The City Of Alayon

When it’s time to blog something you need to crank up the creative juices, you know? It’s not enough to put a pretty picture up, you have to have some at least marginally interesting words to go with it. Occasionally they come easy, sometimes they don’t. And sometimes they seem so diametrically opposed to the true creative energy that went not only into the build that’s featured, but the description and back story of that build. This stunning floating city by Brother Steven is a good example of this. Click through a read the description of this amazing creation (and see a bunch more pictures!), and then you’ll understand what I mean, and why these words are so mundane, I never stood a chance.

The Burrow

One of my favorite places in the Wizarding World, and a place I would genuinely like to visit, is the homestead of the Weasley family, the humble but wonderfully whimsical Burrow. While the books did a pretty good job of painting the picture of what this place looked like, the movies really completed it and make it real. This micro scale MOC by vitreolum captures the whimsy that makes this place so appealing.

Stay On Target!

Builder Josh DaVid LEGO Creations is back with another brilliant kinetic sculpture, this time it’s Star Wars related. Let’s see, Star Wars related, mechanical and LEGO, sounds like my cup of tea (he said, drinking a cup of tea). Check out the video to see not only this thing in motion, but a reveal of the ingenious mechanism that makes it possible.

Yabba Dabba Do!

Micro builds like this make me so happy. With just a handful of parts builder Everblack not only built an instantly recognizable scene, he transported me to any given Saturday morning of my childhood. Yes the Flintstones was originally created as a primetime show, with a decidedly adult audience in mind (it’s modeled after the Honeymooners after all) but when it’s good storytelling done with tongue firmly inserted in cheek, kids will watch too. And boy did we.

Schwere Kanone

Builder Benjamin Cheh has gone fully beefy on this latest mech build. Meet the AGM Type 88mm "Schwere Kanone" Gustav, a seriously heavy mech. With two giant cannons, and positively bristling with armament, this dude mean business. Wherever these are deployed you can expect instant pacification, or some serious fireworks.

Chilly Exploration

On a distant, frozen world, intrepid scientists endure sub zero temperatures to research renewable energy and explore. Builder Norton74 revives the sub-theme Ice Planet 2002 with this awesome exploration vehicle. It makes me feel like it’s 1993 all over again. I was busy making the switch from creature effects to digital, and getting married, so wasn’t buying much LEGO, but I remember admiring these in the stores. None of the real sets were nearly this cool though.

A Private Island

We if this isn’t a tranquil scene, I don’t know what it. According to builder Disco86 there are a lot of accurate details if you know anything about yachts. I’ll tell you truthfully, I don’t know anything about yachts. But I don’t need that bit of knowledge to appreciate what a lovely creation this is, in a lovely setting, that’s making me just a little jealous of those little dudes in the dingy.

Stormbreaker

Brickatecture has returned with another astounding recreated LEGO prop! Stormbreaker is the new iconic weapon of the God of Thunder, Thor, as seen in Avengers: Infinity War. The builder did an incredible job building this model, and had this to say about it: “Fully capable of summoning the Bifröst. This swingable, battle ready LEGO axe took only 2 weeks and 1,000 LEGO bricks to make. I’d say my favorite part was creating the hammer shape on the back using wedge plates and ball joints. And thanks to Groot, the handle is super sturdy.” The shaping on the blade truly is something, and the little added detailing of the roots wrapping around the metal is an excellent touch.

Kettenkrad

War makes humans do strange things (I mean, besides kill each other for resources or for having the wrong deity). Some time in the late 1930's some Germans were sitting in a room and one of them said something akin to "what if we combined a motorcycle and a tank?" The whole idea might have died right there, but war was eminent, so the world ended up with the Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101. Flash forward about 80 years and builder redfern1950s2 said something akin to "what if I combined bricks to build a combination of a motorcycle and a tank?" And I for one am happy that he did.

So Peculiar

Have you ever really listened to the first song of Disney's Beauty and the Beast? It has always struck me as odd that the entire town is put off by Belle because she's both, get this, pretty and well-read. They're really upset that this little lady is not only attractive, but has the gall to read! Builder retinence is not put off by this though, and celebrates Belle's beauty and favorite activity in this wonderful creation.  

Gleefully Evil

I think the thing that made Bellatrix Lastrange (or at least Helena Bonham Carter's portrayal of her) so creepy was just how much fun she had being so bad. She was gleefully evil (gleevil?), and took great pleasure in doing awful things. Speaking of great pleasure, this MOC by vitreolum gives me all the good wizarding world feels. It's a lot of cool techniques and style packed into a tiny package. And great evil has never been more cute before I believe.

Circle Rocks

I'm not surprised I haven't heard of the band Circle, they're from Finland and I can't even pronounce their best known songs. But builder Pate-keetongu is a big fan, and I'm a big fan of Eero's, so I'm going to call myself a fan-by-proxy. I certainly dig this tribute build to the band, and all six current band members. I've also listened to some of their music now, they're legit. Rock on Circle, rock on.

Hyrule Castle

Here at BrickNerd, we like to sometimes to do a blast from the past feature. . .

Back in 2015, Legends of Zelda video game fan Joseph Z. unveiled his massive model of Hyrule Castle, a recognized location from Twilight Princess. A labor of love for roughly 2 years, this creation features some beautiful octagonal roof and tower designs (which feature the use of many "click hinges"), interesting stone texture using many 2x2 tiles in light bluish gray, and a lot of attention to detail. Not only does the model look fantastic from a distance, but as you get closer you even notice that there is a complete courtyard with different scenes going on to help bring the model to life. Check out all the angles of this creation and more Zelda builds by Joseph here!

Edoras, the Golden Hall of Meduseld

The Third Age Collaboration has been making its way around Flickr, bringing many talented online builders together with a common love of bricks and Tolkien. This incredible recreation of Edoras by norlego completely blew me away. This model is just beautiful in its enormous size, with so much excellent detailing. No detail was skipped, and no shortcuts were made in this design. Make sure to check out the other models featured in this online collaboration! 

"Lock S-Foils In Attack Position"

Builder Jerac confirms something I've been saying for years, that the X-Wing is not a simple ship. Despite the twenty or so iteration from LEGO itself, they're still struggling to get this ship right. It has compound curves, gentle slopes, thin wings and other aspects that make it a challenge to build. Despite these hurdles, Jerac has succeeded to a level, especially at this scale, that I haven't seen before. Now cut the chatter Red 2, accelerate to attack speed...

Victorian Street

Fancy a stroll? The Victorian times must have been exceptionally interesting time to be alive. New inventions constantly, fascinating fashion, and style everywhere you look. Of course there was also class warfare (and just plain warfare for that matter) and cholera so it wasn't exactly utopia. But there certainly were some awesome buildings built weren't there? Like those depicted in this excellent street scene by looooookl.

"Paper" Cut Chicken

This is one of those MOCs you might just scroll past if you weren't paying very close attention. what really sells it is the "scraps" and the scissors (which are also brick built). A very clever intersection of crafts and poultry from builder EugeneTTs.

Bricksburg: 2046

If a hotel is in crumbling, grimy ruins, does it have no vacancies or is every room a vacancy? I don't know, but it's not everyday I get to use "grimy" as a compliment, and Legofin's Cyberpunk slum is gorgeously grimy.

A Wizard Should Know Better

I can't help but feel a little sorry for Saruman. He was so duped by Sauron he built an army, only to have a bunch of slow-moving talking trees show up and kick his butt. But in the end he deserved everything, and should have known better. Builder cypiratemocs recreates a small part of a pivotal moment in the battle for Middle Earth, the last march of the Ents. Lead by Treebeard, and influenced slightly my Merry and Pippin, the Ents marched on Isengard, and uncorked a great big bottle of whoopass.

Awesome Scale Tires For Technic

The fine folks at Pro-Line Racing are not only passionate about RC racing, they're also big into LEGO. So imagine their delight and surprise to discover that the off road tires they developed for RC also happen to fit on LEGO technic vehicles. Not only do they fit, they look amazing! Check out the video below for more details and visit them at www.prolineracing.com and for a limited time use the code PROLINEBRICK10 to save 10%.