2023 has arrived in style, and January proved to be a month full of deep dives, fascinating features and riveting videos from the broader LEGO community. AFOLs are lucky to have so many other blogs, magazines and channels that create amazing content about our hobby, and these are the best of the month.

Here at BrickNerd, we explored bunnies, BrickHeadz, Bionicle and Blacktron. We painted with light, water and UV rays. We raced cars with an expert, built them with Modulex and redesigned the Octan logo. We posted instructions to build a Polaroid camera and took a deep dive into how to build a LEGO event kit. We celebrated International LEGO Day, marked a Doctor Who anniversary, and built with some new LEGO Friends. We learned about the LEGO color palette and how to build rockwork. And we even managed to pose some mechs, go for a ride in a steampunk tram, and experience a pop-up MOC! In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in January, that we’ve included an interactive calendar of them at the bottom of this post so you can make sure you didn’t miss a thing.

But there are many more fascinating stories to be told from within the LEGO community, so here are some of the best LEGO articles that caught our contributors’ attention throughout the month of January. We applaud the effort that went into each of these features, so click on the headlines or photos to head to each story or video. They are well worth your time!

Beyond the Brick: A Day in the Life of a LEGO Master Model Builder at LEGOLAND Discovery Center

What goes into being a Master Model Builder at LEGOLAND Discovery Arizona? Beyond the Brick gives us a behind-the-scenes tour.

Brick Architect: How LUGBulk Works—and Strategies for Making the Most of It!

Once a year, active members of a Recognized LEGO User Group can order LEGO parts in bulk. Let’s learn how the program works—and how to make the most of the opportunity including new color analysis!

BrickCentral: How To Shoot LEGO In Space

Space– the final frontier. Not everyone has millions of dollars to build real rockets and go to space. So if we want to take LEGO to (outer) space, we have to fake it. Here’s how to fake your own LEGO lunar landing.

Brickset: LEGO - A Strategic Analysis

A Senior at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business majoring in Finance and Business Law was tasked with applying strategic management class concepts to a firm or industry, so naturally, they chose LEGO.

BZPower: Building Your Own System Toa

When the Bionicle tribute set was released, I wondered if I could recreate the other Toa in this same style. But do the parts exist in the right colors?

Cheesey Studios: Pharaoh's Quest - The Adventurers Reboot We Forgot About

Today we take a look at LEGO Pharaoh's Quest from 2011 - the Adventurer’s reboot we all forgot about!

Dan the Fan: Illegal LEGO Techniques

Get an overview of how “illegal” building techniques can be used in MOCs and more. Which one of these techniques makes you shudder the mist?

DuckBricks: Full Tour of Billund, Denmark and the LEGO House Museum, Legoland and More

From the Home of the Brick, join DuckBricks as they explore Billund, Denmark from the LEGO House collection to LEGOLAND and everything in-between.

Jay’s Brick Blog: LEGO GWPs Are Getting More Expensive, Proven by Graphs and Data

It feels like LEGO GWPs thresholds are getting more expensive and that we’re getting GWPs at a much more rapid rate, but is that impression actually backed by data?

New Elementary: LEGO Speed Champions designer Christopher Stamp discusses new part 3386

Chris Stamp and the Speed Champions team have squeezed as much functionality into one tiny element as possible! Get to know the newest addition to SNOT bricks and see what functionality it unlocks.

Rambling Brick: The Rambling Brick Turns 7

Today, we celebrate one of our favorite LEGO blogs turning seven! We can’t wait to see what amazing new stories and classic theme analyses Richard creates in 2023. Congratualtions!

Sariel’s Bricks: A New Analytics Tool for LEGO Ideas Projects

The Ideas Tracker is a new free tool made to show all the nerdy details about how LEGO Ideas projects are progressing—a must-visit site for any budding designers or just those who love interesting data.

Secret Galaxy: The History of Bionicle & How It Saved LEGO From Bankruptcy

We explore the history of Bionicle and how it helped to revitalize the LEGO brand. From its creation as a way to appeal to older children to its eventual discontinuation, this is the complete story of LEGO Bionicle.

SpitBrix: Five Times LEGO Was Launched Into Space

LEGO Minifigures have gone further than any human has. From building LEGO sets in the International Space Station to sending minifigs to Mars and beyond, these are the times LEGO has traveled to outer space.

StoneWars: An Analysis of the Current State of LEGO Ideas (translated)

We take a closer look at the last two years of LEGO Ideas, analyze how has the site evolved, take a look at the BrickLink Designer Program, and take stock of the current state of fan-submitted designs.

StoneWars: Rogue Frontier: The Story Behind Bricking Bavaria’s Biggest Collab (translated)

RogueBricks has again created a huge LEGO project that depicts a mountainous Wild West landscape on over 100 base plates that took more than three years to build.

StoneWars: How To Store Lots of LEGO Parts (translated)

Over the years, a considerable amount of individual parts tend to accumulate in any collection. Come explore some sorting and storage strategies along with a custom cabinet based on Trofast shelves from IKEA.

The Brothers Brick: The Brothers Brick LEGO Builder of the Year 2022

Every year, The Brothers Brick goes on a quest to choose who they think had the most remarkable, memorable and productive year across the global LEGO community. Last year the honor went to Sandro Quattrini.

Tiago Catarino: Everything You Want To Know About Building With Brackets

LEGO Brackets have revolutionized the LEGO System forever. But what is the best way to use them in sets and MOCs?

Tips&Bricks: 9 Ways To Build Upside Down

It’s time to turn everything we know about building upside-down! Here are nine different ways to turn LEGO building on its head.

Toy Photographers: How To Take Anamorphic Photos of Minifigs

Anamorphic is a type of lens, used mainly in cinema. It’s got many different qualities including a wide aspect ratio that help any photo, big or small, feel epic.

Women’s Brick Initiative: Do LEGO Women All Look Alike? Repetition of Minifig Heads in Star Wars Characters

It is a common practice for LEGO to reuse the same part for multiple different characters, sometimes even if those characters do not look very much alike. Today we take at the heads of the women of LEGO Star Wars and how often they are repeated in comparison to their character’s movie screentime.

If all of those amazing features weren’t enough to satisfy your LEGO community craving, here is an interactive calendar of everything that BrickNerd has published this last month to make sure you didn’t miss a single article.

Did we miss any of your favorite LEGO articles and content for the month? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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