The story of Ole Kirk and the LEGO company origins has been told many times. In fact, here at BrickNerd we told the story with animation for the LEGO Brickumentary just last year. But I don't know that it's ever been told with such charm and accessibility as this new book by duopress, Awesome Minds: The Inventors of LEGO Toys.
Read MoreWe see a lot of rovers in the AFOL community and on Flickr. I can understand why, space is a classic theme, and everyone loves a fun space build. But with all those rovers being made it's hard to stand out, so I tend to overlook them quite often. Then I see this awesome rover by TrapleS. It does sorta look like the mars rover got busy with a light bulb, but that's what I love about it.
BrickSlopes is a LEGO fan event in Orem Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. For some reason they invited me to be the keynote speaker this year (really? Me? What were those guys thinking?). So mark your calendars, make your travel plans and I'll see you at BrickSlopes in June!
Who couldn't use an extra hand sometimes huh? Builder Centuri decided he needed one and here's the result, a clearly T800 inspired mechanical hand. Hand anatomy is hard to get right in bricks, robotic aesthetics are difficult to master as well, so to get them both spot-on in one MOC is a feat.
Me and Rayman go way back. I have fond memories playing on my customized Gameboy Advance (I hacked a front light into it). When Rayman 4 came out he had a new nemesis, Rabbids, who turned out to be so popular they ended up being a franchise on their own. Here we see them in one of their numerous natural habitats, a pirate ship, brilliantly recreated by builder bricks.life.idea.
If you haven't seen it, and you've a fan of Star Wars (or corporate inspired pseudo dramas) you have to check out Saturday Night Live's brilliant parody of Under Cover Boss: Starkiller Base. Adam Driver reprises his role of Kylo Ren, and goes under cover while he tries to get a feeling for how things are going in the company. But if that's not funny and charming enough, how about a recreation in Minifigures by Powerpig In his typically pitch perfect style? This is just screaming to be animated.
Having just survived the weekend this MOC by MSP! sorta makes me want to get to the next one. Not that I'm much of a drinker, the exact opposite in fact, but there's a local place called Native Tongue that serves pretzels and cider, yum! I can just see this girl a few stools down from me and Mrs. BrickNerd as we enjoy our snack and drinks.
Once in a while a MOC comes along that really makes you stop and look closely at the choice of parts used. The use of Rats as clouds in this little vignette by Letranger Absurde is just brilliant. The model is titled The Princess and the Knight - A Play and it really does capture the feel of a small theatre, small being the operative word! When you look closely at the parts used to create the girl in this scale, giving her so much detail and form, its show stopping!.
Different things are done differently around the world, and different nations all have that thing they're known to be the best at. All the best electronics come from Japan, the best food comes from France, nobody pours a pint like the Brits and here in America it's bacon bowls, snuggies and guns. And if you want to talk cars, you better talk about Italy, because nobody does it sexier. Take for instance the Testarossa, like this beauty by Firas Abu-Jaber, it's practically pornographic.
"It's time to play the music, It's time to light the lights, It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight!" Every successful TV variety show needs a great band, and Grubaluk has masterfully recreated this one from the Muppet Show. Dr. Teeth, Zoot, Floyd Pepper, Janice, and of course, Animal (pronounced An-i-mal!)
I've had my eye on this series of builds for several weeks now, but Cole Blaq has finally posted a group shot of his 2222 team. The context for these is "the close cyberfunk'd future." He's got the Aliens 2 inspired MPV, the drop ship, the mech, plus the infantry. All very effective at near-future crowd control and intimidation. I don't know, Cole, better not give them too many good ideas. Check out the whole set here.
Builder davekuhh is back with another gigantic and insanely detailed piece of heavy machinery. This time it's a Volvo excavator, and it's a beauty. At first glance it's really hard to judge the scale of this thing, but after you peruse the pics (and there's plenty more if you click through) you can start to get an idea of it. It's too bad the ones in real life don't stay this clean, it's actually a really slick design.
It's one of the best ways to settle a dispute, requires no tools or additional game pieces, is easy to learn and impossible to master. It's rock, paper, scissors, or roshambo. For the truly nerdy among us though, things can be taken to the next level by adding Spock and lizard. And even more nerd cred goes to Takamichi Irie, for building it in LEGO (with the new half round tile even, spiffy).
UPDATE: Things got very nerdy, well played sir, well played.
The discriminating gentleman knows quality when he sees it. Like this finely crafted electromechanical wonder from the fine folks at Kaisers Werkstatten (and Captainsmog). This is the Mobile Mechanized Tesla Cannon, or MMTC. It's the perfect apparatus for a nice stroll about the neighborhood or perhaps showering a hoard of your enemies with high intensity electrical energy.
Builder Brother Steven brings us this breathtakingly beautiful shot of a whimsical and serene setting. This is some top notch building, lighting, composition and editing. It sets a mood and draws you in, like a tranquil scene in a movie.
Not to sound like an old man (like I can help it, I'm an old man) but you kids don't know how good you have it. When I was growing up we had six channels, six! And part of the day at least two had the same thing on. So getting to see something new or cool was rare. Like that time we got to see Ultraman one Saturday, our tiny little minds were blown. This version of the hero by nobu_tary has an awesome, updated look. One thing that sorta turned me off when I was a kid was his big bug eyes and mohawk fin. I think if he had been this cool I might have soiled myself.
I don't know how I missed this three weeks ago (I blame the holidays) but check out this chest burster from Grantmasters! It's not a big MOC, but it's certainly clever, and what's more is it's purist, that's all legit LEGO. Makes my ribs hurt just looking at it.
I nearly scrolled right past this mind-boggling MOC by davekuhh. It's not that I have anything against construction equipment or Catepillar, there's just so many of them. But then I noticed an unusual amount of detail, and I was curious what the "sand" was that it was moving. Turns out this thing is absolutely colossal, and that "sand" is a mix of 1x1 and 2x2 tiles! You'll have to click through to truly appreciate this beast, it's over three feet long and really needs to be seen at high resolution.
When the robots inevitably take over we can only hope our robotic overlords are as cute as these K3 mechanoids from Legoloverman. I mean sure we'll be slaves to them, or possibly just power sources or fuel, but at least they'll be adorable, right?
So you're a king of men, just ruling and being all kingly and stuff. And this dude shows up with a really nice, shiny ring for you. Of course you take it right? Well, if it turns out it's a ring of power, and the dude that gave it to you was the dark lord of Mordor (and he has his own ring that sorta controls yours), and now you're destined to be a ringwraith. but hey, at least you're the leader right? And then a brick artist named nameless_member builds a nifty MOC of your helm, so you have that going for you.
What happens when you turn a LEGO pirate ship into a Great Ball Contraption? Brian Hickey and his family find out, building a working module and learning a few hard lessons when it joins the GBC loop at BrickCon.
The Spindlejack messengers have a new predator on their tail! Dan Ko shares his T-R3X Speeder Bike, a dinosaur-inspired ride for the light-fingered Swindlejerks, with free instructions to build your own bike and display stand.
Creating LEGO cityscapes is an AFOL passion, but how do you build sidewalks and curbs that curve like in real life? We share some step-by-step instructions using some helpful new elements to make sure your city has curb appeal.
Monet painted his garden many times, exploring changes in color and time of day. Meredith Najewicz follows his lead, rebuilding the LEGO Art Water Lilies set with a darker palette and some creative part substitutions to cast the lilies in a different light.
It is time to take to the skies to see all the LEGO floating islands that populate our imaginations. Check out these gravity-defying rocks and learn why they might be one of the best ever collab ideas.
Old LEGO magic still has its charms. We revisit Borgin and Burkes and Dumbledore’s office to compare how their buildings, curious objects, and magical creatures have changed across generations of Harry Potter sets.
Want to customize a minifig without fancy printers or toxic fumes? Learn how to use the dark art of reductive design to literally erase the line between official and custom LEGO parts.
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Are you one of those people that has a perpetually messy building table? If so, you are not alone. Ted Andes comes out in defense of creative clutter and pleads the case for there being a method-to-the-madness of a messy building table. Read on to find out why a little bit of disorganization can be a good thing.