Welcome back to “The Conversation Piece,” a new BrickNerd series authored by our friends over at the Builder Improvement Initiative (BII), a Discord-based community that helps LEGO builders of all levels get better at their craft through knowledge-sharing and feedback. This will be a place for you to ask all of your trickier questions about creativity and building out of LEGO bricks. Have a question you'd like us to consider for a future article? You can submit it here. Enjoy! What Makes a MOC Outstanding? Anonymous asks: “In your opinion, what makes a MOC outstanding?” “Excellent!” “Great!” “Awesome!” These terms are common currency in the world we live in, and one is so easily traded for the other that choosing among them doesn’t really seem to matter anymore. But in this series, we aim to go a little further down than the surface, so let’s see what we can dig up....

For each issue of BrickJournal Magazine, the BrickNerd team creates instructions for a LEGO mini-model to go with the theme of the cover story. For a recent issue about Classic Space, we created some Mini Rovers. Building a Mini Rover To celebrate Febrovery, I made instructions for some cute Mini Rovers that were originally made for an ILUGNY contest. There are two designs that look nearly identical depending on the color tread you want. The primary design is based on using the new round double 1 x 2 element with two bars as the treads or the curved 1x2 plate. You can build the Mini Rover in as many different color schemes as you like to match whatever look or Classic Space faction you love most in microscale. Here are the step-by-step instructions to build the first version of the rover using the curved brick with bars and a 1x1 clip...

BrickLink Designer Program Series 4 pre-orders are now live and you have until March 1 to get your orders in for the sets that you want. Each set requires 3,000 pre-orders to be produced with a maximum of 30,000 sets made. The popular ones usually will sell out within the first few hours even with the increased production numbers. Merchant Boat – 2,180 pieces/$169.99 Wild West Train – 3,192 pieces/$279.99 Medieval Seaside Market – 2,560 pieces/$229.99 Siege Encampment – 2,598 pieces/$229.99 Riverside Scholars – 2,769 pieces/$199.99 The post BrickLink Designer Program Series 4 Pre-Orders Live appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

Peter Rabbit and the Garden by Chelmade is the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The 4,600 piece build features scenes from The Tale of Peter Rabbit which includes a whole underground layout below the house and garden. The project joins Civil Engineering: Types of Bridges – Revisited, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Go Go Power Rangers! LEGO Megazord, Booknook: Story Laboratory, Medieval Knight, Coraline – The Pink Palace, Taylor Swift Lover House, Jellyfish Collection, Nolinor Boeing 737-200, Portal 2: Core Replacement Station, Ancient Roman Temple, The Holiday – Rosehill Cottage, Gilmore Girls: Stars Hollow, Appa the Sky Bison, Grand Central Station, “Love Enlighten Me” The Bench of the Lampposts in Love, and Bob Ross – The Joy of Building as the ones to reach the First 2025 Review Stage. The post LEGO Ideas Peter Rabbit and the Garden Achieves 10,000 Supporters appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original...

When I returned to LEGO as an adult, I did not have a sufficiently large collection of elements to really build anything. It took me several years of buying sets on discount and multiple orders of elements from various sources to get to a point where I now feel I can build almost anything I can think of. So, in that starting phase, building digitally was really helpful.  Refuelling - by [ S E A Z Y ] I started out with LDD and have, in the last five years, slowly accepted that BrickLink Studio is here to stay, and LDD isn’t. With Studio came some other useful tools, like a renderer and a part creator tool, that I’ve actually found uses for from time to time.  Many people (especially in the early days of digital LEGO building) did not consider digital creations to be “real” MOCs. More like a sort...

LEGO has revealed a new gift with purchase set coming soon called the Tropical Rainforest Diorama (40782). The set has 299 pieces and it features a display that highlights the diversity of the rainforest with a waterfall backdrop. The description of the set says that this is the first of four sets LEGO will be doing that celebrates the wonders of travel and nature. There’s no word on the release date or the price requirements for the set at this time. This LEGO® Tropical Rainforest Diorama display set is the first of 4 building kits in the LEGO collectible series, created to celebrate the wonders of travel and nature. This cool decoration for the home highlights the diversity of the rainforest with a waterfall display. Spot vibrant plants, flowers and animals in a setting that also includes a bird, small frog and a decorated butterfly element! This cool LEGO set makes...

Bob Ross – The Joy of Building by Econombricks is the lastest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The build features a 3D recreation of Mountain Reflections from The Joy of Painting show. The project joins Civil Engineering: Types of Bridges – Revisited, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Go Go Power Rangers! LEGO Megazord, Booknook: Story Laboratory, Medieval Knight, Coraline – The Pink Palace, Taylor Swift Lover House, Jellyfish Collection, Nolinor Boeing 737-200, Portal 2: Core Replacement Station, Ancient Roman Temple, The Holiday – Rosehill Cottage, Gilmore Girls: Stars Hollow, Appa the Sky Bison, Grand Central Station, and “Love Enlighten Me” The Bench of the Lampposts in Love as the ones to reach the First 2025 Review Stage. The post LEGO Ideas Bob Ross – The Joy of Building Achieves 10,000 Supporters appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

The LEGO Building Instructions page has given us a first look at the upcoming LEGO Transformers BrickHeadz sets featuring Optimus Prime (40803) and Bumblebee (40804). The sets will have the characters in their robot forms as well as their alterate modes. The product pages for the sets should be available soon with their details. The post LEGO Transformers BrickHeadz First Look appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

These pieces of LEGO news came out yesterday but it was a packed with LEGO reveals so I didn’t want to overshadow it. I rarely do any political content but it is LEGO related and relevant to the US. Yesterday, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs for Canada, Mexico, and China. This involves a 25% duty on all imports from from our neighbors. As we know, LEGO manufactures a majority of the sets for the North America market at the Monterrey, Mexico factory. We’ll have to see if LEGO raises their prices on the LEGO Shop and in stores in response to these tariffs. The LEGO Group does have a factory in Virginia that is set to open in the second half of 2025 but it won’t go into full production mode until 2027. Time will tell if LEGO moves up their scheduling to try to offset these tariffs. In other news,...

If you still haven’t picked up the LEGO Icons Ghostbusters ECTO-1 (10274), this may be your last time to get it as Amazon has some available. It is at retail price of $239.99 and it is currently sold out on the LEGO Shop and has most likely retired as it hasn’t been available since November 2024. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The post LEGO Icons Ghostbusters ECTO-1 (10274) Available on Amazon appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran