Today’s guest article about builder’s block comes from Casey McCoy, an AFOL from Chicago. You can find him online on Flickr and Instagram. My LEGO Story I have been building with LEGO for… forever. I can’t tell you a time I didn’t have LEGO in my life. With two older LEGO siblings, I grew up on a steady diet of DUPLO and transitioned to LEGO at a ripe age. Around age 12-13, I was introduced to the online LEGO community when my older brother found BZPower. That led me to find Brickshelf, MOCpages, Brickworld, and be inspired to build my own MOCs. Can’t say I’ve kept the affinity for brownie batter later in life… During this formative time, I made wonderful friends online and in person who were excellent at building with LEGO, many of whom I am still close with to this day. But there was a difference. From 2011...

Nerdvember is halfway gone, BrickNerd aficionados! “What exactly is Nerdvember?” you ask. Well, it’s a month where we get EXCEPTIONALLY nerdy (we’re talking double-tiered pocket-protector nerdy) and dive even deeper into LEGO topics, techniques, themes, history, lore, MOCs, and more. But it also means we host our annual contest where you can reimagine our mascot, Nerdly, to win some awe-inspiring prizes! In past years we’ve done a high fantasy theme and a survival theme. “So what’s the contest theme this year?” you ask? (Sheesh, so many questions!!!) This year we are feeling a bit more… animated. Welcome to Nerdvember 2024: Animation Edition! Animated Excitement Yes indeed, animation in all its forms is the theme of the contest. We want you to get creative with our Nerdly mascot (here are basic instructions as a PDF download) and customize it to an animated character of your choosing. We’re looking for the best that animation has...

This article was originally a presentation at Brickworld 2024. Enjoy the slides. No one else got to enjoy them much, because the lights were acting up. Ever wanted to build something that was just too big for one person? Ever wanted to join other builders for a LEGO project and see what their process is like? Or do you want to get a friend or family member interested in building alongside you? Sounds like you might be interested in a collab. Collaborations come in all shapes and sizes. They’re a big part of the LEGO community and there are groups of LEGO fans collaborating all the time, many of them intentionally making it easy for anyone to jump in and build along. But what if you have your own idea? What if you want to head up a collaboration yourself? Where do you start—and maybe more importantly, how do you push...

At Bricks Cascade 2024, my kids discovered the joy of a LEGO Derby. As I wrote in a previous article, a Brick Derby is a Pinewood Derby but swapping pine for plastic. When we asked our soon-to-be 9-year-old what he wanted to do for his birthday this year, it wasn’t much of a surprise when he chose a Backyard Brick Derby. Obviously, we said yes, but we had to get to work to pull it off. Ramps and Race Cars To make a ramp, I’d need help in the woodworking department. After looking up layouts and blueprints to set up a Brick Derby, I found these plans and sent them to a friend and long tenured Home Depot employee who was able to construct it for me. It’s 32 inches long and breaks into four sections for transportation and storage. I then purchased the 6x16 stud baseplates for the cars from...

Scandinavian folklore is full of tales of little people living in the woods and meadows. Swedish builder Peter Ilmrud gives us a glimpse of one community of fairy folk who have made a lingonberry cidery out of an old boot. Peter incorporates DUPLO and Scala elements alongside wildflowers from the Botanicals line and many custom flowers and berry bushes in the vibrant display. The boot, which doubles as fairy housing and green house, features some incredible shaping with an eclectic mix of brown elements giving the boot a weatheted look. The roof is gorgeous, using pairs of bowed plates in staggered rows for a scaly effect. At ground level, Peter packs the scene with fun details of the wee folk going about their work chopping, stomping, and barrel aging their cider. Perhaps my favorite detail is this rider tranporting hjortron berries from a nearby bog. The beetle design is phenomenal, creating...