Awesome Lego

This custom build from Brick Machines combines two of our favorite pastimes – LEGO and candy. Built primarily from LEGO Technic and Mindstorms parts, the tabletop factory includes a mechanical candy hopper, an optical color sorter, a conveyor belt, color-matched lights, and an elevator to keep the sweet treats flowing in an endless loop.

LEGO has made a few zombie minifigures in recent years, which inspired Adam from North of the Border to sculpt his own from clay. Like most of his creations, his trio of LEGO zombies are much creepier than the official ones. We love that they’re undead versions of classic LEGO characters: the medieval knight, construction worker, and spaceman.

LEGO walks into Mordor with this incredible model of Barad-dûr, the Dark Fortress of Sauron. The 5471-piece set (#10333) measures 35.2″ tall and is packed with details like a dungeon and throne room, topped off with a rotating and light-up Eye of Sauron. It comes with 10 minifigures, including Frodo, Sam, Gollum, Gothmog, an Orc, Sauron, and Mouth of Sauron.

This cool retro LEGO kit is based on the design of a 1970s portable AM/FM radio. The 906-piece kit has working power and tuning dials, a movable antenna, and a carrying handle. It includes a Sound Brick with fun vintage radio sounds, and you can place your smartphone behind its speaker grille to listen to your own tunes. Drops 6.1.2024.

This wild-looking LEGO Technic weapon uses compressed air to spray up to a dozen projectiles at a time. Jamie’s Brick Jams walks us through the construction of his triple-barreled toy shotgun and how it un-crimps hoses to release pressure in an instant. The blast of air alone is quite powerful.

LEGO adds another awesome kit to its NASA collection with this Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV) model inspired by the one carried by Apollo 17. The 1913-piece Technic set is packed with details, including three mini equipment sets based on experiments the LRV toted on the moon. The finished rover measures 5.5″ H x 15″ L x 10″ W and folds up like the real thing.

In our bizarro universe where Barbie conquers Hollywood and discovers gynecology, Star Wars gets a comedic redo in LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, a 4-part animated special for Disney+. Good guys turn bad (enter Darth Jar Jar) and vice versa until an ordinary Nerf-herder saves the day. Drops 9.13.24.

This unique LEGO Art set uses more than 3000 pieces to create an eye-catching piece of wall art inspired by our galactic home, The Milky Way. Rather than using flat studs like some LEGO Art kits, this one has dimensionality, thanks to its clever use of bricks like flowers, hearts, grilles, slopes, and more. The finished artwork measures 26″ W x 16″ H x 2″ D.

We’ve seen time and time again that there are other ways to move around besides ordinary wheels. LEGO builder Dr. Engine put together vehicles that run on seven kinds of wheels to see how they performed against various obstacles, including a pile of tires, a staircase, and a hill covered with wood chips. It ends with a tug-of-war between the vehicles.

Once Kids makes biodegradable construction toy bricks that are compatible with LEGO pieces. The natural variant of Eco-bricks are made from sustainable wood and are easy to decorate and clean. The colored pieces, on the other hand, are dyed using non-toxic water-based paint. There are also bricks made from bamboo that come with felt stickers.

Despite the name of Akiyuki’s latest LEGO Great Ball Contraption module, it doesn’t involve minifigures grinding on poles for tips. To transport balls from one end to the other, it carries them to an upper ramp using LEGO worm gears and hockey sticks. A ready-to-build kit is available from Build A Moc or you can buy just the instructions from Planet GBC.

If building a gaming PC is out of your budget at the moment, manifest that machine with this neat kit from LEGO knockoff brand Pantasy. The kit has a surprising amount of detail and distinct parts, including a motherboard, GPU, and storage drives. It even has an RGB light. Pantasy also has equally impressive 90s PC and 80s PC kits.

Over the years, we’ve seen all kinds of interesting vehicles built from LEGO bricks. Build It with Bricks made this LEGO Technic drift car, which moves around using a fan blade. Its propeller is driven by a powerful BuWizz motor module geared to maximize speed. An additional motor lets its driver steer the blade’s direction remotely.

A coil gun is a weapon that uses electromagnets to accelerate a metal projectile through its barrel. It’s possible to build your own, but the high voltage electricity involved can be dangerous. Using the utmost caution, Jamie’s LEGO built a slightly less deadly coil gun using Technic parts, a bunch of 9-volt batteries, and some 100-volt capacitors.

A while back, we checked out a complicated machine that used LEGO Technic parts to pull a chain around a bunch of gears. That one was built by Brick Technology. The Brick Machines took the idea and expanded on it with a ridiculously complicated machine driven by a continuous chain built from 1,184 LEGO chain links.

After testing various LEGO door mechanisms, the Brick Experiment Channel is back with another series of engineering tests using LEGO and Technic parts. While most of their brick-built elevator and lift designs are motorized, one of them runs on pneumatic power. That scissor lift and rotating lift inspired by Scotland’s Falkirk Wheel are really neat.