It's difficult to believe that I'm writing my 4th article about the one-of-kind LEGO Train fan event Bauspielbahn-Treffen 2024 (BSBT)--and my 3rd as a participant! Ever since learning about this event's existence, I have been a committed fan and supporter. As a reminder, BSBT is a LEGO fan event dedicated exclusively to trains, and takes place in the charming town of Schkeuditz, just 12 km northwest of Leipzig, Germany. My previous BrickNerd articles discussing BSBT are linked here for 2021, 2022, and 2023. For this article, I'm going to recount my BSBT 2024 experience in the style of a "travelogue" -- or "VLOG" style for folks familiar with the video equivalent! Wheels Up to Berlin? It all starts with the travel itinerary. As you can see from my Air Canada booking, it is a busy collection of flights including three German airports. Why so many? Predictably, it’s because of model trains!...

Vignweek is an annual building competition hosted by the online group RebelLUG. The challenge lasts one week and consists of six building prompts designed to leave room for each builder to get creative with the vignette they come up with. Each build must be submitted within 24 hours of the prompts release, or 48 hours for the last prompt. The builds must be between 16x16 and 32x32 studs as shown on the right. Each year there are two winners, one from the active members of the LUG and one from the community. This competition has been run for many years and never ceases to amaze me with the amount of creativity and level of skill that is demonstrated within a single day build. I had the pleasure of chatting with the community winner for Vignweek 2024, Carter Witz, to talk about his experience and take a look at the MOCs he...

A big goal of BrickNerd since Dave Schefcik took over as Nerd-in-Chief in 2021 (wow, time does fly!) has been community building throughout the wider LEGO community. Two of the earliest articles were Ted’s MoC talk articles (Part 1 and Part 2) about creating more of a MOC-building local community. I really enjoyed Ted’s thoughts, and since the beginning of BrickNerd’s reboot, I have wanted to write about running building contests and challenges for Gateway LUG for the last several years. Honestly, this has been a hard article to write the past few years, and I’m not entirely sure why. But if you run a building contest for your LUG and need another viewpoint, or if you’d like to see your LUG have contests, I hope my thoughts will help! The Beginning When I joined Gateway LUG in 2015, it was at the beginning of a somewhat rapid increase in membership, an increase...

Today’s guest article comes from Richard Dryden, a builder who has competed on LEGO Masters and helped create the Awesome Black Creativity project. Creative Compassion Over the Moon with Pharrell Williams (10391) is now one of the few outliers in the expansive universe of LEGO products. The set is built with the intention to serve every individual through a universal objective to encourage “curious empathy” and “creative compassion,” as stated in the opening pages of its instructions booklet. Sure that could be what is at the heart of every product by the LEGO Group, given its longstanding, mindful approach to providing consumers with a starting point for where their imagination can take them. Yet this time, the company’s vision is etched into a mission statement where keywords such as inclusivity, potential, and play are echoed in the creative endeavors of the set’s co-designer, Pharrell Williams. As such, I’m honored to take...

As an 80s kid brainwashed enriched by cartoons and Toys R Us commercials, of course I went through a Transformers obsession, and there was no toy I craved more than Devastator. The OG Combiner, he was like evil Voltron. LegoGuy31 is also a fan of Megatron’s metal muscle, having created an impressive LEGO Devastator sporting his G2 yellow colors. This scale strikes a perfect balance between detail and play functions without requiring a massive investment in parts. LegoGuy31’s model can unmerge into the full crew of Scavenger, Scrapper, Longhaul, Hook, Mixmaster, and Bonecrusher. While the Constructicons of my childhood will always be fluorescent green, there’s no denying that they look great in yellow, especially in vehicle form. LegoGuy31 shared a video showing how each part combines to form Devastator. If you miss Devastator in classic G1 colors, legendary builder Alex Jones has you covered with perhaps the greatest LEGO x Transformers...