Iron Builder competitions are one of our favorite sources of delight as we seek out new LEGO creations to highlight and share. These playful competitions highlight some of the most creative builders in the hobby while also showing how much potential is packed into a single eccentric LEGO element. The latest Iron Builder just kicked off between TBB regulars Sandro Quattrini and gGh0st, and the “seed part” is the green Koopa shell with spikes. Sandro fires the first salvo with a majestic green dragon, which uses 34 shells to achieve the snaking, scaly body. The head design is very effective, especially the sculpting around the eyes using minifig arms and frogs for an organic shape. gGh0st strikes back with an elegant Japanese sword display, using koopa shells for the hilt. There are plenty of other nice touches in the still life scene, like the life buoys on the tsuba blade guard...

Rocco Buttliere has been astounding us for years with his massive microscale LEGO creations. Being no stranger to rendering massive landmarks and vast ancient cities in brick form, he has just released a new expansion to his fantastic SPQR diorama of the ancient Roman capital (the right half of the build in the photo below). This new section of the Eternal City – built at 1:650 scale – took over 107,000 bricks and several thousand hours spread over two and a half years to build, but it was well worth the wait! Lets take a tour of some of the ancient landmarks, shall we? The Imperial Forum dominates the local cityscape. From bottom left to top right we have: the temple of Trajan and Plotina, Trajan’s Column, Trajan’s Forum, and the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Agustus. We can take a closer look at each of them. The...

Who’s the coolest Water Toa from LEGO’s Bionicle line? Gali, the OG? Nokama, perhaps, who appeared twice as a Toa as well as a humble Matoran? In truth, Mitch Phillips (AKA Gamma Raay)’s unnamed Toa of Water might have them both beat. There’s some serious bling on show here: an enormous gold door makes for a nice shield. The cape is pretty majestic, too. But the biggest party piece is actually the mask. Don’t recognise it? That’s because it’s exceedingly rare – handed out during the 2015 LEGO Inside Tour, only 200 of these transparent-blue ones were ever made! As a result it’s something of a collectors’ item, but it’s refreshing to see it used in a MOC. At the end of the day, it is still just a LEGO piece! The post All that gold, and it’s still not the blingest thing on this Bionicle appeared first on The Brothers...

It’s no secret that George Lucas looked to World War II-era dogfights for inspiration when envisioning the space battles of Star Wars, so a mashup of the two in LEGO form simply makes sense. Here, simplethinker elegantly blends the celebrated North American P-51D Mustang with Star Wars‘s X- and E-wings, with pleasing results. The two ships (fittingly nicknamed “Rebel Scum” and “Laser Bait”) look ready to duel German fighter planes or Imperial TIEs, whichever they happen to run across—a testament to both Lucas’s original vision and the skill with which they were executed in brick form. The post These Star Wars/WWII mashups are just plane awesome appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Ryan Kunz

The next wave of Ninjago sets is coming soon, which means another dojo/battle arena to add to our growing collection. The Tournament Battle Arena includes six minifigures and is compatible with the much larger LEGO Ninjago 71814 Tournament Temple City. There’s a fun moveable platform for fighting, a large statue, and a drum. There are also a few neat hidden traps to catch intruders by surprise. LEGO Ninjago 71818 Tournament Battle Arena comes with 659 pieces and will be available on June 1st globally and August 1st in the US for US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99. 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. Unboxing the parts, instructions, and stickers The set comes in a small box with the Dragons Rising branding. The arena is shown on the...