Isaiah Kepner has always been a strong LEGO arborist, finding new ways to create bark, branch, and foliage from interesting parts. After a busy 2024, the builder has been on a MOC hiatus, but Isaiah found time to get back to his roots with a fabulous bonsai pine. This tree uses almost exclusively green antlers for the leaves, inspired by this tree by Ryan McBride. The greebley tree is full of fun (and often illegal!) connections. It reminds me a of Niina L’s greeble tree. Using an inverted tire for the pot adds a nice contrast to the hard angles in the tree trunk. If you’re interested in experimenting with green antlers in your tree builds, Isaiah shares a tutorial here. I also shared my experiments with the leaves earlier this year.   The post Green antlers for leaves. Grey trunk potted in a tire. It’s LEGO Bonsai. appeared first on...

If you want to be the very best trainer, it’s not enough to collect ’em all anymore. It’s not even enough to evolve your Pocket Monsters. These days, to be the best there ever was, you have to MEGA Evolve those Pokémon. In celebration of last week’s release of Pokémon Legends: Z-A on the Nintendo Switch, nine LEGO building Poké-fans teamed up for the #megabrickevolution collaboration, rendering the new upgrade forms of some of their favorite monsters. First up, from Matt Goldberg, we have the Mega Charizard X, an evolution of Charmander so smoldering with power that he burns blue. The head is wonderfully sculpted and the body has the right mix of cute and fierce. My favorite technique is the use of Ben 10 scales on the underside of the tail, a part I couldn’t recognize without reading Matt’s description of the build on his blog. @margits_mocs dares to build the...

Blacktron might be the most popular Classic Space subtheme in numbers, but all the cool kids stan Ice Planet 2002. It has amazing colors, chainsaws, and courtesy of the CMF space series, penguins in space suits. Bob DeQuatre heats up the Ice Planet Renaissance with his latest retro tribute, the Ice Falcon.  The classic color scheme is there with the addition of medium azure for subtle gradation in the blues and a little extra black for those incredible engines.  Of course a classic printed slope graces the nose. From the front, the ship is sleek and studless. The engines bring in more greebling and cables. To give the ship texture while minimizing studs and seams, Bob incorporates Hero Factory leg elements into the engines. It’s a bit odd seeing a transparent color other than dark orange on an Ice Planet ship, but the glowing engines look great. Best of all, as...

Joel Tyer titles this medieval structure a “humble dwelling,” but when it comes to building techniques, there’s much to crow about. The rounded tiles in the brickwork, both 1x1s stacked within the wall and 2x1s applied to the exterior, add a stylized texture without getting messy. Similarly, the slope of the roof tiles is clean with a hand-crafted touch. I love the landscaping, from the giant moss-covered rock that the house is built around to the earthen path dotted with flowers and a pink frog. And the irregularly-shaped SNOT base of light blue on top of black evokes an island on a lake with minimal water. It’s a miniature masterclass in medieval building from one of the pioneers who shaped the look of LEGO Castle MOCs today. The post A humble medieval home with waterfront views appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)

Yubaba, the witchy proprietress of the bathhouse in Spirited Away, is my favorite type of villain: powerful, grandiose, nasty without being evil. Yubaba has a big head to match her ego, which makes the character the perfect subject for builder Rokan Cheung, who specializes in creating character busts in LEGO. The builder sets the character on a mosaic mat, complete with the witch’s rolling “Kashira” head pets. You can see the builder’s skillful facial sculpting in play with Yubaba, like the plates with bows under her baggy eyes or the bold lashes created from minifig hands clipped to hotdogs. You can see Rokan’s talent for brick-built likenesses in this kindly old man (clearly no relation to the witch above). The post Looking for a job? LEGO Yubaba is always hiring appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Jake Forbes (TBB Managing Editor)