“The Conversation Piece” is a monthly BrickNerd series about creativity and building with LEGO authored by our friends over at the Builder Improvement Initiative (BII), a Discord-based community that helps LEGO builders of all levels get better at their craft through knowledge-sharing and constructive feedback. Have a question you'd like us to consider for a future article? You can submit it here. Enjoy! How to Begin Building Anonymous asks: “I’m really interested in making my own creations, but I have absolutely no idea how to start. I’ve only ever bought sets and followed the instructions, but have never really been able to make anything from scratch. I love building with LEGO and love being able to assemble/create things, but I’ve no idea how to see something and have a good shot at trying to build it. Is there any advice you could provide to get me started with a MOC for...

Today’s guest article about building with color comes from Steven W. Howard (aka Ghalad), a prolific MOC builder featured in the LEGO House Masterpiece Galley and a future LEGO set designer. All thoughts and opinions expressed in the article are his own. What’s Your Color? Every time I set out to do the Color Wheel Challenge, the song “Colors” by Stella Jang is ringing in my ear… “What’s your color? I wanna know. What’s your color? I wanna know. What’s your color? I wanna know. I wanna know. I wanna know. I wanna know.” For two years in a row, I have completed a digital LEGO take on the popular art community challenge called the Color Wheel Challenge. What is that, you might ask? In the artist community, it involves creating a character or artwork for each color on a color wheel. This was quite popular on Twitter and YouTube in 2023. View...

Just a few days ago, I received the latest addition to the LEGO Ideas family, 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine. I was very excited to see the set, as probably many of you will be, and I’m happy to report that… it didn’t disappoint. My first impression of the box was that the set is going to be a cool display piece, and of course, it brought a lot of nostalgic memories. It took me down to memory lane and I felt like a kid again! The Build The initial steps of the building experience are nothing special, but throughout going through numbered bags with the pieces, you get to enjoy the large number of minifigures included (more about those later). Then you get to the mechanism thing. Every two pages, I was like “wait, what?” I’m not much of a Technic guy, and the whole time I was adding those axels,...

We are pleased to feature another guest article from Deep Shen, a well-rounded builder who discusses the hidden math of LEGO, with this article looking at LEGO math from a different angle… or two. Deep’s portfolio of work can be found at Brick Builder’s Handbook, on his Flickr page, and on Instagram. About the “Sugar Grid” You’ve probably been hearing or reading about the “sugar grid” technique for placing LEGO pieces at angles. This term was coined by Chris Enockson, who has an excellent and fast-growing YouTube channel, Brick Sculpt, that talks about building techniques among other LEGO-related topics. There’s also a highly informative and well-received article by Arno Knobbe on this topic that was posted on New Elementary. So, how does the “sugar grid” fit into the framework of angled wall techniques that have been discussed in my previous articles on LEGO math (and were covered in my book, The LEGO Builder’s Handbook)? Let’s find out! Mathematically speaking, all...

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 get your new Prize Machine, Krusty Burger, Happy Plants, Luxo Jr., Bluey sets, Balrog, Green Dragon or more. Or you could pre-order some amazing Spider-Man sets, Nike Dunks, or a Polar Express Train! Even if you just get a keychain using our link, we appreciate the help. You can see all the new sets available at LEGO using the following links:...