LEGO Community Headlines and Highlights for July 2024
July has come to an end, Summer is halfway over, but fret not, there’s plenty to enjoy! So wherever you are – be it on vacation on a beach or on your couch in the living room – we’ve got a sizzling platter for you, full of interesting articles, deep dives and insightful features from all across the LEGO community! We are lucky to have this many outlets and channels creating incredible content, and these are the best of the month.
Here at BrickNerd, we followed the Summer Olympics and Bio-Cup and learned all about GBC mechanisms and about color in fantasy builds. We customized Speed Champions sets, made custom cloth flags, prepped for SHIPtember and abandoned instructions outright. We had Christmas in July, took a LEGO set into the pool and traveled to Scotland and around the world. And we celebrated a community champion, a LEGO train layout, and LEGO Club TV, plus we even dissected a Technic hypercar and learned about LEGO UFOs. Whew!
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 July. 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!
Bricking Up Brad: The Epic History Of LEGO Castle
Should you be in need of a refresher of all the LEGO Castle themes, Bricking Up Brad has you covered. (Also, if you want a history lesson or simply want to reminisce about your childhood when you got that awesome LEGO Castle set for your birthday). It’s a walkthrough of LEGO Castle from its infancy to the very latest sets.
Brickset: Interview with Graham E. Hancock, author of LEGO Star Wars - The Force of Creativity
How is it to get the keys to the castle? To get to sit down with the LEGO Star Wars design team? Dig through the LEGO archives? Graham E. Hancock shares some stories from his time working on the book LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity.
Brickset: Interview with Nathan Thom, founder of Rebrickable
Rebrickable is home to thousands of custom creations from LEGO fans from all around the globe. Brickset’s Huw sat down with Nathan Thom, its founder, to find out how it all came together, how it has grown over the years, and what the future might hold.
Cheesey Studios: Revisiting LEGO Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets
Sit back in your common room of choice, open one of those chocolate frogs, take a sip of your polyjuice potion, and enjoy Cheesey Studios’ trip down Harry Potter memory lane. This episode takes us way back to 2002 to take a look at the first sets that were made for The Chamber of Secrets.
DuckBricks: Designing the LEGO Masters Set in Denmark
Getting their design turned into a LEGO set is not something many people can say. After winning LEGO Masters US Season 4, Robert and Chris of DuckBricks had just that happen, and now their World Wonderliner can be purchased in LEGO Stores. Here’s a glimpse behind the design process and their trip to Denmark.
Esquire: Everything's Still Awesome - LEGO at 75
The LEGO brick is turning 75, and LEGO seems to be going stronger than ever. Time for Esquire to travel to Billund and look at the long history of the company and how it got where it is, and learn about play at the LEGO House.
MitchBuilds: Creating a D&D Character... But with LEGO
Another month, another MitchBuilds video to highlight – not a slight at all, just a testament to the quality they put out! Find out how to combine a dragon head from 2005’s Harry Potter with a Chima constraction figure, or just watch along to see an amazing D&D character come together… like that!
rebrickable: MOC Review - Nick Trotta's Resonance & How to Make Instructions
Nick Trotta’s spaceships are something else. Kind as he is, he not only shares stellar images but also posts break-down videos – which allow people to create instructions for them. Read how Chricki did just that, built the model – and read from Nick himself about how he designed the Resonance.
R.R. Slugger: I ❤️ LEGO Studios
LEGO Studios is one of those LEGO themes of the early 2000s that has stuck in people’s hearts. A weird amalgamation of horror icons, Spider-Man and Spielberg, it was an interesting foray into stop-motion movie making. R.R. Slugger does a deep dive into the theme and highlights what made it special.
R.R. Slugger: LEGO Animal Crossing ~ 45 Years in the Making!
The release of the Animal Crossing LEGO sets made us reminisce about the first years of LEGO storytelling when Fabuland’s characters populated a lovely world of vibrant primary colors. Time for R.R. Slugger to take a step back and analyze what Fabuland started, what made it special, and how maybe Animal Crossing follows in its footsteps?
Tips & Bricks: BEGINNER SERIES - Lesson 8: Angles
LEGO is inherently a boxy medium – bricks largely come with a square-ish footprint, everything is built in a grid, and doing something organic can be very difficult. If you’d like to break out of this grid, Tips & Bricks has you covered – and is going to teach you all about angles.
Tips & Bricks: TECHNIQUE DISCUSSION: MOC Bases
A MOC isn’t really complete without its base, and those come in all shapes and sizes. Time for Tips & Bricks to highlight the different approaches and techniques that can lift a MOC to new heights!
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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