Today’s guest article comes from Juan Rodriguez Lopez, a builder living in the Seatle area who has mixed his passion for architecture with his love of LEGO bricks. He shares his entire process of designing custom castles from concept to creation to instructions. A Fortress and a Foundation Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been a bit of a castle nerd. Castles were endlessly fascinating to me—grand structures full of mystery, always perched on towering hillsides, watching over vast kingdoms. And sometimes, they even held a touch of magic! It’s no wonder that my favorite LEGO set growing up was the Fire Breathing Fortress (6082). That childhood love of castles stuck with me, and now, as an adult, it’s woven itself into my LEGO world. The spark to create my own LEGO fantasy models came with the release of the Mini Disney Castle (40478). I was drawn to it immediately,...

Brad Barber is a LEGO builder from Orlando, Florida who lives in Japan thanks to his job in the US Navy. Most people either collect LEGO sets or throw all their parts together and build MOCs. Brad does neither. He is a builder who likes to challenge himself by using only the parts from a single set when he builds a model. Lamborghini Diablo built from the parts of set 10290 Pickup Truck Brad says he has been building with LEGO for as long as he can remember. When he discovered Rebrickable a few years ago, he liked the idea of alternate builds. After trying with a few different sets he found form with cars. He turned a farm truck into a Lamborghini Diablo and a Ford GT into a Batmobile. The Force Is Strong With This One Earlier this year, he changed direction when he saw the 75375 Millennium Falcon...

I’m no stranger to LEGO gardens, so I was very excited to get an early chance to build the latest release in the LEGO Ideas theme: 215353 The Botanical Garden. Yours truly in the truly beautiful Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh As a long-time builder of LEGO gardens, I really appreciate the plethora of plant and foliage pieces that we now get. The recolours that have been introduced by the Botanical Collection theme are fantastic. This set gives us not only a really useful element recolour, but also new moulds for both plants and glazing elements. Our friends over at New Elementary have already brilliantly covered the four new moulds this set boasts – the most ever in an Ideas set I believe – so I won’t go into too much detail, but they all give us new options which is always welcome. New Moulds View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View...

A new month is upon us which means more competitive building! Are you ready? Here’s the latest bunch of LEGO contests and challenges from all around the AFOL community for November 2024 to help you find some inspiration and motivation to build! There’s nothing quite like a theme or a prompt to take you out of your comfort zone and give you something new to try. Besides, contests are the perfect place to interact with other contestants and judges and get to know your fellow builders. And if you’re like me, a deadline helps make sure you actually finish! We’ve listed them in order of deadline so you can plan your building time to the best advantage. Make sure to check the LEGO activity calendar for local challenges and events near you. Here at BrickNerd, some of our fondest memories, greatest building achievements, coolest trophies, and best friendships came from LEGO...

Before there was Max, there was Zack. All was quiet in the early decades of LEGO marketing until a maniac came onto the scene. Zack the LEGO Maniac was the face of much of The LEGO Group’s marketing in the 80s and 90s, namely the face of the US’s club publication: LEGO Mania Magazine. Zack was a human character that was, well, a maniac for LEGO. Zack was the mascot of LEGO Mania Magazine until its rebrand in 2002 as the global LEGO Magazine. For roughly five years there was no representative of the LEGO Club worldwide. However, that would change with one super cool minifigure: Max! Today we’ll be looking at the history of LEGO Max (not to be confused with BrickNerd’s own April Fools initiative) in the LEGO Club magazines, his limited appearances as a physical minifigure, and his long-running series of brickfilms made for LEGO Club TV to...