As a whole, the LEGO community’s original works of 2023 were absolutely astounding! Over those 52 weeks, we covered so many beautiful works of art, trying to highlight the very best created by builders all over the world. And with our shortlist in hand, we’re ready to identify our favorite of the bunch. The days of 2023 were marked with massive collaborative work, giant themes and creations that brought us together after pandemic isolation over the prior two years. And in that vein, we selected the excellent collaboration between Joshua Morris, Rod Fiford, Gavin Rich, and Handoko Setyawan. The Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2023 is Cerulean Straits. When trying to take account of all the great builds of the past year, it can be difficult comparing the work of one individual against the work of a group. While some collaborators can absolutely bring it with an exceptional contribution...

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 first week of 2024! TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS Happy new year, dear readers! Get caught up last week’s final Brick Report of 2023 then read along here as we fill you in on new set availability, set reviews, and recap some of our favorite featured MOCs and Articles of yesteryear! [NEWS] New LEGO sets for January 2024 now available for purchase — What will you buy first?[REVIEW] LEGO Marvel 76281 X-Men X-Jet; is it too X-Pensive? — Norm enrolls at Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Youth. Will you be joining him?[REVIEW] LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals — The new year brings a new round of Creator creatures! Chuck helps you decide if the adventure is worth taking![FEATURE]...

While he’s certainly no Radagast the Brown, this nature-loving LEGO wizard by greenarj is clearly best friends with all the birds and beasts of the land. I adore all the plant pieces integrated into the enchanter’s cloak and hat, sporting nearly every color of green in the brick palette. His gnarled dark gray staff is an exceptional conglomeration of tubing, bars, clips, and minifig utensils. But let’s not forget all the effort put into this verdant vagabond’s entourage. The owl, bird, squirrel, fox, and bunny are all wonderful pieces on their own. The sheer number of ingenious connections and part uses among these five tiny beasties is astounding, but my favorite has got to be the tuft of fur on the fox’s chest made from Master Wu’s beard. The post Meet the emerald enchanter that’s a defender of all LEGO fauna appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Kyle...

Ah, the Well of Souls. A location so synonymous with Indiana Jones, it’s one of the few that has been represented more than once in an official LEGO set. OK, it’ only been twice so far, but still, they were both neat. Unfortunately, they’ve both been outdone somewhat by Cube Brick‘s brilliant cross-sectional diorama! They’ve raided their collection of snakes to immortalise one of the most iconic scenes in the franchise. The two statues of Anubis are a real highlight of this build. What’s the plural of Anubis? Anubises? Anubae? Whatever it is, the swords for a reed skirt look great. The wheels and tyres on the limbs, the windscreen pieces for shoulders and pecs, and the gold highlights all combine for a very convincing carved stone look. But this build’s real party trick only becomes apparent in the dark. In the film, everyone’s favourite archaeologist uses fire to disperse the...

Bowling is one of the great underappreciated sports – if I can’t drink a coke and eat a basket of cheese sticks between my turns, it’s not a sport I want to play. That’s why I love this tribute to the game by Andrew Tate. The blend of earth tones and bright blues captures a mid-20th Century feel, during what was probably bowling’s heyday. And, speaking of cheese, Andrew has made incredible use of cheese wedges throughout. Obviously, the designs built into the wall and floor are strike-worthy. But stacking the slopes on the shelves for a quick and clever rental shoe display is perfection. But every alley needs an iconic retro logo to go with it. Check out what Andrew came up with to advertise his lanes. I can smell the rental shoes already! The post A different kind of alley in LEGO city. appeared first on The Brothers Brick....

So, how’s everyone feeling about 2024 so far? We’re still writing threes instead of fours by mistake – not helped by all the 2023 recapping we’re doing. But while we’re deciding our Creations of the Year or looking back at our most popular articles, Kristel Whitaker has seen in the new year in a big way! She’s built some big LEGO blocks out of, er, smaller LEGO blocks. We could use some of these in TBB Towers to remind us what year it actually is. Although it won’t help us work out how much longer before we stop saying “Happy New Year” to everyone. New year, same problems! The post New year, new LEGO blocks appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Theo Spencer

It’s always a treat when Vince Toulouse graces us with another LEGO build. He has developed a very unique style, and we’re big fans of his insect-inspired retro-futuristic sci-fi builds! That may be a mouthful, but it gets the point across. What should we call this, Insectpunk? Anyway, we featured something called a Myriapod way back in March 2020, and Vince has revisited the concept with this gorgeous red and gold consist! It’s only fitting that an insect-inspired train would use a bunch of legs from the Insectoids line. There is surely no more stylish way for bugs to get around! The post Luxurious travel for the art-deco arthropod appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Theo Spencer

Some people ring in the new year with a party, some good libations, and a kiss from their significant other or a willing and inebriated stranger. Others uphold a tradition of falling asleep on the goddamned sofa just minutes before the stroke of midnight. However you celebrated the new year, let’s hope it brought a smile to your face, kinda like this big LEGO Joker figure built by Pascal Hetzel. Whether it be hatching some elaborate scheme to turn the citizens of Gotham into maniacal minions or leaving a flaming bag of poo on Batman’s doorstep, The Joker always has something to smile about. That’s because, according to some interpretations, Joker’s smile was permanently etched into his face with toxic chemicals or via a razor blade giving him the ol’ “Glasgow Smile”. Geez, that escalated fast! Let’s hope the smile on your face is not for any of those reasons. Incidentally,...

Duncan Lindbo has really hit the nostalgia button for me on this one. This ocean-bed scout mech is reminiscent of some underwater LEGO themes of days gone by – think Aqua Raiders or Aquazone. I’m pretty sure it was a rule to have “Aqua” in the name of any deep-sea sci-fi (sea-fi?) theme back then. Big fans of that Barbie Girl song in Billund, I guess. I’ll settle for being a big fan of this walker, with its bubbly limbs and viewport borrowed from 21335 Motorized Lighthouse. The post I’m a deep-sea girl, in a deep-sea world appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Theo Spencer

The year 2023 has passed us by, and it was chock-full of exceptional LEGO creations. As is always the case, it’s a mammoth task to pour over 365 days of posts to find the most outstanding one in that span of time. But we narrowed the field down to these five finalists in the running for our 8th annual TBB LEGO Creation of the Year award. We’ve got our top 5 picks listed below (in no particular order), and we’ll be announce the winner of TBB’s LEGO Creation of the Year 2023 later this week. Also, be sure to check out the LEGO Creation of the Year announcements for 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 for all of our past winners. The first LEGO build on our list was a creation popular with the TBB staff as well as all of our readers (#5 in our Top Articles post). Kraken...