While nimble humanoid mecha tend to steal the spotlight, I’ve always had a soft spot for clunky walkers, like this armored beast from Japanese LEGO builder Kattho. Built from a mix of sand green and gunmetal grey, the S05-A Sentinel is practically a one-vehicle army with its heavy complement of arms. The builder makes great use of printed elements, like the forest design from last year’s Off Road Mountain Truck. Ingots, grilles, and turntable tops give the mostly studless build industrial texture. While this mech is a quadruped for mobility, it also sports manipulator arms for precision jobs like defusing mines. The single stud lens also serves to give the mech a face so it’s not just a walking tank. Kattho has shared many other equally impressive mecha of both the four and two-legged variety, that you can enjoy on their feed. The post Lumbering LEGO Sentinel mech is ready for...

Ever since LEGO first announced its multi-year partnership with The Pokémon Company, fans have been wondering how the beloved pocket monsters would stack up as official sets. Today we get a look at the first three sets debuting on February 27th. While Pokémon is very much a kid-friendly brand, it’s also 30-years old with a massive adult fanbase, so this initial wave of sets is all branded for 18+ and priced accordingly. The smallest set, Eevee, contains 587 pieces and focuses on just the fan favorite Pokémon for $69.99. The 2050-piece Pikachu comes with a lightning bolt stand and Poké Ball for a dynamic display at $199.99. Clocking in at 6838 pieces, Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise celebrate the evolved form of the Kanto starters dramatically posed on a round base for a hefty $649.99. During the first week of release, while supplies last, a 312-piece Kanto Region Badge Collection is included...

If you follow TBB regularly, you’ve no doubt encountered many articles spotlighting the Iron Builder competition, like our interview last month with the participants in the most recent battle. You might be wondering, how does one get to challenge Iron Builder? One path is to prove your skills in the Iron Forge, a January tradition now in its 7th year. As with the Iron Builder contests, a seed part is chosen that must be used in multiple builds. Only for the Forge, builders only have one week per part before a new seed element is chosen. There is no prize for winning beyond the chance to compete against an Iron Builder, but several Iron Forge champions went on to become LEGO set designers, including Maxx Davidson and last year’s winner Dominique Boeynaems. Glory aside, it’s an amazing showcase of creativity and inspired parts use. The first round, open to all, just...

At the risk of sounding excessively British: there is no problem that can’t be solved over a good cup of tea. My preference is for English Breakfast (strong, milk, two sugars), but that maxim doesn’t need to be restricted to certain types of tea! For Taj: Brick Minstrel‘s slice of Arabian life, chai is the drink of choice. And now we know what the tea is, we need to know what the tea is. (I gather that’s what the kids are calling gossip these days.) Are these three discussing matters of science, or economics, or politics, or philosophy? Or are they discussing more serious matters, such as how far you could walk barefoot on LEGO bricks?i The post Nothing beats a good cup of tea... Except maybe a great LEGO build appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Theo Spencer

The life of a LEGO Certified Professional is a glamorous one – at least when you’re Jumpei Mitsui and your latest client is gaming auteur Hideo Kojima. But as impressed as we are by the builder’s life-size Ludens model, it’s the builder’s latest non-commercial work that I find most exciting. Last year, we reported that Jumpei was returning to higher education to study artistic expression at Tokyo University of the Arts. It turns out that where Jumpei goes, LEGO follows, as the artist’s first academic project is all about the brick. Here’s how Jumpei explains this interactive project: 1. Participants are asked to assemble small pieces following specific instructions.2. These small pieces are then used to construct a completely different, larger structure.3. The final outcome is kept hidden from the participants during the process. The individual models are made entirely of white bricks and form easily recognizable objects like an airplane or...