Today’s guest article comes from Graeme Dymond, a LEGO Certified Professional (LCP) and AFOL living in Toronto, Canada. A Holiday Story of Joy and Brokenness The holiday season has a unique way of amplifying our emotions—good or bad. For some, it’s a time of joy and togetherness. Many of my favorite LEGO memories are from opening presents during the holiday season, and I’m sure many other readers have similar stories. I love to decorate my front lawn with large, holiday themed DUPLO sculptures and share the love of LEGO bricks with my neighborhood. For many others, though, the holidays can be a period of isolation, self-doubt, or even quiet desperation. It can be hard to reach out for help or share what you are feeling, and many go through the holidays silently struggling alone. I want to share a story with an important lesson I learned recently, one that echoes a...

I have what could be considered a decently large family, with five siblings in addition to myself and my parents—and when there are eight of you, it can be hard to find common interests that you can all connect through. In my family, the LEGO system is one of the few things that we can all enjoy to one extent or another, so my dad figured it was a natural choice to use LEGO bricks to initiate family bonding. And what better way to do that than by collaborating on a winter village layout? Once Upon A Time… When my dad was a kid, his dad built a wooden display known as “The Village” to sit at the base of their Christmas tree. The display consisted of an L-shaped snapshot of a town consisting of a road and a variety of houses and stores. It was also designed so that lights...

Today’s guest article comes from Tammy Schefcik, the mother of BrickNerd Editor-in-Chief Dave Schefcik. She has fostered creativity and community through LEGO for years and shares her experience with the new LEGO holiday botanicals. A Flower Girl I suppose you could say I’ve always been a flower girl. My love affair with flowers began when I was just two years old, toddling down the aisle as a flower girl at my cousin’s wedding. I can still remember clutching that little basket filled with flowers, its handle wrapped in ribbons. From that moment on, flowers became a part of me, as much a part of my life as my family, holidays, and traditions. Growing up on the East Coast, flowers were everywhere, and each season brought its own magic. Crocuses would poke through the snow to announce spring, followed by daffodils, lilacs, and azaleas. Forsythia bushes exploded in yellow, while magnolia and...

With the holidays coming to a close, food consumed, and relatives gone home, you might think it’s time for a good solid nap—and the hero of Yuan He’s (aka BuildGoNuts) latest work would agree! The old gentleman has fallen asleep in his favorite rocking chair by the fire, midway through a book about boats and attended by his two cats. You’re probably not as comfortable as he is, but feel free to settle in as you peruse the fun little details surrounding him, from the pastries on the dining card to the model ship on the mantel. I also love the overlapping rounded bricks for the gramophone’s bell and the sideways grooved bricks used to get some fun texture on the rug. And that’s just scratching the surface of all the abstract little details on every surface that make the scene look so lived-in and cozy. The post Settle down for...

In the waning hours of 2024, Joss Ivanwood presented his final LEGO dragon for his Year of the Dragon project and it’s a doozy of a deer. Draconis Cervus takes inspiration from fallow and sika deer with their reddish nougat-colored fur and white underbellies. Joss tells us that the furry parts he has been using in this series are quickly becoming his favorite pieces but he takes particular pride with how the eyes turned out, which makes use of a Technic tow-ball inserted into a gray Mixel socket. What a lovely and satisfying end to an equally satisfying project! I look forward to whatever Joss will be doing in 2025. In the meantime, be sure to check out our Joss Ivanwood archives to discover highlights from the Year of the Dragon project and even older offerings from previous years. The post The final dragon from The Year of the Dragon appeared...