February was another month filled with fascinating features, interesting deep dives and cool videos from all across the LEGO community. We are lucky to have this many outlets and channels that keep creating incredibly content, and these are the best of the month. Here on BrickNerd, LEGO Elves moved into Rivendell, we modded a cabin and raided a Viking village. We celebrated 100 issues of Blocks Magazine, covered the history of LEGO trains and experienced the struggles of creating a black sigfig. We covered shiny chromed cars, analyzed the color of the villainous vehicles in LEGO City and took a deep dive into Fabuland. We measured LEGO down to the LDU, learned about the AFOL ARMY behind BTS, were dazzled by a wedding dress and smashed a LEGO castle. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in February, that we’ve included an interactive calendar of them at the bottom of...

Today’s guest article comes from Levi Knighten who shares their experience trying to create a sigfig as a black, queer fan of LEGO. I was introduced to LEGO through my partner during college. After we moved in together, he took me to one of his favorite places: the LEGO Store. I had never even been to one before and was overwhelmed by the sea of yellow. All of the sets on the walls and minifigure pictures everywhere seemed inviting. Yet, I noticed I was the only black person in the store. Having gone back many times since, including to different locations and even to our local Bricks and Minifigs, I am often the only black person in the room. In recent years, there has been a bit more diversity in both sets and clientele that I can see. But I never feel quite comfortable when I’m in public at a LEGO...

Best of BrickNerd — Article originally published on March 1, 2022 and updated on Feb 25, 2023. Image via The Calvert Journal The events in this article took place in Autumn 2021. The article, by guest writer Jenn Williams, has been in development with BrickNerd since that time and was completed before the escalation of current events. Even as a memory from last year, however, the story of the LEGO community in Ukraine deserves to be told. Jenn’s explorations highlight the connection and inspiration LEGO can bring to all corners of the world. We hope this article illustrates how the international AFOL community is diverse, creative, and overwhelmingly open-hearted. Finding Community in Ukraine The cityscape of Kyiv, Ukraine, stretches in repetitious rows of gray, as far as the eye can see. Building after building of bland soviet apartment blocks are peppered only with the blue and yellow of Ukrainian flags hung...

As a huge (and I mean HUGE) fan of all things Middle Earth, I was ecstatic about LEGO’s return to this magical world with the announcement of 10316 Rivendell. After the appetizer that the three Lord of the Rings BrickHeadz released in January provided, it’s great to finally get a proper minfigure-scale set in the LOTR theme. And what a set it is! However, while this 6,000+ piece set is jaw-dropping on its own, besting anything ever released under the LOTR brand, my inner MOC-builder felt the need to take the set a step further. After all, why just build Rivendell when you could build and modify Rivendell? (If you wanted a play-by-play of building the set or a list of all the details hidden within, there are many other LEGO-related sites that do that quite well. At BrickNerd, we like to get creative with sets by showcasing their history, alternative...

Just over a year ago, LEGO announced that the next Ideas set would be dancing to the beat of Korean Popular Music (K-pop for short) and be based on the iconic boyband, BTS. The music video of their song Dynamite was submitted by fan designer Josh Bretz (@JBBrickFanatic) and Jacob Twerski (@BangtanBricks) and the rest is history. Though many AFOLs reacted to the BTS set news with the question, “Who!?”, a large army of K-pop fans celebrated around the world. With the release of LEGO Ideas 21339 BTS Dynamite, we wanted to explore the set from the perspective of both an AFOL and an ARMY (a member of the BTS fandom). the original submission by josh and jacob was one of the fastest sets to reach 10,000 votes. But before we talk about the set itself, join us for a brief history of K-pop, Korean culture, and the global phenomenon that...

Merry Christmas everyone! Today I’m going to take you on a mini Christmas adventure making large classic LEGO pine trees. For starters I want our readers to know that this article is not a comprehensive DIY guide. Walking through CNC manuals for machining tools, router settings, and listing out a bunch of decimal numbers would be a tedious read. However, I do hope that this is a fun summary and inspires the maker in many of us. You may even be inspired to do it better! So, whether you are in a woodshop (like this project), dialing in your own 3D plastic printer, or simply want to live vicariously… let’s take a look! Slicing and Dicing As with many large element fabrications that don’t rely on a computer rendering, I started with digital calipers. I sacrificed one actual LEGO tree and sliced it horizontally into disks. I noticed that the smaller...

In an interesting turn of events, the Holiday Village w/Train (Working) project by United Bricks of America has been removed from LEGO Ideas. The project has been completely deleted off the site with no explanation. Also the United Bricks of America profile has also seem to been removed as well. This could be on the user end or on LEGO’s end if there was some sort of violation. I’m sure there will be some sort of update when LEGO does their recap when the Third 2022 Review Stage ends. The post LEGO Ideas Holiday Village w/Train (Working) Removed from Third 2022 Review Stage appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

Dog’s Fun Park – Playable Dog Run by petisz is the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The build features a number of obstacles at the park all of which have some sort of playability to them. The project joins Ancient Roman Temple, This is Fine, Castle Dracula, Pac-Man Moving Display, The Lost City, Japanese Courtyard Garden 坪庭, The Travel Suitcase, Pixar’s Up House With Balloons, BotW Temple of Time, Wright Flyer, Classic Thunderbirds, JWST, Golden Clifftop Temple, Cipher Machine, Sewer Heroes: Fighting the Fatberg, London Underground, The Architect’s House, Community, The Neverending Story (40th Anniversary), The Old Western Train Station, Zoo, Jaws, Modular Arcade, Cat, House of Open Shutters, Lover House, Jack Skellington’s House, The Clock Tower Park, Mechanical Flip Clock, The Alpine Refuge, Wallace & Gromit, Holiday Village /Train (Working), Japanese Castle, The Wizard’s Retreat, Willow – Battle of Tir Asleen, and Fantozzi Takes the Bus...

Fantozzi Takes the Bus on the Fly by Nastronauta is the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The build is based on an Italian comedy Fantozzi and of the more memorable scenes from the film. The project joins Ancient Roman Temple, This is Fine, Castle Dracula, Pac-Man Moving Display, The Lost City, Japanese Courtyard Garden 坪庭, The Travel Suitcase, Pixar’s Up House With Balloons, BotW Temple of Time, Wright Flyer, Classic Thunderbirds, JWST, Golden Clifftop Temple, Cipher Machine, Sewer Heroes: Fighting the Fatberg, London Underground, The Architect’s House, Community, The Neverending Story (40th Anniversary), The Old Western Train Station, Zoo, Jaws, Modular Arcade, Cat, House of Open Shutters, Lover House, Jack Skellington’s House, The Clock Tower Park, Mechanical Flip Clock, The Alpine Refuge, Wallace & Gromit, Holiday Village /Train (Working), Japanese Castle, The Wizard’s Retreat, and Willow – Battle of Tir Asleen as the ones to reach the...

The Willow – Battle of Tir Asleen by MonteMatte is the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The 3,000 piece build features the climax of the movie at the battle scene at Tir Asleen. The project joins Ancient Roman Temple, This is Fine, Castle Dracula, Pac-Man Moving Display, The Lost City, Japanese Courtyard Garden 坪庭, The Travel Suitcase, Pixar’s Up House With Balloons, BotW Temple of Time, Wright Flyer, Classic Thunderbirds, JWST, Golden Clifftop Temple, Cipher Machine, Sewer Heroes: Fighting the Fatberg, London Underground, The Architect’s House, Community, The Neverending Story (40th Anniversary), The Old Western Train Station, Zoo, Jaws, Modular Arcade, Cat, House of Open Shutters, Lover House, Jack Skellington’s House, The Clock Tower Park, Mechanical Flip Clock, The Alpine Refuge, Wallace & Gromit, Holiday Village /Train (Working), Japanese Castle, and The Wizard’s Retreat as the ones to reach the Third 2022 Review Stage. The post LEGO...