Best of BrickNerd — Article originally published December 25, 2021. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a merry holiday no matter how you celebrate it—or even if you celebrate it at all. We at BrickNerd are from many faiths and traditions. We speak dozens of languages and represent even more countries. It is that diversity that really brings the richness of culture and breadth of LEGO knowledge that has made BrickNerd such a community the past year. To me and for many Christians, Christmas is more than just a day of gift-giving and family get-togethers. It is the day we celebrate the feast of the birth of Jesus Christ—one of our most sacred Holy Days. Throughout the ages, many people have celebrated this holiday through expressions of art, music, and literature—religious art is part of the human experience as it is a lasting chronicle of history. As such, many artists throughout the...

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published December 20, 2022 with updates from this year’s gift. There is no way to measure how much joy LEGO gifts bring to those that receive them for the holidays. But what about the LEGO elves (aka employees) that work year-round creating wonderful LEGO products? Join BrickNerd as we take a look at each and every exclusive LEGO employee holiday gift. Humble Holiday Beginnings 2009: Heart via brickset LEGO employees have received sets for the holidays for the past fourteen years. This tradition got off to a very modest start in 2009 with a boxed heart model (following a year of the same set in polybag form). Perhaps it was a way of The LEGO Group (TLG) saying “We Original linkOriginal author: John Cooper

A time to reflect and give back, the holidays offer a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at what might just be my favourite part of the holiday season each and every year. Nine years ago, I had the silly idea to start a LEGO Christmas bauble gift exchange – and 220+ custom-built MOCs later, our annual Secret Santa is still my LUG’s favourite activity. Let’s find out what’s behind this tradition that’s slowly depleting the world’s supply of LEGO Christmas baubles, shall we? History of a Holiday Tradition Back in 2015, I found myself in the role of LUG Ambassador for the German online community Imperium der Steine. We had a small team of dedicated members that would organise activities and contests. Clearly, we had too much free time on our hands and many a silly idea got brought to life, be it elaborate MOC-Olympics or even our own printed...

Over the past decade or so of modular buildings, there has frequently been a gift with purchase available early in the year to accompany it, sometimes with a thematic link. The Detective’s Office launch was accompanied by the 40140 Flower Cart bonus polybag that included a hidden barrel of cookies to tie into that modular’s cookie-smuggling story. More recently LEGO 40586 Icons Moving Truck, which includes furniture to be delivered to LEGO Icons 10312 Jazz Club, came out a few months after that modular. This year, LEGO 10326 Natural History Museum broke tradition by coming out a month early, and now for the turn of the year, LEGO Icons 40681 Retro Food Truck contains 310 pieces and 2 minifigures and will be available with some purchases in the new year at LEGO.com and your local LEGO retail store. An obvious note: it’s really hard to give a thumbs up or down...

This build by Ian (aka bricktacular_builds) caught my eye not because of the mockingjay pin but because of the brick-built LEGO flower that is oddly out of focus. I mean, why would you share a poor image of your creation? And who would put a metal pin by a LEGO build, right? And then I took a closer look… You see, SNOT is a specific way of connecting LEGO pieces. It stands for “studs not on top” and features all kids of sideway connections. And this is exactly what is happening here. The intricate structure of the pin became possible only thanks to a very neat choice of plates and bars with clips. Wing elements fit this ornament wonderfully, making the bird instantly recognizable. I mean, it’s way too similar to a real piece of the Hunger Games merch! The post May the SNOT connections be ever in your favor appeared...