LEGO has just started the Double Insider Points shopping event on the LEGO Shop as well as some new promotions that have just launched. In addition to earning 2x points on your purchases, you can also get the LEGO Bakery (40696) with purchases of $200 from now until October 25, while supplies last. There’s also the Kiki’s Coconut Attack & Steve and Baby Panda polybag bundle with purchases of $50 in Animal Crossing, Despicable Me 4, Fortnite, Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Mario. Also from now until October 20, there are discounts on select sets which you can only see if you’re logged into your Insiders account. They aren’t anything too spectacular but the deals could be enough to entice you to reach that $200 requirement for the Bakery. As a Rakuten/LinkShare Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The post LEGO Double Points Event & Bakery/Polybag Bundle Promotions Live on...

Today is the last day to get your orders in for the LEGO Halloween Pumpkin (40697) promotion on the LEGO Shop. Currently for the US, it is still available with purchases of $120. For LEGO Brand Stores, you may have to check with your local one to see if they still have some available or not. The post Last Day for LEGO Halloween Pumpkin (40697) Promotion appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

The Adults Welcome section of the LEGO Shop has provided a teaser image of the upcoming LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden (21353). The garden seems to be rather large, probably the size of modular and it looks to include a number of minifigures as well. The caption shows the set as a campaign promo so it doesn’t look like LEGO wasn’t ready to show it yet but hopefully the official reveal should be coming soon. **Via Jay’s Brick Blog** The post LEGO Ideas The Botanical Garden (21353) Teaser appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

Presumably the last LEGO shop set that will be released this year is the Bakery (40696). The set has 376 pieces and we’re assuming it’ll require a $200 purchase, similar to the previous shop sets. The front of the Bakery has your typical boutique style design with the two windows on the sides of the door. Inside the windows, there are two giant cupcakes which is probably deceptive marketing. The awning uses a combination of red and dark red slopes. The bakery sign uses a sticker and there’s a croissant logo above it. On the second floor, there are some more smaller windows with some dark green awning above them. On the back side of the bakery, it has an open concept as there is no back wall. This has stuck with all four of the shops that have released this year. The bottom floor has a showcase showing some of...

I started using Instagram in the few years or so, mostly to browse LEGO builds and occasionally post some of mine. This is how I found some fantastic builders—and they were one of the reasons that encouraged me to start building more. One of those builders is Jannis Mavrostomos, aka Bricksized. I fell in love with his creations immediately—and now as a BrickNerd contributor, I have an excuse to ask all kinds of questions about him and his LEGO passions. Dan: Hey Jannis! Can you start by saying few words about yourself and how your LEGO building journey began? Jannis: I’m a soon-to-be forty LEGO-loving guy from Finland. During the days I work as an art director and co-owner in an ad agency. And during the night I build LEGO. My journey began five years ago. A classic story: When we had our first kid we bought him a bunch of...

Today’s guest article about builder’s block comes from Casey McCoy, an AFOL from Chicago. You can find him online on Flickr and Instagram. Beating Builder’s Block Builder’s Block: It’s happened to me – it’s probably happened to you. You’re working on a MOC and you get stuck. You have an idea as to where the build should go or maybe a vague idea of what it should look like, but no concept of how to get to the destination. Don’t be frustrated! This is completely normal for a lot of creatives who can’t just flip on the creativity like a light switch. “Builder’s Block” comes from a similar subject in creative writing with “writer’s block.” Between the two, the general definition of such a block is defined as “the inability to access one's internal creativity.” Sometimes your mind just feels completely blank, like Emmet’s at the start of the 2014 LEGO...

Oh, how soon they forget. When I was looking through our monthly BrickNerd contest round-up for October, I noticed that a once-popular monthly building theme was conspicuously absent from our list; Ma.Ktoberfest. Sure, there hasn’t been much buzz or enthusiasm for the Sci-Fi theme over the last few years, but its exclusion is striking. We made t-shirts, I tell you. T-SHIRTS!!! (designed by Victor Vercesi; Instagram) I mean, at one point there were Ma.Ktoberfest T-shirts designed for it. T-SHIRTS!!! (And I’m pretty sure it was the first monthly building theme to ever do so). To make matters worse, people are now being gas-lit into thinking that the theme month for October has been Mechtober all along (I blame Simon). Well, as always, we here at BrickNerd are here to set the record straight. So What is “Ma.K”? Kow Yokoyama - Creator of “Maschinen Krieger” Ma.K is the short form for Maschinen...

Here at BrickNerd, we love to highlight the bright and imaginative works of talented builders across the LEGO community—and today’s feature is no exception to that. I had the pleasure of speaking with Katja (Palixa And The Bricks): a talented LEGO artist and a two-time finalist in BrickNerd’s own Nerdvember contests in 2016 and 2017. View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize Ann: Hi Katja! I’m very excited to discuss your work on BrickNerd! Please, tell us a bit about yourself. When did your interest in LEGO begin? Katja: Hi Ann! And I am very excited to be interviewed by BrickNerd! I am a software engineer living in the south of Germany. Like many people, I came into contact with LEGO as a child. My mum bought me a few small sets, and I just loved playing with them and taking them apart to build new stuff. While LEGO sets definitely have...

Against the wishes of our Nerd-in-Chief Dave, we are happily re-publishing this interview about his Rainbow Heart mosaic for a very special reason: you might be able to purchase it as a product! Yes, this double-layered color extravaganza is now up for public vote through the BrickLink Designer Program Series 6. If it receives enough “heart happy face” 😍 reactions from those with BrickLink accounts, it could be produced as a limited-edition set! Keen-eyed viewers will notice there have been a few updates from the original, mostly due to the color palette for the BDP program. The greyscale sub-layer has also been optimized to reduce the amount of pieces to fit the program’s piece count limit. So what are you waiting for!? Go and vote for Rainbow Heart, share the link with your friends, and you might be able to build it and hang it on your wall soon! With that,...

Today’s guest article comes from Kyle Keller, a prolific builder and Brothers Brick contributor from the Pacific Northwest. We’ve highlighted his Stardew Valley MOC before, and today he takes us through his process of building custom MOC trophies for AFOL conventions. Defining the Trophy I understand that for many of you outside of the United States, the concept of a LEGO trophy may be a bit of a mystery. Even within the US, what constitutes a trophy can vary depending on your side of the Mississippi. (See BrickNerd’s article all about LEGO trophies at conventions.) And while I’ll leave the legacy of the brick-built trophy to someone far more wizened than myself, I feel I should still specify the subject of this article. I’m here to talk to you all about the creation of the US’s West Coast version: a construction typically on an 8x8 plate that includes a 1x8 brick...