Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published November 23, 2022. There are many acronyms, terms and phrases used to describe various things within the world of AFOLs. Most of them are fairly common, and you can find a fantastic glossary of general LEGO terms on sites like The Brothers Brick or Firestar Toys. But that only tells part of the story, as there is a whole additional world of terms used by individuals or found in local communities that are usually unknown to the wider breadth of LEGO fans. These are the slang terms of the AFOL community. After more than 12 months of research and discussions, I’ve collected a list of slang terms you may encounter when talking to AFOLs from around the world. Some items have multiple names. Some are descriptive, some are comedic. Some may only be used by a few builders while others are commonplace terms used...

Today’s guest article comes from Fabian Lindblad, a 23-year-old collector from Norway who focuses on LEGO history including sets, prototypes, test parts and paperwork from 1970 and earlier. LEGO in Norway Last year the fan community celebrated 60 years of LEGO around the world, so it may come as a surprise that Norway is celebrating the 70th anniversary of LEGO this year. How did Norway become the first country outside Denmark to produce and sell LEGO, and why don’t we hear more about it? Today, we will look into the history and items of the short-lived Norwegian LEGO factory.  The Norwegian LEGO logo top left, the Norwegian factory top right and a selection of Norwegian-made LEGO on the bottom.  As a brief aside, collecting items with a story has always been important for me, and it is probably why I have ended up collecting and researching these specific parts of LEGO...

Upon seeing the name of this article, you might be asking yourself, “Hey BrickNerd, haven’t you already published multiple articles on custom lighting for both sets and MOCs?” And the answer is yes! You should absolutely check out our past lighting articles, peruse our LEGO Lighting Compendium and explore our other lighting experiments. But where this article is going, we don’t need vendors. That’s right, we are going to dive into completely DIY lighting, from the hardware itself to using code to drive it. Now, if soldering and writing code sounds terrifying but you aren’t satisfied with the pre-made lighting solutions currently available from vendors, then I highly recommend sticking around! You might find that custom lighting for LEGO is not as scary as it seems. I’ll be using a recent MOC of mine as a demo project, showing the electronics I used and the code I used to drive it...

For each issue of BrickJournal Magazine, the BrickNerd team creates instructions for a LEGO mini-model to go with the theme of the cover story. For their recent issue about Disney’s 100th anniversary, BrickNerd contributor Miro Dudas created a life-size Tinkerbell—the largest “mini-model” we’ve ever published. A Fantastic Floating Fairy To celebrate the magical theme of this BrickJournal issue, we decided to create a life-size LEGO Tinkerbell. The core design repurposes my previous Surfing Girls creation from a few years ago. The arms and legs were already positioned perfectly so adjusting them for Tink was a breeze. All I had to do was make her fly. I gave her a pedestal and a clear support to anchor her in mid-air. (Building tip: use an older clear support rod since they are more rigid. The newer ones are made with a newer plastic that has a bit more bend and can’t quite support...

Today’s article comes from guest contributor Jesse Gros who discusses how AI-generated “LEGO” sets are sparking a debate between inspiration and imitation within the AFOL community. From Pixels to Plastic Is the world of MOC building on the brink of a transformation? This past week, high-quality IA-generated “LEGO” sets started popping up on Instagram on pages like @brick4world. At first glance, these images looked like real sets. When I saw the first one, my heart skipped a beat: “Oh, I’m buying that set for sure!” Seconds later, I read the post and realized it was an AI mockup made up of digital “pieces” that approximate LEGO. This sent my mind whirling. AI creation by brick4world. One of the first comments in the thread below the image expressed anger: “Can we not post that AI crap here?” Responses included comments about the images being used for “inspiration.” Another pointed out that translating...