It’s finally summer! And with the weekend coming up, why not take BrickNerd to the pool and enjoy this month’s roundup of insightful features, deep dives and interesting articles from across the LEGO community? There’s something for everyone! We are lucky to have this many outlets and channels that keep creating incredible content, and these are the best of the month.

Here at BrickNerd, we looked at the LEGO Technic orrery and LEGO Fan Mail, and got a parents guide to Legoland California as well as designer insights about the mushroom house. We built a GBC module, celebrated at Hogwarts, (politely) asked for instructions and levelled up our LEGO habitats. We even highlighted a charity helping rebuild Ukraine, learned about brick-built patina and LEGO ZNAP, and got to know all about one of the best space and community builders of our generation and more. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in June 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 and videos that caught our contributors’ attention throughout the month of June. 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: Complete Tour of Brickworld Chicago 2024

Over the last couple of years, Brickworld Chicago has become the world’s largest LEGO convention—with the expo floor packed with thousands of awesome creations. This almost 4.5-hour-long tour of the show will give you a complete rundown of what was on display.

Brick Central: Shutter Speed Magic

Little is so integral to good photography than knowing how to use your camera settings. As such, knowing how to choose the right shutter speed will help you tremendously—and Brick Central has you covered! Lots of examples and settings to use in this handy little post.

Brickset: The Simplification of the LEGO Building Experience, What's Up With That?

AFOLs often lament that LEGO sets have gotten too easy to build—building instructions barely ask you to use a handful of elements per page, and long gone are the spot-the-difference pages where one really had to use their noodle to build a LEGO set correctly. But why is that? Brickset might just have some answers!

Creative Mindstorms: Making an AI LEGO PixelArt Robot

Automatic LEGO pixelart at the press of a button? Programmed in Python and connected to OpenAI’s Dall-E 3, this Mindstorms creation creates an interesting intersection of LEGO and AI. But how do you actually build this? Creative Mindstorms’ video has you covered!

DuckBricks: The Unreleased LEGO Space Insectoids Story Bible

An almost forgotten space theme from the late 90s, LEGO Insectoids was one of the last LEGO themes that brought us light and sound—and numerous cool pieces in trans-neon green. But how did it come into being, and what was it all about? DuckBricks’ unreleased story bible might have all the answers!

Kevin Parry: LEGO Stop-Motion Compilation

LEGO stop motion is an art form—and Kevin Parry is a master at it. Kevin has made animations for The LEGO Group over the past five years and this video features some of his best work—while allowing a look behind the scenes of what actually goes into this. Mesmerizing work!

MitchBuilds: Fixing A Classic BIONICLE – Rahkshi Revamp

If you’re here for awesome building techniques and a calming video where something magical just comes together, MitchBuilds has just the thing for you: a revamp of the infamous Bionicle Rahkshi – with fun NPU (nice parts usage) and techniques galore!

Rebrickable: Powering Up PoweredUp with Pybricks - Part 1

The replacement of the beloved PowerFunctions system in 2017, PoweredUp, has had a few drawbacks. Third-party apps such as PyBricks are a big help for more autonomous designs—PyBricks specifically allows you to run custom code directly on the hub. But how do you go about this? Rebrickable’s TobyMac is here to help you—and there’s even a Part 2!

R.R. Slugger: 7417 Temple Of Mount Everest ~ Orient Expedition Retrospective

LEGO Adventurers has a fond place in many an AFOL’s heart. 7417 Temple of Mount Everest is one of those iconic sets from the early 2000s that a lot will remember—but how is it holding up? And have you seen the alt builds with illegal techniques that LEGO published for them? R.R. Slugger covers it all and more!

Stonewars: Welcome to the Mushroom Village (translated)

Many of you likely tried to buy Jonas Kramm’s lovely mushroom house earlier this month in the latest BrickLink set release. Now he’s back for the sequel. This post on Stonewars wonderfully highlights all the whimsical details of Jonas’ new BrickLink Designer Program submission.

Tips & Bricks: Beginner Series Lesson 3 - Best Practice

Often quoted and rarely used correctly, both the brick separator and illegal techniques are terms that are being used liberally across the AFOL community. The third part of Tips &. Bricks’ Beginner Series covers both—and explains why some techniques are considered illegal and why others aren’t.

Tips & Bricks: Cultural Context of the 2024 Monkie Kid Summer Wave

LEGO Monkie Kid is one of those wonderful LEGO themes that wows many but few actually fully understand—being deeply rooted in Chinese culture and stories makes it at times difficult to fully appreciate the designs. Tips & Bricks gives us a (hi)story lesson and runs us through the inspirations behind this year’s Monkie Kid summer sets.

Tips & Bricks: A Guide to LEGO Castle

Beloved and full of nostalgia, LEGO Castle is famous for its rich tapestry of factions and colorful heraldry. So Tips & Bricks is going back in time to highlight the various LEGO Castle themes, their factions, characters, and their beautiful insignia!

Toy Photographers: Cosmic Minifigures of the 26th CMF Series

We don’t usually feature reviews—unless they bring something special to the table. And Toy Photographers’ piece on the most recent Collectable Minifigures line does just that. It is a loving series of beautiful photographs, highlighting the varied cast of minifigures in different scenes and settings. Beautiful work!

Women’s Brick Initiative: Meet The Women Of The Masterpiece Gallery 2023

The LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery is home to some of the most amazing LEGO creations on the planet. Three of the current AFOL exhibitors are Gayle Spiller, Kelly Bartlett, and Victoria Young. WBI sat down with all three to hear more about their stories and inspirations and their time at the LEGO House.

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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