Best of BrickNerd: Weekend Highlight — Article originally published June 29, 2021.

Every June, the world gets a bit more colorful. I love this time of year which has come to represent a celebration of diversity and creativity. When LEGO launched the “Everyone Is Awesome” set earlier this month, the fan community seemed to go into overdrive, building with bright colors and bold imaginations. I’ve collected some of the rainbow-themed MOCs that caught my eye, and maybe you’ll see a few new colorful creations too!

LEGO Rainbow Roundup - BrickNerd - Header.png

Many of these creations were built in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month or inspired by rainbow challenges. Some were built to be colorful LEGO Ideas projects. Others represent personal passion projects showcasing years of devotion to sorting by color. No matter the inspiration, I celebrate the splashes of color, the usage of hues, and the terrific technicolor parade of ROYGBIV that is about to begin.

Colorful Minifigures

The monochrome minifigures from “Everyone is Awesome” inspired many awesome set mods, but Richard and Flynn from Tricky Bricks used them as inspiration for their own challenge. From hidden animals to classic pieces, this swirl of color is a feast for the eyes.

“We wanted to show that everyone, every color and every piece are awesome! We had a great time building this but it really shows you how lacking some colors are in interesting parts! Brown and light blue were particularly tricky. But overall we’re so happy with how it came out! This may have to become a permanent addition to our gallery!”

BrickNerd’s own Andreas Lenander shared his melting bricks as they pour color into the world and give birth to monochromatic minifigs. Originally intended as a LEGO Ideas project, they now bring a feeling of painting the world. (Hey, wait, is that Batman hiding in the back!?)

“The build is somewhat inspired by the old tale of the hen and the egg (although in this case, there may not be much of a mystery which came first) and I had a lot of fun creating it! Here’s a shot of all of my ‘melting bricks’ to illustrate what I had envisioned when I built the first one last year.”

Speaking of monochrome minifigs, last month we chatted with Caz Mockett about her monofigure habitats and the effort it took to source and build them—including sorting by color and tracking down a few rather rare elements!

“When I first came out of my Dark Age in 2017, my spare parts were sorted by colour. But I very soon realised that it was much easier to find a 1x1 red tile among other 1x1 tiles than a big bucket of red things—so now I sort by part first, and then colour if I have a lot of one piece in a particular colour. Usually for my MOCs, this is by far the most efficient way of sorting my collection to find something quickly. However, this project has been the one time when I have regretted not having things sorted by colour!”

Not all minifigures are small, and not all rainbow builds have to be complex. LEGO builder i.luv.holland shared this gnarly take on a minifig mohawk using plates to create swirls of rainbow locks balanced on an oversized sorting head. Now I wish LEGO made a hairpiece like that!

“This is my contribution to the ‘Everyone is Awesome’ challenge. 🌈”

Colorful Landscapes

Moving on from minifigs, another LEGO Ideas project caught my eye. This volcanic rainbow from Elemental LEGO depicts a topical map of one of the tallest mountains in the continental U.S. (or it could be depicting just how hot it has been in the Pacific Northwest recently!). The layering of rainbow plates makes it feel like the strata of rock are dynamic and just waiting for another new layer to be deposited on top.

“This colorful 3D topographic model shows the relief of Mt. Rainier, a beautiful volcano in Washington State. I built this model as both an art piece and an educational tool, and you can support it on LEGO Ideas.”

Another microscale landscape by Lui & Daivik uses forced perspective and color blocking to create a rainbow kingdom. The castle on the hill rises above the monochrome houses, and a well-placed forest provides a needed swath of green.

“My take on LEGO’s rainbow challenge. Presenting the Rainbow Kingdom!”

Really Rainbows

For a more literal take, Maxim Baybakov used a nifty technique (though a little finicky) to create this rainbow under construction. It uses tiles, clips and tubing to get that classic arch. Kudos to the brick-built background clouds as well!

“Thanks to my wife for the support! It’s so colorful with you!”

Moto brings some majestic LEGO Masters energy to this build using brick-bending to create a dual-sided rainbow over a floating Viking ship. The metallic gold details catch the light and the clouds anchor the rainbow beautifully. I guess there is treasure to be found under the rainbow!

“Inspired by Norse mythology, this is meant to honor the brave warriors who have persisted in advancing LGBTQ+ rights across the world. The ship with the fallen is aloft between a rainbow bridge. Built off and on through June. ~12 hours, probably less. Both sides of the brick-bent rainbow are plated and it can be viewed from any angle. The clouds are inspired by the Monkie Kid sets and super scaled up using a wide variety of curved slopes.”

Built for a LEGO Art contest, this rainbow of LEGO history by Elspeth De Montes exudes character. I could look at this for hours playing “Eye Spy” for all the hidden details including a brick separator, surfboard and balloon—and that’s only in the orange band!

“The two main aspects of LEGO that I love are Colours and Elements. I used a wide range of LEGO Elements to build this rainbow on a 48x48 stud baseplate. The artwork includes parts from Duplo, Fabuland, 1:87 HO, System, Technic, Belville, Clikits, Scala, Hero Factory, Bionicle, Automatic Binding Bricks, Spike Prime, LEGO Mursten, DOTS - from the very earliest LEGO parts to the latest. Everything used is LEGO and it is all connected so it can be turned upside down and nothing falls off. How perfect that a toy spanning so many years is as compatible now and parts from the 1950s. In summary this is a LEGO rainbow celebrating the diverse world of LEGO both in colour and form.”

Rainbow Recolors

Another trend of the month is recoloring an existing LEGO set or another typically less colorful creation, transforming it into a radical rainbow. This Volkswagen by 1saacbricks looks like it went through the wash with the tie-dye shirts and came out looking all the better on the other side.

“My build for the Rainbow Build Challenge to celebrate pride and rainbows! Please forgive any messiness as I challenged myself to build this rather quickly.”

While recoloring digital creations can be as easy as a click of the mouse, it takes an artistic eye to make them look beautiful. Brick Distorted took 21046 Empire State Building and made it their own with tasteful brushes of color that make the building pop with vibrant hues—and made me check my grille tiles to see if they exist in all those colors!

Rainbow Empire State Building by Brick Distorted

“Happy Pride month from myself and pink lambda! Everyone is indeed awesome 💯”

Rainbow Art

BrickNerd contributor Inez Vasquez used her botanical skills to create this rainbow bouquet of fantastic flowers. (She also presented her flowers at LEGO CON to the entire world!) With LEGO flowers all the rage these days, this bouquet seems sleek and well-positioned to showcase the colorful flora.

“Bouquet of rainbow-colored flowers in celebration of Pride Month.”

We’ve featured Daneen McDermott (aka brickwyrm) and her fantastic community quilts before. This time, she worked with TrickyLUG and assembled a new colorful quilt making a rainbow out of individual squares. We also know there is another rainbow-inspired quilt that is exclusive to the newest issue of BrickJournal, so make sure to grab a copy!

“Today's Tricky Bricks build challenge was a video green-screen background, so I pulled together 144 LEGO quilt squares that members contributed and built a rainbow quilt background.”

The next stop in our tour of color is an installation piece outside the home of Grant (aka RoyalBrix). These gigantic wings are similar to those painted on walls for frequent selfies in tourist destinations around the world. I can’t say I would be confident to leave my LEGO out on the front lawn, but Grant does it often to the delight of the neighborhood—this time with a powerful message of inclusion.

“I have loved seeing the wing murals and wanted to have my take on it. You may notice the base/support structure. This piece needed the supports. I was very purposeful with this too. Our community is built on the history and actions of those that came before us. A lot of those people that have been overlooked are Trans and People of Color. So you’ll notice the colors of the progress flag and different shades of black, brown, and other skin tones. I felt it was important to include them purposefully.”

All Your Heart

I am constantly impressed by those who can build profoundly and purposefully. Kristel Whitaker uses clean lines and quarter-circle tiles to create a rainbow of hearts that looks so striking I could imagine the design on a T-shirt. The design shows how simple LEGO can be while still conveying a significant message.

“Everyheart IS awesome!”

To wrap things up, here is my own MOC to celebrate Pride this year. Using the same quarter-circle tiles from above, I created this mosaic with rays of color bursting out from a rainbow heart, celebrating creativity and diversity. I think the tiles make it seem like it shimmers like stained glass. I used 4,500 pieces total and nearly every color of quarter-circle tile that exists.

“Rainbow Heart is an exploration of a new LEGO mosaic technique I developed using quarter-circle tiles placed on top of a second grayscale mosaic underlayer. This technique accomplishes two goals: 1) the curved tiles can be used to better represent organic shapes, and 2) the grayscale underlayer shows through the negative space where the quarter circle tile does not cover adding more subtle color blending.”

You’ve made it to the end of the rainbow roundup this year, but that doesn’t mean the colorful extravaganza has to end! You can continue to celebrate Pride Month by making a difference at the same time as buying LEGO.

For each “Everyone is Awesome” set purchased using http://bit.ly/LEGOPride, I am personally donating 100% of the affiliate earnings plus an additional $1 per set to The Trevor Project. They are the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning) young people. So far, more than $250 has been raised, so thank you in advance for helping out a great cause.

And until next year, keep building (and sorting) with every color of the rainbow!

What rainbow-inspired LEGO builds have you seen? Did we miss any of your favorites? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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