Today’s New Hashima takeover article comes from Blake Foster (Instagram/Flickr), a sci-fi builder from Brooklyn. While primarily a spacecraft builder, he enjoys venturing into other corners of science fiction. His most recent detour brought him into the world of LEGO trains and the trials and tribulations that come with it. All Aboard! I am not a “train guy.” As such, it was a bit out of character that, when I was invited to join New Hashima, the very first thing I began building was a freight train. I found myself in that position because, while I have a long history of building sci-fi, I have not historically been a cyberpunk guy either, and I reasoned that building some small vehicles would be an excellent way to get the hang of the aesthetic. I also wanted to contribute something substantial enough to be one of the (many) focal points. A train offered...

New Hashima takeover week on BrickNerd continues with an article by contributor Chris Roberts about the efforts required to light up the cyberpunk LEGO city. Welcome to New Hashima A massive 160-square-foot, 13-foot tall cyberpunk city built entirely out of LEGO would be awe-inspiring on its own. But that wasn’t enough for Stefan and the New Hashima Daemons. We needed lights. And not just a few here or there, oh no—we needed thousands of blinking, flashing, glowing, and pulsing lights! Brickworld Chicago is famous for its Saturday night World of Lights event where the entire convention hall goes dark for a few hours to let the MOCs shine. Making the most of those hours of darkness was the specific goal and the focus for all the lights that went into the city. The lights brought New Hashima to life and gave it a soul. Electrical Infrastructure Routing power cables within a...

New Hashima takeover week on BrickNerd continues with an article by guest contributor Mike Willhoit who coordinated the “Old City” Sector of New Hashima. He writes about the planning and effort that gave the sector a gritty edge, making it the seedier side of the cyberpunk city. True Grit When we began planning for New Hashima, I had always envisioned a sector of the city that felt noticeably older, grittier, and grungier than the rest of the city. Every place seems to have something like this: older-style buildings, less up-to-date infrastructure, and maybe even a kind of modernist, planned community feel to it. I landed on this idea because there are layers to every city. Time periods collide in awkward ways, new stuff gets strapped on and piled onto old stuff, and it really just creates this unique vibe that I think is quintessentially cyberpunk. The keyword is palimpsest; ornate styles...

Welcome to New Hashima takeover week at BrickNerd! This week we will be exploring the gigantic cyberpunk city collab built by more than 60 people at Brickworld Chicago 2023. Today’s guest article is by Stefan Formentano (with help from Simon Liu) who led the charge to build this incredible LEGO display and community. It All Started With A Photo In 2013 I saw a photo: Photo by chris Edwards Little did I know this would change the direction of my hobby and LEGO life forever. As a self-professed Grey Castle fan, seeing BroLUG’s Cyber City blew my mind and shattered what I thought was even possible with LEGO. It fundamentally changed my building trajectory as I knew from that moment I wanted to build my own Cyber City someday. It took almost six years and a bit of a career change to get me started building what would eventually become New...

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published July 27, 2021. What is MILS? Modular Integrated Landscaping System, or MILS for short, is a system that describes how to build modular landscapes. The modularity of MILS is its key innovation. By standardizing both how modules interconnect and the visual features of module boundaries; builders can combine their modules into collaborative layouts while maintaining consistency of style and appearance. The origin of MILS can be traced back to HispaBrick Magazine issue 013. Antonio Bellon’s series of five articles (issues 013 to 017) are a must-read if you want an in-depth overview of the MILS standard and its background. The key principles of MILS are as follows: Collaboration - This is a core principle of MILS. The MILS system was created to allow builders to combine modules to make large collaborative layouts and dioramas. Flexibility - The formality of the MILS standard is mostly...