Brickrock Press Review: Custom Pad Printed LEGO Parts

Most LEGO fans love printed parts because these details add variety, story, and even humor to MOCs and photos. A new part can even provide the seed for a build idea or a photo concept.

That’s what often inspires me in my LEGO hobby so I was thrilled to stumble upon Brickrock Press, a small company out of Moab, Utah, that designs and pad prints a selection of high-quality LEGO parts for themes like space, city, and even pirates for discerning LEGO fans.

Disclaimer: These parts were sent by Brickrock Press for review but all opinions are my own.

Pad printing vs UV printing

For those new to the world of LEGO customs, the important thing you should know is that if you want custom parts that look like official LEGO designs, you should shop at places where they use pad printing. Pad printing is the same process that LEGO uses to ink their parts.

UV printing is a different process which is cheaper and faster but leaves a grainy-looking texture. Some shops use UV printing to create more detailed designs which deviate from LEGO design guidelines like number of colors and line thickness.

Brickrock Press adheres closely to the LEGO aesthetic and pad prints on official LEGO parts, so it’s as close as you can get to the look and quality of LEGO.

Custom LEGO space printed tiles

It’s clear by looking at the catalog that the people behind Brickrock Press are huge fans of LEGO classic space, but also other sci-fi fandoms like Star Trek and Star Wars. I adore these tricorders in the style of classic space. The tiles match LEGO’s design style perfectly.

I used them as props in photos with the Galaxy Explorer to give my minifigs something to do around the landed spaceship.

I only have the Galaxy Explorer on display in my LEGO collection– I have to stick to one theme for my sanity and that’s medieval– but these other printed parts in the classic space style would be so useful for making a fleet of spaceships or bases.

For my space botany lab book nook, I swapped in a couple of these 1×2 circuit boards on the left as well as two 2×3 printed tiles in light bley on the right.

While not necessarily classic space, the circuit boards are versatile and can go anywhere there are electronics.

If you’re a Blacktron fan, Brickrock Press also makes the tricorders, monitors, and a few other parts in that color scheme.

Other sci-fi parts

Space isn’t just classic stuff, of course. I’m a Trekkie so these computer chips caught my attention immediately. (The “space explorer” torsos are by customBRICKS which is closed for business last I checked.)

There’s a Beskar bar 1×2 tile in the catalog too for Star Wars fans.

Other pad-printed goodness

For the more earthbound fans, Brickrock Press offers a bunch of accessories, road signs (for bikes too), and torsos.

There are also a lot of donuts and pastries– almost a dozen designs in all. While LEGO has a good selection already, the average price on Bricklink isn’t much cheaper than custom designs so it’s cool to be able to have variety at a reasonable price.

The wide collection of donuts as well as these two versions of a measuring cup are great for LEGO fans who want to build a kitchen, bakery, or coffee shop vignette.

Both measuring cups have printing on one side, but one is empty and the other is filled with a resin that could suggest milk, albeit a bit translucent.

It’s in ounces rather than milliliters if you’re picky about units of measure.

They also have a few minifig torso designs in the catalog, including this hilarious take on the viral Three Wolf Moon shirt.

The design isn’t a straight copy but features LEGO huskies as stand-ins for the wolves. So fun!

I’ll probably swap out the black arms for the short-sleeved version found most recently on the E-Sports Gamer minifig from CMF 25 to make it more true to the original shirt.

For pirate fans, Brickrock Press currently has just one item for that theme, but it’s a beautiful pirate gold coin.

The design appears to be inspired by the Aztec coin in the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with the skull and sun symbols.

Brickrock Press has several more products for themes like vehicles, hazmat, and pop culture too. The poker chips and cannabis chocolate bar will appeal to some AFOLs who are looking for something slightly off-brand.

I didn’t request any of the vehicle license plate tiles for this review since they were mostly US state-specific, but I see I missed out on getting the one European plate for my newly acquired Land Rover Classic Defender 40650.

10/10 Rating

I have to give Brickrock Press top marks for creating designs that blend in very well with the LEGO look and for filling a void for classic space fans in particular. The printing is fantastic, on par with what you would find on LEGO printed parts, and the price is reasonable for custom prints.

If you’re a classic space fan who’s looking to add special details to their MOCs, head to Brickrock Press immediately and fill up your cart with printed bricks, tiles, and cheese slopes.

Pad printing is time-intensive work, especially for a small company, and these are usually made in small batches. So once items go out of stock, they’ll stay that way for a while.