Best of BrickNerd — Article originally published December 25, 2021. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a merry holiday no matter how you celebrate it—or even if you celebrate it at all. We at BrickNerd are from many faiths and traditions. We speak dozens of languages and represent even more countries. It is that diversity that really brings the richness of culture and breadth of LEGO knowledge that has made BrickNerd such a community the past year. To me and for many Christians, Christmas is more than just a day of gift-giving and family get-togethers. It is the day we celebrate the feast of the birth of Jesus Christ—one of our most sacred Holy Days. Throughout the ages, many people have celebrated this holiday through expressions of art, music, and literature—religious art is part of the human experience as it is a lasting chronicle of history. As such, many artists throughout the...

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published December 20, 2022 with updates from this year’s gift. There is no way to measure how much joy LEGO gifts bring to those that receive them for the holidays. But what about the LEGO elves (aka employees) that work year-round creating wonderful LEGO products? Join BrickNerd as we take a look at each and every exclusive LEGO employee holiday gift. Humble Holiday Beginnings 2009: Heart via brickset LEGO employees have received sets for the holidays for the past fourteen years. This tradition got off to a very modest start in 2009 with a boxed heart model (following a year of the same set in polybag form). Perhaps it was a way of The LEGO Group (TLG) saying “We Original linkOriginal author: John Cooper

Mechanical Flip Calendar by Sariels Bricks and Pets is the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The build features a calendar that has the month, day, and week indicators with manual knobs to adjust the dates. 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, Stray Kids “Oddinary Maniac”, Rainforest Frogs, Steve Irwin & Majestic Crocodile, Kaamelott The Knights of the Round Table, Classic Tractor, Forest Base, The Vintage Service Station, Sea Turtle, Pirate Treasure Chest, and...

Amazon has put up the cover image of the new LEGO Harry Potter Visual Dictionary and it will include an exclusive Cedric Diggory minifigure. The book releases on July 9 for $24.99 but you can pre-order it today with the price guarantee. This version of Cedric Diggory is from the second task at the Black Lake with the yellow Hufflepuff tank top. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The post LEGO Harry Potter Visual Dictionary Revealed appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

A time to reflect and give back, the holidays offer a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at what might just be my favourite part of the holiday season each and every year. Nine years ago, I had the silly idea to start a LEGO Christmas bauble gift exchange – and 220+ custom-built MOCs later, our annual Secret Santa is still my LUG’s favourite activity. Let’s find out what’s behind this tradition that’s slowly depleting the world’s supply of LEGO Christmas baubles, shall we? History of a Holiday Tradition Back in 2015, I found myself in the role of LUG Ambassador for the German online community Imperium der Steine. We had a small team of dedicated members that would organise activities and contests. Clearly, we had too much free time on our hands and many a silly idea got brought to life, be it elaborate MOC-Olympics or even our own printed...

Queen Elizabeth II by legolux1973 is the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The 455 piece build features a vignette of Her Majesty’s room at Buckingham Palace which includes her desk and two dogs. 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, Stray Kids “Oddinary Maniac”, Rainforest Frogs, Steve Irwin & Majestic Crocodile, Kaamelott The Knights of the Round Table, Classic Tractor, Forest Base, The Vintage Service Station, Sea Turtle, and Pirate Treasure Chest as the...

LEGO has been building minifig-scale snowmen with varying levels of success for decades. I’ve seen some people speculate in online communities that perhaps LEGO has never seen an actual snowman before (even though it has been snowing in Billund, Denmark this last week!). I certainly won’t go that far, but I will say that some of their designs align with what I would consider to be the ideal of a snowman far more closely than others. This thought process led me to wonder: is there a “best” LEGO snowman? If so, how would I find it? Well, this is BrickNerd, so the answer to me was clear: by spending way too much time looking for and judging every minifig-scale snowman LEGO has yet made. Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (I promised myself I wasn’t going to use that song title in this article and already I failed… sigh.) Let’s...

LEGO has just announced two new sets being produced for LEGO Ideas so now is a good time as ever to update the list of projects that are currently in the works. The list is still pretty long but LEGO is slowly catching up with their releases. The next set that will be available is the Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera (21345) on January 1 but you can actually pre-order it right now on the LEGO Shop. Your Family Tree by Bulldoozer Approved December 7, 2022 from LEGO Ideas x Target – What Does Family Mean to You? building contest. Dragon’s Keep: Journey’s End by BoltBuilds Approved January 5, 2023 from LEGO Ideas 50 Years of Dungeons & Dragons building contest. Red London Telephone Box by Bricked1980 Approved February 8, 2023 from Second 2022 Review Stage. The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tvrulesmylife Approved February 8, 2023 from Second 2022 Review Stage. Jaws...

The Series 25 LEGO Collectible Minifigures (71045) releases in a few days and we’ve gotten a box of them to check out. Unlike the previous series where we’ve gotten the two row boxes, we now have these 12 pack hanger boxes as well. The front shows all the characters that you’re able to get while the sides have the Vampire Knight and the E-Sports Gamer and each hanger box contains 12 mystery boxes. Film Noir Detective The Film Noir Detective has the grayscale color scheme and he wears a trench coat with black boots. The coat also has a fabric collar that goes around the neck. The head is all white and he has a gray mustache. His accessories include a magnifying glass and a red herring. E-Sports Gamer The E-Sports Gamer has a really nice jersey with the Black Falcons logo as well as the sports mountain logo on the...

Nutcrackers and Toy Soldiers are two Christmas icons steeped in holiday tradition. With their distinctive uniforms and classic designs, they have long been a staple of holiday decor in homes around the world—and have each been reimagined in LEGO form several times. Join BrickNerd as we stroll down memory lane to explore the many LEGO interpretations of Nutcrackers and Toy Soldiers. Nutcrackers: The Tall and the Small For those who are unaware, Nutcrackers are traditional wooden carvings, often resembling soldiers or royalty, equipped with a lever-operated mouth to crack nuts. Their association with the holiday season primarily stems from the popularity of the “Nutcracker” ballet, a festive story in which a nutcracker figurine comes to life. In LEGO form, Nutcrackers are a bit more challenging due to the moving function of the mouth. As you will see, most iterations include this play feature while others don’t. Technically the Best Let’s start...