Micro Barad-Dûr menaces a tiny middle earth!

If the price tag on the newly announced Lord of the Rings Barad-Dûr LEGO set is making your wallet feel like Viggo Mortensen’s toe, you should check out this micro-scale tower by Joe! From this mini monument to malevolent majesty, you can keep an eye on the hobbits with the DREAMZzz eye tile. With just a few pieces, Joe has captured the evil essence of the dark tower. The two outer towers are captured by a hilt and a plate with a bar, while all the spiky decorative business is made out of a few grills and a gear. I do wonder if Sauron will need a microscope to find the one ring at this scale!

Proud, invincible Hanshin Tiger mech! Go, go, go!

Baseball season is in full swing in Japan and famously passionate fans of the Hanshin Tigers are making noise for their favorite team. Amongst those fans is Sasaki Nobuyuki (Sasapon), two time competitor on early LEGO competition show King of LEGO on TV Tokyo, and member of the OG brickshelf community. Sasapon built this prize-winning mech last year for a “SigFig” mech contest. What is a SigFig? Essentially it’s a minifig avatar that represents you. Sasapon’s SigFig wears his Hanshin Tigers fandom proudly resulting in this delightful tiger-themed mech.

Hanshin Tiger Mech

Sasapon leaned into yellow elements with black stripes and the associated construction aesthetic, adding a detachable bulldozer scoop and  claw to the mech’s back. The highly-poseable mech is packed with personality and clever parts usage.

Hanshin Tiger Mech

レッツゴー　レッツゴー ささぽん!

Winning Star Wars: Dark Forces with the Moldy Crow

In a LEGO Star Wars world of Millennium Falcons, it’s nice when someone shows some love for the lesser-known bird-named ship. I say ship and not ships because I simply couldn’t think of any others. Let us know in the comments if there are any. Anyway, Jan Woźnica has built the Moldy Crow from the Star Wars: Dark Forces game and we’re all as happy as a lark in terms of scale and level of detail implemented in this new creation. Jan tells us this craft is a modified HWK-290 courier ship flown by Jan Ors and Kyle Katarn. Also, if you happen to like your gaming more analog than digital, you can also fly the Moldy Crow in the X-Wing Miniatures tabletop game. Check out why we think Jan Woźnica should be our squad leader and also get your fix for all things Star Wars.

Moldy Crow

LEGO Ninjago 71822 Source Dragon of Motion – Will you be moved to purchase? [REVIEW]

A LEGO Ninjago wave would only be complete with at least one dragon, and while 71814 Tournament Temple City does come with a small dragon, there is a much more impressive dragon coming out this summer, and it is awe-inspiring! LEGO Ninjago 71822 Source Dragon of Motion is possibly the sturdiest dragon ever from the theme, and considering how long the theme has been around, that is saying something. Measuring 25 inches in length, with a 29-inch wingspan, this might even be the largest single-headed Ninjago dragon ever. Setting all kinds of records, LEGO Ninjago 71822 Source Dragon of Motion comes with 1,716 pieces and will be available starting on June 1st, for US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £129.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read on for our full review

LEGO Ninjago 71814 Tournament Temple City – Do you have what it takes to compete? [Review]

Summer is just around the corner, and that means it’s time for another wave of Ninjago sets from the current Dragons Rising season. Recent waves have really been stepping up both the aesthetic and the sturdiness of sets and this wave is no exception… in fact, I can say with full confidence that these sets are some of the sturdiest mechs, dragons, and dojos I have ever seen from Ninjago, and that is saying a lot considering the theme has been around for over a decade. The first and largest set of the wave is LEGO Ninjago 71814 Tournament Temple City, which is a multi-floored temple on top of a dragon cave, complete with a blacksmith forge, a dragon, and 13 minifigures. The set includes 3,489 pieces and will be available on June 1st for US $249.99 | CAN $329.99 | UK £219.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read on for our full review

Building with character: a conversation with NPU wizard Djokson [Interview]

LEGO elements are a fascinating creative medium where the palette of possibility is constantly evolving, but the pieces of yesteryear never go away. Duplo bricks from 45 years ago can still connect with forgotten Znaps or the latest Dreamzzz. Serbian builder Djokson is an undisputed master of bridging obscure LEGO B-Sides with new shapes and colors. Over 10 years, he has created and shared nearly 400 LEGO models, each remarkable in form, personality, and originality. Djokson has been on a hot streak this year with multiple new models a week that showcases his growth as an artist. This seems like the perfect time to sit down with Djokson and learn a bit more about the mind behind this incredible run of LEGO marvels.

Mount

Read on for the rest of our interview with Djokson and a retrospective of his amazing builds! !

LEGO Jurassic World 76965 Dinosaur Missions: Stegosaurus Discovery – a LEGO Stego at last [Review]

As far as dinosaurs go, it’s probably fair to say that Tyrannosaurus Rex is the most well-known. But after that, I would wager that the Stegosaurus has a good claim to be the second most recognisable dino out there. And although LEGO’s Jurassic World theme has been around for almost a decade, the last time we saw a moulded, minifigure-scale Stegosaurus was in a brace of Adventurers sets at the start of the millennium. That changes this June 1st (August 1st in the USA and Canada), when 76965 Dinosaur Missions: Stegosaurus Discovery will start retailing for US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £59.99. That price gets you 420 pieces, but is it worth more than the sum of its parts? Read on to find out!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Check out our full review below!

Who, who, who lights up the night?

While I enjoy nighttime, it’s nice to have James Zhan’s LEGO owl nightlight for when things go bump in the night. We’ve already ascertained that the hoot noises are coming from a great horned owl who visits our yard from time to time, which makes this build extra special for me. The howling, chittering, yelping, and whooshing noises are still a mystery; could be coyotes, raccoons, or homicidal maniacs. While I try to decipher who or what is making a rustling sound in the eves, go ahead and investigate our James Zhan archives.

owl night light

LEGO Jurassic World 76966 Dinosaur Missions: Allosaurus Transport Truck – Allo-Allo, what’s all this then? [Review]

The next installment in the Jurassic World franchise, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, will release in a little under a week. To partner the release of the show, LEGO has dedicated a handful of sets to the animated show, which can only mean one thing: new dinosaurs! The flagship set of this mini-wave is 76966 Dinosaur Missions Allosaurus Transport Truck, whose 588 pieces include – you guessed it – an all-new Allosaurus. Retailing for US $89.99 | CAN $119.99 | UK £79.99 and releasing on August 1st in North America (or June 1st in Europe, Australia and other global territories), should you summon up the courage to face this fearsome predator? Read our review to find out!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read up on the Allosaurus and its brick-built lunch(?) below

LEGO Jurassic World 76962 Baby Bumpy: Ankylosaur – Dinos-awww! [Review]

Just as Jurassic World followed up Jurassic Park, later this month, the second instalment of the Jurassic World animated series Camp Cretaceous will come to the small screen. Dubbed Chaos Theory, a handful of LEGO sets will also release later this summer to partner it. The first of these is not your traditional system set, instead being a 358-piece model of Baby Bumpy – the dinosaur mascot of the show. Retailing for US $24.99 | CAN $29.99 | UK £19.99 (pre-orders are open now), 76962 Baby Bumpy: Ankylosaur will ship from August 1st in the USA and Canada, or June 1st for other territories including the UK, Australia and Europe. Keep reading to find out what we make of this set!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Check out our review of Baby Bumpy below!

These iconic LEGO shoes “just do it” for me

It’s like the old saying goes: “If the shoe fits, build it out of LEGO.” At least, we’re pretty sure that’s the saying. Either way, The Brothers Brick regular Takamichi Irie shows us what the Nike Air Penny 2 would look like in brick form. This isn’t his first foray into footwear, and it shows.

Penny 2

A lot of care went into making the shoe look like, well, a shoe—from the countless curved bricks for shaping to the dinosaur tails that form the tied laces. My favorite detail, however, might be the simplest: the iconic Nike swoosh. When it comes to the award for best use of LEGO bricks to create a famous logo, I’d say it’s a shoe-in.

Penny 2

LEGO Ideas 21349 Tuxedo Cat [Review]

Have you ever wanted to own a cat, but didn’t want to clean the litter box or pay for vet visits? The latest set from the LEGO Ideas crowdsourcing platform has got you covered, as 21349 Tuxedo Cat is the perfect feline friend who will always stay where you put it and rarely scratch up your couch. The project was first submitted to Ideas by fan Damian Andres (AKA The Yellow Brick) way back at the end of 2020 as a sculpture of his cat, a Siamese-Birman mix named Miro. The official set shifts the color scheme to a Tuxedo and makes a fair number of changes to the construction, but keeps the overall scale and pose the same as Damian’s submission. The Ideas model boasts 1,710 pieces, and includes pieces to swap out for yellow or blue eyes, along with an alternate lower lip to give the cat a different expression. It will be available starting June 1 for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Continue reading →