Black Rover, Black Rover, Send the Impeder Over!

Black Rover, Black Rover, Send the Impeder Over!

Despite being a year old, or from the “before times” as some members in my LUG call it, Capt. Dad’s first building foray into the land of Neo-Classic Blacktron got noticed by BrickNerd’s Message Intercept Base. I do love a good rover, and it is a great way to kick off Febrovery!

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Support BrickNerd (and Get Swag!) By Becoming a Patron

Support BrickNerd (and Get Swag!) By Becoming a Patron

BrickNerd has brought together an amazing group of international contributors and we are excited to continue highlighting the fan community—but we need your help. Today, we are launching the BrickNerd Patreon— and some pretty cool swag!

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LEGO Community Headlines & Highlights for January 2021

LEGO Community Headlines & Highlights for January 2021

At BrickNerd, we celebrate getting nerdy about the bricks (I mean, you’ve read some of our articles, right!?). So we are starting a new series curating the best LEGO stories that caught our contributors’ attention throughout the month.

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A Bonsai Strong Enough to Weather a Winter Storm

A Bonsai Strong Enough to Weather a Winter Storm

If you have noticed the internet being overrun by LEGO bonsai trees as of late, it is for good reason. Brickset’s Build a Bonsai Competition is churning out some amazing entries (all because of the goats for a prize, I’m sure!), and Carter Witz is throwing his hat into the ring. His elegant bonsai would look at home on the neatest desk, but there’s more to this creation than meets the eye!

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A Tribute To Trebek

A Tribute To Trebek

With the tragic loss of Alex Trebek last year, I wanted to build a meaningful tribute to the man and his legacy of knowledge. So I built a moving kinetic sculpture of the “Greatest of All Time” tournament and discovered that building LEGO is not too dissimilar to Jeopardy. I knew the answer of where I wanted to go, I just needed to figure out the right questions that would get me there.

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Mastering the Art of Bonsai

Mastering the Art of Bonsai

The art of Bonsai is an elusive one, taking years to learn, requiring careful decision-making and patience above all. In that sense, it feels a lot like creating LEGO models—which is definitely an art Marius Herrmann has mastered. Marius, widely known as steponabrick both on Flickr and Instagram has shared an entry for Brickset’s ongoing Build a Bonsai competition—an expressive and lifelike sculpture, making masterful use of a variety of elements and beautiful techniques.

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"Know Your Pieces" Like This 10,000-Piece Framed LEGO Painting

"Know Your Pieces" Like This 10,000-Piece Framed LEGO Painting

Being a fan of highly detailed facades, especially most from the Oriental part of the world, I must say that the more you look at this one the more you will find. Builder Hoang Dang—known in the LEGO community as Know Your Pieces—has practically created a “Where’s Waldo” of spectacular nice-part-usage (NPU) out of 10,000 pieces.

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MOC TALK, Part 2: If You Build It, They Will Come

MOC TALK, Part 2: If You Build It, They Will Come

In my last article, I discussed the issue of displaying LEGO sets at a fan convention and the plans I made to create a local MOC-building community to help change the situation. The grand plan was to create a MOC TALK series of small “show-and-tell” sessions, requiring attendees to bring something with them that they have designed and built themselves to talk about and show off. But would it work?

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MOC TALK: How to Cultivate a Local MOC Building Community

MOC TALK: How to Cultivate a Local MOC Building Community

Many times, change is born out of irritation. One day, you finally decide to take matters into your own hands and take action to change something for the better. Sometimes that momentum leads to reinvigorating a community-focused AFOL blog when other LEGO community-oriented content seemed to have fallen by the wayside. In my case, I became frustrated seeing the growing number of built LEGO sets being displayed at LEGO conventions. This is my story of how to cultivate a community of LEGO builders that go beyond sets.

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The Classic LEGO Theme You Should Vote For

The Classic LEGO Theme You Should Vote For

To celebrate LEGO’s 90th anniversary, the company is letting fans vote for a classic theme that will be the inspiration for a new singular set released in 2022. But which of the 30 themes on the ballot should you vote for? Our BrickNerd team weighed in and came to the conclusion that the single perfect LEGO theme to make a comeback is…

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Creativity, Pain and LEGO: A Personal Journal

Creativity, Pain and LEGO: A Personal Journal

It's not easy to write about pain… But I feel it is important to explore an aspect of the LEGO passion that many don't think about. In a series of articles, I will try to tell you about my personal journey expressed through LEGO and explore several topics related to my experiences as an AFOL. … For me, deep down, LEGO is the one thing that feels safe and uncomplicated in a complicated life.

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Lean Mean Sci-Fi Machines!

Lean Mean Sci-Fi Machines!

I stumbled upon this gem of a dronuary build yesterday and was immediately taken by the aggressive near future military design aesthetic of the humanoid and walker style drones. Squad Sierra is a must-see. Builder ReD M is a master of high-quality sci-fi digital creations, including many that you might have seen during the height of the Hibernia Flickr community craze a few months ago. So it comes as no surprise that the latest build is another gem.

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How My LEGO Hobby Got Me Invited to the Royal Palace

How My LEGO Hobby Got Me Invited to the Royal Palace

Hi! I’m Are. That’s me on the right in the picture above (albeit in a slightly younger version). About ten years ago, after I had rediscovered LEGO, I dove head-first into the world of AFOLs—which I never knew existed up until then. Since then I have traveled to LEGO conventions all over the place (well, not all over, but I’m getting there!) and been so lucky to meet all kinds of fantastic people. And what happens when you go places and meet people? You collect stories.

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