Welcome back to the Hidden Side! For our second review of the current wave of sets, we are looking at the largest of the five, 70437 Hidden Side: Mystery Castle! This set contains 1035 pieces and retails for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99. It is available now in Europe, and will be released later this summer in the US and Canada, likely on Aug. 1. The box and contents The box features the Hidden Side “half and half” style artwork that seems to have confused a lot of LEGO fans. As I mentioned in my review of J.B.’s Submarine, LEGO seems to have listened to the fan feedback and made the box art a bit more understandable. An illustration of the full set is visible and we can see one of our main character, Parker, viewing the castle through her ghost-viewing phone. It contains seven numbered bags, one...

Due to the tragic murders of George Floyd, Manuel Ellis, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and far too many other African-Americans, racial injustices that Black people experience every day have come to the forefront of white consciousness once again. We’ve been examining how this very real-world issue affects the hobby we participate in, not just for a moment in time but on an ongoing basis. Earlier this week, we sat down with Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, whose LEGO work we’ve featured several times, including his stunning Flower Girl sculpture and wonderful Beasts from Bricks book. Our conversation with Ekow covered his experience growing up playing with LEGO, interactions with the LEGO hobbyist community, the Afrocentric and Afrofuturist themes of his artwork, and how LEGO communities such as The Brothers Brick can operate more inclusively. We ask you to watch the full video before reacting with comments. While the reaction from some quarters...

“Welcome to Jurassic Park”. I’ve loved Jurassic Park since devouring Michael Crichton’s original novel in 8 hours of straight reading, months before the movie adaptation had even been announced. Then there were the years of waiting, wondering if Spielberg could possibly deliver on Crichton’s vision, before we finally experienced the jaw-dropping impact of seeing “real” dinosaurs on the big screen. In a world where CGI effects are the norm, cinema audiences have become rather blasé about regularly seeing the impossible made real — back in 1993, this was something special. The effect this movie had on me was considerable, and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of recreating elements of the film in bricks. I figured I’d never be able to build a LEGO version of the whole park to the scale I wanted if I used minifigures, so instead I decided to give it a go in microscale… I was keen...

Don’t ask how I know this but when dealing with a gelada it is best to not make eye contact, don’t bare your teeth and for the love of God, don’t ever look at his butt. Nevermind the series of unfortunate events that may or may not have occurred to make me privy to this information, just heed my warning and don’t ask questions. With that said, I’d like you to take an indirect glance at this awesome LEGO gelada built by Andrew Steele. With some clever parts usage, this model possesses the correct stance and facial gestures of a real gelada about to attack. (Not that I would know.) This build is so clever you may want to smile, but I would advise against it. In fact, you ought to just move on and check out the other toothy beasts Andrew has built. Safer still, you might like to peruse...

One of the beloved classics from LEGO is the Pirates theme. It first saw its debut in 1989 and made waves through the mid-90s capturing the imagination of young ones all over the planet. These days, fans who grew up during the early days of LEGO’s early success pine for a return of the three golden classic themes: Space, Castle, and Pirates. LEGO is well aware of this and instead of an outright re-issue, the inspiration never died, but only revived and modernised to steal the hearts and minds of the newer generation today. One such example is the latest Ideas set, 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay. Now, I believe there’s a good chance the LEGO Creator Pirate Ship will be remembered decades later repeating the very same cycle of nostalgia, albeit in its own special and unique way. The LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31109 Pirate Ship has 1,264 pieces and comes...

Here’s a teeny tiny LEGO rendition of Mustafar, lava-drenched mining planet, and the venue for The Big Jedi/Sith Showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and his errant apprentice Anakin Skywalker. This microscale Star Wars build by Tino Poutiainen is a cracker, packed full of clever parts usage and smart styling. Hammers and spanners make up many of the distinctive details of the mining facility, and a line of rollerskates adds some interesting textures to the structure’s upper surface. Best of all, a miniscule rendition of an AT-AT Imperial Walker which is the smallest-whilst-still-recognisable design I’ve yet seen. Lovely stuff. The post Where Anakin lost a game of The Floor Is Lava appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Rod

At first glance, you’d think this was just a cool LEGO creation of a dinosaur playing a guitar. And you’d be right. But as Pistash could tell you, this is also a bit of retro history in the form of a late 80’s icon. Because this is no mere musical reptile. This is Denver, the Last Dinosaur. He starred in his own animated TV series back in 1989. Sadly, I never saw the show, but I can comment on this LEGO version. I have to admire the use of curved mudguards in the mouth, in a light-aqua color only seen in a LEGO Friends set from 2013. That same light-aqua fills in the face and the chest, contrasting nicely with the green of the main body. The organic curves of the arms are from arched and curved brick. I may not know who Denver is, but he still looks like he’d...

We’ve featured several of Joss Woodyard (Jayfa)‘s amazing LEGO characters and creatures in the past, but this one is probably my favorite. Cyber-Punk is a super-expressive build that feels like it stepped right out of a comic book. A Toa Okoto head is enhanced with magenta dragon horns and quarter circle tiles for a stylish hairdo. The highly poseable legs are Bionicle beams surrounded by rubber LEGO tires. And there’s a nice bit of detailing on the shoes with an ice skate for laces. This was built for the preliminary round of Bio-Cup 2020. I can’t wait to see what else comes out of that competition! The post Electric Boogaloo is Cyberpunk, right? appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Chris Doyle

For my taste, we don’t see nearly enough horrific LEGO monsters here on the Brothers Brick. That’s why I’m so happy to write about the Luminescent Levviathan by Marko Petrušić. This creepy creature is based around a lot of hard-to-find Bionicle sets from 2007. In particular, it uses unique glow-in-the-dark pieces from Nocturn, Takadox, and Gadunka. These key elements are mixed with armor plating from the same sets to extend the shapes even further. The best bit, though, is that tail. The fins are made from Batmobile wings and an inverted use of glowing spines from the Nocturn set. From the side, you can better see the build isn’t all black and blue. There’s a bit of brown on the underbelly, giving this an even more natural look. If, you know, nature was really pissed at us. Looking outside, maybe it is. At least this thing appears to be aquatic. If...

There are a couple of things that I envy about this build by Krzysztof J. First and foremost is that bathtub. Owning a giant claw-footed tub like that is long term goal for me. But, just behind that material greed, is envy of the skill involved in rendering this scene. Creating human-proportioned figures out of LEGO is no easy feat, and there are some great techniques in play here. In particular, I like the Aztec shield earrings and the wedges for hands. The way the balance of the figure is hidden beneath the surface of the 1×2 brick “water” disguises necessary seams and provides just a touch of privacy to an intimate moment. But back to that tub. I love the gently sloping angles on the sizes, the sturdy construction of the legs, and the attention to detail in the overflow drain and hand-held faucet. Little touches like the alternation between...