This year I ventured to a new brick show, Bristlecone Bricks and Train show in Ely, NV. Ely (E-Lee) is in White Pine County, the middle of Eastern Nevada, four hours southwest of Salt Lake City, four hours north of Las Vegas, and five hours directly east of Reno. It’s a bit high in elevation at 6,437 feet, with a population of just over 4,000 folks. It’s a great little town, home of the Northern Nevada Railway Museum, great views, garnet hunting, and steam and diesel train regular and themed (1920s) rides. Also, hand cart rides to get those muscles working. The Bristlecone Bricks and Train Show helps raise money for the continued operation and upkeep of the museum. The Event Bristcone Bricks is typically held the first weekend in June. This year it was Friday June 2 and Saturday, June 3rd. There was lots of representation from local builders. Setup...

There used to be a time when we would travel to Sydney at least once a year for a LEGO Fan Show. Attending an event in Sydney was a highlight of the LEGO fan calendar in Australia. For eight years we were able to attend the Sydney Brick Show, and marvel at the outstanding creations of the local and interstate LEGO Fan community. Then in 2020, the world was caught up in the COVID-19 pandemic. There were travel restrictions, density limits, and lockdowns, and the event had to be cancelled. In 2022, a new event emerged in Sydney called BrickBuilt. We were keen to see our Sydney AFOL friends, and to be part of a new LEGO fan event. But things don’t always work out how we want, and my partner tested positive for Covid on the very morning we were meant to travel to BrickBuilt 2022. As I also had...

“Why won’t LEGO rerelease sets people obviously want?” This question gets asked over and over to a variety of different answers. However if you look around, there has been a very prevalent wave of revival-style sets and remakes, as well as a number of iconic licensed themes making a comeback after years of fans clamoring for their return. To look at some of the ways that LEGO has answered this question, we’ll take a look through these themes that have been revived over the years. In this installment, we’ll look specifically at the history of the original LEGO themes that have been resurrected in different ways after some sort of hiatus. What Makes An Original Theme? LEGO has produced numerous original themes, from evergreen ideas such as Town and Castle to story-driven narratives and mixed media projects such as Bionicle and Hidden Side. These themes are developed in-house by LEGO and...

Join BrickNerd as we take a look at the amazing models by Jack (aka BigPlanes), and see just where his big planes have taken him! All Photos Via Jack Carleson This Is Your Captain Speaking… John: Hello and thank you for talking with BrickNerd. Please tell us a little about yourself. Jack: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be interviewed by BrickNerd! My name is Jack Carleson, also known as “BigPlanes” on my social media channels. I’m 20 years old, and currently attend Arizona State University as an architecture major.  John: You are certainly well known for your impressive plane models (Flickr and Instagram). How did you end up making this your specialty? Jack: For most of my life I’ve had an interest in aviation, and a fascination with planes. The engineering and design behind a large aircraft like a 747 getting off the ground is something that has...

Many times in the LEGO community, you see alternate builds of huge sets that abandon the official instructions to create something else amazing with the same parts. The large sizes provide a lot of opportunities for getting creative. Instructions even used to suggest alternate builds. Further, you can do even more when you add your own additional pieces like our mods to the A-Frame Cabin and Little Mermaid Clamshell. But what if you are limited to only what came in the set? And what if that set is small? Two BrickNerd contributors volunteered to find out. LEGO provided 40647 Lotus Flowers and 40643 Jade Rabbit for them to play around with and these are the results. Are small sets able to have alternate builds? I’ll turn it over to Sam and Sean to answer that question. Lotus Flowers - Samuel Pister (aka Pistash) When the BrickNerd team was challenged to do...