The dark fantasy aesthetic of games like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and the Witcher have cast a huge shadow on the minifig community in recent years, but perhaps the most Souls-like character models I’ve ever seen are at constraction-scale. Noted knight enthusiast and “occasional moccist” Aesstog has been creating Bionicle-based characters  inspired by FromSoftware’s aesthetics. The secret to their success? Textiles. Fur, fabric, and even knitwear serve a dual purpose, shrouding sharp angles with soft shapes, and providing a contrast that lets specific armor pieces pop. The effect is incredible. Just take a look at the builder’s latest creation, this Lycan Knight. The Lycan Knight’s helmet comes from the shoulders of Tahu – Uniter of Fire and the head belongs to Panthar from the Chima buildable figure line. Of course it’s the fur, not an official LEGO element, that brings the character to life. Fur isn’t the only way Aesstog adds...

Isaiah Kepner has always been a strong LEGO arborist, finding new ways to create bark, branch, and foliage from interesting parts. After a busy 2024, the builder has been on a MOC hiatus, but Isaiah found time to get back to his roots with a fabulous bonsai pine. This tree uses almost exclusively green antlers for the leaves, inspired by this tree by Ryan McBride. The greebley tree is full of fun (and often illegal!) connections. It reminds me a of Niina L’s greeble tree. Using an inverted tire for the pot adds a nice contrast to the hard angles in the tree trunk. If you’re interested in experimenting with green antlers in your tree builds, Isaiah shares a tutorial here. I also shared my experiments with the leaves earlier this year.   The post Green antlers for leaves. Grey trunk potted in a tire. It’s LEGO Bonsai. appeared first on...

If you want to be the very best trainer, it’s not enough to collect ’em all anymore. It’s not even enough to evolve your Pocket Monsters. These days, to be the best there ever was, you have to MEGA Evolve those Pokémon. In celebration of last week’s release of Pokémon Legends: Z-A on the Nintendo Switch, nine LEGO building Poké-fans teamed up for the #megabrickevolution collaboration, rendering the new upgrade forms of some of their favorite monsters. First up, from Matt Goldberg, we have the Mega Charizard X, an evolution of Charmander so smoldering with power that he burns blue. The head is wonderfully sculpted and the body has the right mix of cute and fierce. My favorite technique is the use of Ben 10 scales on the underside of the tail, a part I couldn’t recognize without reading Matt’s description of the build on his blog. @margits_mocs dares to build the...

Blacktron might be the most popular Classic Space subtheme in numbers, but all the cool kids stan Ice Planet 2002. It has amazing colors, chainsaws, and courtesy of the CMF space series, penguins in space suits. Bob DeQuatre heats up the Ice Planet Renaissance with his latest retro tribute, the Ice Falcon.  The classic color scheme is there with the addition of medium azure for subtle gradation in the blues and a little extra black for those incredible engines.  Of course a classic printed slope graces the nose. From the front, the ship is sleek and studless. The engines bring in more greebling and cables. To give the ship texture while minimizing studs and seams, Bob incorporates Hero Factory leg elements into the engines. It’s a bit odd seeing a transparent color other than dark orange on an Ice Planet ship, but the glowing engines look great. Best of all, as...

Joel Tyer titles this medieval structure a “humble dwelling,” but when it comes to building techniques, there’s much to crow about. The rounded tiles in the brickwork, both 1x1s stacked within the wall and 2x1s applied to the exterior, add a stylized texture without getting messy. Similarly, the slope of the roof tiles is clean with a hand-crafted touch. I love the landscaping, from the giant moss-covered rock that the house is built around to the earthen path dotted with flowers and a pink frog. And the irregularly-shaped SNOT base of light blue on top of black evokes an island on a lake with minimal water. It’s a miniature masterclass in medieval building from one of the pioneers who shaped the look of LEGO Castle MOCs today. The post A humble medieval home with waterfront views appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Yubaba, the witchy proprietress of the bathhouse in Spirited Away, is my favorite type of villain: powerful, grandiose, nasty without being evil. Yubaba has a big head to match her ego, which makes the character the perfect subject for builder Rokan Cheung, who specializes in creating character busts in LEGO. The builder sets the character on a mosaic mat, complete with the witch’s rolling “Kashira” head pets. You can see the builder’s skillful facial sculpting in play with Yubaba, like the plates with bows under her baggy eyes or the bold lashes created from minifig hands clipped to hotdogs. You can see Rokan’s talent for brick-built likenesses in this kindly old man (clearly no relation to the witch above). The post Looking for a job? LEGO Yubaba is always hiring appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

While in much of the world, October is spent getting in the Halloween spirit, in much of Asia, the month aligns with the Mid-Autumn Festival (it fell on October 6th this year), when mooncakes and tea are enjoyed to honor ancestors. Khang Huynh celebrates the festival with traditional cakes and tea alongside a Vietnamese-style fish lantern. The builder photographs with his usual care, lending a soft glow to the tableau that makes it easy to overlook as LEGO. The sand green and turquoise teapot is a beautiful sub build. Dinosaur tails are used to create the ornate handle and spout, while leaves lend subtle texture to the sides. While the pot and lamp are new builds, the cake comes from a Mid-Autumn festival tribute that Khang created three years ago. That year’s tableau featured an equally elegant teapot design. The post Mooncakes and tea under a fish lantern’s glow – Celebrating...

LEGO Spaceships don’t need to be 100+ studs long to amaze. Oftentimes, it’s the crazy angles, color blocking, and creative use of parts at a smaller starfighter scale that hit like a supernova. Take the KLR-420 starfighter from French builder Fabien (bricknap), a craft so dense with fun detail it’s dizzying. Fabian first started designing the ship a year ago and completed it back in 2024 as an addition to his sprawling sci-fi universe of Fantapolis – which is a bit like New Hashima with a heavy dose of the Friends color palette. There is so much to love about this ship design, from the cockpit module for a pilot to lay down between clear windshields, to the arms from the Mobile Construction Crane used for the wings, to the pair of Nexo Knight hubs/grinders wrapped with a Dots bracelet. The S-foil wing formation and engines are clearly X-Wing inspired, but...

In the pantheon of great dragons, you have Smaug, Falcor, King Gidorah, Toothless, and of course,   Puff the Magic, but all of these legendary beasts pale in comparison to the greatest dragon-man of all: Trogdor, the Burninator. Trogdor was introduced to the world back in 2001 with Strongbad Email #58, one of the greatest memes to arise from the pre-social media internet. Builder Grant Holyoak recreates Trogdor with all of the dragon’s essential features – smoke, fire, wing-a-lings, spinedies, and angry eyebrows. He even includes peasants mid-burninating. My only nitpick is that there aren’t enough consummate Vs! The post LEGO Trogdor comes in the night to burninate your peasants appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

We’re back for a second roundup of Halloween minifigs, ranging from slightly spooky to downright terrifying. Warning – some of these get pretty dark! Our cover image goes to 2brickmonsters who breaks out the trans neon green for an oozy splatterfest. There’s so much creative parts usage on display, but I think the green crowns as popping pustules takes the creepy cake. Excellent use of the Blacktron mutant CMF legs. Zakar.ion gets into the Halloween spirit with The Grove’s Curse. Apparently the pumpkin patch got tired of getting carved up and decided to uproot and do some carving of its own! _motherofcatdragons_  gets medieval with a perfect plague doctor. The Kubaz mask is a little bit creepy no matter what galaxy you’re from. Photographer Studsby takes on a Sleepy Hollow Challenge and plays with shadows to create a Headless Horseman silhouetted against the full moon. Speaking of “playign with shadows,” our friend Jacob...