What Is Going On In My Head

For the first time ever the secret has been revealed as to the anatomical makeup of the typical Adult Fan Of LEGO (AFOL) thanks to builder Nikita Nikolsky. Thanks to modern science and creative building we can see the inner workings of the typical brick brained AFOL. Don't be alarmed, we're all perfectly fine (well, most of us) and you have nothing to worry about. Unless you consider storage space, budget, every flat surface of your living area and of course the continual cliche threat of stepping on a brick.

BrickWorld 2016: Mel's Picks!

BrickWorld Chicago has come and gone, and for those who missed out here are my favorites from the show: 

Timothy Lydy is master at character building. His Classic Joker Bust is a favorite within the LEGO Community and this year at BrickWorld he displayed an array of Gotham characters. His Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, A.K.A The Penguin, is just fantastic. The use of a minifigure magnifying glass for a monocle, the fur and tooth piece for his crooked nose makes this Gentleman of Crime come to life. 

Another favorite of mine by Timothy is his Mad Hatter. There's just so much good stuff going on here I cant even pick which I like more. I will say though that he found a way to use the printed blue slopes that I would not have thought of! Timothy's setup was nominated for Best Individual Layout! 

I think everyone at the event this weekend would agree that this creation by Amanda Feuk, titled Imagine made everyone stop to check out. 

Amanda uses piece placement to create a projection of a girl. This creation took home Best Artwork award! 

Builder CheeseyStudios displayed this year an awesome layout titled "Fantastic Beasts". This creation is based of the JK Rowling textbook and upcoming spinoff movie in the Harry Potter universe.  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is about a wizard, Newt Scamander, and his adventures on finding and capturing these creatures. Builder Caleb shows us some of these creatures, along with quotes that describe the dangers of the beast. Click through to see the full layout:

Caleb's Hogwarts Train was nominated for the Best Train award!

If you're thinking of checking out a convention next year, BrickWorld Chicago is definitely not one to miss! 

Now You're Thinking With Portals

Leonid An has just blown my mind with this amazing micro Portal Handheld Device! The use of the minifigure cross pein hammer is just brilliant. GLaDOS would approve!

[Whenever I'm playing Portal I sometimes forget I have a portal gun and say to myself often "How I am going to get up on that ledge?!" - anyone else do this?]

Did Someone Call A Doctor?

Overwatch hype is all over the place and I love it. We've been waiting for this game since its first reveal in 2014 and the beta the past year had a lot of us gamers hooked! Even if you're not into games, or specifically FPS games, you have to admire the amazing art and style Overwatch has. 

Here at BrickNerd we've already covered a few amazing characters such as Tracer, Bastion & Reinhardt; and I'm sure we'll continue covering more to come as the character designs are both amazing in game and even more in LEGO! 

My favorite part about a new theme circling the Flickr community is sometimes we get the same character built by different builders, and the fun part about it is seeing how great minds things alike but also how they create things differently: 

Often we see LEGO female characters built overtly sexual to grasp the attention of the audience. I admire a builder who can create a strong LEGO character without having to rely on those details.  Loysnuva used such fun details instead to portray this Swiss-warrior, like the tubing for her halo, and the teeth parts for her wings. 

Simon Liu has been on a roll and his latest creation of the beautiful Mercy is just as great,

Mercy's halo is instead created with gold bionicle parts and gold horns at the ends; gold staffs and swords as detailing on her wings.  

Both builders do an amazing job here showing the strength and beauty of Mercy, a support hero who can heal or damage boost her team. Now if someone can just create Mei then my life will be made :) 

"Why Does Everyone Want To Go Back To Jakku?!"

Builder Robert Lundmark has really done an incredible job in recreating two of my favorite things in the Star Wars The Force Awakens movie:
 

Teedo's Luggabeast
 

and Rey's Speeder

These moments in the movie really showed us how strong of a character Rey was going to be; defending those whom cannot defend themselves and her wicked cool means of transportation. It also showed the audience and the fans the new vehicles and creatures the Star Wars Universe hasn't shown us before. Robert adds amazing detail to both creations, giving the eye different areas to bounce off of. His placement and great photography (done by Tomas Westermark) gives these builds life.

Check out his flickr page for more Star Wars goodness!  
 

Wasteland Roamer

My earliest memory is of my dad building his motorcycle in the garage. It was yellow and orange and that's about as much as I know about motorcycles. Growing up with this however has made me aware of the artistry and effort behind building and maintaining a bike. Builder Stephan Jonsson's chopper is an amazing display of this intricacy. The details put into this creation is what caught my eye, and the subtle use of color brings this hog to life.  

The Journey Itself Is My Home

Newcomer to the Flickr community Aido K is already building some impressive stuff. I stumbled upon this little build and once I looked closely at the NPU of the LEGO Elves mini-doll legs I literally yelled out “IT'S LEGS, IT'S LEGS” - to which my coworkers questioned confusingly. The forced perspective is super fun (is that an Alligator body in the background?) and this all around bright creation makes me want to know more about this little creature! Who are you? Where are you going, friend? 

Follow Aido K on flickr, I have a good feeling about this one.  

There's Nothing Like Friendship

Here at BrickNerd we like to reminisce about the past...

Fellow friend and LUG-er Simon Liu was one of the first members of ToroLUG to welcome me into the group. Back then he was a shy nerd, and although not much has changed, he has been a great support for me in the LUG through all these years.One of the first MOCs that I noticed of Simon's was his section of FRIENDSHIP for the Fairview LEGO Store Community Window (oh the good ol' days). I pointed out the cool technique behind the back panels and called it “messy building” and later learned the term was “greebling”. The Friends theme was just released and with the up-roar of a new theme separating genders came some cool new pieces and colors too!

Some of my favorite details are the classic space logo with a purple ribbon at the end and the medical area with the red classic space guy on the examination table.

Simon is also the reason I got stuck into building a giant Unikitty, and then later four...so I guess thank you?

The Scordiscian Druid

Although I admire all types of LEGO creations, it's not often that I see a creation and awe in the same way as I do a painting or a sculpture. Legophthalmos has really done that in this beautiful MOC, from the symmetry in the foliage to how it's photographed. The warmth from this build is what made it so memorable to me, so much that I instantly recalled it when choosing a MOC to write about in my first post for BrickNerd! 

Check out Legophthalmos’ photo stream for more fun and lovely creations! 

Obama Is A LEGO Fan!

Here it is ladies and gentlemen, as unveiled at BrickCon 2014, iron clad evidence that Iain Heath is a genius.