LEGO Community Headlines & Highlights for February 2021
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The LEGO community is broad and vast, and so too are all the blogs, magazines and YouTube channels that consistently create amazing content about our favorite bricks. At BrickNerd, we celebrate getting nerdy about the bricks (I mean, you’ve read some of our articles, right!?). So here are some of the best LEGO stories that caught our contributors’ attention throughout the month.
There are so many fascinating stories to be told from within the LEGO community, and we applaud the effort that went into each of these features. Click on the headlines or photos to head to each article. They are well worth your time!
Beyond the Brick: Akiyuki’s Amazing LEGO Great Ball Contraption Modules
Beyond the Brick highlights some of Akiyuki’s GBC modules that helped define the global standard in LEGO ball movers.
Bits & Bricks: LEGO Universe - Birth of an Idea
Journalist Brian Crecente and documentarian Ethan Vincent trace the early AFOL roots and pre-production of the LEGO Group’s first massively multiplayer online game: LEGO Universe.
Blocks: Does every LEGO set have to be minifigure scale?
Does everything have to be exactly minifigure scale for it to be good? What other non-minifigure scale sets besides the Tuk-Tuk can work with minifigures?
Boone Builds: How to Build LEGO Retro Space Blasters
Boone has designed three Sci-Fi Space Blaster Mini-Models and shows how to build them out of LEGO pieces in this video.
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!
Brick Fanatics: Everything we learned from behind the scenes of LEGO Universe
A new video series is exploring the development of LEGO Universe, with a number of new facts for the massively-multiplayer online game, including how AFOLs got involved.
Brick Fanatics: LEGO’s designers know the goat is coveted, but can’t bring it back
The designers of LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith have revealed they know how much the goat is coveted – but the decision to bring it back was apparently out of their hands.
Brickset: Which sets have been available for the shortest period of time?
Have you ever wondered which sets have been available at LEGO.com for the longest period of time, and which have sold out the quickest? At the moment, it seems that every desirable set sells out straight away, but it's not a new phenomenon. Find out which set was available for just one day.
Brickset: Why have Technic pins been changed?
Technic pins are among the most numerous parts that LEGO produces and virtually every set contains at least one of one type or another. Three of the most common have been redesigned recently but are currently existing in parallel with the old versions. It begs the question, though, why change them?
Eurobricks: A review of the first elements from the FX Track system
The forthcoming FX Track system promises to restart the 9v LEGO train system that was discontinued 15 years ago. Unlike modern LEGO track that is all plastic, the 9v track sections had metal crimped on top of the rails to supply power to the train motors. But will these revitalize the 9v community?
Jay’s Brick Blog: Guide - How LEGO’s Lunar New Year Sets Celebrates the Best of Chinese Culture
As someone who grew up celebrating Chinese New Year, these sets have a special place in my heart. LEGO has done an incredible job acknowledging these festivities, investing plenty of love and attention into the designs, storylines and overall cultural accuracy of these sets.
New Elementary: New LEGO Pieces for February 2021
We love to keep you up to date with the newest LEGO parts and so once again, TobyMac has created this list showing all new elements added in February 2021, with links to which sets they come in, so you can check for the ones you might be interested in.
Rambling Brick: An Ice Place To Be - Revisiting Ice Planet 2002
There is no doubt that Ice Planet is a theme that has its stalwart fans: certainly, it has a striking aesthetic, so I thought I would take a closer look, to see what the theme brought to the Space sets at the time, as well as why it might be deserving of some greater love going forward.
StoneWars: Lighting up LEGO sets yourself - a guide to get started
Lighting kits for LEGO models have been a hotly debated topic in the community. In this new series of articles, we report on various ways to illuminate sets yourself and give you tips on how to best make your buildings shine.
The Brothers Brick: LEGO 40179 Personalized Mosaic Portrait: downsized, but not in a fun way
What do you do when the 6,002-piece set you order arrives and it only has 4,502 pieces? Somewhere along the way, LEGO substantially changed the number of pieces included in this set.
Tiago Catarino: How to build the LEGO Logo
YouTuber Tiago Catarino shares how to build a LEGO logo that would look good in any AFOL’s building room.
Tips&Bricks: At-Home Photoshoot Set Up on a Budget
Using several household items, free photo editing apps, and just $5 worth of office supplies, you can have an easy, flexible set-up for taking photos of your MOCs or LEGO sets!
Toy Photographers: Mega Construx vs. LEGO: A Minifigure Comparison
LEGO vs. Mega. The fanbases are usually at odds—each side sure their brand of choice is the best. What if neither brand is the best when it comes to photography? What if both can coexist, and even complement each other?
Women’s Brick Initiative: The State of Gender and Collectible Minifigures
Historically, LEGO has released a series that is a majority male minifigs and really leans into stereotypical gender roles, but 2020, marks an important year as the first year where the CMF series has an equal number of women and men.
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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