Dragon Keep

This latest castle by ZCerberus falls somewhere between humongous and massive in scale. And, a lot of times, when we see builds this large they tend to lose detail due to the magnitude of time it takes to build something on this scale. This castle is clearly the exception. You can tell that a lot of thought was put into the typically more boring parts of the castle, including the injection of color and symbols into the traditionally bland castle walls. Additionally, ZCerberus has done a nice job of creating an interesting and foreboding environment surrounding the keep.

Battle At Hell's Gate

Well, since Tommy is gone on vacation and far away from anything resembling an internet connection, I guess that leaves me in charge and there are going to be some changes around here! Starting right now we are going to feature Castle MOCS and Castle MOCS only. I'm thinking we should re-brand the site, CastleNerd, and slap a kettle hat on nerdly.

OK, not really, but it was a good thought.

Anyway, on to Mr. Patrick Massey's latest MOC, THE BATTLE AT HELL'S GATE! Dun dun dun. All joking aside this is a pretty sweet creation that Patrick has put together. I am a huge fan of the stellar rock work and the exceptional minifigure posing. Also, and take note fellow builders, I really think the evil under-dark of the fantasy castle genre is heavily under represented and would like to see lots more of this.

Make sure to click through the entire series of pictures in this build so you can see all of the little up close posing details.

Earthworm Jim

90's video game platformers were ruled exclusively by a chubby plumber and a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog until an earthworm named Jim, uh, wormed his way into our hearts. Earthworm Jim left a huge impact on the video games industry with bizarre art style and quirky, slightly off-color story.

Daiman has done good job of imagining our slimy invertebrate hero into LEGO brick. I especially like Jim himself and his trusty, over-sized red blaster.

Ultimately the popularity of Jim and his super spacesuit just couldn't keep up with Mario and Sonic, leaving Jim just a fond memory in the hearts of millennials everywhere.

Hynphorka

I am not entirely sure what a Hynphorka is to be honest, I'm having a hard time typing the name of this MOC out correctly, much less even pronouncing it right. Hynph-whatcha-ma-call-it aside, this is stellar ship, dripping with all kinds of crazy cool. Ricardo Soa has made great use of Bionicle and traditional LEGO bricks and successfully weaved them together to make this bad boy stick out. I'm hoping the alien that pilots this bad boy is friendly to us humans. Though, looking at the the missiles and laser cannons on this thing I imagine not. I could just see this thing strafing a remote human colony reaping souls along the way.

Belynia Extended

Some of our loyal readers will instantly recognize this castle from a previous post we did on Belynia Castle. Well Belynia is no longer just a castle but has been expanded out to an entire village. Simon really took this village in a direction that I was not expecting and that is more than OK and I am really floored with the way it turned out. When taking a closer look at the village make sure to check out all the additional details he added including the docks and the water technique on the shore line.

The Grand Joust of Gisellirburg

Mark of Falworth and his real-life brother, "Brother" Steven dropped an excellent medieval joust creation on us late last night. The Grand Joust is taken from the last part of their first book in their new series, The Anselm Saga. This build features a lot of what I like to see in a castle MOC, lots of small details, character, visual depth and a good use of color. I expect we will see many more MOCs from their book series in the coming months so stay tuned and check back often.

Belynia Castle

Castle Belynia by Simon Schweyer feels like it was carved out of the forest instead of built on top of it. Simon does a great job of leveraging rock inclines and angles to pull of a visually interesting earthen fortress. I hope Simon creates additional sections surrounding this castle, including perhaps a small forest village?

Intergalactic Laundry Day

The laundering and ironing of clothes has long been the bane of human existence. The endless cycle of dirtying and washing your daily apparel nearly falls under the definition of insanity. Short of hiring a maid, it is a task you cannot escape. Perhaps someday Rodney the Robot will become a reality and we can live our days with a bit more sanity.

Space Exploration Rover

Some builders build for hyper detail while others build for simplicity. There are very few who can pull off both styles as well as Kosmas Santosa. Kosmas continues to impresses us with his NASA Space Exploration Rover. The rover features fluid almost effortless design, implementation and photo editing.

Like Clockwerk

We LEGO builders tend to forget (on purpose?) that the Bionicle and the Hero Factroy line of LEGO sets are indeed produced by the same company that makes the more traditional "System of Play" sets. Perhaps it is because the Bionicle/HF parts are deemed to unusable in most traditional MOCs? There is however one thing that parts lend themselves to and that is character models. Vlad Lisin has expertly leveraged these oft-neglected parts to create a replica of Clockwerk, one of the playable characters in the popular PC game Dota 2.

The LEGO Movie - Reviewed

Going into the movie theater on Saturday afternoon I honestly didn't know what to expect from The LEGO Movie. I suppose part of me expected the movie to cater to the target LEGO audience 6 to 13-year-olds, but I hoped deep down for something more. I wanted the LEGO Movie to transcend the product, to show the rest of the world what those of us in the LEGO community already know - that the LEGO system of play is thoughtful, complex and beautiful.

A motley crew of heros: Unikitty, Benny, Emmet, Batman, Vitruvius, and Wildstyle.

Not much was known about the LEGO Movie plot going into the release weekend. What we did know was that the movie featured average-Joe Emmet Brickowoski somehow joining forces with the fearless Wildstyle in hopes of saving the LEGO world from Lord Business' evil plans. What they delivered was one amazing, and sometimes bizarre, adventure that criss-crossed many of the classic LEGO themes including city, old west, castle, and pirate. While watching the movie I kept thinking that the plot felt like it was taken from the imagination of my 9-year-old self playing with bricks down my basement.

The animation is top-notch with every element of the landscape and characters rendered in great detail. Each minifigure was brought to life with tiny, lifelike movements of their hair, hands, and limbs. Explosions, lasers, and even water were made from digitally rendered LEGO bricks. The animators used LEGO bricks to painstakingly create all of the structures, vehicles, and environments seen in the movie. I kept wishing I could pause the movie and look at just how everything was built. That being said things on screen got a little overwhelming at times, which made it hard to tell what was going on, but maybe these eyes of mine are just getting old.

So, was LEGO able to break away from historically terrible toy-themed movies? I fully believe so. From the prospective of an adult fan of LEGO the movie succeeded in reminding me of why and how I fell in love with LEGO bricks in the first place. I appreciated the throwback LEGO themes, unexpected cameos and humor that only adults would get. But this is also a family movie and the directors gently remind us that as a community of adult LEGO builders we should help inspire our children, the next generation of LEGO enthusiasts, to think beyond the instruction sheet.

I give The LEGO Movie 5 out of 5 Nerdlies.

Master Oogway

First Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and now an ancient Kung Fu tortoise, what's next, midlife crisis karate terrapins? All joking aside this amazing build by Bruce Lowell from the movie Kung Fu Panda captures the essence of Master Oogway to a T. Bruce has pulled off some cool new tricks, from the white minifig heads shrouded in space helmets for eyes to the excellent use of Ewok glider wings for the back of the sash.

UNSC Spirit of Fire

After four years of planning and building, Mark Kelso has finally unveiled his monster reproduction of the Halo ship Spirit of Fire. And the results are spectacular. At a massive 7 feet long, no detail is too small to include in this masterpiece. Mark took every effort to hide as many studs as possible and successfully pulled off some great angles to model this ship as close to the original as possible. In fact, if you weren't reading a LEGO blog you might think this ship is an actual 3D model.

Now if only someone could convince him to bring it to Brickworld Chicago 2014 so we can all see it in person...

Venetian War Galley

Mark of Falworth is a regular here on BrickNerd and for good reason as he is constantly turning out excellent MOCs including his latest, the Venetian War Galley. I can just smell the salt of the sea and feel the wind in my hair coasting along in this ship and boy does that beach look inviting. It really makes you long for summer doesn't it?

Firestorm Heavy Interceptor

I love this little space ship. From the symmetrical design to the meaty, over-sized engines, the details are perfection. With enough neon to make the 1980s jealous, you'll see this little guy coming from miles away. But not to worry, what it lacks in size it makes up for in power. The Firestorm Heavy Interceptor can hold its own, packing enough heat to outfit a small squadron.

Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza

What we have here is one sleek-looking, crimson beauty. I mean seriously, look at this thing! It would be amazing in any color, but is even more so in the rare LEGO dark red. The build is chock full of great little details including foot pedals, shifter, and a fully modeled engine under the hood.

They just don't make cars like this anymore.

Spacastle

Space and Castle, two of the most iconic LEGO themes ever created, have always been in stark contrast  with each other. Space has been about squeaky clean starships with smooth lines and rocket boosters. Castle, on the other hand, has focused on the nitty gritty sword-and-sorcery struggle between the king and his subjects against some evil faction bent on their destruction. The two have never been crossed before. That is until today! Paul Vermeesch has rocketed the castle theme from planet earth and dropped it on some unknown planet creating a vision of what late-middle-ages on an alien planet would look like.

The Gun Club

In the 1865 novel by Jules Vern, From the Earth to the Moon, three gun fanatics plot the feasibility of being shot to the moon from a massive cannon. Not the brightest idea I suppose, but their meeting does provide a great set piece for Pippo Zane's latest build, The Gun Club. The creation itself is just bristling with details of a mid-1800s library/smoking room that is one far cry from the NASA command center of today.

"I Ain't No Mack, I'm A Peterbilt!"

Bricksonwheels is by far one of the best vehicle builders out there and never fails to please with his various trucks and motorcycles. His latest Peterbilt 362 is one amazing blast from the 80s that fits right in with the best of his creations. Look closely and you'll notice well thought-out details like the door handles, mud flaps and foot steps.

Serpentine Hall

Within the LEGO community we tend to glorify new part usage but not always unique MOCs that fall outside of the normal LEGO themes of space, castle, city, Star Wars, etc. Builder robuko has succeeded in both NPU and building outside the box with his latest creation, Serpentine Hall. While technically a castle build for the ongoing Eurobricks Guilds of Historica building challenge this structure transcends the classic castle theme and really puts it into a class of its own.