Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published April 4, 2021.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Cottage - by Kristel Whitaker (… any Easter eggs hidden in there?…)

Easter is a time for coming together and celebrating new beginnings—something especially relevant here at BrickNerd. There are many traditions that surround the Easter holiday. One of the most well-known is the Easter egg hunt, with its origins tracing back to the late 16th century. Many of us have fond childhood memories of decorating Easter eggs and then trying to find them all on Easter morning—with our parents giving us hints and hoping that we had found them all (or we certainly would have a month later—“Where is that smell coming from?”).

The term “Easter egg” has also taken on a special meaning in this digital age. It is commonly used to describe a hidden surprise in a video game, film, or other electronic medium. With a keen eye, they can also be found in official LEGO sets too, many times on sticker sheets, in the resemblances of minifigs, or in clever design features.

For those of us that are too old to participate in those traditional Easter egg hunts, I thought it might be fun to do a little “digital” Easter egg hunting of our own throughout the LEGO community. Here are some examples of Easter eggs that we have found hidden in MOCs from around the world.

Froggy Friends

We all learned quite a bit about the big building year of the incomparable Eli Willsea, but did you recall that he also likes to hide little green frogs in his builds? Well, specifically it is one green frog named “Jimmy.” Just when it seemed like we had seen the last of Jimmy, he has turned up yet again and has us all jumping for joy—especially Micah.

Golden Pieces

If you watched the first season of LEGO Masters here in the USA, you will certainly recognize Samuel Hatmaker as one of the talented and inspiring builders who made it to the finals. Did you know that there are hidden Easter eggs in most of Sam’s builds? For example, in their Golden Girls mosaic portraits, there are 177 metallic gold pieces placed across them in total, representing all 177 episodes of the show. Can you find them all? Sam also used four dark brown 1x1 plates in Sophia, three in Dorothy, two in Blanche and one in Rose. I will leave you all to discern the significance in those numbers (we certainly can’t be giving away ALL of Sam’s secrets).

The Golden Girls - by Samuel Hatmaker (P.S. - Samuel does commissions… )

Train Blox

The train builders of our LEGO community are very well known for hiding Easter eggs around their layouts for children to find at the various conventions and train shows—but what about actually IN the trains they build? Well, it is rumored that Rob Hendrix always hides one Mega Blok in the trains that he submits into any competition. “Why?” you ask? Well, “Why not?!” We don’t have any pictures to actually PROVE that he does this, but knowing Rob’s sense of humor, it is most certainly true.

… And has it really been 15 months since we featured a train of any kind on BrickNerd?! Talk about an Easter egg hunt! Let’s remedy that today by sharing one of Rob’s recent creations: the Rivet Counter Detector Unit (perhaps his entry for the Texas Brick Railroad “Funny Freight Contest!”?). If you look closely at its custom-printed sides, you may even find an Easter egg or two. Perhaps that rotating detector dish can also help us find more trains to feature on BrickNerd—because it looks like we could use all the help we can get.

RIVET COUNTER DETECTOR UNIT - by Rob Hendrix (click the image above to watch the video on flickr)

Tribute to a Guardian Angel

nnenn: It has been 11 years now since the passing of Nate “nnenn” Nielson. He had a tremendous impact in the LEGO space building community—challenging paradigms with his audacious usage of both color and non-Lego parts in his builds. His memory still lives on every NoVVember, when the community builds the Vic Viper style starfighters that he was so prolific at building. LEGO designer Mark Stafford immortalized “nnenn” in the stickering of the Vic Viper starfighter that he designed for the Alien Conquest series. For my own Easter egg tribute to nnenn, I integrated the rubber band holder that he used as his Flickr avatar into the engine greebling of a Vic Viper that I built almost 10 years ago (along with some audacious coloring of my own).

Ninjago

Back in February, we took a closer look at Ninjago with our Theme 101 series, covering the history, key characters, and various Easter eggs hidden across the sets. If you are ready to put your knowledge of Ninjago to the test, builder “city son” is ready to deliver your final exam with his ultimate Ninjago Easter egg hunt. He built this statue as an entry for the LEGO Ideas contest celebrating 10 years of Ninjago. Once you think you have found them all, you can check your answers against the photos that he posted in his Flickr photostream.

Secrets in the Garden

Before we end, I am sure you are curious to know if there are any Easter eggs hiding in Kristel’s flower garden at the top of this article. The answer to that question is “yes.” However, they are the kind that require getting to know a person to discover them. Like with Malin Kylinger’s builds, those hidden meanings are personal to her. Instead of revealing them, she holds them close, and in turn, allows us to find our own hidden meanings within the garden.

Kristel (who is also on Instagram) was kind enough to give us a little tour through the garden, and did share her inspirations for the build: “This particular build had its genesis in an abandoned roller coaster build, where I had used over-sized plants and the white picket fence. I didn’t want some of the flower designs to go to waste [so I decided to reuse them]. Also, I love the look of a cute cottage with shutters, and it's no secret that I love flowers.”

In addition to the lovely flowers, the window curtains really catch the eye: “The curtains are just 1x2 log bricks in lavender, offset by half a stud. Technically, they are not the ones that are offset; it is the wall. The wall/window is offset by half a stud so that it is centered across the fence, which has an odd number of studs between the main poles. There were quite a few failed attempts at curtains before arriving at this solution. Interestingly, this solution was the simplest of all of them. They ended up being one of my favourite parts of the build.”

Ours too. Thanks again, Kristel, for inviting us into your wonderful gardens to take a closer look.

“The Ugly Duckling” - by Kristel Whitaker

That concludes our Easter Egg hunt for today, but we look forward to seeing more in future LEGO sets and builds from the community. Happy Easter!

Are you someone who loves to hide “Easter Eggs” in your builds, or knows others who do? Tell us about it in the comments below. We’re always eagerly looking for the next hunt. Happy egg hunting, everyone!

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