You’ve probably seen dozens of emails and dozens of pop-ups about updated privacy policies from just about every website you’ve ever visited over the past few weeks, and Brothers-Brick.com is no different. Ever since our founding in 2005, The Brothers Brick has been committed to our readers’ online privacy and security. Like nearly all websites that share content for free, Brothers-Brick.com relies on advertising to cover the costs of server infrastructure, products for review, event travel, and so on. As a result, we have always relied on a variety of advertising partners and technologies to operate the website. TBB’s commitment to your privacy and security remains unchanged. Similarly, how The Brothers Brick uses your personally identifiable information is not changing as a result of the new Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is coming into effect on May 25th, 2018. However, the GDPR requires that all websites who have visitors from...

The new City train sets have been revealed last week partially confirming the long-rumored updates of the Power Functions system. With only the pictures of the front of the boxes it was pretty hard to say whether the new system will support Bluetooth connection or not, but now, as pictures of the rear side have appeared online, the answer is “yes”; the new trains can be both controlled with a remote controller (included in each set) or with a smart phone. The new trains will bring two major updates. First, no dedicated receiving element is required from now on. The new power brick, despite being roughly the same size as the old versions (84599 and 87513c01), is designed with Bluetooth receiver integrated into it. Secondly, both trains can be controlled via a smart phone application called LEGO Powered Up, first announced with the new App-Controlled Batmobile. Judging by the picture of its...

Today at the Licensing Expo 2018 in Las Vegas, Activision Blizzard has announced they’ve reached a licensing agreement with LEGO for the blockbuster game Overwatch, according to Business Wire. Overwatch is a first-person shooter with a loose sci-fi setting, breaking new territory for LEGO in their licensing agreements, as they’ve traditionally steered clear of such properties. The announcement comes amidst a slew of other new license partners for Activision Blizzard, including UNIQLO, Nerf, and more. There’s no word yet on specifically what sorts of sets we’ll see from LEGO, but with LEGO’s theme-crossing video game Dimensions finished, it’s certain this won’t simply be a small tie-in expansion pack. We hope they’ll be as cool as this yellow D.Va mech by TBB’s own Nick Jensen. And if you can’t wait to buy some official Overwatch sets, Nick has provided instructions for this mech in the link above. The post LEGO Overwatch sets coming, Activision Blizzard...

Video games are a great source of inspiration when it comes to building LEGO spaceships, especially the Halo franchise, with a wide variety of orbital, deep space, atmosphere, and ground vehicles from many space-faring species. Marius Herrmann, who has built models from Titanfall 2 and Horizon: Zero Dawn has built a stunning version of the AV-22 Sparrowhawk from Halo Wars. While this might look like a digital render to some, the source for many of the unusual olive green elements is much more analog. The builder used a very careful application of spray paint to produce the needed parts for this wonderfully detailed craft, and the results speak for themselves, if you ask me. On the more traditional side of things, I especially like the propellers, made from a lattice radar dish plus mini-fig hands and hooks. Here is even an added bonus, a depiction of the craft in action. The...

The excellent photography and advanced building techniques may be what drew my attention to this creation by Patrick B., but they are not the most interesting part to me. What is so unique about this creation is the accompanying description, crediting a handful of builders who inspired Patrick’s Sandyman’s Mill, either by building their own versions prior or as Patrick’s sources for some techniques used. It is normal for builders to both reuse previously discovered techniques and credit their sources, but I rarely see it like this particular example. It almost reads like a scientific publication! When I started my Shire project one year ago I wasn´t sure if I should make a Sandyman´s Mill creation, because there are some fantastic versions from @TheBrickAvenger and from @Roanoke Handybuck and I really enjoyed their MOCs. Nevertheless my Hobbiton project would never be complete without a Sandymans Mill creation, for that reason I...