It’s December 1st! For many LEGO fans, the Christmas Season is already in full swing with Christmas music playing 24-7, Christmas trees up and decorated, and lots of wrapped packages underneath with that extra special rattly sound that only LEGO makes. Today is also the day that we start opening our LEGO Advent Calendars with all those fun mini-builds and unique minifigures. C-3PO in an ugly Christmas sweater? Yes, please! I’m sure you’ll see many other LEGO fan sites doing daily posts, analyzing every aspect, minibuild and minifigure from each of LEGO’s five(!?) calendars this year. But here’s a secret: Advent hasn’t officially started yet. It officially starts on Sunday, December 3rd this year. (It only starts on December 1st on years when Christmas falls on a Wednesday, like 2024 and 2030! Who knew!?) So What is Advent? Christmas wreath 2 in 1 Set 40426 modified with tall purple and pink...

Now that we’ve all spent our money between Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays, it’s time to kick back and enjoy our monthly LEGO community round-up! While November traditionally is a jungle of sales announcements, we were once again treated with a smörgåsbord of insightful articles, interesting features and deep drives 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 celebrated Nerdvember and wow, did we get nerdy! We witnessed the heartwarming rebirth of Mega Nerdly and got introduced to a LEGO engineering department. We insured our LEGO collection, created custom light effects for our MOCs, and hacked BrickLink’s Stud.io. We played with LEGO SNOT puzzles, and learned all about LEGO coupling rods and Open L-Gauge. And we chronicled the LEGO minifigure skin tones over time, got nerdy...

Yes, you read that title correctly—we did not misspell nerd! To wrap up Nerdvember, I am going to introduce you to NED. So, who in the world is NED!? To explain that, I first need to tell you about Bricks LA which began in 2015 and sadly held their last event in 2022. It was organized by Ayleen Dority. They had a great run of eight conventions, and it was even part of a small collective of conventions worldwide called Recognized AFOL Networking Events. The last year of the convention brought us a behind-the-scenes look into something rarely seen: a presentation from LEGO engineers about NED, which stands for Novelty Element Development. The presentation came via video conference by Tore Christensen and Andreas Malling Jensen. They gave us a walkthrough of their daily activity and some example projects. This article aims to share that presentation with you and all the nerdy...

Today’s guest article comes from BrickNerd patron Wayne Tyler. We’ve featured Wayne’s work numerous times and always marvel at his technical prowess and stunning renders. Today he shares the secrets behind bending BrickLink Studio to his will. Render Like Blender A picture is worth a thousand words, so what is a digital render worth? It depends on the quality of the render! Before I’ve talked about the lighting options in Studio, but today we are going to talk about how to get that perfect shot of your digital MOC, but only if you are brave and want to explore how to hack the process. My approach to using BrickLink Studio digital LEGO software is a little different than most folks. The final output for me is an interesting image, not necessarily an accurate rendering of a LEGO model or a list of parts and instructions to build a MOC in real...

I have written six articles covering the many aspects of SNOT that I think are necessary for an advanced LEGO builder to know about. In this article, however, I will focus on how I learned many of the tricks I know and how to think when applying SNOT to your MOCs. It's time to talk about reverse engineering, or more specifically, the Reverse Engineering Contest (REC). I participated in my first REC competition in 2014. It is actually one of my most precious moments so far in my AFOLhood. It was basically a LEGO SNOT puzzle that you were challenged to recreate. A new puzzle was released every week, and if you didn't solve it you didn't get any points. That basically meant you wouldn't win, so it was an equal mix of stress and delight. I made it to the final challenge, which I failed. But it was such a...

The LEGO Cyber Monday 2023 promotion is now live on the LEGO Shop. For today only online, you can get the LEGO City Police Bicycle Training (30638) and LEGO Friends Skate Ramp (30633) polybag bundle with purchases of $50. Unfortunately, North America has already ran out of all three that were going during Black Friday but other countries may still have them in stock. LEGO still has over 175 discounted sets on the Sales Page and some of them are listed as backorder but you can still order them to get the promo. LEGO has restocked a few of the free discount coupon codes from the Rewards Center but it looks like some are already going out of stock already. • LEGO Marvel Captain America’s Shield (76262) – save $40• LEGO Creator NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander (10266) – Save $20• LEGO Disney The Little Mermaid Royal Clamshell (43225) – Save...

Amazon has discounted the LEGO Marvel Hulkbuster (76210) for 41% off the regular retail price for Cyber Monday. It is now listed for only $325 which is the best deal the set has seen on Amazon. The set features the Hulkbuster MK44 from Avengers: Age of Ultron during its fight with the Hulk. Be sure to the check the LEGO hub to find other discounted sets that aren’t listed as a Cyber Monday deal. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The post LEGO Marvel Hulkbuster (76210) Amazon Cyber Monday 2023 Sale appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

The LEGO Amazon Cyber Monday 2023 Deals are now live and they have added a few more sets to the list from Black Friday. The best deals still going on there are for the LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Express – Collectors’ Edition (76405) which is discounted 30% along with the LEGO Disney The Little Mermaid Royal Clamshell (43225). Also be sure to check out the general LEGO hub to see other sets that have been discounted but not listed as a Cyber Monday deal. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The post LEGO Amazon Cyber Monday 2023 Deals Now Live appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

Rainforest Frogs by Mario Vela is the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The build consists of six different frogs from Costa Rica which include the Red Eye Frog, Sylvyas Leaf Frog, Golden Poison Dart Frog, Blue Jeans Frog, Blue Dart Frog, and Masked Tree Frog. The project joins Modular Heritage Museum, Great Temple of Abu Simbel – With Secret Treasure, Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 “Phantom of Love”, Moon Palace, NASA’s SLS Block 1 & 1B Rockets – Artemis Missions, LEGO Anatomy, WTC Twin Towers & Vista International Hotel 1979, Coraline: The Pink Palace, Good Ogel’s Garden, Happier Than Ever, City Burger, Phineas and Ferb!, JWST, Harry Styles Love on Tour 2023, LEGO Microscope, Sequoia Tree, Tesla Center, Working Canal Lock, Christmas Theater, Wreck-It Ralph 10th Anniversary, and Stray Kids “Oddinary Maniac” as the ones to reach the Third 2023 Review Stage. The post LEGO Ideas Rainforest Frogs Achieves...

Alright, end-of-the-world enthusiasts and BrickNerd doomsday preppers, the end is near! Time’s running out faster than water in a post-apocalyptic desert. We’re counting down the final days of Nerdvember 2023, so channel your inner Mad Max, grab your bricks, and build a Nerdly that would make the Four Horsemen proud! Your Mission: Create a Survivor Nerdly Nerdly is a survivor, for whatever survival means to you. Think of Nerdly outsmarting zombies, or maybe they’re the last brick-bender in a world without the Avatar. Maybe Nerdly is the sole survivor of Y2K? Or perhaps they’re navigating a dystopian wasteland with nothing but a spork and a positive attitude. Maybe Nerdly survived a boring entry-level job? Or Thanksgiving with that one crazy aunt or uncle? Perhaps Nerdly survived a comically hanging piano on a street front while waltzing under a ladder when a black cat crossed in front of a broken mirror? Nedrly’s...