BrickNerd Turns Ten: The Birth and Death of Mega Nerdly

On July 1st, 2013—exactly one decade ago—Tommy Williamson debuted Nerdly, the glasses-wearing mascot of a site called BrickNerd. (The site actually launched a full six months before that, but the brick-built bespectacled red 2x2 was introduced in the summer.) Nerdly has since become a symbol for all things nerdy about the bricks, popping up in contests and countries all around the globe.

History to Live Up To

To celebrate BrickNerd and Nerdly’s 10th birthday, we wanted to go big! The plan was to build a 10x size Nerdly to premiere at Brickworld Chicago and then tour around LEGO fan conventions to encourage readers to participate in the BrickNerd Brigade, showing off how they have made Nerdly their own. The plan actually harkened back to a live build at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015 where Tommy built a large version of Nerdly in front of an audience of enthusiastic fans.

So one year ago, we started planning the build. This wouldn’t just be a giant Nerdly… it would be a Mega Nerdly! With the help of LEGO to collect roughly 65,000 pieces, Mega Nerldy was actually scaled up a little larger than 10x to help the math work out better—12x bigger, to be exact. A few contributors tackled how to upscale the curve of the glasses while I figured out the internal structure of how the build would work.

Thinking and Building Big

The idea was to make not only an upscaled Nerdly but make the insides function as a modular bookshelf of sorts. That way it could be used to display people’s custom Nerdlies, be adjustable for whatever height was needed and used for big-scale advertising when appropriate.

I test-built a concept based on Ikea bookcases where the shelves are held up with metal pins. We could get the same functionality by using Technic bricks and pins for the same purpose. I experimented with the shelves and how much weight they could support, in addition to figuring out some creative solutions to light the inside of each shelf since the further back in the display, the darker it would be. I also test-built the curve of the glasses and the iconic white center to ensure everything would work out perfectly. Yes, Mega Nerdly had a mostly analog creation.

When the LEGO was purchased and arrived, the building process started in earnest. I experimented with a few ways to make Mega Nerdly as strong as possible. This also included figuring out how to hide several stud inversions and make the outside as aesthetically pleasing as possible, including focusing on a consistent pattern of the seam between bricks—a facade to hide all of the internal structure. The goal was to make the build appear as effortless as possible, despite the intense complexity within.

As is customary, I didn’t take as many photos of the build process as I should have. The bases were modular, as were the shelves so they could be stacked and tessellated in a box for easy transport. The glasses were divided into segments so they could appear perfectly constructed and to make sure that the parts not hanging off the sides had enough structure to support the overall weight.

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I did create a few cheat sheets showing each and every brick in profile view so I could concentrate on where the attachment points needed to be. The base of the glasses was the most complex as it needed an inversion achieved by creating a series of rods five plates high to get a perfect square that would fit in a hole of equal size. I wish I had taken a photo of it… (ooo, foreshadowing!)

At this point, Brickworld Chicago was only a week away and I started building like crazy every moment I had. I was also assembling a built version of every instruction post we had ever created at BrickNerd so you can imagine my build room was in quite a state of disarray. I learn so much from building my fellow contributor’s creations that it was exciting to see everything come together.

The studs on top came together quickly and then I installed and tested the lights. Mega Nerdly was done! Sadly in the rush to get on the road, I didn’t take any pictures of the final creation in my build room or how I packed it. (Believe me, it was well done, tesselated wonderfully, and I even ordered custom-sized boxes to fit everything perfectly.) I loaded the car using every available inch of space and headed to Brickworld Chicago!

BrickNerds Assemble!

Brickworld was honestly a blur. Arriving to see friends from all over the globe assembling into a community of LEGO fans eager to share their creations always fills me with a sense of belonging and wonder. A few BrickNerd contributors stayed up to tile the shelves, make a QR code, and get the display looking as wonderful as possible for everyone to enjoy.

BrickNerd had 15 contributors in attendance, many Patrons, and who knows how many readers. It is always difficult to get a group shot at a convention since so many people are off doing their own thing but this was our best attempt!

Here you can see a bit more of the top studs and modular shelving system, as well as the “perfect” facade of the face of Mega Nerdly. Before we were even finished, people started bring their Nerdlies to add to the gallery.

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The team also assembled Nerdly kits to hand out so people could build and participate during the convention too. We assembled 50 kits to give away to place Nerdlies all over the exhibition floor. It would be a Nerdly invasion! Everyone who participated also received an exclusive holographic Nerdly sticker. It was very shiny. :)

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The free BrickNerd instruction builds all together looked stunning and represented so much work from the team (and Joe Meno at BrickJournal). One person even came up and asked to borrow our scissors which when I replied they were made of LEGO, they freaked out a bit and looked at everything a bit closer.

We celebrated with a BrickNerd Breakfast for our contributors and Patrons, then it was off to the races!

The BrickNerd Brigade

Throughout the convention, what was most exciting was seeing all the custom Nerdlies in the gallery and scattered throughout the exhibition hall. We counted more than 100 Nerdly creations in total! There was a Modulex Nerdly, a 3D printed one, ones that referenced New Hashima, a clear Nerdly, and Mandalorian one and even a Duplo Nerdly. Having everyone express their “nerdom” in their own unique way was a joy to see and really helped create a feeling of community.

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Nerdlies were spotted all across the hall, built into the GBC loop, hidden inside rockwork, submerged in an underwater scene, and peeking around every corner.

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For World of Lights, the display looked like a shiny fridge before it went into disco mode, while Mega Nerdly looked on as if they were telling a spooky story around a campfire. The main attraction at in the dark was the New Hashima collab, but you’ll have to stay tuned to BrickNerd for more about that coming soon!

Brickworld Chicago was the tenth birthday bash for BrickNerd that we had hoped it would be—bringing people together in the community for a shared moment to celebrate our love of LEGO and the ways we all express our nerdity about it. The below is one of the last photos taken of Mega Nerdly and is amazingly one of the only photos of both it and me together.

Going Out With a Bang

Packing up after the show was also a blur, making sure all the Nerdlies found their way home to their creators—those that didn’t were adopted and were going to be taken to the next few LEGO conventions that I could drive to. The car was packed up and I started the drive home to New York on Sunday evening, aiming to stop at a motel in Toledo to get some rest. But life had other plans…

The deer jumped out of nowhere, and I hit it head-on going 70 mph on cruise control. The rest was a literal blur. My car veered off into the median, going down the ditch then back up on the other side of the highway, whereupon a three-trailer semi-truck plowed through the passenger-side of the car. LEGO exploded all over the road in a burst so spectacular any LEGO Masters show would be jealous. (My phone also flung away so I don’t have any other photos of the LEGO carnage from that night.)

Though shaken and bleeding from some flying glass, my first instinct was that I needed to help clear the road of the LEGO so other vehicles could get moving again. I got out of the car and tried to clear some of the mess up before the police and paramedics arrived. They were surprised to discover I was the driver and in such miraculous shape, but they rushed me to the ambulance for a check-up. Thankfully I was pretty much ok and was even joking with the EMTs when I heard the leafblowers from the cleanup crew start to clear the road of the mess. My fears were confirmed as I saw shovels scooping up all the LEGO and glass and twisted metal into trash cans.

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I was dropped off at a motel in the middle of nowhere in Indiana, got a few updates out to family and close friends, showered, and then tried to sleep. The next morning a LEGO friend drove in from Chicago to save the day, help get what we could out of the car, and drive me back home to New York. (Have I mentioned before how amazing the LEGO community is!?)

Looking at the car in the junkyard in the daylight, I had a newfound appreciation of just how lucky I was to be alive. We sifted through the twisted metal and broken glass to save what we could, but one thing was certain. Mega Nerdly was no more. Less than a week after it was completed, Mega Nerdly had shattered into thousands of pieces on the highway, hopefully to inspire anyone who might happen upon its remains as they see bits of LEGO up and down the side of the highway.

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Only a little of it was recoverable. Plates were cracked down the middle, Technic beams were shorn in two, many pieces were indistinguishable. We scooped up what we could, glass shards and all, bid farewell to the car, and walked away.

When I got home and looked through the rubble, this was the largest section I could find still intact. I don’t even want to know how it got that scar on the outside.

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The instruction builds I had painstakingly collected pieces for didn’t fair much better, and a few of the Nerdlies I adopted for the next show didn’t make it. I don’t know how some pieces got torn in half while still inside plastic baggies. That is a mystery for another day.

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I think that this Nerdly I found in the wreckage about sums up how I felt in the moment—shaken up beyond belief, thankful to be alive, so grateful for the LEGO community, but also mournful for a MOC that didn’t live more than a week. But as so many people mentioned, LEGO can be rebuilt, but people can’t as easily…

Help Us Rebuild

BrickNerd is a passion project for the more than 50 dedicated international AFOLs who have contributed to its reboot by writing articles in their spare time. That number doesn’t even begin to scratch the amount of Patrons, guest authors, fans, and readers that have come together to form this amazing community. Our budget may be small but hopefully our collective knowledge and impact are big—and we will rebuild!

Many people have reached out with lovely messages asking how they can help rebuild Mega Nerdly. Honestly, the best way is to become a BrickNerd Patron and contribute over time. Those funds help us run the site, give back to the community, sponsor contests, and build cool things like Mega Nerdly. Patronage also comes with other perks like swag, access to our Discord, and an invite to our monthly contributor calls. Plus, until the end of July, every new and existing Patron of our $10 group and above will be mailed a recovered piece of mangled Mega Nerdly as a token of our appreciation (if they want it).

If becoming a BrickNerd patron is out of reach and you still want to donate to help us rebuild, you can also give via PayPal by clicking the yellow button below. Everyone who donates $25 or more will also receive a piece of mangled Mega Nerdly (if they want one). Every bit will help us rebuild. (If you would like to avoid PayPal fees, please contact me directly.)

If you don’t have the means to donate but still want to support BrickNerd, you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, share our articles with your friends and groups, leave encouraging comments, or use our affiliate codes when you shop at LEGO or Amazon. We really appreciate the support.

Celebrating a Decade of BrickNerd

So that is the story of the birth and death (and possible rebirth!?) of Mega Nerdly. It is an epic tale of how the LEGO community came together to celebrate a decade of getting nerdy about the bricks while also rushing to the aid of a friend in need. BrickNerd is a community, and it will take more than a deer and a semi to bring us down.

Happy Birthday, Nerdly! May your next ten years be just as adventurous!

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