Category Archives: Models

This is what we’re all about. We scour the web for the best custom LEGO models to share with you. From castles and spaceships to planes, trains, and automobiles, you’ll find the best LEGO creations from builders all over the world right here on The Brothers Brick.

Just a simple construction site

At the start of a new year I am always looking forward to new Lego sets. They usually include new parts that I can use in my own models. What is possible now is amazing, especially compared to a few years ago, thanks to various brackets, curved elements and new colors. However, there is a drawback. I find that my models get more and more complicated. And as a result, building them becomes more time-consuming and less relaxing than it used to be.

In March, I am due to display some of my models at a show for cranes, heavy haulage and earthmoving equipment. Rather than another crane or mega windmill transporter, I decided to build a few small items typical for a construction site. I built the portable toilet and trailer last year, together with the white Iveco. The mini digger, matching trailer and blue pickup truck are new. Especially the truck isn’t all that complicated. I used old-school studs-up building and a few half-stud offsets. Sometimes building something small and a bit simpler can be a lot more fun.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

The LEGO bricks of 1995 are not to be underestimated

What happens when you’re restricted to the bricks of a certain LEGO era? Builder Ids de Jong thrives with such limitations, bringing us a castle that looks at home in modern-day Castle themes. Without access to modern plant parts, we still have an excellent-looking birch. Lacking today’s complement of bricks made for SNOT construction (Studs Not On Top), Ids throws together some exquisite cross-windows with the help of minifigure legs. And despite no masonry profile bricks from back in the 90’s, the old school approach of layering standard 1×2 plates to recreate the masonry texture works just fine instead. This makes me wonder what other themes could be revisited with only 1995 parts.

The Classic Knight's Castle

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Bile and tears overflow, drowning everything in sorrow

Man, I really brought the room down with that title! But sometimes good art has to make you feel a bit down in the dumps. Take this new LEGO creation by Toni A, for example. It’s a tentacled creature called St. Abholos. It’s all part of a larger campaign to totally squig you the heck out, and I think it’s working. It’s more of a Cosmic Horror dread, which is much deeper than the sorrow you feel when you lose a comb. While you ponder your own insignificance in this universe, why not take a gander at some other like-minded Lovecraftian Horrors all hellbent on squelching your good time.

St. Abholos

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

The golden age of air travel rendered in silver

Nowadays, flying economy class isn’t much fun. In the early seventies though, during the golden age of air travel, things were decidedly more luxurious. Case in point, the American Airlines DC-10 “Luxury Liner” built by BigPlanes.

American Airlines DC-10 Luxury Liner by BigPlanes.

His model, built using roughly 20,000 Lego parts, represents one of the first of the type to enter service, in 1971. Back then, American Airlines aircraft were mostly silver and so is the model, which is pretty amazing given the limited number of LEGO parts in that color. It also has a motorized retractable undercarriage and a full interior in funky seventies colors. It includes an in-flight lounge for the coach class passengers! Such on-board luxury did not last long, though. By the end of the decade airliners started cramming as many seats into their planes as possible and the golden era of air travel was over.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Meet the emerald enchanter that’s a defender of all LEGO fauna

While he’s certainly no Radagast the Brown, this nature-loving LEGO wizard by greenarj is clearly best friends with all the birds and beasts of the land. I adore all the plant pieces integrated into the enchanter’s cloak and hat, sporting nearly every color of green in the brick palette. His gnarled dark gray staff is an exceptional conglomeration of tubing, bars, clips, and minifig utensils. But let’s not forget all the effort put into this verdant vagabond’s entourage. The owl, bird, squirrel, fox, and bunny are all wonderful pieces on their own. The sheer number of ingenious connections and part uses among these five tiny beasties is astounding, but my favorite has got to be the tuft of fur on the fox’s chest made from Master Wu’s beard.

Green wizard

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

“Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?”

Ah, the Well of Souls. A location so synonymous with Indiana Jones, it’s one of the few that has been represented more than once in an official LEGO set. OK, it’ only been twice so far, but still, they were both neat. Unfortunately, they’ve both been outdone somewhat by Cube Brick‘s brilliant cross-sectional diorama! They’ve raided their collection of snakes to immortalise one of the most iconic scenes in the franchise.

Indiana Jones and the Well of Souls

There is more to see from this diorama – click here to take a closer look!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

A different kind of alley in LEGO city.

Bowling is one of the great underappreciated sports – if I can’t drink a coke and eat a basket of cheese sticks between my turns, it’s not a sport I want to play. That’s why I love this tribute to the game by Andrew Tate. The blend of earth tones and bright blues captures a mid-20th Century feel, during what was probably bowling’s heyday. And, speaking of cheese, Andrew has made incredible use of cheese wedges throughout. Obviously, the designs built into the wall and floor are strike-worthy. But stacking the slopes on the shelves for a quick and clever rental shoe display is perfection.

Atom Bowl

But every alley needs an iconic retro logo to go with it. Check out what Andrew came up with to advertise his lanes. I can smell the rental shoes already!

Atom Bowl

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

New year, new LEGO blocks

So, how’s everyone feeling about 2024 so far? We’re still writing threes instead of fours by mistake – not helped by all the 2023 recapping we’re doing. But while we’re deciding our Creations of the Year or looking back at our most popular articles, Kristel Whitaker has seen in the new year in a big way! She’s built some big LEGO blocks out of, er, smaller LEGO blocks. We could use some of these in TBB Towers to remind us what year it actually is. Although it won’t help us work out how much longer before we stop saying “Happy New Year” to everyone. New year, same problems!

Happy New Year!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Luxurious travel for the art-deco arthropod

It’s always a treat when Vince Toulouse graces us with another LEGO build. He has developed a very unique style, and we’re big fans of his insect-inspired retro-futuristic sci-fi builds! That may be a mouthful, but it gets the point across. What should we call this, Insectpunk? Anyway, we featured something called a Myriapod way back in March 2020, and Vince has revisited the concept with this gorgeous red and gold consist! It’s only fitting that an insect-inspired train would use a bunch of legs from the Insectoids line. There is surely no more stylish way for bugs to get around!

Myriapodotrain

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Ring in the new year with a funny Joke(r)

Some people ring in the new year with a party, some good libations, and a kiss from their significant other or a willing and inebriated stranger. Others uphold a tradition of falling asleep on the goddamned sofa just minutes before the stroke of midnight. However you celebrated the new year, let’s hope it brought a smile to your face, kinda like this big LEGO Joker figure built by Pascal Hetzel. Whether it be hatching some elaborate scheme to turn the citizens of Gotham into maniacal minions or leaving a flaming bag of poo on Batman’s doorstep, The Joker always has something to smile about. That’s because, according to some interpretations, Joker’s smile was permanently etched into his face with toxic chemicals or via a razor blade giving him the ol’ “Glasgow Smile”. Geez, that escalated fast! Let’s hope the smile on your face is not for any of those reasons.

LEGO Joker Happy New Year

Incidentally, this is not Pascal’s first big Joker. We featured his prior one back in 2020 but here is a shot of his newer one next to the old one. This proves the new one is not quite a “Maxifig” but something else. Whatever you call it, it is admittedly quite fun.

LEGO Joker in large size version

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

I’m a deep-sea girl, in a deep-sea world

Duncan Lindbo has really hit the nostalgia button for me on this one. This ocean-bed scout mech is reminiscent of some underwater LEGO themes of days gone by – think Aqua Raiders or Aquazone. I’m pretty sure it was a rule to have “Aqua” in the name of any deep-sea sci-fi (sea-fi?) theme back then. Big fans of that Barbie Girl song in Billund, I guess. I’ll settle for being a big fan of this walker, with its bubbly limbs and viewport borrowed from 21335 Motorized Lighthouse.

CMRN SeaScout

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Rudolph the red-nosed nightmare fuel

Christmas is now, for better or worse, behind us. You know what that means? Hallowe’en is only 44 weeks away! The reason I bring that up is because of Patrick Biggs‘ latest LEGO build. It may seem like a festive build at first – but don’t let that fool you. This isn’t Rudolph; it’s a being known only as R̵̂͠u̶͐͠d̵̈̀o̷͛̈l̴̀̓p̶̅͘h̵̎. And I’ll be honest, it gives me a touch of the heebie-jeebies. The spindly legs, the tentacle-like antlers, the piercing white eyes… Yep, that wreath is not throwing me off: this is definitely an early spooky season build.

R̵̂͠u̶͐͠d̵̈̀o̷͛̈l̴̀̓p̶̅͘h̵̎

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.