Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published January 28, 2021. Happy International LEGO Day from BrickNerd! Today we celebrate our love of LEGO bricks from all around the globe—but why today specifically? Looking at history, I believe there are three important events that led to the AFOL community celebrating today’s holiday. These events changed the game in such a remarkable way that we wouldn’t be AFOLs today if they hadn’t happened. The System Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, courtesy of LEGO Let’s start chronologically. In 1954, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, then junior managing director of the company, was traveling to the United Kingdom for a business trip. Along the way, he talked with a manager of a toy department in a Copenhagen store named Troels Petersen. During their conversation, Petersen lamented that there was no “system” in the toy industry. This idea really made an impression on Godtfred who started thinking of solutions. Back...

Best of BrickNerd — Article originally published January 26, 2023. Welcome back beautiful people, it’s time for another LEGO technique spotlight! The last time I did a waterfall technique spotlight I believe I promised you all a look at rockwork. It´s been a bit of a wait (sorry, I blame LEGO Masters…) but the time has finally come. So let´s have a look at some beautiful and creative ways to build… well… rocks. (And cliffs I guess, but that didn´t really have the same punchline-feel to it!) Below I´ve gathered some different types of techniques you can use when building rockwork with LEGO. Because let´s be honest, a lot of things look a lot cooler when they are standing on a big cliff. Slippery Slopes Let´s start off with the basics: slopes. Slopes come in a variety of angles and colours and are the most common way to build rockwork. There...

Welcome back to our tenth LEGO Quick Build! For this one, we are going all-in on superheroes. I like to browse different artworks for inspiration, and I have a few artists to whom I often come back. One of them is Derek Laufman. He has a comic style that I really enjoy and his Chibi characters inspired this build. I built four superheroes in this style, but Batman turned out the cutest with his little gargoyle friend, so I made instructions for it (not unlike this Batman polybag, but cuter!). Of course, you can build any character you like using the same technique (or build a bigger Iron Man with a similar pose). View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize Instructions to Build the Gargoyle Let’s start with the gargoyle base. I've used a 4x4 round plate, but you can switch it with a regular 4x4 plate, or even something...

LEGO DreamZzz continues to be a product line that captures the imagination. Just like the book series for kids where you can choose your adventure and turn to a certain page to continue the story, these sets offer an A and B model so builders can choose what to build. But what if we challenged AFOLs to choose their own adventure? We did that with the first wave of DreamZzz, and the mostly American builders showed us some spectacular dreams and some chilling nightmares. But what about builders in Europe? LEGO offered BrickNerd the second wave of sets from the first season of LEGO DreamZzzz. This time, the boxes went to France, and I had the opportunity to challenge some of my best LEGO friends to see what adventures they would choose with the five new sets. This wave was smaller than the first but certainly has some things essential to...

Today, we’re republishing a feature on the creativity and illustrations of Felix Dyson. Revisiting this incredible work, we also want to share a link to their GoFundMe fundraiser as they fight some medical issues, if you are in a position to contribute. Article originally published March 23, 2021 Most digital LEGO builders strive to create realistic images of their models, working to produce renders indistinguishable from photographs taken of MOCs built from physical bricks. However, Felix Dyson (a.k.a. “3 !” on Flickr) continues to forge their own digital path. Join us as we learn how they leverage digital LEGO building tools to create the airships and other illustrations for their various webcomics. (How could we call ourselves Nerds without discussing comics!?) The VSS “Yet to Be Named” A Quick Introduction to Digital Building Digital building of LEGO models has become increasingly popular within the fan community in recent years, especially with digital...