bag series[REVIEW] LEGO 75344...

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Yes, it’s the holiday season, but it’s also the return of our annual LEGO advent calendar extravaganza. We’ll be opening our calendar windows  every day in the run-up to Christmas. Our team will also share their thoughts, comments, observations and jokes about each day’s builds! We have five advent calendars this year, across the City, Friends, Star Wars, Marvel (specifically Guardians of the Galaxy) and Harry Potter themes. It’s Christmas Eve, which means we’ve reached the last of our daily builds! Read on to see what our team makes of this last hurrah, and the calendars as a whole… The Friends and City calendars have sometimes been guilty of copying each other’s homework this year, but since it’s Christmas, the fact we get a pair of Santa Clauses today should come as no surprise. It’s a full house of figs, with minifigures appearing...

While I’m certainly not familiar with Louis Vuitton’s line of products, I adore the life-size recreation of household objects in LEGO. And qian yj once again hits it out of the park with this highly-detailed makeup case. Each piece in this kit is expertly crafted to match the original, be it an eyeliner pencil or palette of blush. And the case itself is a work of art, checkered in white and light gray bricks with medium nougat along the edges. The use of the 1×2 jumper plate to add some texture to the leather trim is a pro move. And the detailing on the clasps, both for the main case and the interior tan box, is unbelievably impressive! If I squint, it’s hard to tell that this isn’t the real thing. And if all of the above wasn’t impressive enough, the fully-detailed interior of the case is designed to hold all...