LEGO Community Headlines and Highlights for February 2024

February always flies by, but the LEGO community was back in force with a flurry of fantastic features! We have collected a feast of fabulous articles and formidable deep dives from the farthest fringes of the LEGO fellowship. We are fortunate to be flush with so many forums and fan media that fervently fashion such a flourish of facinating features every month, so enjoy the finest of February!

Here at BrickNerd, we corrected mistakes in MOCs and an amusement park train layout; we traveled around the world in microscale, went for a ride in a telephone TARDIS and brick-built Volvo, and traveled Middle Earth through The Silmarillion. We went small with explorations into baby scale, extra pieces, LEGO hot dogs, and even theoretical physics! We got hands-on and published a field guide for birds, a guide to building a GBC module, a history of LEGO typography, and a think-piece on LEGO and AI. We even published instructions to build a rose and two upscaled treasure chests. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in February 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 February. 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: New Hashima Rises Again at Atlanta Brick Con

The newest iteration of New Hashima came to Atlanta looking more cyberpunk than ever with lit-up roads and a central square, but keep an eye out for a Freinds cube that BrickNerd played a part in!

Bouwsteentjes: Rebuilding a Chinese Restaurant Modular (translated)

If you want to expand your Modular LEGO city, Bouwsteentjes has published free instructions to convert your family celebration into a Chinese restaurant! Modding must be popular since we did the same!

Brick Architect: The LEGO Parts Guide

If you want to understand how LEGO works or are beginning to sort your collection, check out Tom’s newest addition, a well-organized guide to basic LEGO parts that focuses on unprinted, currently available elements.

Brick Fanatics: How To Build The Perfect LEGO Event From 10 Years Of Experience

A seasoned organizer shares his dos and don’ts for building the best LEGO events for the community, including a little bit of “why” as well.

BrickCentral: Better Concepts For Your LEGO Photos

How does storytelling affect LEGO photography? You’d be surprised how difficult telling a story in a single frame is, but how can a minifigure’s sight-line change all that? Check out all the tips on BrickCentral.

Brickfilm Day: The LEGO Movie Rebuilt

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of The LEGO Movie, an incredible group of brickfilmers are recreating the whole film, brick by brick. Take a peek at all the work going on in this trailer!

Bricking Up Brad: Every LEGO Castle Horse Barding and Helmet

Horses want to look stylish too! Brad takes a deep dive into classic LEGO horse bardings and helmets to show us all the fancy frills for your fillies.

Bricksie: Cleaning 40 Pounds of LEGO

How do you clean a bulk lot of LEGO? Bricksie takes us through the process from washing to drying, including all the fun surprises he found along the way!

BZPower: Expanding the Matoran Alphabet from Bionicle

If you are interested in linguistics, BZPower member Likonan shared their Matoran language expansion based on some earlier work on the Bionicle language by kaikue and others. The expansion creates a syllabary writing system rather than just replacing the familiar characters of the Latin alphabet one-for-one.

DuckBricks: A Look Inside LEGO’s Employee Campus

Since it originally opened, LEGO Campus has become a hub of activity in Billund, Denmark. Join DuckBricks as he shows the secrets of LEGO Campus, including the rooftop mini-golf course!

eggybricks: Building A Working Fleet of Trains

What’s the correct style of train to incorporate into your LEGO city? eggybricks creates a few examples from steam to passenger trains, complete with how to build and power them.

Jay’s Brick Block: LEGO Bird Photography in The Wild

Jay must have taken our field guide to LEGO birds literally, as he’s enlisted a small army of photographers to take their LEGO birds into the wild! Take a look at all the awesome photography—you might even forget you are looking at LEGO.

Kos Brick: LEGO Mini City Vehicles Tutorial

Kos Brick is back with another tutorial on how to build microscale vehicles, this time showing a few iconic cars, food trucks, and even a suspiciously familiar delivery van.

LEGO Insiders: Pirate Project - Rebuilding the Port

Two AFOLs took on a project to rebuild Eldorado Fortress leaning on the sets from their childhoods. In this BrickNerd-like take on remixing sets, see what their imaginations ended up with!

LEGO on YouTube: The Artistic Medium of LEGO

How can LEGO make you think as an artist? Watch this documentary on how Katherine Duclos sees LEGO bricks as the “start of something” – a tool to bring big ideas to life using something small. 

matyho kostky: LEGO Symbols and Their Meaning (translated)

While we found it funny to hear what kids thought of LEGO instruction symbols, matyho kostky has also taken a look at the many symbols of LEGO instructions and their meanings.

StoneWars: An Analysis of BrickLink Variants (translated)

When it was announced that BrickLink was going to merge some of their variant listings, it ignited intense discussion in the LEGO community. Luke lists out the pros and cons of the move as well as looks at the historical value of part variants.

StoneWars: Can You Use Polishing Paste to Remove Scratches on LEGO? (translated)

Used LEGO can have a lot of scratches, but can polishing paste bring it back like new? See all the before and after photos to learn the results—clear windshields included.

The Washington Post: Building Lifelike Replicas of D.C. Landmarks (paywall)

Richard Paules sees the same Washington as the rest of us. He just doesn’t see it in the same way. He looks at the imposing Capitol, the distinguished White House, the elegant Kennedy Center and thinks, “I could build that.” And so he has.

Tips & Bricks: Favorite Brick Friday - The Bucket Handle

You usually see this piece attached to another one, namely all those buckets or even the watering can, because it was designed as their handle. However, this handle has proved to be much more versatile. Take a look at all the builders who’ve use this piece in creative ways.

Tips & Bricks: Nine Ways to Prepare for LEGO Conventions

So you’ve decided to attend a LEGO convention – but now what? Have no fear. Tips & Bricks has collected many great ways to help you prepare to make your convention experience a success.

Toy Photographers: Tools to Have on Hand While Photographing Toys Indoors

If inclement weather or allergies get in the way, what are the best tools to have to take photos of LEGO indoors? Toy Photographers share their toolbox of tricks for all kinds of indoor photography and how they can make your pictures better than ever, no daylight required.

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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