LEGO Community Headlines and Highlights for December 2023

Winter’s in full swing and the holiday season is transitioning into saying goodbye to 2023. We hope you all had a wonderful time with your loved ones, but should you need some respite from just that, we have you covered! Enjoy a post-holiday treat of LEGO community highlights, found in the mystical lands between daily advent calendar reviews and set announcements!

Here at BrickNerd, we dove into the past of LEGO Technic, learned how to start a LEGO club at school and collaborate as a family. We analysed LEGO snowmen, nutcrackers and LEGO calendars, rounded up a sleigh-load of Santas and published instructions for a winter village stand. We announced our Nerdvember winners, highlighted a Christmas bauble Secret Santa, took a safari to the North Pole and headed to brick-built Mexico right after. And we even highlighted charities within the LEGO community, looked back at the Year of Casey and kept the GBC balls rolling.

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 December. 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!

Brick Model Railroader: Five Years of LLMTC Celebrated Big At LLMTCworld

Every year the LLMTC event in Arnhem, Netherlands, invites LEGO train fans from all across Europe. This year however they went big – read on how they made this event their biggest and most well-received yet!

Bricking Up Brad: Exploring the LEGO Dragon Masters Theme

After the Black Knights came the second Dragon faction—Dragon Masters—that introduced us to Majisto, the famous LEGO blue wizard. With the remake of Majisto's Magical Workshop, it’s time to dive into the history and lore of the Dragon Masters.

Brickset: Motorising the Orient Express

When LEGO launched 21344 Orient Express, many fans voiced disappointment about the lack of motorization. The set’s weight forced LEGO to ommit motorisation but Alex D over on brickset shares how to overcome just that and get the train running!

eggybricks: Insanely Overengineering a LEGO City

What should you consider before building a gigantic LEGO city? Find out how city planning and plastic bricks come together before the building even begins.

Klavvy’s Corner: Bionicle - The Ancient Nui-Rama Prototype, Prototime Ep. 1

Sometimes life hands you some wonderfully obscure LEGO items. And why not make a nerdy video about just that? Join Klavvy’s Corner when they analyse an early LEGO Bionicle prototype and its differences from the product actually released.

Kos Brick: LEGO Farm Mini Vehicles - Part 4

Kos Brick shares part four of his mini farm vehicle collection, complete with a barn, sheep, and a few tractors! Go get your bricks and follow along.

LEGO Insiders Community: Chris McVeigh Takes Us Behind the Design of the LEGO Natural History Museum

The recently unveiled addition to the LEGO Modular range has created much excitement about visiting your local (brick-built) museum. Join designer Chris McVeigh for a tour through the exhibit, covering design decisions, details and some of the references hidden inside!

matyho kostky: LEGO and NASA - A Partnership for Light Years (translated)

LEGO and NASA – that’s a partnership already lasting for decades. This article chronicles this collaboration: From the early years of LEGO discovery sets to sending an ISS to the ISS, and beyond!

New Elementary: Bug Fest: Moko’s MOCs

When building the LEGO Ideas The Insect Collection, I wondered what talented AFOLs would do with the pieces hidden inside. Thankfully, New Elementary thought similarly and tasked various builders to have a play. This post highlights what legendary Japanese builder Moko came up with!

Stonewars: Rogue Ilias - The Planning and Preparation of the Huge Rogue Collab of 2023 (1/2) (translated)

Once a year, the German online community RogueBricks stuns the visitors of the Bricking Bavaria fan event with sprawling, award-winning collaborative builds. In this first part of two, Stonewars uncovers how this year’s Rogue Odyssey was conceived, organised and put together.

Stonewars: Rogue Odyssey - Ancient Greece as a Huge Community MOC (2/2) (translated)

Rarely do we feature two posts on the same topic but this second part of Stonewars’ Rogue Odyssey feature is hard to pass on: A visual trip through Ancient Greece, highlighting beautiful details, little stories and wonderful architecture, this feature is a feast for the eyes!

The Brothers Brick: Reader’s Favorite Moments of 2023

From conventions to collabs, TBB collected a few favorite moments from the LEGO community and shared some thoughts on how they bring people together.

Tips & Bricks: Technique Analysis - Vintage Kitchen by @martinlegodesign

A build like this is a treat to write about, as is apparent by Tips & Bricks great feature. Martin Otręba’s beautiful vintage kitchen is loaded with nifty techniques and smart piece usage and we’re sure everyone can learn a thing or two from this little masterpiece!

Tips & Bricks: Discussion - Our 2023 Diversity & Inclusion Efforts

Tips & Bricks have been championing diversity and inclusion for a long time and Alex and the team at Tips & Bricks are leading the charge within the LEGO community. This 2023 roundup highlights their efforts this past year.

The Verge: How LEGO Builds a New LEGO Set

What might look like straight from your childhood LEGO bucket is actually a prototype for the recently announced LEGO Polaroid camera. Head over to The Verge for an in-depth piece covering its design 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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