LEGO Community Headlines and Highlights for August 2023

Summer’s in full swing and August is already over – time to relax in the evening sun and enjoy this month’s smorgasbord of great features, insightful articles and deep dives 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 delved into the stuff of dreams and nightmares with the new LEGO Dreamzzz sets and covered San Diego Comic-Con from an AFOL perspective. We visited Korea Brick Party and an incredible LEGO Train Event in Germany, moved a LEGO collection, and covered disability representation in LEGO, autistic AFOLs and highlighted the highs and lows of neurodivergent builders. We talked Bio-Cup 2023 finals and LEGO animal NPU, LEGO waterfall techniques and LEGO Rock Raiders. We even published instructions for a LEGO chess set and chronicled the illustrious career of a LEGO employee that never existed. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in August that we’ve included an interactive calendar of them at the bottom of this post so you can make sure you didn’t miss a thing.

But there are many more fascinating stories to be told from within the LEGO community, so here are some of the best LEGO articles and videos that caught our contributors’ attention throughout the month of August. We applaud the effort that went into each of these features, so click on the headlines or photos to head to each story or video. They are well worth your time!

Beyond the Brick: Full Tour of BrickFair Virginia 2023

Beyond the Brick's Joshua Hanlon is joined by Caden Burton for a full tour of the amazing LEGO creations at BrickFair Chantilly 2023, including a sequel build of New Hashima.

Brick Architect: Adidas Ultraboost DNA × LEGO Plates Shoes

The award for the most unexpected article has to go to Tom Alphin’s review of the Adidas LEGO shoe. And we wouldn’t feature a review if it wasn’t a special one. After all, Tom is analysing not just the box but also the soles and diving into possible connections!

Brick Experiment Channel: Building 10 Motorized LEGO Doors

Simple doors, revolving ones, garage doors… This video has you covered! And as per the title, they are all motorised, too.

BrickCentral: Outdoor Photography Tips

When outdoors, how does framing and selection of the background affect minifigure photography? Check out these before and after shots that illustrate the difference.

Bricking Up Brad: LEGO Black Knights History and Lore Dive

The 4th faction in LEGO Castle was the Black Knights, which was actually the first dragon Faction. Their battles with the Forestmen, Black Falcons, Lion Knights, Wolfpack and Dragon Masters are legendary.

Jay’s Brick Blog: LEGO Marvel Minifigures Series 2 Weight Guide, and Correcting Other Identification Myths

For the latest series of collectible minifigures, LEGO has moved on to more sustainable cardboard-based packaging. Gone are the days of adults feeling up little bags on the hunt for their favorite minifigure. Jay’s deep dive uncovers what things work and what don’t to find the exact minifigure one is looking for—hint: You might want to invest in a precision scale!

Iron Builder Podcast: Season 6 Round 15 - Caleb vs. Jonah

If you’ve ever wanted a glimpse behind the curtain of Iron Builder, this 2h and 14min first episode of the new Iron Builder podcast will give you just that: Hejjo Demkowicz is joined by guest Loke for an insightful conversation between the competitors of the latest round, Jonah Schultz and Caleb Schilling. It’s long but such a wholesome and interesting episode.

New Elementary: BrickHeadz Sonic Review and Part 4304

At times LEGO updates its elements, often in the smallest of ways. Often times these changes go unnoticed but every now and then our detective friends at New Elementary uncover bigger changes. The recent update to a special plate led to a super-nerdy article about stud offsets well worth checking out!

Rebrickable: Is This LEGO? - Constraction & CCBS

TobyMac is back for another installment of “Is this LEGO?”! Taking a closer look at constraction and CCBS this article covers a wide range of sets: Going back all the way to the beginning with the OG Bionicle, he also covers Galidor, Ben10, Hero Factory, licensed figures, squeezes in a review and even contemplates the future of CCBS!

R.R. Slugger: Bad Advice For Making Videos

It’s rare that a YouTube creator shares their process, but R.R. Slugger is doing just that. Covering everything from scripting, audio and audio editing, colors, camera gear and lighting—this is a handy one for anyone wanting to start out in the video space!

StoneWars: A Closer Look at the Iron Builder Contest (translated)

“Imagine you are given any LEGO piece and your task is to build with it as creatively as possible – that's what Iron Builder is.” From two weeks of stress for the opponents comes 16 days of brilliant entertainment for the audience. That’s Iron Builder.

The Brothers Brick: Come Fly With Me - Real-World Aircraft in the Brick

With the LEGO Concorde taking off next week, The Brothers Brick has embarked on a deep dive of LEGO aircraft, specifically the kind that were inspired by real-life counterparts. For example did you know that the first LEGO set of a ‘real’ plane was released as early as 1972?

The Rambling Brick: Bringing Myth and Magic to LEGO Castle - The System Years 1992-1999

Few things are as beloved as the classic castle sets of the past. Time for Richard to travel back in time and continue his series of articles covering the history of LEGO Castle!

Tips & Bricks: Techniques - Star Wars Midifigures by @brick.sheepa

Brick-built characters are often a challenge to build, especially once articulation is of importance. Tips & Bricks analysed a style of characters designed by brick.sheepa that might just teach you a thing or two!

Tips & Bricks: Best of BrickNerd - T&B’s Favourite Articles

OK, we may be a bit biased here, but this round-up of BrickNerd articles really made our day. Thanks to Tips & Bricks for noticing, picking their favourite articles, sharing some of our hard work, and for making us feel like we were on Cloud Nine!

True North Bricks: I Chose To Use LEGO… or it Chose Me (An Interview with Ekow Nimako)

His work is hard to mistake for someone elses: A Canadian artist, Ekow Nimako has created a style so unique and recognisable, using exclusively black LEGO bricks. True North Bricks has interviewed the charismatic creator of some of the most impressive LEGO artwork of the last decade, talking about his roots and his hands-on process.

If all of those amazing features weren’t enough to satisfy your LEGO community craving, here is an interactive calendar of everything that BrickNerd has published this last month to make sure you didn’t miss a single article.

Did we miss any of your favorite LEGO articles and content for the month? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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