As the spending season kicks into high gear at the start of October, LEGO has turned out quite the interested “Gift with Purchase” to help keep us entertained. Unlike any other GWP I’ve encountered, 40596 Magic Maze is a gravity-powered ball maze seated on a 24×24 stud square. Read on to get my thoughts on quite a novel concept. 40596 Magic Maze consists of 332 pieces and is available until October 9th from LEGO stores or their website with qualifying purchases of US $150 | CAN $200 | UK £130. The box and contents This brightly-colored GWP arrives in a a pink box with standard “Gift with Purchase” iconography, such as the present in the upper right corner and the “Limited Edition” banner at the bottom. Be warned that this is only for ages 12+, so too bad all you 11-year-old maze-lovers! The back of the box shows some of the...

Whilst enjoying this year’s visit to LEGO House as part of my trip to Skaerbaek Fan Weekend, I played in an area that I hadn’t really taken part in before; the Creative Lab in the Red Experience Zone. The content here changes more frequently than some other areas and at the time it was concentrated on the ‘Build the Change’ campaign to ‘Help the sea turtles.’ Help the Sea Turtles Staff explained that climate change is affecting sea turtles because the sand where they make their nests is both disappearing and getting too warm. A turtle’s sex at birth is determined by how hot the sand around their nest was whilst they were an egg. This means that as global temperatures rise, the proportion of turtle eggs hatching as females is growing, making it harder for them to find male mates. LEGO HOUSe WEbsite, What’s oN Details View fullsize View fullsize...

We don’t talk about new LEGO sets much at BrickNerd—there are a plethora of other great sites that do that. However to help us keep the quality up and ads down, we need your help. If you are going to purchase any new LEGO sets and want to help out BrickNerd simultaneously, we ask that you use our affiliate link for LEGO.com. It is a great way to support community-focused journalism without costing you more than you already spend on LEGO. You can support BrickNerd at the same time you buy an awesome Venator, travel to Agrabah, take a cozy vacation to a Winter Village lodge, or even make a Wish. Even if you just get a keychain using our link, we appreciate the help. See all the new sets at LEGO using the following links: US | CAN | UK | AU. (For all other countries, you can use the...

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published September 20, 2022. Sorry, what? Köfii? A typo? No, let me explain... A Köf II is a German locomotive; Kleinlok (small locomotive), Öl-Motor (diesel engine) Flüssigkeitsgetriebe (hydraulic drive), Leistungsgruppe II (performance class 2). Between 1933 and 1965, more than 1,000 of these little workhorses were built—and you can still find them in private yards and museum railways. Twelve years ago I saw a photo of a LEGO Köf II built by Markus Wagner. He had managed to put a battery box, IR receiver and train motor in this tiny little loco. An updated version even had lights! Power Functions Köf II by Markus Wagner I was well impressed and decided to build my own version in red. At the time I was quite happy with it, but 11 years later it looks a bit dated and could do with an upgrade… But now, let’s...

Pumpkin-spiced lattes are taking over cafés and Halloween costumes are being crafted: It sure sounds like September is already over! Time to kick back on the porch one last time this Summer and enjoy this month’s assortment of interesting articles, deep drives and insightful features from all across the LEGO community! We are lucky to have this many outlets and channels that keep creating incredible content, and these are the best of the month. Here at BrickNerd, we went supersonic right after learning everything about LEGO model airplanes. We met builders at BrickSlopes, took a trip to an impressive castle, and learned about AFOL tokens of appreciation. We published instructions for a yellow convertible as well as expanded LEGO succulents, created brick-built characters for Dungeons and Dragons and designed our MOCs meant to be touched. We talked illegal SNOT, learned about the BrickBuilding Community’s fight against cancer, and got a fascinating...