Winter is in full swing and the holiday season is transitioning into saying goodbye to 2024. We hope you all had a wonderful time with your loved ones! But should you need some respite from just that, we have you covered: Enjoy a post-holiday treat of LEGO community highlights, found in the mystical lands between daily advent calendar reviews and set announcements! Here at BrickNerd, we looked at a collaborative Christmas project and a motorized underwater layout, learned about LEGO and Formula One and upgraded our LEGO photography setup. We looked at wacky LEGO packaging, made memories with LEGO poinsettias and published instructions for a LEGO gift box as well as a gift guide for (Non-)LEGO tools. And we crafted custom LEGO fantasy figures, built LEGO ornaments in October (for a good cause) and a T-Gauge LEGO layout. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in December that we’ve included...

When you head over to your preferred third-party LEGO parts reseller and start looking for pieces, you may be surprised at the variety of results for a simple element search. Why, one might wonder, do four different pieces appear when you look for a 4085 vertical clip plate? Why are there three nearly-identical results for a 1 x 6 x 2 arch? And you may be even more confused when you receive your order: there was only one type of headlight brick to buy, but some of the ones you received have a little slot in the base and some don’t. Why were these not differentiated when the clip plates were? ABS-king The Right Questions* *Yes, my very first article is going to start with a horrible pun. Well, that last question can easily be settled, at least, and it’s a good starting point to answer the rest. As of the...

One of my most beloved annual LEGO themes remains the Winter Village series. As we head into fall every year, we eagerly await the announcement of that year’s release. The new Santa’s Post Office (10339) for 2024 and the accompanying set Santa’s Delivery Truck (40746) are welcome additions to that long tradition since 2009. It brings the theme back to the North Pole, which are my favorite Winter Village sets. And it brings a whimsical approach to an otherwise mundane concept of a post office. The big highlight of the main set is the hot air balloon, as well as being a well designed set with great play functions. The official Santa’s Post Office Set Main Build I will be re-envisioning in my own style But who says you have to stick with the set as is? The beauty of LEGO is that you can make anything you want. You can...

Happy Boxing Day! We all know what a LEGO product box looks like, right? If you are anything like me, you can recognize a LEGO box even if it’s wrapped up because the dimensions are iconic (not to mention the graphic design). And hopefully, you were lucky enough to unwrap a few on Christmas Day. But not all sets are shaped like a cuboid. (And people even use packaging in their MOCs like we showed in this article and this article.) Polybags are a popular format for tiny sets, foil packs were used until recently with the Collectable Minifigure Series, and plastic canisters have been made famous by Bionicle. These have been all pretty common to see, but what about less common shapes? Let’s dive into the wild world of wacky LEGO product packaging! In the Can - Canisters Ok, you just said canisters were common, why the heck is the...

Merry Christmas from BrickNerd! As is tradition, we like to give away some presents and a shiny gold trophy for the holiday. Last month for Nerdvember, we challenged you to reimagine our mascot Nerdly through the lens of animation—and you delivered! We received nearly 40 fantastic entries that showcased creativity, technical skill, and plenty of nerdy spirit. This year’s theme celebrated animation in all its forms. We asked you all to bring Nerdly to life, whether inspired by beloved cartoons, animated films, or kinetic sculptures. From Disney to Saturday morning cartoons to custom Brickfilms, you amazed us with your creativity and talent. There were so many fantastic animated interpretations of the theme. Each BrickNerd contributor had an equal vote, and the results were close. Three key criteria were considered by the judges: Concept - Is the idea clever, tell a story, and align with the animated theme? Quality & Presentation -...