LEGO Community Headlines and Highlights for November 2024

Now that Black Friday has taken all our money, it’s time to kick back and enjoy our monthly LEGO community round-up! While November traditionally is a jungle of sales (and set) announcements, we were once again treated with a smörgåsbord of insightful articles, interesting features and deep drives 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 celebrated Nerdvember! We learned all about the Endurance and her voyage, how to become a better builder and how to organize a collaboration. We fixed crooked tables, looked into flying with LEGO, rebuilt the galaxy, and took a stroll past Billund’s buildings. We even compiled all LEGO standards, theme months, and contests and had a Wicked time on Broadway. And we spotted LEGO birds, built a GBC module out of a LEGO Technic set, met the LEGO club mascot Max and celebrated the art of LEGO castle building. In fact, we’ve published so many interesting articles in November 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 November. 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!

Beyond the Brick: Huge LEGO Halo: Combat Evolved Silent Cartographer Mission

One of the show stoppers at BrickFair Chantilly 2024 was a massive Halo: Combat Evolved collaborations that 9 talented builders had put together. This video covers it all – the spectacular level of detailing, the brilliant techniques, the vehicles and iconic moments – and also shows of the lights and effects on display!

Brick Architect: Learn Popular Architectural Styles Using LEGO

When the Brick Architect talks about architecture, you might learn a thing or two! Back in September, Tom Alphin gave a presentation at the Museum of History and Industry and Seattle, Washington, and he has now kindly shared a recording of it. It explores common architectural styles and amazing LEGO models based on each style and even expands on Tom’s book.

Brickcrafts: Building a $30,000 LEGO Pirate Model

When displayed at Bricking Bavaria 2024, this LEGO pirate layout delighted exhibitors and the public alike. But how did this award-winning layout come together? Follow Bob Brickman and his friends as they assemble this detailed layout, containing lots of moving parts, hilarious details and even a volcano with a smoke machine!

Brickset: Review: 10335 The Endurance

It’s rare for us to feature a review in our Community round-ups but the work that Brickset’s FlagsNZ has put into their review of the forthcoming 10335 The Endurance certainly deserves applause and a feature. It not only chronicles the build of the set but also highlights the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his famous ship and crew and their journey into the Antarctic. Quotes and maps and historical images illustrate it all and allow for an entirely different appreciation of it all.

Brickset: 70+ X-Mansion Easter Eggs and References

We all love it when LEGO Designers hide references in our sets. The latest Marvel Modular Building – 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion – is densely packed with those. Brickset took it upon themselves to uncover the more than 70 Easter eggs that designer Justin Ramsden and collagues have hidden in the set. Spoilers ahead, of course!

CheeseyStudios: LEGO’s Most Obscure Pirates Theme

In true Nerdvember fasion, Caleb of CheeseyStudios is revisiting another more or less obscure theme from the illustrous past of the LEGO Group. LEGO Pirates have been such a staple over the years but many might have forgotten the 4+ / 4 Juniors Pirates subtheme of the early 2000s. Join Caleb on a trip down memory lane!

LEGOParadise: Working LEGO Mini Train System - Tutorial!

Movement in micro-scale creations sounds like an impossible feat. But if you have a few chain links and some technic gears, working trains and other vehicles are easy to incorporate – LEGOParadise shows you how.

R.R. Slugger: The LEGO LEGO Writing System

Have you ever found a LEGO minifigure head in a bulk bin that was oversized and didn’t feel like it connected to anything? R.R. Slugger looks at the beads of the LEGO writing system, specifically celebrating a pen from Dino Island.

SpitBrix: Modulex - LEGO’s Most Successful Failure

LEGO Modulex is definitely one of the more obscure LEGO inventions. A specialized line of smaller bricks targeting architects in the 1970s, LEGO Modulex featured muted colors and bricks of an entirely different size. SpitBrix covers its interesting history.

Tips&Bricks: Technique Analysis: The Blue Iwan by Gilles de Crombrugghe

One of the impressive MOCs on display at Skærbæk Fanweekend this past September was Gilles de Crombrugghe’s The Blue Iwan, a vibrantly colored study of Middle Eastern architecture. Tips&Bricks has analyzed every nook and cranny – click through for a masterclass in geometrical building, patterns and offsetting bricks to create ornate designs!

Tips&Bricks: How to Find Alternative Builds on Rebrickable

Rebrickable is this wonderful site where talented builders share instructions for their creations for you to buy or freely download. Some of them created wonderful alt-builds of official LEGO sets – and Tips&Bricks explains how to find those on the expansive site that rebrickable.com has become.

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.

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