Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published September 20, 2022. Sorry, what? Köfii? A typo? No, let me explain... A Köf II is a German locomotive; Kleinlok (small locomotive), Öl-Motor (diesel engine) Flüssigkeitsgetriebe (hydraulic drive), Leistungsgruppe II (performance class 2). Between 1933 and 1965, more than 1,000 of these little workhorses were built—and you can still find them in private yards and museum railways. Twelve years ago I saw a photo of a LEGO Köf II built by Markus Wagner. He had managed to put a battery box, IR receiver and train motor in this tiny little loco. An updated version even had lights! Power Functions Köf II by Markus Wagner I was well impressed and decided to build my own version in red. At the time I was quite happy with it, but 11 years later it looks a bit dated and could do with an upgrade… But now, let’s...

The 2023 Toys of the Year Awards were handed out today and not surprisingly, LEGO came out a winner in a few categories. One of the non-toy related ones included the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year which they won the bronze award for LEGO Replay. There was a also a tie for the Infant/Toddler category which they share the award with Mattel. Check out the winning categories below. Construction • LEGO Disney 100 “Up” House (43217) Grown-Up • LEGO Icons Lord of the Rings Rivendell (10316) Infant/Toddler – Shared with Mattel • LEGO DUPLO 3-in-1 Tree House (10993) STEAM • LEGO Technic NASA Mars Rover Perseverance (42158) The post LEGO Wins Four September Toy of the Year 2023 Awards appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

Pumpkin-spiced lattes are taking over cafés and Halloween costumes are being crafted: It sure sounds like September is already over! Time to kick back on the porch one last time this Summer and enjoy this month’s assortment of interesting articles, deep drives and insightful features 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 went supersonic right after learning everything about LEGO model airplanes. We met builders at BrickSlopes, took a trip to an impressive castle, and learned about AFOL tokens of appreciation. We published instructions for a yellow convertible as well as expanded LEGO succulents, created brick-built characters for Dungeons and Dragons and designed our MOCs meant to be touched. We talked illegal SNOT, learned about the BrickBuilding Community’s fight against cancer, and got a fascinating...

Epic Games today announced a round of layoffs of Epic employees and in their press release, it was subtly confirmed that the LEGO x Fortnite crossover does exist. It has long been rumored that there will be a LEGO Fortnite expansion codenamed Juno ever since LEGO entered into a long-term partnership with the gaming company. There’s still no official date on when the LEGO Fortnite collab will be released but it’s reported to be in November. The post Epic Games Subtly Confirms LEGO x Fortnite (Juno) Collaboration appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

Have you ever wondered if your country gets a “square deal” when it comes to LEGO prices? Well, you’re in luck! Today we’ve crunched the numbers and can present a comparison of prices across 22 countries spanning Europe, North America, and Australia. Let’s not mess about with the preamble and get straight to the results. Australia Has the Cheapest LEGO… Barely Using MRSP / RRP data from Brickset, we found that Australia was the most affordable among 22 countries for buying new LEGO sets. On average, Australian residents pay -2.7% less than the benchmark country, The United States. Price by County versus The United States Map sourced from Envato Elements under Licence Switzerland was the most expensive nation, with prices +12.1% higher than the US. They were closely followed by the Nordic countries Denmark (+11.7%), Finland (+10.2%), Sweden (+8.8%), and Norway (+7.1%), as well as Hungary (+7.3%), and Czechia (+6.6%). Price...

Hold on to your butts because Dutch retailer Eldorado International has posted official names for over 100 LEGO sets for the first half of 2024. There are no images or details about the sets yet but they do confirm a lot of rumored sets such as Dune Ornithopter well as confirms the set numbers for the new LEGO Animal Crossing theme. Animal Crossing • 77046• 77047• 77048• 77049• 77050 Art • Pair of Parrots (31211) City • Space Hoverbike (30663)• Police Off-Road Buggy Car (30664)• Race Car (60399)• Go-Karts with Racers (60400)• Road Roller (60401)• Blue Monster Truck (60402)• Ambulance & Snowboarder (60403)• Burger Truck (60404)• Rescue Helicopter (60405)• Race Car Transporter (60406)• Fire Engine (60410)• Fire Helicopter (60411)• Fire Truck with Lifeboat (60412)• Fire Fighter (60413)• Fire Station with Aerial Ladder Vehicle (60414)• Police Car and Muscle Car Chase (60415)• Police Truck with Laboratory (60418)• Prison Island Police Station (60419)•...

LEGO’s next gift with purchase set for October has been revealed with the LEGO Magic Maze (40596). The build is basically a handheld maze that you control my moving the board around. The maze has thirteen different zones that you have to navigate through to reach the end by holding the sides. You start off at the top left corner where you move the ball in a spiral to reach the underground section. The underground part has a couple of openings in the middle for you to try to reach the exit which brings you to a speed bump section made of tan parts. If you angle it too much, you’ll most likely shoot past this area where you get to the small zigzag area. Next up is a ladder/bridge area using some red containers and you have to jump the ball to the other side. Once you get there, you...

LEGO has produced lots of balls, so today we are going to take a close look at the “soccer ball”-sized ones. Where did they get their start and where are they going? To find out, let’s get the ball rolling! LEGO Soccer Sets The first balls we are looking at came from LEGO soccer sets. LEGO soccer sets were introduced in 1998 with the large stadium, soccer field baseplates and grandstand. You could play with the LEGO soccer ball, but it was not really a play feature. The play features for these sets started in 2000 with the introduction of a spring-loaded shooter. With this shooter, you could shoot the ball at targets, or with set 3409, you could play a soccer match with a friend. Set 3409 Part 30488c01 Spring shooter Part 30492 These soccer sets had great playability. A friend of mine used to own one, and I remember...

If you haven’t been to the LEGO Insiders Rewards Center, there are some new items that you may be interested in. The newest item is the Customizable Logo Cap which costs 4,000 points and it features patches of Bionicle, Blacktron, and Castle. The listing also states that there will be additional patches available in the future. The other items in the Rewards Center are the Cross-Body Bag which costs 4,800 points and the Foldable LEGO Backpack that costs 3,300 points. Both includes an image of the LEGO minifigure design. The post New Items in LEGO Insiders Rewards Center appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

You heard that right, SHIPtember fans! Everyone’s favorite annual at-least-100-stud, Seriously Huge Investment in Parts, month-long build-a-thon is drawing to a close. But it’s not too late, even if you haven’t started yet. Got some vacation days to burn? Good at faking an illness (cough cough)? Then you’re ready to get to it! But if you’re just curious about who’s built what so far, you’re in luck. We’ve got a preliminary round-up of this year’s SHIPtember builds, plus some exclusive, behind-the-scenes commentary from the builders themselves! USS Alliance Kicking it off, we start with Ryan Olsen. Ryan kind of got an early start this year since he was planning on taking his finished build to BrickCon. He started with some renders back in August, but that’s totally within the rules of SHIPtember. As long as you start and finish within a month, no more, it’s cool. This allows, for example, students...