LEGO Community Headlines and Highlights for October 2024

It’s time to do some trick or treating, but while it might be Halloween today, it’s also time for our monthly LEGO community round-up! So sit back in that cozy chair of yours, take a sip of your pumpkin-spiced latte (or your preferred choice of warm drink), and enjoy this month’s potpourri of interesting articles, deep drives and insightful features 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 built a vampire and a thing, talked about breaking builder’s block and rekindling the love of LEGO, how to move your sets and making minifig stacks. We went to space and the racetrack, explored characters and colors, and even took a deep dive into LEGO Inside Tour sets and medical representation within LEGO Friends. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in October 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 October. 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!

Ant Bandit: Fixing LEGO Peely

In what is perhaps the most spectacular half-set created for LEGO Fortnite, Ant Bandit shows how to make Peely whole again with two sets and a few extra pieces, instructions included!

Ben Cossy: An Objective History of LEGO Firearms

What was the LEGO Peace Pistol and how did it nearly save the company before it became known for interlocking plastic bricks? Get ready to head into the archives…

Beyond the Brick: LEGO Great Ball Contraption at BrickCon 2024

Beyond the Brick’s Joshua Hanlon talks with builders of the LEGO GBC at BrickCon 2024, from the beginning to the end of the loop!

Brick Innovations: 1 Year Building A Swimming LEGO Turtle

Grant Davis takes us through a year-long journey building an adorable turtle that actually swims. Watch the ups and downs of getting a kinetic sculpture to work perfectly.

Brick Fanatics: 10 Things You Didn't Know About LEGO

Daniel Konstanski, author of The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks, shares some of the surprising things about LEGO that even we didn’t know like how Fabuland was almost rebooted to what really happened to the infamous goat mold.

BrickCentral: How to Make Your Pictures Feel Alive

Light and life are inexorably connected, and toy.story.yana shares how they use light to make their minifigure photography come alive. Head over to BrickCentral for the three-part series!

Bricking Up Brad: Who are The LEGO Royal Knights?

After over 15 years of LEGO Castle, a king emerged, bringing with it a brand new lion faction. To replace the Lion Knights, LEGO released the Royal Knights, which came with the first Medieval LEGO King. Let’s dive into the history and lore of this faction in this episode of Tavern Talk.

Brickset: LEGO Cars - 4 Studs, 6 Studs and Everything In Between

It seems fairly easy: LEGO cars used to be 4 studs wide (ah, nostalgia!) and are now 6 studs wide (ah, cool!). So, when and how did the transition happen? How did LEGO trains play their part (pun intended) in this story?

BrickVault: The Best of SHIPtember 2024

100-stud long ships are no easy build, but SHIPtember brought out the best in builders. Watch this round-up of some of the best spaceships built in the last month!

JK Brickworks: LEGO Caramel Catapult - Halloween Robot 2024

For this year’s Halloween machine, JK Brickworks decided to build a robot to launch small caramel candies to the kids that come to our door. It’s a pretty simple design, with a gravity feed system and a rubber band-powered launching mechanism. Even better, there are free instructions!

LEGO Newsroom: The LEGO Group Celebrates Five Years of LEGO Replay Brick Reuse Program

The LEGO Replay program collects used LEGO bricks, cleans and repackages them, and partners with nonprofits to distribute them to educators and charitable organizations across the U.S. To date, the program has distributed 191,000 boxes, resulting in 300 million LEGO bricks being used and loved anew, rather than becoming waste.

Legodo: Remaking the Mona Lisa Into the Most Famous Failed Restoration

At BrickNerd, we love bringing a ridiculous idea to a new LEGO set. Now, Moko has taken the idea and run with it, remaking the new Mona Lisa set into the failed restoration of “Ecce Homo" by the Spanish painter Elias Garcia Martinez. We tip our hat to you!

New Elementary: Moulding LEGO Mini-doll Legs

The team at New Elementary recently unearthed a seemingly new element right in time for Halloween. The elements in question appear to be minidoll legs that are molded in pairs. Read on to learn about the molding processes and the timing of printing.

Rebrickable: The Process of Creating Stargate Bookends

Read about the mystery of this Stargate portal MOC, and how it disappeared and came back again, thrilling one editor at Rebrickable. What is it like revisiting a design more than a decade later?

R.R. Slugger: Seeing LEGO Differently

Aside from Braille Bricks, how do visually impaired people build LEGO sets without seeing the instructions? R.R. Slugger takes us on a journey and showcases the work of Matthew Shifrin and his website “Bricks For The Blind.”

Sitting On a Stoop: Imposter Syndrome - I’m Not a LEGO Master

Krystle Starr‬ shares how, even after competing in LEGO Masters in three series and winning one of them, the title of LEGO Master Champion is one that she still feels conflicted about. Take a look at why she feels underserving and how the LEGO community has made that impact for the better.

SpitBrix: The History of LEGO Lighting

Watch the evolution of LEGO light, from molded bricks to the iconic light brick and beyond. From bulk wires and battery boxes to miniature lights, the history of LEGO light is bright.

Stonewars: The Future of Interactive LEGO Bricks (translated)

LEGO is testing interactive bricks with light and sound that are triggered by RFID chips embedded in parts and minifigures. Read all about some of the current tests and see what the future of interactive LEGO may hold.

Stubot: Maid of Fabuland

LEGO invited Stuart Lamb Cromar to build a Fabuland ship for the LEGO House in Denmark. Read about his journey building the MOC and how going blind in one eye was both a hindrance and a help to the project to make the paddle steamer as colorful as possible.

The Brothers Brick: Rocco’s Capitol Hill Is a 36,800 Piece LEGO Marvel

Rocco Buttliere‘s model of the Capitol is a masterclass in microscale landscaping and a breathtaking tribute to the heart of American democracy, built at 1:650 scale with fork facades, microphone lamps, and jewel fountains.

The Rambling Brick: The Evolution of LEGO Dragons, Part 1

Get ready to take to the skies because Richard is doing a deep dive into LEGO dragons! He’s taking a look at how dragons have been depicted in LEGO sets over the years and how the LEGO System has evolved to creating the organic-looking dynamic shapes we are familiar with today.

Tiago Catarino: Is the Perfect Sorting System 3D Printed?

Not satisfied with the many sorting systems, drawers, and shelves available, Tiago’s pursuit of the perfect LEGO sorting system led him to design his solution with 3D printing.

Tips&Bricks: Flooring Techniques

Tips&Bricks is back with a foundational post on how to create… well… foundations! They talk about how to create a variety of flooring. Whether your MOC displays hardwood, rugs, cobblestones, tiles, or mosaic patterns, read on for several techniques that will surely add some shine to your floors!

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.

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Lukas Kurth from StoneWars, Wayne Tyler, LeAnna Taylor, Monica Innis, and Dan Church to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.