Today’s guest article comes from Maciej Kocot, an AFOL from Poland, an active MOC builder, and microscale master. You can find him online on Flickr and Instagram. Charity and the LEGO Community The AFOL community and acts of charity seem to go hand in hand. From the inclusion of Make-A-Wish kids at events and unnaturally fierce charity auctions at conventions to the annual Creations for Charity fundraiser selling MOCs to buy LEGO for children, there are plenty of examples of generous folks for charitable causes. Today, we’ll take a look at a particular group’s new cause: Ukraine. Brickmania Benfifet for Ukraine It’s been more than two years since the war visited upon Ukraine. The events taking place there are truly heartbreaking. BrickNerd wrote about the LEGO community in Ukraine, which I hope will recover soon. When I hear news from Ukraine, I often feel helpless. There is not much that one...

Today’s guest article comes from Chris Castagnetto who shares his family’s experience visiting Legoland California. Is Legoland California worth the trip? Do the newest rides and experiences live up to the hype? Is there enough to do with the park being a quarter of a century old, and what’s worth doing? These are just a few of the questions I hope you will be able to answer after reading this opinionated look at Legoland California from the eyes of a parent. My name is Chris Castagnetto, and I’m an AFOL. As such, I am also a huge fan of pop culture and theme parks. I have been an avid theme park and attraction attendee my whole life, taking classes in college about zoo and theme park business, design, and management. Luckily enough, I’m now a father of two and get to see theme parks and experiences in a whole other light....

For anyone who has ever been to a LEGO convention, the sound of a GBC is pretty hard to miss. It’s not a very pleasant sound—in fact, it’s often quite deafening—and it’s almost always crowded with people admiring the different types of contraptions that slowly transport a crazy amount of LEGO footballs (soccer balls for our American readers) and basketballs around a never-ending loop. What is a GBC? GBC in the LEGO community stands for Great Ball Contraption. If you are new to GBCs, it’s a build (aka module) with moving parts that transports balls from one point to another. BrickNerd has a comprehensive article on the history of the GBC. The beauty of this concept is that if you put a bunch of modules alongside each other, the balls can be transported from module to module. If enough are connected, you get a loop that transports the balls in a...

42179 Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit, part of the broader LEGO Space super-theme this year, is unique in a lot of ways. It’s a Technic set that does not recreate some sort of vehicle—a rarity when scanning through the roughly 500 Technic sets listed on Brickset. The mechanisms are really interesting, with five different motions from a single input. And it’s also a great teaching tool. The technical name for the set is an orrery, which is a mechanical device used to represent the movements of the planets in our solar system. The Oxford’s History of Science Museum has a beautiful example of an orrery. Now onto the build and the science behind the set! Solar Flare! Ok that’s really big scale wise, but a fun add As established before, I am a space nerd and was very excited about this set in particular. I built this set with my...

As intimidating as the Borg can be in Star Trek, the Next Generation, I still recommend lowering the shields for this gorgeous LEGO transmission by Pandis Pandus. It’s a stellar example of what we in the brick-building business call “greebling.” But unlike the Borg, don’t let this technical lingo scare you. Think of it as a “technical texture,” all pipes and tubes and grills serving some nondescript purpose on a spacecraft. And unlike the smooth exterior of a ship like the Enterprise, all these bumps and ridges don’t play nice with aerodynamics and the need to enter a planet’s atmosphere. On fact, you should use it on your next build -no, on EVERY build from now on. Assimilate. Assimilate. The post The Borg of Star Trek are never bourgeois appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Kyle Keller (TBB Managing Editor)