When Life Gives You Ninjago, You Make a Dragon Mech

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Microscale dragons are cool, but what about massive dragon mechs that minifigures can ride?! The LEGO Ninjago Movie comes out this weekend, so of course we have to look for a couple impressive Ninjago builds, right? This model of L-l-oyd Garmadon's green dragon mech by Jared R. is full of sand green goodness. Not every dragon needs wings to show its power, it only needs a menacing head and strong tail, with a few spines thrown in for good measure. This is the first MOC version of this dragon that I have seen, and I have no doubt it will remain one of my favorites. Are you excited to get your ninja on this weekend?!

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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

A Vintage MOC Of A Vintager Computer

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BrickNerd_MOCstalgia.jpg

Every once in a while here at BrickNerd we like to look back, just to see how far we've come. This Classic Commodore VIC 20 might look familiar to some of you old school computer users. There's an entire generation of early home computer adopters that made this their first computer. It was built by the Arvo brothers (yeah, those Arvo brothers) a decade ago.

SHIPtember V - Week 4 Recap

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It's SHIPtember V, the fifth annual SHIP building contest! Eat. Sleep. SHIP!

As always, the objective of this incredibly fun competition is to build a massive and original SPACESHIP!, one that has to be a minimum of 100 studs in length. With one and a half weeks of building time to go, we thought it was time to showcase a few of our favorite completed SHIP's that have joined the Armada for SHIPtember V! Even some contributors for BrickNerd have gotten in on the action, like this SHIP by El Barto. I'm currently working on my entry, and I hope to see some other contributors participate! The SHIP's featured below, built by each builder respectively, are just a few of the completed SHIP's that we have yet to see. Head on over to the SHIPtember Flickr group to see more models in the works!

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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

Land SHIP Khagaan

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This is pretty epic. It's SHIPtember, and while we're all pretty accustomed to seeing giant space ships this time of year, builder mahjqa brings us the land carrier Khagaan, a colossal treaded vehicle with multiple power functions and seriously cool design. While the picture is stunning, it doesn't really convey the scale or capability of this beast. Check out the video, which features some pretty amazing vfx and cinematography, as well as a behind the scenes peek at how it was done. Beware, you are about to have your mind blown.

Khagaan002

Technique Tuesday - Simple Spheres

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technique_tuesday.jpg

Every once in a while you just need to connect two elements together that were not designed to fit that way. That is usually the genesis of a cool technique in fact, just a clever way of doing something LEGO never intended (subversive and creative at the same time!) This is an astoundingly simple way to connect two sphere halves by ledamu12 that will have you going "why didn't I think of that?"

Connect lego 3x3 hemisphere

Lair Of The Lich King

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This cool diorama by builder ReeseEH looks like it's right out of a movie or video game, and illustrates how much lighting can elevate a MOC. This is a simple setup, and rushed really, but compare these two shots and you can see just how much you can alter the mood with the lighting. Just imagine this with careful, deliberate lighting, it makes a world of difference.

CBC 2017 - Lair of the Lich King
CBC Entry - in the light

Hi-Fi

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When I was a kid this is what audio entertainment looked like, the Hi-Fi (short for high fidelity). If it wasn't a huge console system cranking the tunes into your house, it was one of these. Just tune to your favorite radio station, adjust the equalizer and enjoy the music. Or punch in your favorite 8-Track (let's say Meco Star Wars, maybe Brothers Johnson) and get your groove on. An excellent retro build from Sad Brick, which ironically makes me happy.

Hi-Fi

Building The Falcon With Adam Savage And The Tested Team

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This week I had the distinct pleasure of building the most awesome LEGO set of all time with the most awesome group of people of all time, Tested.com. We spent two days building, shooting, sharing stories and having a load of fun geeking out on this spectacular set. 

We also had the classic UCS Falcon on hand for a direct comparison during the build. We were continually surprised and delighted at not only the upgrades from the original, but how vastly different they were. Besides being the same size and of the same ship, they're two very different builds.

QX2A4218.jpg

We worked out a great system of teams of sorters, knollers, feeders and builders. While it did necessitate the dismantling of the instructions, it made the build quite a bit quicker, resulting in a build time somewhere around 12 hours. And that includes time that the team needed to break away and do their normal Tested.com content, like podcasts. 

Tested.com is one of my favorite websites and YouTube channels, and of course Adam is the protonerd, so just spending time with the team was an absolute pleasure. Combine that with pretty much the greatest LEGO set of all time, and it was a memorable two days I will never forget. Check out the video on YouTube and for the extended editions consider becoming a Tested.com premium member (I am). I'd like to thank Adam, Norm, Sean and the rest of the Tested crew for welcoming me into their domain. And of course a huge thank you to LEGO for providing this review copy of what is sure to be a legendary set.

Patterson Seafood Corp.

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Humans have been harvesting from the sea since we were smart enough to realize there's quite a bit of yummy food in there. Over the years the technology might have advanced a bit, but when it comes down to it, it's really just people in boats that make it all happen. This MOC by builder Arjan Oude Kotte features these very people and those very boats, and you can practically smell the salt air and hear the waves lapping and seagulls.

Patterson Seafood corp.
Patterson Seafood corp.

Meet The New Public Relations Manager At BrickNerd!

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Meet Krommaug the Defiler, the new public relations manager here at BrickNerd! All complaints about tossing the Helicarrier off the balcony, the lack of content on the YouTube channel, why we didn't feature your LEGO Ideas project, why Tommy has such a stupid face and of course where we get off with sarcastic posts can be directed to Krommaug, who will deal with your issues in a swift and timely manner. Complaints about Krommaug himself can be directed at Djokson.

Krommaug the Defiler

Teth? That's Wild Space

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Inthert has released the latest model for his Star Wars Ring Worlds collection, with this terrain showcasing his new miniature All Terrain Tactical Enforcer, the larger tank used by Republic forces during the time of the Clone Wars. In the animated Clone Wars film, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano use the AT-TE's to scale a large cliff on the planet Teth. Instead of a flat world recreation, the builder decided to focus on a different scene perspective for this Teth terrain. I think the presentation is very neat, but those tanks are definitely the highlight for me. 

Star Wars Ring-worlds: A Deadly Ascent on Teth
AT-TE / Teaser
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, , , ,

Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here.