We don’t talk about new LEGO sets much at BrickNerd—there are a plethora of other great sites that do that. However to help us keep the quality up and ads down, we need your help. If you are going to purchase any new LEGO sets and want to help out BrickNerd simultaneously, we ask that you use our affiliate link for LEGO.com. It is a great way to support community-focused journalism without costing you more than you are already spending on LEGO. You support BrickNerd at the same time you get your new Rivendell display piece, BTS tribute, Captain Rex helmet, new parts intensive-Speed Champions, some amazing Classic 3-in-1 sets, a new botanical puzzle or even Disney BrickHeadz. Even if you just get a keychain using our link, we appreciate the help. See all the new sets at LEGO using the following links: US | CAN | UK | AU. (For...
Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published March 3, 2021. Illuminating work by Wayne Tyler You ask: L’Enfant, qu'est-ce que c'est? (or maybe you put it more like I would: L’Enfant, what is that?). Why, it’s not a what, it’s a who! He was the Frenchman who designed Washington DC. Pierre Charles L’Enfant to be precise. In what became known as the L’Enfant Plan, this notable fellow laid out the basics of the city that we all recognize today including a roughly mile-long park that eventually became the National Mall. I can’t think of anything that better evokes for me “the best of America” so completely. The Mall encapsulates fantastic treasures of architecture, natural beauty, history, art, science, and more into one walkable beautiful park containing a seemingly endless string of top-notch museums! For builder Wayne Tyler, as our DC correspondent El Barto first covered here in 2018, the National Mall...
A new month is upon us which means more competitive building! Are you ready? Here’s the latest batch of LEGO contests and challenges from all around the AFOL community for March 2023 to help you find some inspiration and motivation to build! There’s nothing quite like a theme or a prompt to take you out of your comfort zone and give you something new to try. Besides, contests are the perfect place to interact with other contestants and judges and get to know your fellow builders. And if you’re like me, a deadline helps make sure you actually finish! We’ve listed them in order of deadline so you can plan your building time to the best advantage. Make sure to check the LEGO activity calendar for local challenges and events near you. Here at BrickNerd, some of our fondest memories, greatest building achievements, coolest trophies, and best friendships came from LEGO...

Following yesterday’s look at the LEGO House’s upscaled Captain Red Beard, today we take a continued tour around a pirate bay MOC that is as big as they get! Despite the scale of this build, it’s not a collaboration between a bunch of LUG members but rather a singular build made by a Swedish couple who just decided one morning to build something huge. So hold your breath as we take a deep dive into this awesome creation. Andreas: Thanks for chatting with BrickNerd. Could you introduce yourselves a bit? Martina & Andreas: We are Martina and Andreas Hed, and we live in a small town called Köping in Sweden. We actually didn’t have any interest in LEGO when we first met in 2006. We are both musicians and have played in the same band, so we can say that music actually brought us together. When our band split up, we...
The LEGO House has just released the latest model in their exclusive limited-edition series, 40504 A Minifigure Tribute, available only in Billund, Denmark. Celebrating the 45th anniversary of the minifigure, this 6x-scale version (maxifig) of Captain Red Beard is the latest iteration of brick-built minifigures that LEGO has created over the years. Join BrickNerd as we take a look at the similarities and differences between these brick-built buccaneers! Predecessors at Scale Before we look at our pirate friends, we have to start a few decades earlier. A large brick-built minifigure (set 3723) was released in 2000. Standing nearly 20 inches tall, this version included movable arms, hands, a rotating neck and a removable hat. The legs were in a fixed position, although they did visually depict the leg hinge of real minifigures. The set had a whopping 1,850 pieces, including over 500 2x_ bricks (you can fill in the blank with...