Brickworld 2017

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Another year of Brickworld has come and gone, but the memories and photos remain for us to share with you. The BrickNerd crew had another showing this year at what is one of the largest if not the largest LEGO convention in North America.

There was a little something for everyone at this year's convention including a massive WWII battleship, an abandoned amusement park, some very cool life-sized video game replicas, and even a mecha Duplo bunny.

If you ever have the chance to attend I highly recommend you do so, because you will have the chance to meet some truly friendly and, quirky LEGO fans from around the world who really make the event what it is, fun.

Who Watches The Watchmen?

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If you're not familiar with it, The Watchmen is an iconic graphic novel from the mid 80's. It's also a mostly terrible movie from 2009. Do yourself a favor, read the novel. Do yourself another favor, never watch the movie. In the mean time, admire this stunning cover to Watchmen #1 featuring my favorite character Rorschach by builder Brick Brickolson.

Watchmen #1: Rorschach

Crossing Orange Fern Gorge

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If you have a fear of heights you may want to look away. In so many classic adventure movies and action serials, the slatted suspension bridge was a nefarious obstacle. Who can forget Indy vs the Thugee warriors on the bridge in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Of course in the movie the rock walls of the cavern were sort of plain and uninteresting. Not the case in this excellent MOC by builder W. Navarre. The stratum of the rock is my favorite feature of this build.

Orange Fern Gorge

BrickNerd LiveBuild - Creator Modular Poolside Holiday

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Join Me and Mrs BrickNerd as we build LEGO 31067 Creator Modular Poolside Holiday live! We'll also be talking about our amazing trip to Paredes de Coura Fan Weekend and the wonderful country of Portugal (with a side trip to France)

Building starts at 8:00pm PST, watch for the hangout shared on Facebook and join us!

Now You're Thinking With Portals

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The Portal series is one of my favorite videogame series of all time. It was a very pleasant surprise when LEGO made an official Portal pack for Dimensions. Anthony Wilson made a pretty stellar moc based on the games. I love the brick-built digital readouts above the door (which sports a great custom decal), and I much prefer these Turret designs over the LEGO Dimensions version.

Portal

The Vulture Is Swooping

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Swords, knives, guns, droid arms, binoculars -- all put to good use in this MOC! Spider-Man: Homecoming comes out in just a few weeks. Custom Vulture designs was something I knew I would see several of in time. This is the first high quality model of Vulture's suit I've seen produced by a builder thus far. Truly a work of art, shaping and filling the gaps by using parts that would've never been used in such ways. If you'd like a full 360 look, check out the video on Grantmasters' photostream.

Vulture
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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. 

LiveBuild Tomorrow!

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While we were in Portugal for Paredes de Coura Fan Weekend we had the distinct pleasure of rooming with the group from LEGO. One of those people was LEGO designer Tiago Catarino, and we learned that his first set was newly on the market. Well, needless to say we nabbed one for him to sign, and another to build.

Join us tomorrow at 8pm PST while we build it live! 

 
 

Queen Aurora

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Every once in a while a MOC comes along that is so colossal, so epic, that it's hard to wrap your head around. The Queen Aurora by builder messerneogeo is just such a MOC. When pictures of this started popping up on Flickr I found myself saying "what is this? Is it really that big?" Well, it it might be digital, but that doesn't diminish the truly staggering scale of this and the amount of work that has gone into no only the build, but the presentation. Click through for many more pics, and be prepared to be astonished.

Queen Aurora 01
Queen Aurora 06
Queen Aurora 13

Mega Mantis

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Insects must bee his thing lately, because Takamichi Irie has built several larger insects recently. This crazy-cool flying mantis is the latest addition, and a great one indeed. I must say, there is quite the buzz around this MOC. The wings are a definite highlight, and catch light beautifully with all the translucent colors used. What an awesome LEGO insect! This would be something very cool to hang from a wall.

Flying Mantis
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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. 

Pizza & Pugs

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Well, this is a surefire hit. I mean, who doesn't love pizza, and who doesn't love pugs? Add them to LEGO and you've got something that appeals to pretty much everyone. There's also a peanut dude, and my personal favorite Mr. Toast. Crazy Bricks is back with another Kickstarter campaign, and needs your help. Upstanding human (and man who knows how to work a top hat) Guy Himber has a loads of cool stretch goals too, so get over there and show your support!

Get Your Ass To Mars

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Sorry, couldn't help the Total Recall reference. It's just hard for me to not think of that when the subject of mars comes up (you should see my Arnold decompression impersonation). Builder eldeeem shows us the not to distant future with this brilliant (and huge) mars colony diorama. There's lots to love here, but my favorite details are the solar panels (I'm a sucker for the perfect part choice) and that rover looks ready to explore the red planet.

Arsia Prime
Arsia Prime | 1

Micro Scale Castle in a Glass Dome

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I've always had great respect for builders who build in micro scale. While their builds are (typically) small, the part selection, and piece usage has to be very intentional to convey a specific idea(s) while only taking up a very small space. As an added level of difficulty builder Peter Ilmrud also restricted himself to a specific dimension, in this case an IKEA glass dome. The result is stunning and makes for a beautifil desk decoration.

Micro Scale Castle in Glass Dome 1

Micro Scale Castle in Glass Dome 4

Don't Get Your Feathers in a Tangle

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Cab ~ reveals a nice brick-built bird display, something that reminds me of some stuffed bird displays I have seen in museums. The body of this bird has some very nice organic shaping along the sides and top. The head and neck also fit very well into the patterning of the white and black feathers. This creature, known as the Tahitian Rail, is an extinct animal from the 1930's (according to the builder and Wikipedia). It may be extinct, but the builder just gave us a reminder of this creature!

Tahitian Rail
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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. 

Table Scrap Tiny Fighters

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Labelled as table scraps by the builder (which is quite ironic, considering that there are several kitchen utensils used here), David Zambito used some brand new collectible minifigure accessories to good use. David used the new dark blue food trays as the panels for the iconic TIE fighter vehicle. With perhaps a recoloring of these pieces in black in the future, and maybe some custom sticker work, these would work incredibly well for microscale TIE fighter building. The other use, which is my favorite, is the at the very end of the Y-wing. Those are the new wisk accessories, which work so very well to cap off a little rebel starfighter. Simplicity is not always a bad thing, as demonstrated here. All you need is your creativity.

Star Wars Table Scrap (extra shots)
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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. 

Transformable Midi-scale Bots

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Transformers are certainly not in disguise in the LEGO community lately. The excitement builds for the release of the next Transformers film, and fans like PsychoBrick46 are building and transforming some LEGO MOC's for the occassion. Though these bots are designed using simple parts, what I really appreciate about them is how well they transform. Both bots are fully transformable, without having to "rebuild" them by taking them completely apart and then building them differently. They function much like the actual Transformers toys, where you turn parts around, pop off parts and put them on at a different angle, etc. For a better understanding of how well they transform, check over on the builder's YouTube channel, where he has posted some breakdowns!

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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. 

Feather Dragons Are Fierce

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How many of you have those dragon-shaped minifigure helmet plumes? Well, have you ever thought of using them as a tiny dragon attacking a castle or village? Neither have I! This tiny medieval layout that is only a mere 6x6 studs (plus SNOT border) is being attacked by two terrifying dragons. The design of this creation may be simple, but the plumes are such an excellent idea brought to us by Jsnyder002!

Feather Dragon Attack on Plume Keep!
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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. 

Technique Tuesday - Treasure Chest Lids

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One of the best things about the LEGO community is that we can learn from one another.  Here at BrickNerd, we like to share techniques that we see from builders all around the world. . .

This week I actually wanted to share one of my own techniques. I recently came into possession of more treasure chests, and I happened to be working on a creation that needed a uniquely textured wall. For this technique I removed the treasure chest lids and only used those. By connecting lids together with tiles, they came together to form columns (as seen below). The lids do not connect together from the inside, so this can be a bit fragile at first. The small hole you see half way up the column is not large enough for a bar attachment, which is a downside. There is no way to get rid of it, because half of each column must face the other way in order to fit together. However, neck brackets can slide into the gaps on the top and bottom of each column. This allows you to switch back to studs-on-top building, which means you could connect each column to a floor or ceiling. With enough friction on the top and bottom, this wall will hold securely. Hope you found this technique inspiring and useful! See this technique and more on my Flickr, NS LEGO Designs.

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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. 

U-Wing Troop Transporter

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Another fine addition to many AFOL's recreations of the new U-Wing from Rogue One. Inthert created his own replica of the Rebel transporter, yet it's still unique compared to other designs. Of course, the function of the wings works and looks very nice, lining up with the large engines. Make sure to check out the builder's photos for views of the cockpit controls and cargo hold!

U-Wing (1)
U-Wing (3)
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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.