July is over and we’re in the midst of Summer—time to sit back and enjoy a cocktail of great features, insightful articles and deep dives from all across the LEGO community! We are lucky to have this many outlets and channels that keep creating incredible content, and these are the best of the month.

Here at BrickNerd, we built (and destroyed) a giant Nerdly and went to a Ninjago baseball game. We hosted New Hashima Takeover Week and learned the story behind the colossal cyberpunk city, analyzed a spaceship on wheels, celebrated the friends we made along the way and more. We got nerdy about the Statue of Liberty, moving MOCs, and LEGO’s financial history. We visited Japan with an architect and the high seas with a buccaneer. We even looked at the Bio-Cup entries from Round 2 and Round 3, and then had time to post some instructions for a cute microscale castle. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in July, that we’ve included an interactive calendar of them at the bottom of this post so you can make sure you didn’t miss a thing.

But there are many more fascinating stories to be told from within the LEGO community, so here are some of the best LEGO articles and videos that caught our contributors’ attention throughout the month of July. We applaud the effort that went into each of these features, so click on the headlines or photos to head to each story or video. They are well worth your time!

Ant Bandit: How To Build A Life Size LEGO Jellyfish

How does a single LEGO element inspire an entire build? Find out how a bit of NPU led to an entire motorized MOC under the sea.

Beyond the Brick: LEGO Models Inside Real-Life Objects

Travel to the South Australian Museum for a guided tour of RELICS: A New World Rises—a mixed-media sculpture exhibition combining discarded human artifacts with intricate LEGO builds.

BrickCentral: Artist Spotlight - lucy1021lego

Meet @lucy1021lego who shares her LEGO story, and how she builds her life and takes such incredible photos only using her smartphone.

Bricking Up Brad: Everything You Want To Know About The LEGO Red Coats

Where did the Imperial Red Coats come from, why are they the antagonists of LEGO Pirates, and what is their relation to their Blue Coat variants? Get ready to explore some lore on the high seas!

Brickset: Brick Rodeo 2023 Report

Megan Lum shares her tip to the Lone Star State and what she found at Brick Rodeo, Texas’ premier LEGO convention for AFOLs. From MOCs to meetups, the con is growing in the land where everything is bigger!

Jay’s Brick Blog: The BTS Dynamite Pop-Up Experience

Take a tour of the immersive pop-up experience themed around the BTS Dynamite set, which was available to visit in Singapore this past month.

LEGO For Adults: Behind the Curtain - Ceating the Dried Flower Centrepiece

Chris McVeigh shares the complexities and challenges of creating set 10314 Dried Flower Centrepiece, including how new elements inspired the design and the challenges of building an aesthetically pleasing arrangement.

Matyho Kostky: Octan - The Remarkable Story of a Fictitious Corporation (translated)

Building on BrickNerd’s analysis of the Octan logo, Matyho explores the history and future of the Octan Corporation from its simple beginnings to its potentially nefarious future.

New Elementary: LEGO part 4109: The Pagoda Plate

With 21060 Himeji Castle and 10315 Tranquil Garden nearly available, New Elementary has taken a deep dive into the geometry of the new “Pagoda Plate” and unlocked some nifty angles and connections.

Nick Brick: How to Build a Realistic LEGO Game Boy Color

Now you can build your own LEGO Game Boy Color in almost any color of the rainbow, complete with removable game cartridges and screen options.

Rebrickable Blog: Into the Archives - Gardening With Stripy

Journey into the archives and discover a little-known Duplo set—one that holds clues about the LEGO color palette and production capabilities in the early 2000s.

R.R. Slugger: Scorpion Palace - Orient Expedition Retrospective

The Orient Expedition concludes with a deep dive into the Scorpion Palace and an extra look at the included board game—and how to improve it.

Solid Brix Studios: Building Geonosis - The Droid Factory

Join the Clone Wars as David builds the rocky terrain and mechanic innards of Geonosis on his quest to bring one of the biggest Star Wars MOCs to BrickFair Virginia.

StoneWars: Building LEGO Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (translated)

StoneWars interviews builder Marcel about the LEGO Lord of the Rings joint project depicting 12 vignettes from the epic tale and the stories behind them.

Stuck in Plastic: Making Indy Move - Stop Motion

What goes into building a brickfilm? Join Indiana Jones on a daring adventure as he tries to break the mould and move!

The Bricks King Podcast: Brickworld Chicago Interview ft. Sara from LEGO

In this episode, Matt King chats with Sara Skahill from the LEGO AFOL Engagement Team at Brickworld Chicago 2023 about her journey in the company and her personal LEGO endeavors.

The Rambling Brick: New Cardboard Pick-A-Brick Boxes: A Semi-Exhaustive Testing

Richard at Rambling Brick has put the new Pick-A-Brick boxes to the test, evaluating their brick volume, price, sustainability and… water retention? Don’t miss this informative and entertaining read!

Tips & Bricks: Feather Technique

Tips & Bricks breaks down a stunning feather technique used by @stensbylego to create an adorable, fluffy chicken. While part and time intensive, those no denying the absolutely stunning results!

Tips & Bricks: Avatar Theme Tribute

Tips & Bricks pays tribute to the Avatar: The Last Airbender theme that only lasted one year, from 2006-2007. Take a look at some of the sets and minifigs that inspired some brilliant MOCs about the show.

True North Bricks: Evolution of the LEGO Snake

For World Snake Day, yes that is a thing, True North Bricks takes a look at the winding history of the LEGO snake and how it has evolved from more of a worm into a more molded reptile.

If all of those amazing features weren’t enough to satisfy your LEGO community craving, here is an interactive calendar of everything that BrickNerd has published this last month to make sure you didn’t miss a single article.

Did we miss any of your favorite LEGO articles and content for the month? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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