Looming Crimson

Mihai Marius Mihu returns with a sacred fortress, constructed beneath an imposing, monolithic being. It is alive, eerie, but safe, and a gorgeous juxtaposition.

Bricksburg: 2046

If a hotel is in crumbling, grimy ruins, does it have no vacancies or is every room a vacancy? I don't know, but it's not everyday I get to use "grimy" as a compliment, and Legofin's Cyberpunk slum is gorgeously grimy.

Bionic Biology

I love seeing Bionicle and constraction parts used outside of character builds, in scenery. Wildlife is an uncommon treat with those parts, and the outlandish plants in Grayson's Extraterrestrial Garden are a lovely example. I wonder if the robot gardener has to water them, or oil them?

"I Seem To Be Having Tremendous Difficulty With My Lifestyle."

Douglas Adams was a trailblazer of the "quirky science fiction" subgenre, especially in his display of the precise randomness of the universe — when imagining all of space, anything is possible, or in fact, likely. Iain Heath captures a corner of that qunitessentially peculiar world with his tribute to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which features, among other things, Marvin the depressed robot, a strikingly short-lived sperm whale, and a fleet of musical dolphins.

The End Is Nigh

“Who builds the world? Perhaps the world is not built. Perhaps nothing is built. Perhaps it simply is, has been, will always be there…a MOC without an AFOL.”

— Alan Moore, Watchmen (paraphrased)

Timofey_Tkachev has rung in the new year with a gloomy construction of Rorschach and the iconic Doomsday Clock of Watchmen. The gray-scale trees are a nice touch.

Steel Stallion

I tend to be an advocate for sorting by part instead of color, but then along come builds like Grantmasters' War Horse that make me reconsider. See how many different LEGO weapon parts you can find in it. I spotted at least 18, making this the most well-armed horse I've ever seen.

Seriously Huge Investment In Galidor

When asked about the worst LEGO themes of all time, many afols will bring up Jack Stone. I think that this is because they have forced themselves to forget that Galidor ever existed. But of course; this is the LEGO community and nothing is useless: the aptly self-titled Prince Galidor presents us with a SHIPtember entry this year built entirely from Galidor parts. The result is a beautiful mess of purple, red, orange and various shades of gray.

BrickFair Virginia 2017 Recap

It's that time of year again. BrickFair Virginia 2017 wrapped up this past Sunday after five days of friends, games, shopping, and mostly LEGO. BrickFair is my favorite week of the year because of how friendly the LEGO community is. I saw lots of old friends and new friends this year, and in just the same way I saw lots of old and new MOC's. My fellow contributor Nathaniel was there this year as well, and we'd like to share some of our favorite MOC's of the weekend with you, below. You can find more information about BrickFair here. Nathaniel has written a few words about his experience at the convention below as well.

Hi guys! Nathaniel here. I can't believe that BrickFair has already ended. As the highlight of my summer, it always goes by too quickly. As Kodi said above, both he and I were there proudly representing BrickNerd to fellow exhibitors and the public. It was great to see old friends again, and make some new ones for future conventions. How can I summarize BrickFair Virginia, without spending hours describing it? It's simply pure joy. I would highly recommend it to any fellow LEGO builder. If you're really interested in seeing more of the convention, I would highly recommend that you head on over to Beyond the Brick's YouTube channel and await their guided video tour of the convention.

Already looking forward to next year! Until then, we will take our memories (and loot) and look to the future.

So long, BrickFair!

Kodi & Nathaniel

Ascension of the Flood

M.C. Escher has always been one of my favorite artists. AFOLs have been recreating his work for a long time, but I don't think I've ever seen a motorized Escher MOC until now: Jarren Harkema has assembled a beautiful display inspired by Escher's Waterfall which must look remarkable in person. You can see it in motion in this video.

The New Shogunate

Eero Okkonen has a long history of building what are effectively elaborate action figures, like these two wonderfully expressive warriors - but everybody knows that action figures are the most fun when they're being played with. His newest scene pits a Samurai against a Shogunate on a serene bridge. The whole model is stunning, from the color scheme to the poses to the small details, like the snakes used as detailing on a sheath.

Golden Gate

I'm not sure if there's a name for the style with which ZiO Chao built this lovely Golden Gate Bridge, but I love it. It's the closest thing I can imagine to building a painting - like a mosaic, but with more detail, and more notably, true depth. The result is a unique piece of brick art that I imagine would look great in a frame.

Rainbow Dash

My Little Pony is one cartoon I never got around to watching, but that won't stop me from being in awe of this character model. Andrew Harvey has done a remarkable job creating a perfectly organic figure of Rainbow Dash. If you squint, it almost looks like a frame of animation. Just look at all the layers of jumper plates in that eye! It's amazing.

Rubber Bands Don't Just Grow On Trees, You Know

Jigsawjo continues to amaze with this clever vignette, aptly titled Christiansen Park. The most striking thing here is of course the rubber band trees and bushes which look surprisingly realistic - a very NPU style that I expect to see often in the future. I could imagine a much larger park inside of a microscale layout still looking great in this style.

Sepia Solaris

That 4x4x13 Curved Panel seems like a natural fit for space, looking at it now. Grant Davis' new entry to Iron Builder puts the part to great use in a sleek-yet-feral spaceship - a departure from the themes in which he normally builds. I wonder how often he gets the chance to use those dark orange Bionicle blades?

Eternally Floating

Ah, Iron Builder. No event draws out such a selection of high quality builds so quickly as a round of Iron Builder - and a new one has just begun! This month's challenger Grant Davis has just posted his first build with the "balloon" pieces; a lovely, serene scene of a lily-pad on a pond. This is only the first of what I'm sure will be plenty of great builds posted over the next month, and I can't wait to see what else Grant and his opponent come up with as the competition heats up!

"So We're Saving The Galaxy Again?"

Just following the release of the wonderful Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Tyler Clites has posted a great model of the Milano. I'm still fond of the set released along the original film, but this one is undoubtedly more well-fit to minifigure scale, and it's got some lovely shaping on the edges. To top that all off, Tyler has also made a video sharing some extra details and techniques which went into this build, be sure to check it out!

Technique Tuesday - Handy Handcuff Hands

One of the best things about the LEGO community is that we can learn from one another.  Here at BrickNerd, we like to share techniques that we see from builders all around the world. . .

Josephine Monterosso has put together a tutorial for some neat robot hands. Some might call it an illegal technique, but I think bending back handcuffs as joints is quite a clever technique, and it makes it easy to fit four fingers organically into such a small space.

Wiffle Bot

(FLAVIO)'s orange mech, WIFFY-2k17, is a masterpiece of NPU. From the minifig torsos and vests used for legs, to the harpoon gun arms, to the tire feet, to a half-dozen or so other parts I don't even recognize, there's a lot of creativity going on here and it's both menacing and cute. Take a closer look and you're sure to notice some more neat details.

Master, Destroyers!

Well, one destroyer anyway. But it sure is a pretty one: ToaLeewan has done a great job capturing their shape at the scale of the Star Wars Ultrabuild sets. Say what you will about the prequels but I have loads of nostalgia for Droidekas; mainly from playing as them in LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga as a kid.