About Us
BrickTactical is a Fall City, Washington company run by machinist Payton Dean that injection molds custom weapons, saber hilts, helmets, vests, gear and accessories for LEGO compatible minifigures, in house, from ABS plastic. BrickTactical also custom prints minifigures and minifigure parts in house with UV and PAD printing, always on genuine LEGO parts. Started as X39BrickCustoms and renamed BrickTactical in 2018, the shop has been featured in 425 Business and Modern Machine Shop magazine.
What we make
- Molded weapons and gear: custom guns, saber hilts, helmets, vests, gear and accessories for LEGO compatible minifigures, covering military, historical, sci fi and pop culture themes. Injection Molded in the USA. Shop custom LEGO guns.
- Printed minifigures and parts: custom minifigures and minifigure parts, UV and PAD printed in house. Printed on Genuine LEGO Parts. Shop custom minifigures.
- Custom printing for businesses: your logo or design on minifigures, tiles and bricks. Learn about custom printing.
How it's made
Every weapon and accessory starts in our own shop, not overseas:
- Design. Payton designs each new concept in CAD.
- Prototype. High resolution SLA 3D prints are tested on real minifigures and refined, sometimes for weeks or months.
- Mold design. The part is turned into an injection mold, usually aluminum: "Strong, lightweight, and fast to machine! Not to mention a LOT cheaper than EDM cutting steel molds."
- Machining. Molds are programmed and CNC machined in house, up to 48 hours per mold.
- Testing. Test shots are run on our injection molding machines and the mold is tweaked until every detail is crisp.
- Production. Parts are molded in durable ABS plastic, the same type of plastic most LEGO bricks are made of, then packed and shipped from Washington.
Our custom minifigures and printed parts are UV and PAD printed in house on genuine LEGO parts for sharp, durable, full color detail. Want the full walkthrough? Read How We Make Custom LEGO Parts: Injection Molding Explained.
An aluminum injection mold, machined in house.
Behind the mold: the M2
One of our proudest releases is the BrickTactical M2 heavy machine gun, designed by Payton in memory of Larry Hansen. The M2 is a 15 piece kit with a receiver, four interchangeable barrels (standard heavy, water cooled, aircraft and helicopter), a gun shield, an ammo can, butterfly grips, an aircraft sight and a full tripod. Every piece is molded right here in the USA.
M2 parts in production.
The finished M2 is available in the shop.
Proudly made in the USA
"BrickTactical is all American and I'm very proud of that. We manufacture everything in the United States."
Payton Dean, founder
Most custom weapon brands produce overseas. We design, machine, mold and print here, working with local Washington manufacturing partners, so we control the quality of every part you get.
Who's behind it
BrickTactical is founded and owned by Payton Dean, a self taught machinist and manufacturer. It began as X39BrickCustoms LLC, a YouTube channel and online shop Payton started as a kid, and in 2018 he renamed the company BrickTactical to follow his real passion: manufacturing.
Payton got his first LEGO set at age five. It was Star Wars. "What kid wouldn't like that?" he later told the Issaquah Reporter. By 2010 he was running a YouTube channel about custom minifigures and accessories, and he wanted to make LEGO compatible gear from history, movies and pop culture that nobody else was producing.
In 2012, at just 12 years old, he and his grandfather, a mechanical engineer with injection molding experience, decided to make their own molds. Payton sold his old LEGO sets to buy a small desktop CNC mill. "We didn't know what an endmill, CAD/CAM, or even a parallel was," Payton says. Completely self taught through phone calls to tooling reps and a lot of YouTube, it took the two of them about a year to machine their first working injection mold in the garage.
Payton's first desktop CNC machine, 2013.
From garage hobby to real business
By 2016, at 16, Payton had more than 18,000 YouTube subscribers, was filling about 20 orders a week, and had produced 20,000 accessories for a single partnership project. His motto then is still true today: "I love what I do, so I never have to work another day in my life."
That same year he enrolled at Lake Washington Institute of Technology, and by 2018 he had earned both his high school diploma and an associate degree in Machine Technology. While working as a CNC programmer, he machined complex six setup parts for an aerospace company that later turned out to be Black Hawk helicopter dashboard components. The engineer told him every single part was perfect, a success rate he hadn't seen in over 30 years.
Payton reinvested everything back into the shop and bought a Haas DM2 CNC mill with cash. That same year X39BrickCustoms became BrickTactical.
Payton at the Haas DM2.
By 2023, when Modern Machine Shop featured Payton in its Q&A on how a self taught machinist started his own business, BrickTactical had grown past 100,000 YouTube subscribers and 20,000 Instagram followers, with a lineup of custom minifigures inspired by favorite TV series and video games.
BrickTactical custom minifigures, as featured in Modern Machine Shop.
Giving back in 2020
When the pandemic hit, Payton teamed up with maker and YouTuber John SL to help local healthcare workers. He designed and machined injection molds for face shield frames in under 10 days, then molded about 4,000 frames and donated every one locally.
Face shield frames molded and donated in 2020.
Beyond the brick
Payton's favorite personal project was a 10 month YouTube series recreating the 1944 Normandy invasion in brick form, complete with historical research, custom printed minifigures, bunkers, tanks and detailed landscapes.
BrickTactical also offers custom printing of your logo or design on minifigures, tiles and bricks for businesses. Our molding and machining are dedicated to BrickTactical products; we do not offer contract manufacturing for outside clients.
"If I can do it, so can you. Anyone with passion and drive can do whatever you want in life."
Watch us on YouTube
BrickTactical started on YouTube, and it is still the best place to see what we are working on. Subscribe to the BrickTactical YouTube channel for new releases, custom minifigure builds, behind the scenes looks at mold making and plenty more. You can also follow along on Instagram at @bricktactical.
As featured in
- 425 Business (2026)
- Modern Machine Shop: Q&A, How a Self Taught Machinist Started His Own Business (2023)
- Harvey Performance Company, "In The Loupe": Brick Tactical Featured Customer (2022)
- Issaquah Reporter: Building toward bigger things (2016)
FAQ
Are BrickTactical parts official LEGO products?
No. BrickTactical is an independent company, and our parts are not LEGO products. Our weapons and gear are our own designs, injection molded in house from ABS plastic to fit LEGO compatible minifigures. Our printed minifigures and parts are custom printed by us on genuine LEGO parts.
Where are BrickTactical parts made?
In the USA. Every weapon and accessory is designed, CNC machined into a mold, and injection molded in house in Washington State, and our minifigures and parts are UV and PAD printed in house too.
Do your guns fit regular LEGO minifigures?
Yes. Our guns, saber hilts, helmets, vests and gear are made for LEGO compatible minifigures, and every new design is prototyped and tested on real minifigures before it goes into a mold.
What plastic are BrickTactical parts made from?
Our molded parts are made from ABS plastic, the same type of plastic most LEGO bricks are made of.