This new LEGO retro robot from Shannon Sproule fills me with joy as I remember childhood cartoons. He takes us to a time when, thanks to relaxed regulations, every cartoon was a 30 minute advertisement for some toy or another. Us kids in the 70’s and 80’s were brainwashed consumer minions and we liked it, by golly! Some deep diving into Diaclone stuff has Shannon in the mood to build some blocky mega robots in all their primary-colored glory. We’re here for it, Shannon! King Oberon here triggers some happy memories of imported Japanese cartoons like Battle of the Planets or G-Force: Guardians of Space fill the ol’ reptile brain. Who cares if the plots didn’t make any sense. So what if the titles were kinda clunky and ill-translated. So long as parents had jobs and there were birthdays and Christmas, we were getting some cool giant robot toys. The post...

With the exception of Notre Dame, LEGO has shied away from depicting places of worship in official sets, leaving AFOLs to provide religious buildings for minifig believers. Church mocs are quite common, as evidenced by our extensive archive, and lately we’ve been seeing a lot more mosques as well, but synagogues are rarely seen in brick. Builder Matthew Sklar provides a rare look inside a LEGO synagogue from the medieval era, based on the Talmudic Academies of circa 10th Century Babylonia. The Torah ark, framed in blue tiles, is beautifully constructed, but it’s the stained glass windows that shine brightest – fitting as Matthew created this model for the Colossal Castle competition’s stained glass category, as well as Brickscalibur’s Arabian Knights theme. The post Talmudic Academy in LEGO celebrates stained glass and tradition appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) isn’t the usual venue for LEGO to break big news – techies love displaying LEGO, but the bricks themselves aren’t your typical cutting-edge gadgets. That’s about to change with the announcement of the Smart Play system. Smart Bricks communicate with Smart Minifigures and Smart Tags that integrate sensors and spatial awareness into your builds, thanks to microchips smaller than a single stud. You can read about LEGO’s design process for the Smart Brick here. As rumored, the new system debuts with the Star Wars theme with three all-in-one sets coming this March. Each of these will include a Smart Brick, charger, and at least one Smart Minifigure and Yag. The all-in-one sets include: 75421 Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter (69,99 EUR / 69,99 USD / 59,99 GBP), 75423 Luke’s Red Five X-wing (89,99 EUR / 99,99 USD / 79,99 GBP), and 75427 Throne Room Duel & A-wing...

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 recently arrived on the Nintendo Switch, and Sakiya Watanabe (N.A.B.E_mocs) has already marked the occasion with a new build featuring one of our favorite enemies from these games. The Dino Piranha is a piranha plant variation that resembles Petey Piranha (first introduced in Super Mario Sunshine), but the difference is that these guys hatch from eggs and have dinosaur features – because of course they do. The Super Mario Galaxy games were revolutionary for the franchise and took every enemy, world, and gameplay element to the next level, and Sakiya has done the same with this build. The 2×2 round brick tube (part 65473) has proven to be the most essential piece for Super Mario builds, and is predominantly featured on sets like The Mighty Bowser, the Spiny Shell, and the Piranha Plant. Sakiya used the same part here in different colors to capture the...

We often talk on this website about how hard it is to make LEGO creations out of gold. Not literal gold, obviously, although presumably that is also quite difficult. Goldsmiths, get in touch and let us know. No, gold-coloured LEGO bricks have traditionally been limited to just a few select parts, making it quite hard to build anything substantial out of them. Not that you’d know that from looking at Joe Lam‘s hall of armours! These 12 sacred Cloths form a key part of the manga and anime Saint Seiya, and are all based on the zodiac signs. Joe’s build represents each one superbly! Can you spot them all? The post Who says LEGO gold is hard to build from? appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Theo Spencer

Just because Sakiya Watanabe has been nominated for our LEGO Creation of the Year, doesn’t mean he’s going to rest on his laurels! And just to reinforce that dedication to improving his craft, here he presents an updated version of the bald eagle we featured 10 months back. We were full of praise at the time, but Sakiya wasn’t satisfied. The curse of the perfectionist! In case you can’t spot the differences, they include an updated tail, water splash and head. The photo angle also appears to have been carefully selected to better hide some of the underlying structure. There is one thing that hasn’t changed, however. We’re just as awe-struck this time around! The post The second bird catches the fish – after it’s been rebuilt appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Theo Spencer

Team Cherry recently announced upcoming updates to the latest Hollow Knight installment, a sign that the Silksong hype isn’t going away anytime soon. While I’m still working my way through the postgame act, Coosey_Goosey shared three new wonderful character builds from this incredible game – including one character that we haven’t seen built or covered on The Brothers Brick yet! They’ve also made free instructions available for all three builds, which you can download by visiting Coosey_Goosey on Rebrickable. Join us as we take a closer look at each of these buggy builds below. Hornet is understandably one of the most popular character builds we’ve seen from Silksong, but Coosey_Goosey’s take is one of our absolute favorites. The modular technique used to shape her dress is expertly done, especially where all of the portions come together to meet the collar. Hornet’s slender figure is a key visual attribute, and the Darksaber...

Paul Hetherington seems on top of the world right now, so I reached out to see if he’d be game for an interview. He said, ”Hey, Lino, that would be amazing! It would be an honor to be interviewed by my favorite interviewer. Now that Barbara Walters is gone, we need more decisive journalism to clog up the internet.” With that said, let’s soften the lights and get our decisive journalism on. Sit back, relax- and you might want to mix yourself a good, strong Tiki drink for this one. TBB: (Lino) Thanks for being with us, Paul. Look how handsome you are! Your smile can light up an adult book store. We last interviewed you in 2017 when Kanye and Diddy were topping the charts. Since then, I’ve lost my hair and gained 15 lbs. and, well, Kanye and Diddy are facing their own challenges. How are you holding up?...

By now, you will have seen our shortlist for our annual Creation of the Year award. What?! You haven’t? Well head on over here to see it! It’s one thing to create one, year-defining build. It’s another thing entirely to consistently hit such heady heights in multiple builds over the course of a year. That’s what our Builder of the Year award celebrates! This might be someone whose builds were just too good not to feature over and over again (think last year’s winner, Maxx Davidson). They might have achieved success in other spheres, such as winning contests (Jonas Kramm won his Iron Builder round in 2017) or gaining LEGO Ideas sets (Sandro Quattrini, 2021). Or perhaps they showed growth, taking their builds to new heights like Dicken Liu did in 2023. What will set our 2025 winner apart? Take a look at our shortlist and cast your vote in the...

Ids de Jong had an incredible sci-fi heavy 2025 with daily rovers in February and a showstopping New Hashima topper, but with Brickscalibur calling, the builder rings out the year medieval style. The Eastern Gate is a masterful composition, melding architecture and landscaping in a compact footprint. A hexagonal tower makes good use of 1×2 round plates to break from the grid, while snot bricks and tiles add recessed color striping around the gate. As strong as the brickwork is, my favorite elements are the pebbly ground. From just this small slice of a wall, it’s easy to imagine the bustling Middle Eastern town on the other side, thanks to the abundant figures and trees jutting from the frame. The post Camels and cobblestones at the Eastern Gate appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)