When LEGO offered the entire LEGO Dreamzzz lineup to BrickNerd, we knew we wanted to do something different with them. To celebrate the boundless creativity of the sets available now, we shipped them to various talented AFOLs to play with and dream about. What would they do with the sets? You will soon find out today (and tomorrow in our Dreamzzz Nightmare Edition). Let the daydreaming begin! Isaac Wilder Dreams of Vehicles Isaac Wilder is from Oregon and is a constantly evolving LEGO fan and builder. They can be found online on Flickr and Instagram. BrickNerd sent them sets 71456 Mrs. Castillo's Turtle Van and 71458 Crocodile Car to see what they would dream about. 71456 Mrs. Castillo's Turtle Van Mrs. Castillo's Turtle Van was such a fun set to build, and I love the combined animal/vehicle aspect. I think a turtle and van go together well; the shape of the...

July is over and we’re in the midst of Summer—time to sit back and enjoy a cocktail of great features, insightful articles and deep dives from all across the LEGO community! We are lucky to have this many outlets and channels that keep creating incredible content, and these are the best of the month. Here at BrickNerd, we built (and destroyed) a giant Nerdly and went to a Ninjago baseball game. We hosted New Hashima Takeover Week and learned the story behind the colossal cyberpunk city, analyzed a spaceship on wheels, celebrated the friends we made along the way and more. We got nerdy about the Statue of Liberty, moving MOCs, and LEGO’s financial history. We visited Japan with an architect and the high seas with a buccaneer. We even looked at the Bio-Cup entries from Round 2 and Round 3, and then had time to post some instructions for a...

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published July 23, 2021. Today’s article on LEGO lighting was written by Rob Klingberg, Chief Enthusiast of Brickstuff. Rob is a fixture in the AFOL community and has continually helped advance what lighting is capable of in LEGO builds—custom creations or sets. At the end of the article, he also announces a new effort that will help all lighting solutions come together—just like he helps the LEGO community come together. A World of Lights It happens about every two months: I’m catching up with my social media and BAM! Another Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram ad appears for some new company selling lights designed for LEGO models. I’m going to date myself here, but it seems a little like that scene from the 1967 film The Graduate, where an older businessman takes a young Dustin Hoffman aside at a party and shares what he believes is the...

LEGO’s latest Architecture set 21060 Himeji Castle is quite a stunner. When BrickNerd was offered a copy of the set from LEGO, we knew we wanted a local perspective. Our guest contributor Masayuki Muraki, known to his followers as @legoanywhere, is a talented LEGO photographer from Japan known for photographing minifigures, erm, anywhere! He has turned everyday scenes into captivating tales, breathing life into our favorite bricks and incorporating them into our world. Today he shares with us not only his awe-inspiring photographs but also his insights and perspectives on LEGO’s take on this iconic Japanese castle. But First, An Introduction My name is Masayuki Muraki, and I am a LEGO photographer from Japan. If my memory serves me right, the first toy I received from my grandmother as a child was a LEGO set. Looking at the photos from my childhood, it seems like I always carried LEGO with me...

Introduction This is the first part of what I hope will be a series looking at the history of The LEGO Group from 2000 onwards. On a year-by-year basis, I’ll use a mix of newspapers, annual reports, and other media sources to tell the LEGO story as it was being reported at the time. Today I will focus on the years 2000 and 2001, but before I do, I would like to fast-forward to 2005, when The LEGO Group announced the biggest loss in its history. These upcoming and seismic events nicely set the context for 2000 and 2001—The Ides of March—documenting the years building up to those difficult times. The Height of Financial Distress The LEGO Group’s loss booked in the 2004 Annual Report was the largest in its history. On 2 July 2005, The New York Times reported on The LEGO Group’s devastating financial results stating “competition from abroad,...