For the past few months, we’ve partnered with The LEGO Car Blog to celebrate the ordinary with The Festival of Mundanity. In this contest, we weren’t looking for stunning builds of interesting things. Instead, we wanted to see boring stuff that doesn’t get built out of LEGO that often.

We were looking for the most ordinary, mundane, and uninspiring things you could think of in two specific categories: objects and vehicles. And did you all deliver—we received more than 40 entries in each category!

You’ll have to head over to The LEGO Car Blog to find out the winners of the vehicle category, but for the object category, we have your winners right here! Judging this contest was extremely difficult! There were so many delightfully dull entries and so many different interpretations of “Mundanity.” Each BrickNerd contributor and patron had an equal vote, and the results were very close.

Four key criteria were considered by the judges:

Mundanity - Does the MOC represent something you wouldn’t really think about in real life?
Concept - Does the topic matter show creativity in its idea and overall execution?
Quality - Is the MOC built well, feature any NPU (nice parts usage), and make you look twice?
Presentation - Is the MOC photographed/presented and composed in a way that compliments the subject matter?

Honorable Mentions

These are just a few of the stand-out entries that we enjoyed. Each represented a great concept and embodied the feeling of mundanity that we were looking for. We could totally imagine not paying attention to any of these things in real life. Special kudos to Nikolaus Lowe, whose Shopping Cart is not only an object but could also be a vehicle as well!

ry_photo - Something Tacky

Drew Garret - Light Switch

Nikolaus Lowe - Shopping Cart

whenlifegivesyoubricks - Tape Measure

bricktacular_builds - Bluray Player

Tom De Kesel - Power Strip

Bruno Di Lalla - Hairbrushes

Kelly Bartlett - Paddle Attachment

Tom De Kesel - Clothespin

But at the end of the day, this is a contest and we had to choose some winners—as difficult as that was. So here are the top three who will receive prizes ranging from LEGO gift cards from BrickNerd, lighting kits from Brickstuff (including a sweet working TV for the top prize!), display cases or stands from iDisplayIt, lighting kits from Game of Bricks and a BrickNerd box of swag and a Golden Nerdly trophy for our top winner!

Third Place: bricktacular_builds - Nailed It!

Our third-place prize goes to Ian (aka bricktacular_builds) for his amazing nail clipper. Scrolling through your Instagram feed, you’d certainly have to look twice to see that it was LEGO. The addition of the visors as nail clippings is both inspiring and disgusting at the same time, making this quite the mundane creation. Not content with just one entry, Ian also built a vacuum, Blu-ray player, and a breakfast table! Well done, you certainly nailed it!

Second Place: Scott Wilhelm - Smart Fridge

Our second-place prize goes to Scott Wilhelm for his smart fridge, though it could have been for the whole kitchen. (Scott is no stranger to BrickNerd competitions!) From the backsplash to the bowl of fruit, Scott has mastered making the ordinary extraordinary. The random fridge magnets and brick-build rug make this appear like it could be in any kitchen.

Not shown here is that the fridge is not just a simple facade. It actually opens up with lights and moveable drawers revealing a well-stocked fridge. Check out his full video showing off the features when you get the chance.

First Place: Woomy World - Soap Bottle

Our first-place winner claiming all the coolest goes prizes goes to Woomy World for their soap bottle. We almost scrolled past this thinking someone just posted a photo from their bathroom by accident! The Galidor shield sells the illusion perfectly (talk about NPU!) not to mention the stark white bottle made up of LEGO hot air balloon panels. The whole MOC screams mundane… but that’s not what pushed it over the top.

Or maybe we should say pumped instead! Yes, this perfectly sized bottle actually pumps, complete with reciprocating motion. We half expected soap to come squirting out the top when we saw this in action. This was indeed the most mundane, yet simultaneously impressive MOC of them all.

Congratulations to all of the winners! We will be in contact about your prizes soon.

Contributor Mundanity

But wait, there’s more! In addition to the public contest, some of our own BrickNerd contributors wanted to join in the fun. John Cooper thought that a LEGO brick separator was the most mundane thing ever, but take a look at the deceptive scale!

And our Nerd-in-Chief Dave Schefcik made the most of a teal banana for his toothbrush and toothpaste—we just need to switch that soap bottle in the background with the winning build!

Festival of Mundanity Object Gallery

You can see all entries for The Festival of Mundanity object category embedded below or in the official gallery. We’ve linked to each builder’s Flickr or Instagram. There are so many more amazing objects to see, so take a moment to browse through the gallery below. We are grateful for each and every entry, and we are stunned by the mundane excellence!

Well, that’s a wrap on The Festival of Mundanity. To see the winners of the vehicle category, you’ll have to head over to The LEGO Car Blog. Thanks again to our prize sponsors, The LEGO Car Blog for their amazing partnership, and everyone who participated. We’ll be back with another building contest soon!

Which mundane MOC is your favorite? 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.