LEGO Community Headlines & Highlights for April 2021
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The LEGO community is lucky to have so many blogs, magazines and channels that create amazing content about our hobby. At BrickNerd, we celebrate getting nerdy about the bricks! This past month, we’ve discussed sustainability, collecting creatures, toilet humor, building skyscrapers, massive swords, Ninjago stickers, Crazy Legs, spaceships, April Fools and so much more. In fact, we’ve included an interactive calendar of all our articles 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 that caught our contributors’ attention throughout the month of April. 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!
Bits N’ Bricks: LEGO Universe - A Fabled History
Journalist Brian Crecente and documentarian Ethan Vincent chat with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, executive chairman of LEGO Brand Group. The two discuss the company’s long and fascinating history with video games and digital play.
Bits N’ Bricks: LEGO Universe - To Be Continued
In the season finale, some of the Bits N’ Bricks team unite to discuss making the first season’s episodes, their favorite stories, and where the show is headed after season one.
Blocks Magazine: LEGO audio and braille instructions – an inspiring story
If you knew someone who has a vision impairment and couldn’t access LEGO sets, what can you do? For Matthew Shifrin’s friend Lilya, the answer was to make him accessible braille instructions.
Brick Architect: LEGO Brick Labels v36
At least twice a year, Brick Architect updates their extremely helpful labels for many brand new, increasingly popular, or otherwise missing parts—and this batch includes 17 new parts which were just released this year.
Brick Experiment Channel: Which LEGO wheels or track work best on wood?
33 LEGO wheels, tires or tracks tested on a wooden board to find the best traction. Presented in order from worst to best.
Brick Fanatics: Behind the scenes of the LEGO BrickLink Designer Program
LEGO and BrickLink announced the latest iteration of their designer program which will give rejected LEGO Ideas projects a second chance. Among them is Harry Finkel, the fan designer behind The Mountain Windmill.
Brick Science: Building a LEGO Iron Man Helmet that Opens
YouTuber Riley Scott shows off how to make a working Iron Man helmet that opens and closes with no electronics needed.
BrickJournal: Review Toon - Minion Pilot in Training
More than a few reviews have come out of the new sets coming out, so BrickJournal decided to hand over one to some guests who may be a little banana crazy in this hand-drawn review!
Brickset: Determining the sets you have in a box of random parts
For Ben Nicholson’s dissertation project, he has created a piece of software to solve a problem many of us have encountered at one time or another: figuring out what sets are in a pile of seemingly random bricks.
Brickset: What's Missing - Analysis
Brickset takes a close look at the Star Wars LEGO sets never made and which film locations and vehicles could be ripe to see made in the brick.
Jay’s Brick Blog: The Best LEGO Podcasts You Should Be Listening To
LEGO being a very tactile and visual hobby/experience wouldn’t seem to be a great topic that translates into the podcast medium, but there’s a growing number of LEGO podcasters.
JK Brickworks: How to Build a Flying Bee
To celebrate the coming signs of spring, I built this cute little bee flying above a pretty flower complete with instructions. When you press one of the flower petals the bee will flap its wings.
LEGO Newsroom: Two LEGO icons say goodbye after 90 years of combined experience
We say goodbye to two longtime designers and LEGO legends Jan Ryaa and Sten Schmidt as they head off to retirement.
LEGO YouTube: The LEGO Foundation partners with Play Included to support neurodivergent children
Neurodivergent children have the same needs and rights as all other children to feel understood and a sense of belonging. Join us in celebrating these incredible personalities!
New Elementary: LEGO Designers Interview - NASA Space Shuttle Discovery
Zachary Hill recently conducted an exclusive interview with set designer Milan Madge and element designer Mani Zamaninot who worked on 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery.
New Elementary: Si-MOCs vs. LEGO Art
BrickNerd contributor Simon Liu pulled double duty this month, exploring the art of the dark side for New Elementary.
Ninjago - A Documentary: Ten Years of Spinjitzu
Ten years ago, LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu aired its first-ever episode. Today, nearly a full decade later, four day-one Ninjago fans come together to create an official documentary, telling the tale of Ninjago’s 10-year journey.
Promobricks: LEGO recycled minifigures in the campus canteen (translated)
Explore how LEGO recycles the excess plastic from its injection molding machines and turns it into art and benches around their Billund headquarters.
Rambling Brick: Representation in Licensed LEGO Themes with a Contemporary Cinematic Narrative II - LEGO Harry Potter
This article looks at the gender distribution of minifigs in licensed themes. How has the Harry Potter theme fared over the years?
Sariel.pl: LEGO Wheels Chart Update
Sariel has updated his very handy interactive LEGO wheels chart with new detailed images and all the latest LEGO tires and rims.
StoneWars: Homage to LEGO Pirates (translated)
CG expert Stefan Müller has created a fan poster as a tribute to the LEGO advertisements from the 90s. We show you the development process and asked Stefan what challenges there are with rendering such an iconic scene.
StoneWars: LEGO M-Tron - The dawn of a new era (translated)
LEGO M-Tron sets are now considered classics and still inspire many AFOLs. But what was special about this series, how was it marketed and why did one set in particular become an icon?
StoneWars: We’ve built a more beautiful LEGO Ulysses spacecraft with instructions for free
Many LEGO fans were unable to get the VIP exclusive, so Jonas worked two night shifts and built the (in our opinion) much nicer Ulysses space probe, so we can give you the instructions for it today – for free.
The Brothers Brick: Exploring the Hundred Acre Woods - An interview with the designers behind Winnie the Pooh
We had an opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview with both the designers who brought Winnie the Pooh to life. Come along as we learn the secrets behind Pooh’s balloon, the message hidden in the bee trails, and just where Christopher Robin got off to!
The Brick Blogger: LEGO Brick Separators, Tile Remover Tools & More!
The original LEGO brick separator was introduced in 1990 and was produced until 2011, but how has it evolved since then?
The LEGO Car Blog: Big Hero 6
Check out a properly nerdy car blog’s take on Nico71’s 1950s Berliet T100—a French-built, V12-powered 6×6 truck, with a gross weight of over 100 tons, and it was the largest truck in the world. Obviously, the LEGO version is a bit smaller.
Tiago Catarino: How to Build A Rolling Garage Door
YouTuber Tiago Catarino shares how to build a roll-up garage door with to help expand your LEGO City.
Tips&Bricks: Happy Earth Day!
This Earth Day, we’re taking a look at LEGO’s initiatives, goals and commitments to sustainability! From plant-based LEGO bricks and sustainable packaging to initiatives such as LEGO Replay and their partnerships WWF and National Geographic, it's great to see all the work LEGO is doing. However, there’s a lot more work to be done.
Women’s Brick Initiative: Analysis of LEGO Disney Princesses
As a building toy that generally markets towards children, it makes perfect sense that LEGO would want to partner with Disney. But how has the price of LEGO princesses changed over time?
Zusammengebaut: Are LEGO bricks made of metal possible? (translated)
How do you make LEGO bricks out of metal with a milling machine? Here is my experience, along with a few tips and tricks so you can do it too.
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 from around the internet? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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