LEGO Community Headlines and Highlights for May 2021
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The LEGO community is lucky to have so many blogs, magazines and channels that create amazing content about our hobby. At BrickNerd, we celebrate getting nerdy about the bricks! This past month, we’ve discussed sorting on the cheap, a parrot mystery, The Masked Singer, Bio-Cup, monochrome habitats, a Canadian convention, a periodic table, building colorful buildings, advanced SNOT techniques and so much more. In fact, we’ve included an interactive calendar of all our articles 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 May. 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: Top 5 LEGO Themes That Deserve a Reboot
Beyond the Brick’s Brian Saviano takes a look back at five of our all-time LEGO themes that need a reboot.
Bits N’ Bricks: May the 4th Be With You
From brickifying death scenes to the creation of the Pooper Trooper, Lucasfilm doesn’t just hand over its properties—it also makes sure they’re handled properly. Listen to the folks responsible for ensuring the sanctity of the Lucas creations while still allowing for TT Games’ sense of humor.
Brick Experiment Channel: Building and Testing LEGO Engines
Using LEGO to showcase different engine configurations, we built each engine from scratch and then rotated them at 3000 rpm for visualization and to demonstrate balance.
Brickset: The 1x5 plate
The internet was buzzing with excitement recently when a 1x5 plate was seen in a photo of one of the summer Vidiyo sets. Is it an element we've all been waiting for, or an unwanted POOP (Part Out of Other Parts)?
Brickset: Castle Before Castle
When we think of the Castle theme, many would probably name 1978 as the origins of it all. More than forty years ago, the iconic 375 Castle, with its first medieval minifigure soldiers and knights and rudimentary brick-built horses, was introduced. But what LEGO castles came before that?
Bouwsteentjes: Iconic LEGO Castles (translated)
Read all about the Yellow Castle and a selection of other iconic LEGO castles from the illustrious history of LEGO.
JK Brickworks: How to Build a Tambour Box
These are small, decorative boxes featuring a roll-top that is connected to the back of a drawer below. As the drawer is opened, it pulls the roll-top back and underneath, allowing access to both storage areas in one smooth motion.
LEGO YouTube: Everyone is Awesome Designer Interview with Matthew Ashton
Find out how our Vice President of Design Matthew Ashton created LEGO Everyone is Awesome, a set that celebrates the creativity of the LGBTQIA+ community.
LEGO YouTube: Our LEGO Stories - Never Too Old to Play
Learn how much influence the AFOL community has on some of the decisions LEGO makes, and meet two adult fans for whom LEGO play turned out to be a game-changer.
New Elementary: LEGO City Interview - The New Road Plates
The introduction of brick-built roads replaced the thin baseplates that have been used for decades. So we asked The LEGO Group about the development of this new 'element platform.'
New Elementary: LEGO Speed Champions 2021 Interview
BrickNerd contributor Francesco Spreafico pulled double duty this month and spoke to LEGO Speed Champions Design Manager Specialist, Christopher Leslie Stamp about the upcoming lineup of awesome cars.
Rambling Brick: Returning to Ice Planet, A Builder’s Diary I - Colour and Concepts
I find myself wanting to explore the Ice Planet world a little further: bringing the United Galaxies back to Krysto and using this as the basis for some MOCs of my own.
Rambling Brick: The Road Map For the LEGO Powered Up System Unfolds
We had the opportunity to hear an update about Powered Up from Gaute Munch, Director of the Creative Play Lab, and Flemming Bjørn Jessen, a Senior Producer in the Digital Technology Department.
Sariel’s Bricks and Pets: LEGO Propellers Tested in Water & Ranked
Sariel looks at eleven popular LEGO propellers to test their real-life effect in the water.
StoneWars: 20 Years of LEGO Bionicle - A Look Back (translated)
Christian Faber, one of the creative minds behind Bionicle, shares insight into the development of the LEGO theme, what influence Bionicle had on the LEGO company, and why it continues to inspire its fans to this day.
StoneWars: Off Into Space: Comparing Ulysses Probes (translated)
We take a closer look at two Ulysses space probes and compare them with the real thing.
The Brothers Brick: Writing The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks with Daniel Konstanski
Daniel Konstanski says he’s been allowed full access to The LEGO Company’s archives and has been delving through more than 600 pages of transcripts from interviews he conducted with LEGO employees.
Tips&Bricks: Mental Health Awareness
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge how many of our followers and friends (including BrickNerd contributor Malin Kylinger) use LEGO not only as a source of joy but also as a source of comfort from their own personal struggles or as an expressive art medium to illustrate those struggles.
Women’s Brick Initiative: Analysis of LEGO Disney Princesses, Part 2
As a building toy that generally markets towards children, it makes perfect sense that LEGO would want to partner with Disney. But how are the characters portrayed in minidoll form?
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 from around the internet? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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