“Why won’t LEGO rerelease sets people obviously want?” This question gets asked over and over to a variety of different answers. However if you look around, there has been a very prevalent wave of revival-style sets and remakes, as well as a number of iconic licensed themes making a comeback after years of fans clamoring for their return. To look at some of the ways that LEGO has answered this question, we’ll take a look through these themes that have been revived over the years. In this installment, we’ll look specifically at the history of the original LEGO themes that have been resurrected in different ways after some sort of hiatus. What Makes An Original Theme? LEGO has produced numerous original themes, from evergreen ideas such as Town and Castle to story-driven narratives and mixed media projects such as Bionicle and Hidden Side. These themes are developed in-house by LEGO and...

Join BrickNerd as we take a look at the amazing models by Jack (aka BigPlanes), and see just where his big planes have taken him! All Photos Via Jack Carleson This Is Your Captain Speaking… John: Hello and thank you for talking with BrickNerd. Please tell us a little about yourself. Jack: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be interviewed by BrickNerd! My name is Jack Carleson, also known as “BigPlanes” on my social media channels. I’m 20 years old, and currently attend Arizona State University as an architecture major.  John: You are certainly well known for your impressive plane models (Flickr and Instagram). How did you end up making this your specialty? Jack: For most of my life I’ve had an interest in aviation, and a fascination with planes. The engineering and design behind a large aircraft like a 747 getting off the ground is something that has...

Many times in the LEGO community, you see alternate builds of huge sets that abandon the official instructions to create something else amazing with the same parts. The large sizes provide a lot of opportunities for getting creative. Instructions even used to suggest alternate builds. Further, you can do even more when you add your own additional pieces like our mods to the A-Frame Cabin and Little Mermaid Clamshell. But what if you are limited to only what came in the set? And what if that set is small? Two BrickNerd contributors volunteered to find out. LEGO provided 40647 Lotus Flowers and 40643 Jade Rabbit for them to play around with and these are the results. Are small sets able to have alternate builds? I’ll turn it over to Sam and Sean to answer that question. Lotus Flowers - Samuel Pister (aka Pistash) When the BrickNerd team was challenged to do...

Please enjoy this LEGO-ized miniature Manny and super-small Sid from the Ice Age franchise, brought to you by Oliver Becker. His microscale scene depicts our two protagonists as they venture out at the end of the titular era. We even see Scrat in the foreground trying to hide his 1×1 round plate in the ice. The miniature scenery is quite nice, but the character builds are the real stars of the show. The tread links for Scrat’s arms and legs are brilliant, showing such ingenuity at this tiny scale. And the brickwork to emulate Sid’s triangular face is astounding! But of course, Manny has to put the “woolly” in woolly mammoth with the use of a minifig hair piece as his head. Much like with the movies, here’s hoping we get a sequel! The post A little LEGO “big thaw” from the Ice Age movies appeared first on The Brothers Brick....

The Brothers Brick alumni Nannan Zhang has a knack for creating innovative and breathtaking worlds in LEGO. His specialty seems to be mixing manmade devices with biological elements and this stunning The Last Wisteria is no exception. Let me rephrase that; it’s quite exceptional. His grasp for integrating shapes and colors demonstrates the abilities of a true artist. The tree’s roots intermingled among cold hexagonal tiles are truly awe-inspiring. Even the wisteria’s leaves have a neat order to them. As capable as I like to think I am, even my own words don’t do this piece justice so instead, we’ll let Nannan use his; Among rapid cybernetic hybridization, a thing of beauty flourishes above the metallic earth.. A thing of beauty, indeed. Check out our Nannan Zhang archives to see why sometimes we’re lost for words but we still try anyway. The post Behold The Last Wisteria appeared first on The...