“Bio-Cup 2023 preliminary round starts when?” you ask? Why, it has already started! The preliminary round of the Bio-Cup 2023 building contest is now underway, and the theme of this qualifying round is Villain. What type of villain you create is entirely up to you. Contestants have until June 6th (23:59 PDT) to submit their entries, with the highest-scoring entrants moving on to the subsequent “head-to-head” elimination rounds (detailed rules can be found here). If for some reason you have no idea what the Bio-Cup is, even after all all of our prior contest coverage, below is a refresher of our past contest kick-off article by Grayson Moses. It provides such a great summary of what the contest is all about, that we shamelessly dust it off and put it back to use again each year - it’s tradition for us at this stage. Here’s hoping that participating in the Bio-Cup...

To mark the announcement of LEGO’s new Technic 42158 NASA Mars Rover Perseverance, we thought we would republish an exceptionally nerdy article about an actual MOC on Mars. Today we showcase the first LEGO Ingenuity helicopter (complete with instructions) built by engineer Stephen Pakbaz who worked on the actual Perseverance chassis which is now roaming our neighboring Red Planet. This article was originally published on June 13, 2021. You are probably more familiar with builder Stephen Pakbaz than you realize. In fact, Stephen designed the fifth LEGO Ideas set, the iconic 21104 Curiosity Rover. Every year, Stephen brings out-of-this-world (sorry, I had to) motorized content to the space theme at Bricks LA. It feels like next year might give us those thrills again. Stephen has given us a preview of the good things we’ll have on the other side of lockdown, this time by building a stunning 1:1 scale LEGO model...

Today’s guest article comes from BrickNerd patron Wayne Tyler. We’ve featured Wayne’s work numerous times and always marvel at his realistic renders. Today he shares some of the secrets behind getting the perfect lighting. So you’ve finished building a digital model or scene in BrickLink Studio and now you want to render an image to send to friends or post on social media. You click on the render icon to bring up the render dialog, then click on the render button and then wait until sometime later when your computer is heating up enough to fry an egg when you finally get an image. But what if you wanted to make that image look better, have more impact, and appear more lifelike? What should you do? The quickest and easiest adjustments to get an improved render are made with lighting. Using What You’ve Got: How BrickLink Lights a Model You can imagine the lighting...

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published May 26, 2022. There are many kinds of LEGO build videos, including in-depth walkthroughs like the Final Fantasy Airbuster by my pal Kevin Wanner (which also adds in a bonus timelapse!), deconstruction videos, real-time part-by-part instructions, and much more. Hey look it’s a timelapse build video by some random guy… ok ok it’s me So I'll zoom in on one of my favorite types: the timelapse videos set to music that magically build up a MOC in front of your eyes. Why are these such a favorite of mine? Besides my theory that they’re universally enjoyable (based on how popular they are in so many diverse subjects), my other theory is that it’s due to the nostalgia of the LEGO commercials of my youth. Zack the LEGO Maniac! (LEGO commercial GIF via Know Your Meme) That's got to at least be a part of...

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published May 20, 2022. Today’s guest article comes from Ryan Howerter, one of the LEGO fan community’s foremost color and materials enthusiasts. Their color guide is one of our go-to LEGO references here at BrickNerd, and you can follow them on Flickr, Instagram and Patreon. A Plethora of Plastics Most people know that most LEGO bricks are made of ABS, but that’s not the only plastic that LEGO uses! Historically and currently, LEGO bricks are made with a variety of materials depending on the use case. This article will explore many of them, with a brief overview of their properties and when/how they have been used. Disclaimer: I am only a LEGO enthusiast, not a plastics specialist by any means. If anything here seems wrong or misleading, please do let me know and I will gladly correct it! Also note that within each plastic category,...