It’s been a little over four years since I volunteered to lead our community group, LUGVegas, also known as the LEGO Users Group of Southern Nevada. The LUG was founded in 2013, and I first joined in early 2017. We are a small group in the area that is known the world over as Sin City; Las Vegas, Nevada. Our main goal as a group is to provide opportunities at local events to show people what is possible to create with LEGO bricks in the form of member displays and play-brick opportunities for the community. LUGVegas started small, and as is typical over time, members come and go. But we have a dedicated core group that continues to pursue the mission of the LUG. First Friday - Kids Zone April 2014 This article is meant to give a basic overview of what a LUG is and how they can operate. Hopefully...

It’s one thing to rediscover joy in LEGO through building, but it’s another to rediscover yourself through the people who build alongside you. In my last article, I shared how dragons helped reignite my connection to LEGO after a difficult stretch. But as it turns out, the real spark wasn’t just in the building—it was in the community. Following that article, I’m still on a journey of rebuilding my relationship with the hobby I love. While before I focused on the quiet encouragement from friends, love of members of the community, and the magic of mythical creatures, this time it was a very real gathering that helped rekindle the spark. I cannot deny that once again, it was the community whose warmth, humour, and acceptance of me for who I am, that has helped me fall in love with LEGO again. A Nervous Return Having taken a break from LEGO shows...

Today’s guest article comes from Mirko Crucchiola, an Italian AFOL, member of ItLUG, and writer for Brick.It Magazine. He shares a deep dive about the mystery of LEGO Minitalia in Italy. LEGO Minitalia I want to tell you the story about a particular LEGO theme that fully reflects my Italian origins: LEGO Minitalia. Throughout LEGO history, there have been numerous themes that were abandoned during the production process, such as the now-famous Sea-Tron. There have also been some LEGO themes that have been completely forgotten, not because they were abandoned, but because of their exclusivity to a particular region. BrickNerd’s own Sue Ann Barber has identified some of these bricks in her article on Hard to Identify LEGO Parts. One of these hard-to-identify parts, made with low-quality plastics and without LEGO logos (and very often identified as clones from competitors), is LEGO Minitalia which was sold only in the Italian market...

Even if you have practiced how to get your creative juices flowing, sometimes you need a little inspiration to get a nudge in the right direction. I realize this is not true for everyone. Maybe you want to keep your brain free from outside stimuli in order to be truly creative, but I am so far beyond that stage that I don’t care anymore. I love browsing through inspirational artwork to get ideas for new LEGO MOCs! Artwork by John Wallin Liberto Have you ever stumbled across an image or artwork that you found very inspirational? And then some days later, when you want to look at it again, you can’t find it and you can’t remember how you found it in the first place? Or maybe you take screenshots of things you like, and then you have to scroll through years of photos of cats and birthday parties just to...

In the first part of this series, we explored the intersection of custom-made elements and official LEGO parts, highlighting how our creative solutions often predated the arrival of official counterparts. That fun comparison sparked even more ideas, and now it’s time to continue our journey into how both custom and official LEGO accessories can work together to elevate our builds—and our photographs. Let’s dive into more side-by-side examples of creative evolution, where sculpted accessories and new LEGO elements combine to tell even more vivid stories. Birds of a Feather Starting with some multicultural attributes, what’s a sweeping savannah scene without a majestic eagle soaring overhead? I originally sculpted this big bird specially for travel and adventure photos since they play a great role in the formation of the right mood and atmosphere. Imagine my joy when LEGO introduced its own dynamic eagle element! How to use both The official LEGO eagle...