Today’s guest article comes from Charlie Stephens, an AFOL from Virginia and a member of NOVA-LUG known for building GBCs and mosaics. You can find him online on Instagram. When forming a collaborative LEGO build, you don’t always need to have a standard. For efforts that are smaller, involve fewer builders, or are more character-focused, you can definitely get by with a few discussions on how large the builds will be and what scale you’ll be working in. But if you’re looking to have a larger, consistent display, you’ll definitely want to form a building standard. Members of NOVA-LUG recently went through this process, so follow along and we can show you some of the lessons we learned along the way! Getting Everyone on Board During discussions at BrickFair Fredericksburg 2023, we had a handful of folks who wanted to collaborate on a build. As we were tossing around ideas on...

The AdoraBuild is almost over! You only have a few weeks left to enter the ultimate LEGO contest of all things cute and cuddly. Bring to life your most adorable creations that make us go “Awww!” and you might just win some amazing prizes. Don’t hold back—build something so cute you wanna die! What Makes Something Adorable? The AdoraBuild isn’t just a LEGO contest; it’s a journey into the whimsical, the endearing, and the outright precious. From fluffy creatures to heart-melting scenes, your mission is to capture the essence of cuteness in brick-built form. Here’s a random sampling of some of the adorable builds entered so far: But what makes a build “adorable”? Is it the splash of color, the clever use of pieces, big googly eyes or the endearing story it tells? Maybe it is about the perfect joke or how much you want to hug it? We believe it’s...

In this article, I’m going to take a break from the technical topics of motors and train power systems and talk about some thoughts I’ve had about trains and building style! Over the past few years, I’ve been thinking about the “conflict” between the two key attributes of LEGO train rolling stock: Appearance - Aspects such as prototype fidelity, details, and scale define how the model looks Practicality - Aspects such as robustness, reliability, parts consumption, and buildability define how easy a wagon is to build, how well it runs and whether is it just a nudge away from falling to bits! Why have I been thinking about this topic? The key reason is that I often publicly exhibit LEGO train layouts with the expectation (both mine and the viewing public!) that the trains keep moving. Keeping LEGO trains on the move makes demands on things like battery endurance, available rolling...

A nice easter egg from the designers. Some time ago, a good friend of mine (Richard from The Rambling Brick) pointed out that the Collectible Minifigure newspaper kid is holding a newspaper with a front-page article on the original classic town police officer. What’s more, though, is that the headline, judging by the ascenders and descenders of the heavily obscured text, appears to read Happy Birthday! In this installment of Behind the Design, I take a look at the iconic LEGO minifigure smile to reveal its design secrets, learn how it has evolved, and show examples of how it has been utilized over the decades. In The Beginning The original LEGO minifigure designed by the late Jens Nygaard Knudsen has remained an icon in the toy world since its inception in 1978. But if you look closely, the original 1977 patent and indeed the earliest sets depict an ever so slightly...

J. R. R. Tolkien imagined Bilbo Baggins’ door as a circular construction, green and impressive in size (for a hobbit). Peter Jackson ran with the description and the gently rustic feel of the Shire and created an organic-and-tudor style mix that Gus has wonderfully captured here in the blocky medium of LEGO. There are so many details to love in this scene; the fence is made from a pair of whips, while the circular window to the right of the door is a bicycle tire! The organic side of the hobbit style is on full display as Gus has achieved both a cobbled circle for the windmill tower, and a smooth roof-line mimicking the slope of the of the hill – not to mention the striking red of the wood slats in the door. With all of this excellent building on display only one question remains; are these two folks Bagginses...