Merry Christmas from BrickNerd! Now, let’s give away some shiny gold. Last month for Nerdvember, we asked you to get nerdy with us and reimagine our mascot Nerdly along the lines of survival—and we got almost 40 entries!
To recap, to celebrate the survival of Mega-Nerdly, we were looking for survivor-themed Nerdlies for whatever survival meant to you. Judging this contest was difficult! There were so many fantastic interpretations of the theme and so many praiseworthy builds. Each BrickNerd contributor had an equal vote, and the results were very close.
Three key criteria were considered by the judges:
Concept - Is the idea clever, tell a story, and could be classified as survival?
Quality & Presentation - Is the creation built well, feature any NPU, and composed/photographed in a way that enhances the overall creation?
Nerdiness - Does the creation have a balance of Nerdly features that clearly convey the BrickNerd mascot (color, shape, studs, glasses, etc.)?
Honorable Mentions
We’ll start with our honorable mentions. These are just a few of the stand-out entries that we enjoyed. Each represented a great concept and embodied that survival element we were looking for. Congratulations to these six builders who amazed us with their creativity, building skill and nerdiness! We loved the interpretations of Nerdly, from cyberpunk to deserted islands with some great part usage as well.
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Third Place: greenarj - Weeds
At the end of the day, this is a contest and we had to choose some winners—as difficult as that was.
Our third-place prize of the LEGO Architecture 21037 LEGO House set OR a $100 LEGO spending spree goes to greenarj for their “Weeds” creation. Somehow a dandelion always survives—just like old gray—finding the cracks and coming back stronger than ever! Plus round flowers aren’t the easiest thing to build.
Second Place: Karsten Ingalls - By a Whisker
Our second-place prize of the LEGO House 40501 Wooden Duck set OR a $150 LEGO spending spree set goes to Karsten Ingalls for their “By a Whisker” build. We loved the concept of the mouse surviving by just a whisker, and the build itself was so clean and simple—exactly what it needed to be to convey the message. The Nerdly mouse is so cute and we love the parts usage for the ears and whiskers. Hooray for surviving, having a story to tell, and getting a yummy treat of cheese too!
First Place: Okay Yaramanoglu - Surviving 2020
Our first-place winner claiming the LEGO House 40504 A Minifigure Tribute set signed by designers Stuart Harris and Markus Rollbühler OR a $200 LEGO spending spree, along with a BrickNerd Box with swag and our Golden Nerdly trophy is… Okay Yaramanoglu with his “Surviving 202” build. Okay went all-in on the survival theme and it was really the details that made this stand out for us the most. We loved the humor, Tiger King on the TV, the closet full of hoarded toilet paper rolls, and the many doomsday entities just outside the window.
The shaping of the eyes leads to the most expressive Nerdly when surviving 2020, complete with gloves and a mask. The murder hornets, COVID and wildfires at the door only make us feel even more for our dear Nerdly who most certainly needs a haircut.
We also noticed many BrickNerd references in the build, including a micro-Golden Nerdly trophy and a trans-green frog. Only a true BrickNerd fan could fit those fun details into a build about survival, and now you have a full-size trophy for your collection!
Congratulations to all our winners! We salute your nerdiness and will be in contact about your prizes soon!
BrickNerd Contributor Contest
But wait, there’s more! In addition to the public contest, some of our own BrickNerd contributors wanted to join in the fun. Congratulations to John Cooper for his camouflaged Nerdly—we had to look twice not to miss it! The minilander LEGO bags and cypress trees were also fantastic flexes, all part of the “No See Him” museum. Congratulations!
Check out all the other entries from our BrickNerd contributors below, from space to portals to a cuddly campfire.
Nerdvember 2023 Survival Gallery
You can see all entries for our Nerdvember 2023 Survival contest embedded below or in the official gallery. In the PollUnit gallery, we’ve linked to each builder’s Flickr or Instagram if provided, included their descriptions, and commented on each and every entry. There are so many amazing Nerdly builds, we wish we could award more prizes!
Take a moment to browse through the gallery below and leave a comment. We are grateful for each and every entry, and we LOVED that so many people—both kids and adults—had fun making Nerdly their own.
More Nerdy Contests to Come
As we look back on 2023, it has indeed been a challenging year, but Nerdly survived and is coming back bigger and better than ever. We will be back next year with even more nerdy contests, so keep your glasses ready and be on the lookout because the LEGO nerdiness is only just beginning!
Scott Wilhelm - Wasteland Nerdly
Which survival Nerdly build is your favorite? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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