Hey BrickNerd fans! We spend a lot of time, and I mean A LOT of time, talking about the building experience, and what goes into designing official sets and MOCs.We interview designers, analyze techniques, admire clever part usage, and celebrate beautiful finished models. But has anyone stopped to ask the LEGO creations themselves what they think about the whole process? The kind of stuff they have to put up with along the way? The endless sorting. The dramatic pauses. The photos. The rebuilding after someone notices a part facing the wrong direction. No? Well, let’s find out… from the perspective of the two adorable little plant friends in LEGO Botanicals 10349 Happy Plants. A Plant’s Tale “What a hot day outside. It looks like a great day for LEGO!” “Woohoo! We have been chosen out of the backlog to be built! Here we go!” “Oh wow, you are just going to...

In celebration of the upcoming  LEGO Icons 11374 Arcade Pinball Machine, we’re sharing this classic article on the incredible Classic Space themed pinball machine built and programmed by TBB contributor Bre Burns. Look for Bre’s review of the new set later this week! Pinball machines bring out the kid in all of us, hanging out in an arcade losing quarters and setting high scores. And the Classic Space era of LEGO sets appeals to so many of us who got our first LEGO sets back in the 70’s through 90’s. The Brothers Brick contributor Bre Burns hits it out of the nostalgia ballpark with a fully functional LEGO pinball machine called “Benny’s Spaceship Adventure.” She spent several months perfecting the design with over 15,000 LEGO bricks, including LEGO Mindstorms NXT programmable bricks to make sounds and count your high score. Bre has kindly shared loads of details about her LEGO masterpiece,...

Earlier this year, we challenged you to build your most adorable LEGO creation… something so irresistibly cute it would make us stop and say, “Awww!” (or perhaps even let out an involuntary “Squeee!”). And you didn’t disappoint. We received 75 entries filled with charm, personality, and enough smiles to brighten even the grumpiest day. This year’s AdoraBuild featured our classic three categories: Small Scale, Sweet Scenes, and Cuddly Characters. After plenty of discussion (and more than a few difficult decisions), our BrickNerd contributors selected the winners in each category. And one builder who entered all three categories and earned the highest overall score has been crowned with the title of Master AdoraBuilder! For a contest centered around cuteness, the judging was surprisingly fierce. Every BrickNerd contributor had an equal vote, and the results were remarkably close. Each entry was evaluated using three criteria: Concept: Is the idea cute? Quality: Is the...

I think the kid in all of us is still in awe every time we see a Mack truck rumbling by on the highway. These royalty of the road are big, loud, and ubiquitous. So I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to try my hand at capturing the essence of such an iconic vehicle in micro form. The opportunity came back in 2020 during the summer of DA4! DA is short for Decisive Action—an online LEGO war strategy game I played with something like 20 of my closest frenemies. The number four is because it was the fourth iteration, this time on Flickr, while the previous incarnations were on the now-defunct MOCPages. It’s an exhausting all-out buildathon where you create military and civilian vehicles, structures and more to acquire points to aid in your ultimate conquest of the world. There are politics, shenanigans, and a whole lot of speed-building....

LEGO has recently been producing some random sets lately and one of the newest one is for the LEGO Icons Road Bike (11380). Now available, the set has 1,015 pieces and retails for $129.99 and could be the perfect set for cyclists. Build The build starts you off by creating the rear wheel-lift stand. It allows you to stand the bike upright and you build around it. There’s a couple of “locking” hinges to keep the bike from falling off it. This allows you to turn the pedals to use the working freewheel mechanic. Shifting gears to the new elements the set has, there are a few of them including the new tires which are the first and largest ones produced to date and and are the first to sit on a brick-built wheel. The rims are also brand new that are smaller sections of 12 per wheel. They are connected...