Every day the team at The Brothers Brick showcases the best models put together by the global community of creative LEGO builders. However, amongst the thousands of talented builders around the world, there are always a few whose work offers inspiration to the rest of us — displaying mastery of technique and creativity across a variety of building styles. The Brothers Brick is delighted to name Eli Willsea as our LEGO Builder of the Year 2020. TBB readers will likely already be familiar with Eli — his creations have been featured regularly on our pages, predominantly his microscale models. This past year saw him work his teeny-tiny magic on multiple occasions, displaying his mastery in this style of building. He took us from futuristic tropical cities built upon floating rocks… … on a magical hot-air balloon trip across a sunset sea… … into the depths of the desert, on a search for...

If it was tricky enough to put together a shortlist of the best LEGO creations of 2020, but narrowing it down to a single “best model” proved even harder. Every model on the shortlist was excellent, and there was much debate amongst the team. However, after a great deal of discussion, The Brothers Brick is delighted to announce Koen Zwanenburg‘s Tutankhamun Mask as our LEGO Creation of the Year 2020. The mask is a beautiful piece of LEGO sculpture, employing a wide variety of parts to create all the shapes required — Bionicle and Hero Factory pieces used in the face, a bewildering range of bricks in Pearl Gold, a Technic frame within the stand, and stunning use of dinosaur tail parts to create the curved stripes of the headdress. The model shows staggering attention to detail, from the shaping of the face, the capture of the hieroglyph patterns on the...

As a child I literally dreamed of having a remote control LEGO car. I’m not an experienced Technic builder, though, and the LEGO electronics I had in the eighties weren’t up to the job. So actually making this happen took a long time. I had to combine different systems for adding electrical functions to LEGO models, but now I’ve finally done it. My new Dutch National Police Volkswagen Transporter drives and steers using IR remote control. It also has a working siren and lights. Nonetheless, it has opening doors and an interior, so it looks just like any of the other vehicles I’ve been building for years. LEGO released a its own RC car in 2001, but it was big and used a one-piece chassis that you could build your own body on top of. It was hideous. A few years later a few Technic sets had a motor that could...

The second season of The Mandalorian just wrapped up a couple weeks ago on Disney+, and LEGO continues to drip-feed LEGO Star Wars sets based on scenes from the show. Hitting stores on January 1st, 2021, 75299 Trouble on Tatooine provides a fairly low-cost (US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £27.99), spoiler-free way to pick up Mando and the Child in minifig form, with a few key pieces of equipment and scenery from season 2. The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews. The box & packaging There’s nothing especially noteworthy about the box for 75299, which simply shows a non-spoiler action shot on the front of the box and an alternate view on the back. The front box art features Mando in minifig form. The build The parts for the...

There’s something just completely tranquil about the sight of koi carp. Location probably has something to do with it because they regularly are featured in serene garden landscapes. Ian Hou does these beautiful fish justice with this new LEGO creation. I can just hear the bubbling water and imagine these graceful koi feeding on fish pellets. The stylistic waves as a stand offer just enough visual cues to make this a truly lovely project. This is a welcome moment of zen to finish out a rather tumultuous year. If this is totally your jam then you should check out some other fish in our archives. The post Now you’re just being koi! appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Lino