East Meets East

Capturing the human form in any artistic medium is always a challenge.  But Grantmasters has done just that with these two armed foes.  Their poses, right out of a martial arts movie, convey the tension before a sudden burst of controlled fury, most likely accompanied by a taunt about the opponent's questionable parentage.   Dubbed into English, of course. 

East Meets East

Harry Potter Ornaments

This is fun. When someone says "Christmas" you may not be inclined to think of Harry Potter immediately. But the holiday has featured pretty prominently in the books (c'mon, the invisibility cloak was pretty much the best present ever), so why not a little reminder on the tree? Builder rolli has assembled these absolutely charming miniature scenes from throughout the series. There's a key in the description on Flickr, but I'd recommend puzzling them out first, they're SO good!

Harry Potter Christmas Ornaments

More From Westeros

Builder Legopard is back with a couple more offerings inspired by the opening titles of Game of Thrones. First up is Castle Black, home of the Night's Watch, defenders of the wall. They've been guarding the north so long they barely remember what they're guarding it from. And next is King's Landing, where you go to sit on the most powerful throne in Westeros, and probably get killed shortly after.

GoT - Castle Black
GoT - King's Landing

When The Weather Outside Is Frightful....

....But the fire is so delightful, and since we've no place to go, build LEGO! Build LEGO! Build LEGO! Maybe build a nice holiday-themed diorama, like this one by Firas Abu-Jaber. He's known best for his cars, but I've got a soft spot for LEGO penguins and the one he built here is just adorable.

Season's  Greetings - LEGO MOC

GOES-16

Here's a fun fact, I live just a few miles from Vandenberg Air Force Base and the 30th Space Wing, the west coast space launch center. When I was a kid there were launches all the time, mostly missile tests for the cold war (kinda chilling in retrospect) but also plenty of scientific launches. These days they're fewer and further between, but always a thrill. The GOES-16, depicted here with an excellent MOC by eldeeem, was launched in Florida though, so I didn't get to hear the engines roar and watch my windows shake, but I'm sure it was pretty awesome.

GOES-16

MOCstalgia - Holiday Edition

As the holidays approach us, we often reflect on events of the year.  Here at BrickNerd, we're taking a look at some classic past Christmas MOC's.

For this post, Chris McVeigh's popular "Brick Sketches" were chosen as a holiday blast from the past.  Check out these joyful characters!  Happy holidays to all, and all build on!

They Bounce
The Dentist
The Greatest Prospector in the North!
He's Making a List
He's a mean one.
The Most Famous Reindeer of All
Comment

Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here

Oh Christmas Tree...

I for one am eternally grateful I haven't lost my child-like appreciation for Christmas. My immediate response to anyone that asks how old I am is "chronologically"? Not much makes me happier than sitting in my living room on Christmas morning with the fire going, my family around me, Christmas music on (or A Christmas Story) and the tree glowing softly with presents under it. Like this wonderful tree by builder wenyehng. And the knowledge that at least some of those presents under that tree were designed for someone decades younger than me gives me no small sense of pride. I'm a manchild, and it's my favorite day of the year.

Christmas Preparation

Argh Me Hearties! Wait, Wrong Time Period...

Patrick Massey has put the finishing touches on a beautiful replica of a Viking warship!  I like that he chose to do the hull with dark brown instead of the typical brown we see in wooden structures.  The hull is well-shaped with the wonderful shields staggered on the side of the boat.  The crew of this ship will have a strong defence!  I think my favorite part of this ship is the dragon head on the bow.  It's one of the most accurate I have seen at this scale, and I noticed multiple different Viking ships in the past few months.  It would be super cool to see a whole fleet of this particular version!

Viking Longship
Comment

Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here

Winter Is Here

As anticipation of the final season of Game of Thrones builds, I expect we'll see a few more GOT inspired MOCs. These two beautifully built micro scale castles from Legopard are inspired by the mechanical ones in the opening credits of the epic series. The hardest part of viewing them is not hearing the theme song, and that nagging thought that we're still months away.

GoT - The Twins
GoT - Winterfell

A Breakout MOC

Yeah, low hanging fruit of a post title, sorry, I can't help myself sometimes and I haven't finished my tea yet. But gaming has been on my mind recently, with the missed opportunity for the Nintendo NES Classic, the gift of LEGO Dimensions and all the stuff my boys play. I'm an old school gamer, I remember when Breakout was a new game (old school? I mean just old). The thing that caught my eye on this nod to 8-bit from Vitreolum is the near perfect camera alignment and lack of distortion. It practically looks like artwork rather than bricks.

Game On!

The Arkansas Chuggabug

Builder redfern1950s is back with another addition to his Wacky Racers project. This time it's the roarin' rednecks Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chugabug. You wouldn't think an old fashioned wood burning stove would be an optimal power plant for a race car, and you'd be right. That thing blew up in practically every race.

Wacky Races " The Arkansas Chuggabug "

It's All About That Base

The current ABS Builder Challenge has started and we're witnessing some fantastic builds so far! The ABS Challenge is a 2-week competition where 4 builders use a "seed piece", a specific LEGO element, that they must incorporate in all the of the creations for this competition. One of my favorites so far is Marcel V. "obligatory" flower! I know, I know, a flower is made at least once in every one of these rounds; but its not the flower, with the blue seed piece, that caught my eye...it was the stand! 

Obligatory ABS-Flower

Santa!

Christmas is less than two weeks away! I'm eagerly awaiting this guy's visit, although I have no idea how he's going to get my new Toyota Tacoma 4-door into his sleigh. Builder DOGOD Brick Design brings us this wonderful rendition of the world's jolliest old elf, and it's frankly one of the best brick-built Santas I've ever seen.

DOGOD_Santa_Claus_TOP

UPDATE: Not only is this a fantastic rendition of Santa, he's also got a little surprise in the back. He opens up to reveal a charming little scene of Santa enjoying some hot cocoa by the fireplace, brilliant!

nEO_IMG_DOGOD_Santa_Claus_ 19

It's All An Illusion (Or A Sham)

Towering over the city of Pyongyang in North Korea, the Ryugyong Hotel is a testament to ill-conceived ideas (that's a pun, trust me). While started in 1987, it was never finished. And despite the shiny glass exterior, it's basically just a glorified telecommunications tower. In fact, it's only shiny on one side, the side that faces their mortal enemies, South Korea. The other side is indicative to it's true nature, an abandoned building. Ryan McNaught built this as part of his Brickman Wonders of the World exhibit.

LEGO Ryugyong Hotel
Ryugyong Hotel north side

"Diabolically Simple!"

Captainsmog has begun what looks like a fantastic new series of MOCs based on a cartoon classic - the Wacky Races! Sure, every episode had the same basic premise, but this show still holds a place in my heart, full of memories of Boomerang re-runs from the mid-2000s. His series starts with a great rendition of the most famous car of the series, the Mean Machine - and he's already posted the second MOC, which you can check out on his Flickr page.

Wacky Races - Mean Machine

Gladiatorial Combat

When I look at the state of the world these days and wonder if we've lost our collective minds, it's easy to forget we were never terribly bright to begin with. Tossing some guys in the middle of an arena and making them fight to death was considered rather good entertainment once. Or just a single guy, and maybe a tiger (who just wants to be left alone), that's some good fun right there. Well, it makes for a jaw-dropping MOC, that's for sure. This stunning scene was done for the MOCOlympics by W. Navarre.

Into the Arena