On July 1st, 2013—exactly nine years ago—Tommy Williamson debuted Nerdly, the glasses-wearing mascot of a new site called BrickNerd. Since then, this bespectacled red brick has gone on quite the international journey popping up wherever LEGO nerds are present. Nerdly has even been featured in many different styles in our annual Nerdvember building competitions. (This year’s theme will really take you away when it is announced in the fall!)

To celebrate our 9th birthday (technically Nerdly debuted one month after the first post on BrickNerd but who is counting?), we’re reliving the past and doing exactly what happened when Nerdly was introduced to the world—giving away a few presents! But more on that at the end of this article…

With the revival of BrickNerd a year and a half ago, the new team has been trying to follow in the footsteps that Tommy first started. We’ve worked hard to celebrate the AFOL community and revel in LEGO nerdiness. We’ve discussed building techniques and taken deep dives, interviewed amazing people and posted custom instructions, reported from conventions and told stories about the AFOL community. (500 quality posts later and I hope we’re having a positive impact!)

BrickNerd really is a passion project for the more than 45 dedicated international AFOLs who have contributed to its reboot by writing articles in their spare time. That number more than doubles to 100 people if you include all our guest contributors and donors who have each dedicated time and effort to help BrickNerd succeed. But we need your help too.

How You Can Celebrate With Us

Internally, we have a few guiding principles for the new BrickNerd: Community over consumerism, story over scoops, and people over products. You’ve probably noticed by now that we don’t post many news articles about upcoming sets, rumors about products, or excessive clickbait headlines with tons of embedded affiliate links. We don’t even have much display advertising to keep the focus on the articles rather than distract you while you read. BrickNerd exists to celebrate the LEGO community—not to make money.

So how can you help us celebrate our birthday? By becoming a BrickNerd Patron, of course! We want to continue giving back to the community by writing high-quality articles, conducting research into LEGO topics on your behalf, sponsoring LEGO conventions, hosting building contests with cool prizes, and making some amazing swag to share—all while NOT shoving lots of ads in your faces.

We want to keep drawing on the expertise in the community to get nerdy and talk about building, sorting, transporting, lighting, photographing, collecting, buying, and customizing LEGO. We want BrickNerd to continue being a place to come together as a community and celebrate the culture of building LEGO. With your help, we can continue doing all this and more.

Perks For Being a BrickNerd Patron

Becoming a Patron is a great way to show your support for what we are doing and is the best way to become part of the BrickNerd family. As a Patron, you can join our private Discord and chat with some of the most knowledgeable (and friendly) AFOLs in the world. You can join our monthly “Nerd Out” video calls and chat with us directly about fascinating topics, play games and get early access to what’s going on at BrickNerd.

Becoming a Patron is also the easiest way to score exclusive BrickNerd swag! (Tracking us down at a LEGO convention is the hard way!) We've worked with some amazing businesses like EclipseGrafx and Chrome Block City to offer awesome items as a thank you for your support—printed badges, Nerdly bricks, pins and stickers, and even a shiny chromed BURP element.

Our support tiers are playfully named after LEGO elements that were granted fan-made nicknames. The higher tiers include added perks like having your name listed on every BrickNerd article (check out the awesome people included at the end of this one!) and even the ability to choose a topic for us to get nerdy about!

Time For Birthday Presents!

We promised at the beginning of the article that we would give away some birthday presents. So in honor of that first post nine years ago introducing Nerdly, we are going to use the exact same graphic and have a giveaway! We will select three people who have either become or are existing Patrons or have made a one-off donation of at least $5 by the end of the month to receive a brick-built Nerdly.

What are you waiting for, three Nerdlies are up for grabs! You can join our Patreon here or make a one-time donation by clicking the yellow donate button below. Any and all contributions, no matter the amount, are appreciated as they truly help us continue providing the best quality LEGO content we can.

If you don’t have the means to donate but still want to support BrickNerd, you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, share our articles with your friends and groups, leave encouraging comments, or use our affiliate codes when you shop at LEGO or Amazon. We really appreciate the support.

Happy Birthday, Nerdly! Make a wish and blow out your candles because this next year is going to be exciting! (Now to start planning for next year’s big 10th birthday bash…)

The people below are some of the most awesome LEGO fans on the planet. Do you want to join them by becoming a BrickNerd Patron? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, and Andy Price to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.