When I returned to LEGO as an adult, I did not have a sufficiently large collection of elements to really build anything. It took me several years of buying sets on discount and multiple orders of elements from various sources to get to a point where I now feel I can build almost anything I can think of. So, in that starting phase, building digitally was really helpful.  Refuelling - by [ S E A Z Y ] I started out with LDD and have, in the last five years, slowly accepted that BrickLink Studio is here to stay, and LDD isn’t. With Studio came some other useful tools, like a renderer and a part creator tool, that I’ve actually found uses for from time to time.  Many people (especially in the early days of digital LEGO building) did not consider digital creations to be “real” MOCs. More like a sort...

It’s hard to believe that one twelfth of 2025 is already in the history books. Most of those New Year resolutions are broken or completely forgotten by now. But here at BrickNerd we won’t forget our continuing resolution to bring you quality, Nerdy LEGO news! Here at BrickNerd, we brought Da Vinci’s ornithopter to life, shared ideas for dealing with builder’s block, and gave some good guidance on how to win an award. We explored the challenge of constrained building with CMF habitats (and what characters should be rebooted for the next CMF) and a completely different challenge of building with elements from LEGO DreamZzz sets without knowing what the original set design was! We looked at the delightfully Nerdy GOATLUG, explored minifugre NPU, and played “what if” by combining Creator 3-in-1 sets. We explored construction techniques for models of the past, watery past and unique challenges building models of the...

Among the many amazing, fantastical things common to LEGO conventions, the Great Ball Contraption is a standout. It is essentially a Rube-Goldberg-esque machine that exists solely to justify its own existence. We’ve written about the Great Ball Contraption (GBC) a few times here, and most recently Ronald wrote a great walkthrough of how to get started building your own module. Ever since my first LEGO convention, I knew I wanted to build a GBC module. When our kids were old enough to attend a convention, they were similarly bitten by the GBC bug. Last year, for Christmas, I told my son that if he worked with me to build a GBC module, I’d pay for the parts to build it and a trip up to Seattle so we could enter it into BrickCon’s 2024 Great Ball Contraption. He was on board so we got to work. Design or Borrow a GBC? First,...

Joints—a topic that I’m sure can stir up some controversy. There are a variety of ways to make them, they are useful in a lot of situations and let’s face it, some of them are just mindblowing. I’m talking, of course, about LEGO joints (you know, as in elbows and knees, etc.)! If you’ve ever tried to make a brick-built figure, you are no stranger to the fact that making joints (again, elbows and knees and those types of things…not sure what else people might associate with that word…) can be quite a challenge. LEGO, of course, has made quite a few pieces for this purpose over the years (hello ball joints!), but when constructing a character on your own, they aren’t always the smoothest solutions. Plus it is a lot of fun coming up with new ways to simulate natural joints. But for those of you who may not enjoy...

In our newest dive into the world of NPU (Nice Parts Usage), we will explore some interesting uses for minifigure accessories! From guitars to firehoses, pom poms to paint rollers, these small but mighty pieces unlock endless creative potential. Doesn’t that balloon animal look like a piece of candy? is it just me? Humble Beginnings A minifigure accessory needs a minifig, right? Well, our favorite little plastic people hit the consumer market in 1978, and with them came our first taste of what was to come: an axe, a broom, a shovel, a pickaxe, a hairbrush, and a signal paddle. Fun fact: That signal paddle? I always thought it was for taking pizza out of the oven. (Am I the only one?) These tools were groundbreaking at the time, but little did we know the explosion of variety that awaited. Nowadays, it seems there’s a new accessory in every few sets....